Production values in metal over the years

Waking-Dreams

Just curious about the opinion on the current climate of cheap plastic production values of albums. Is it any wonder people don't value music as much as before (the buying of CD's and Vinyl's) when we're often treated to homogenous, over-produced records (most of the time)?

I know I'm generalising here but there is a pattern. And I'm not just talking about mainstream bands. This issue applies to underground bands too, whose drummer sounds like a typewriter in the quest for insane high definition just so people can hear his 250bpm blasts. I can even hear the same kind of drum kit on numerous different albums from different bands; it's so obvious they are all using the same bank of drum samples because it's in vogue or something.

Sound replacement is not the issue because it was being used in the 90's and I have many albums which were given the SR treatment but still manage to retain their authenticity.

Some of the better production values I've heard from metal bands off the top of my head would include; Death's Symbolic, Nevermore's Dreaming Neon Black, Cynic's Focus/Traced In Air, Megadeth's Countdown To Extinction, Machine Head's Burn My Eyes, Meshuggah's Destroy Erase Improve, Gojira's From Mars To Sirius... but these and others like them are often just the diamonds in the rough.

Maybe it's just me but it seems that 10-15 years ago there was more diversity in album productions. Technology has improved since then but now, everyone just wants to base their sound around a proven formula because it's saleable. Anyone else a bit disappointed at the lack of innovation?

Karl Hungus

Definitely a pet hate of mine.

I've often stated that one of my favourite productions on a metal album was on Enslaved's Monumension, it was unpolished, but not overly raw, and the low end absolutely roared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5lSJL3rKC0

Zombienosh

I agree on the over-production and over polished sound, being a bit annoying at times but for me its much worse when its the other way round, I can't listen to music if its really badly recorded. It takes away from it so much.

Why would someone work so hard and put so much time into making great songs only to record them real ****ty?

dasdog

http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_classic_tracks_black

"Two days for tracking, 10 to 10, and two days for mixing, 10 to 6," remembers engineer Tom Allom. The musicians weren't around for mixing or mastering. No one was more surprised than the band at its success: "We didn't think it'd ever do anything," remembers Geezer Butler. "Recording the album was just something we did on the way to Denmark."

GrizzlyMan

AlcoholicA wrote: »

Why would someone work so hard and put so much time into making great songs only to record them real ****ty?

Why would some work so hard writing an amazing record to have it raped in the studio with layers of production, effects Etc.....

Although I do love albums with sweet production..."slaughter of the soul" for example, im a huge believer in that its all about the song writing/structure and substance! In other words regardless of the polished or crappy production Im gonna enjoyed it, metal is all about no bounderies

Pyr0

I agree with the OP. I'm getting tired of hearing the over polished material being released by bands. Sometimes i say to myself "If I ever write a death metal album it's gonna sound like Leprosy or Domination"

The worst example I can give for this is Death Magnetic, it just sounds so.. Loud and terrible !

Somnus

The production can add so much to an album. I love the sound of Dream Theater's Awake album. The production on it is really eerie and atmospheric or something, It'd be my prime example of how good it can make an album sound. The vocals in particular are mixed at just the right level.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvEOsdH8T_8

Agree with Pyr0 about Death Magnetic, I think the production majorly puts me off listening to it.

nyarlothothep

Pyr0 wrote: »

I agree with the OP. I'm getting tired of hearing the over polished material being released by bands. Sometimes i say to myself "If I ever write a death metal album it's gonna sound like Leprosy or Domination"

The worst example I can give for this is Death Magnetic, it just sounds so.. Loud and terrible !

death magnetic isn't polished though, its just terribly produced. The guitar sound is samey and very dry and it was over mastered. SA and DM sound very basic in terms of the production which is a bit boring, I don't really like meat and two veg production where a band will deliberately strip away all of the effects just to have an airless sounding record. Just my opinion. Another thing I dislike is overuse of what I think could be compression, for example RHCP records sound to me to be really squashed and airless.

Herb Powell

Death Magnetic sounds horrible, I can't listen to it anymore. And it's not because the songs are bad

nacho libre

I suppose it depends on the genre of metal. for instance classic black metal albums are noted for their unpolished sound. where as prog metal and technical death metal would generally be seen to need a good production to do justice to the music.

PMI

Guys alot is to do with the move from tape to computer, it has allowed the ease of use of samples etc.. and nowadays alot of the metal labels are much like the pop ones...

I come from the background of recording to Tape and have worked with a few rock/metals producers (as an assistant) one of which is tom allom who you may know from earlier judas priest, Sabbath, loverboy etc..

Its down to time and money and not being worried to much about schedules, i remember many a time stopping a session after 2 hours at noon and heading to his house for a BBQ as the session just wasnt working haha

now as said above protools/logic etc.. drumagog, drumtracker, soundreplacer is the way to go....

and also the days are lost of trying to do the song as a performance, as cutting and sticking together 2" tape took longer than cntl, apple drag

Its just different times and as with everything else you have to move with it.

Karl Hungus

nacho libre wrote: »

I suppose it depends on the genre of metal. for instance classic black metal album are noted for their unpolished sound. where as prog metal and technical death metal would generally be seen to need a good production to do justice to the music.

Frankly, production in Black Metal is another pet hate of mine. It's not that I dislike the unpolished sound, it's rather that I can't stand everything sounding the same, and when you've got dozens of bands all trying to recreate Darkthrone's sound circa 1993 it really grates. It's boring to the point where I'll take the over-polished, over produced sound of Dimmu Borgir on their later releases as a breath of fresh air. I just hate everything sounding the same. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was terrific, but would have been even more unique if it wasn't for so many people trying to copy the sound.

There's plenty of great albums that had a fantastic production in Black Metal throughout the years, that were neither overpolished, nor sounded like they were recorded with a cold war era bugging device in a shoe. Dissection's Storm of the Light's Bane, Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness, Negura Bunget's Om, and the aforementioned Enslaved album.

mike65

Has anyone mentioned the Loudness War yet?, I'm not refering to the Japanese power metal band either.

Pyr0

Karl Hungus wrote: »

, Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness,

On that note, Damned in Black is so unpolished it's actually amazing because of it.

nacho libre

Pyr0 wrote: »

On that note, Damned in Black is so unpolished it's actually amazing because of it.

as is De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and Burzum's self-titled album. anyway with innovators you tend to get tons of cheap imitators, so what i do is stick to the greats/pioneers in black metal, that way i don't become bored when listening to a band trying to recreate a from a Blaze in the Northern Sky


i'm not really gone on over-produced symphonic black metal. i hope that doesn't make me a bad person:(