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Firmament1
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2020 1:40 am
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:40 am 
 

Oftentimes, you hear a lot of complaints about modern metal being overproduced, and sounding too glossy, soulless, or inorganic in stark contrast to metal albums of old, where a lot of bands didn't have much to work with, and thus, had a more raw sound to them. So I'd like to use this thread to highlight metal albums with high-fidelity production done well. My picks:

Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race


In Flames - Clayman


Meshuggah - The Violent Sleep of Reason

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Gravetemplar
Metal freak

Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:08 am
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Location: Antarctica
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:22 am 
 

That Blood Incantation album sounds great indeed. Times of Grace by Neurosis also comes to mind.

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~Guest 334273
Veteran

Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2014 2:19 am
Posts: 2513
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:28 am 
 

One of Horrendous's selling points was the really dynamic production: Ecdysis in particular was really good!

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aloof
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:31 am 
 

you'd have to provide a better definition of "done well"... is the black album "done well", or "overpolished"? how bout Opeth? or Jens Bogren's jobs?

I love "Clayman", but to me it hasn't aged that well. it sounded "perfect" when I got it, but now I hear the limitations in its sound/mix/master. it's datedly 90s.
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CannibalCorpse
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Oct 01, 2004 3:55 pm
Posts: 1011
Location: Austria
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:30 am 
 

The best thing about Metallica's black album is the production. It holds up until today and is the perfect mixture of clarity, grandness and "thump". Too bad the material is mediocre.

It's incredible how their following albums went from having passable to horrible production jobs in the following two-and-a-half decades.
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jimbies
Noose Springsteen

Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:52 pm
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Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:42 am 
 

Even has a huge unashamed metallica fanboy, it is astounding how often they've gotten the sonics wrong.

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Twin_guitar_attack
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:27 am
Posts: 1649
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 11:55 am 
 

Pretty much every Devin Townsend album, but especially Empath
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Thexhumed
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Jun 22, 2010 2:26 pm
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Location: Chile
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 12:02 pm 
 

What's high-fidelity production?
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Face_your_fear_79
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:18 am
Posts: 492
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 1:04 pm 
 

The Black album. Self Titled. Still holds up after all this time going by.

Megadeth Rust In Peace. Kind of unique sounding with the drums. Solid all around.

Judas Priest Screaming For Vengeance. 80s crystal production. Real clear.

Accept Balls to The Wall. See the Priest comment right above.

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Cosmic_Equilibrium
Metalhead

Joined: Fri Jul 18, 2014 2:03 pm
Posts: 842
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:28 pm 
 

The answer here is any album produced by Roy Z. Check out Bruce Dickinson's Accident of Birth and The Chemical Wedding albums, as well as Halford's Resurrection and Priest's Angel of Retribution.

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Twisted_Psychology
Metal freak

Joined: Sat May 16, 2009 8:22 pm
Posts: 6260
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:10 pm 
 

I remember hearing that car salesmen would play Queensryche's Empire to show off a car's stereo system. With how pristine that album's production is, I can certainly believe it.
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Face_your_fear_79
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2014 8:18 am
Posts: 492
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:23 pm 
 

I forgot to mention Kevin Shirley's production on Brave New World. Not the ones after this though.

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Hexenmacht46290
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Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2020 8:30 pm
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 3:47 pm 
 

Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone.
Real drums? Check.
Loud bass? Check.
Marshall amps, turned up, as the clean guitar tone, and everything up, all the way, on the fuzz 2 setting, on the Boss hyper fuzz, for mort of the album? Check.
Normal gauge strings, tuned down, to A#? Check.
If you don’t like it, then don’t entry.



A studio, in a forest, drugs allowed, the main songwriter ended up getting arrested for guns, in a country where gang members(and jihadists) usually don’t even have guns…if this doesn’t make you want to be a libertine, I don’t know what to tell you. You may have a brain, but you lack a heart or soul. This is what heavy music was intended for. Fuck you, mom.

Edit: Anything recorded, by Fenriz, at Necrohell. Some of you may say it’s not clear. But it is clear. It sounds like the practice amps would’ve sounded, if you were there in the room. Also, while Sunlight studios may have produced some all time great death metal, I agree with Fenriz, in disliking their drum sound(which Darkthrone had, on Soulside Journey). Fenriz’ production just has soul.
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Last edited by Hexenmacht46290 on Fri Sep 17, 2021 5:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Kalaratri
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Joined: Wed Aug 05, 2020 3:22 pm
Posts: 2871
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 4:58 pm 
 

Necrophobic's recent albums come to mind. Both Mark of the Necrogram and Dawn of the Damned are very well produced but not over polished to the point where they lose any sense of discernible grit.

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~Guest 322837
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:20 pm
Posts: 274
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:01 pm 
 

that Undeath album last year had a really clean production that still managed to carry a lot of grime with it.

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Gravetemplar
Metal freak

Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:08 am
Posts: 4653
Location: Antarctica
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 6:40 pm 
 

Hexenmacht46290 wrote:
Electric Wizard’s Dopethrone.
Real drums? Check.
Loud bass? Check.
Marshall amps, turned up, as the clean guitar tone, and everything up, all the way, on the fuzz 2 setting, on the Boss hyper fuzz, for mort of the album? Check.
Normal gauge strings, tuned down, to A#? Check.
If you don’t like it, then don’t entry.



A studio, in a forest, drugs allowed, the main songwriter ended up getting arrested for guns, in a country where gang members(and jihadists) usually don’t even have guns…if this doesn’t make you want to be a libertine, I don’t know what to tell you. You may have a brain, but you lack a heart or soul. This is what heavy music was intended for. Fuck you, mom.

Edit: Anything recorded, by Fenriz, at Necrohell. Some of you may say it’s not clear. But it is clear. It sounds like the practice amps would’ve sounded, if you were there in the room. Also, while Sunlight studios may have produced some all time great death metal, I agree with Fenriz, in disliking their drum sound(which Darkthrone had, on Soulside Journey). Fenriz’ production just has soul.

I really like Dopethrone but it honestly sounds like shit, one of the most brickwalled albums I've ever heard.

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doomicus
Metalhead

Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 5:58 am
Posts: 1261
Location: United States
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 7:29 pm 
 

Always thought that the production on Vircolac's Masque was outstanding. Really elevates the music for me.
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HeavenDuff
Metal freak

Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 pm
Posts: 5158
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:25 pm 
 

Gravetemplar wrote:
I really like Dopethrone but it honestly sounds like shit, one of the most brickwalled albums I've ever heard.


Talk about missing the point...

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Firmament1
Metal newbie

Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2020 1:40 am
Posts: 103
PostPosted: Fri Sep 17, 2021 8:35 pm 
 

aloof wrote:
you'd have to provide a better definition of "done well"... is the black album "done well", or "overpolished"? how bout Opeth? or Jens Bogren's jobs?

I love "Clayman", but to me it hasn't aged that well. it sounded "perfect" when I got it, but now I hear the limitations in its sound/mix/master. it's datedly 90s.

Admittedly, this is all pretty subjective. After all, even with a lot of albums that are considered to be overproduced... Well, the band probably approved of the production beforehand, so it probably sounded good to them.

Personally, I think Metallica's self-titled sounds great. And as someone who only first listened to Clayman last year, it also sounds excellent, in my book.

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Xymosys
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:19 am
Posts: 1253
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 1:26 am 
 

What about Shades of God, Icon, Draconian Times & One Second by Paradise Lost? They all sound perfectly even now!
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MetlaNZ
Veteran

Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:45 pm
Posts: 2696
Location: Lost in Necropolis
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:36 am 
 

Gravetemplar wrote:
I really like Dopethrone but it honestly sounds like shit, one of the most brickwalled albums I've ever heard.

Brickwalled in this case is a good thing, a very good thing. Dopethrone is one the most beautiful sounding albums ever to abuse my ear drums.

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Gravetemplar
Metal freak

Joined: Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:08 am
Posts: 4653
Location: Antarctica
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:28 am 
 

MetlaNZ wrote:
Gravetemplar wrote:
I really like Dopethrone but it honestly sounds like shit, one of the most brickwalled albums I've ever heard.

Brickwalled in this case is a good thing, a very good thing. Dopethrone is one the most beautiful sounding albums ever to abuse my ear drums.

That's a complete different topic. Just don't call it "high fidelity" because it ain't.

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MetlaNZ
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:45 pm
Posts: 2696
Location: Lost in Necropolis
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:53 am 
 

Dopethrone is HIGH fidelity man.

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Vadara
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2016 11:14 pm
Posts: 484
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 1:51 pm 
 

All of them. There is no excuse these days for bad production. If you have to fake your aesthetic by intentionally sounding like shit you're just admitting that you don't have the actual compositional skills to write something abrasive and rough.

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HeavenDuff
Metal freak

Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2010 10:35 pm
Posts: 5158
Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:42 pm 
 

Vadara wrote:
All of them. There is no excuse these days for bad production. If you have to fake your aesthetic by intentionally sounding like shit you're just admitting that you don't have the actual compositional skills to write something abrasive and rough.


Lo-fi doesn't mean bad production...

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Nocturnal_Evil
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:00 am
Posts: 668
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:23 pm 
 

Nile has done a good job on many (but not all) of their albums balancing the crystal clear production with skull crushing riffage and breakneck tempos. Speaking specifically Annihilation of the Wicked and Those Whom the Gods Detest here because, god damn, if those weren't absolute killers front to back.
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HeavenDuff
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Location: Montréal
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:43 pm 
 

Nocturnal_Evil wrote:
Nile has done a good job on many (but not all) of their albums balancing the crystal clear production with skull crushing riffage and breakneck tempos. Speaking specifically Annihilation of the Wicked and Those Whom the Gods Detest here because, god damn, if those weren't absolute killers front to back.


I agree 100% with this. Nile is a good example, especially on Annhilation of the Wicked, of a modern death metal band whose production doesn't sound sterile and cold. It's heavy, crushing, metallic and thick, while retaining a raw quality to it, without ever being lo-fi.

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~Guest 322837
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:20 pm
Posts: 274
PostPosted: Sat Sep 18, 2021 9:59 pm 
 

Vadara wrote:
All of them. There is no excuse these days for bad production. If you have to fake your aesthetic by intentionally sounding like shit you're just admitting that you don't have the actual compositional skills to write something abrasive and rough.


lol ok we get it you don't like black metal, there's no need to plug it in every thread you appear on

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TheMysticWombat
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Feb 03, 2011 2:29 am
Posts: 777
Location: CA, U.S.A.
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 3:47 am 
 

Would the Earache remasters count, or is this thread just about original versions?

The 2 Cerebral Rot full-lengths are fucking killer: the production matches the filthy atmosphere, I don't know how the fuck they did it.

Sweven's first release is some high quality stuff. Not too heavy for death metal but it's great music overall.

Morn Of Solace wrote:
One of Horrendous's selling points was the really dynamic production: Ecdysis in particular was really good!

Absolutely right on this one.

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zeusreal
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 10:09 am
Posts: 4
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 4:20 am 
 

Hexenmacht46290 wrote:

A studio, in a forest, drugs allowed, the main songwriter ended up getting arrested for guns, in a country where gang members(and jihadists) usually don’t even have guns….


1.Chuckalumba studios isnt in a forest.

2.No he didnt.

3. Theres gun crime pretty much every week in the uk, so thats also complete nonsense.

4.Grow up and stop making up stories.

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Floodland
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:58 am
Posts: 189
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 6:12 am 
 

Death's albums sound nice to my ears; into that, I stumbled upon Gruesome's Savage Land (Death tribute band, although that album sounds a lot like Pestilence's Testimony of the Ancient) and I quite enjoyed the sound of the album; cavernous yet updated and clear, minimalist yet expansive, crisp and tight yet primitive and ominous.
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~Guest 322837
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 6:20 pm
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PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:41 am 
 

also, Gorguts' Obscura I felt had an amazing production job

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Nocturnal_Evil
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:00 am
Posts: 668
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 3:47 pm 
 

Oh, I just thought of another one. Two, actually. Analepsy and Vulvodynia have both always done a good job keeping their slams polished yet still barbaric as hell. In particular, I'm thinking of Atrocities From Beyond and Psychosadistic Design here.
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King_of_Arnor
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2020 12:35 pm
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Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:19 pm 
 

Death's Symbolic is one of the best sounding death metal albums, especially for its time. Everything is crystal clear yet heavy at the same time.
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gestapothrash
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Jan 03, 2009 4:55 am
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Location: Australia
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 8:52 pm 
 

Vadara wrote:
All of them. There is no excuse these days for bad production. If you have to fake your aesthetic by intentionally sounding like shit you're just admitting that you don't have the actual compositional skills to write something abrasive and rough.

ummmmmmmmm what...?
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Nocturnal_Evil
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:00 am
Posts: 668
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:16 pm 
 

Vadara wrote:
All of them. There is no excuse these days for bad production. If you have to fake your aesthetic by intentionally sounding like shit you're just admitting that you don't have the actual compositional skills to write something abrasive and rough.


That's not how it works. That's like saying all films in black and white are inherently bad.
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des91
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:51 pm
Posts: 361
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 10:05 am 
 

King_of_Arnor wrote:
Death's Symbolic is one of the best sounding death metal albums, especially for its time. Everything is crystal clear yet heavy at the same time.


Have you listened to the 2011 remaster of Human? Holy fuck it sounds AMAZING and I’m not a huge fan of remasters at all.

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DecemberSoul
Mirties Metafora

Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2010 9:46 am
Posts: 1399
Location: Switzerland
PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 11:40 am 
 

I'm always amazed at the hi-fi production on Monotheist. Seeing how many studios and engineers were involved in its making, we're lucky not to end up with a broth that's been tainted.
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~Guest 220079
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2010 10:39 am
Posts: 185
PostPosted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 1:45 pm 
 

Thought this was an interesting comment from Newsted regarding the decision to go with Bob Rock:

Quote:
Whether 'Slippery When Wet' or Bon Jovi was my favorite band or not, the production was still really nice to listen to, and I knew the difference by then. [Motley Crue's] 'Dr. Feelgood' sounds fucking awesome, and Nikki's [Sixx] playing a Spector bass, and that's what it's supposed to fucking sound like.


Edit: and fully agree on the Monotheist production - sounds amazing. I guess it helped that they tweaked that album for several years.

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eukocha
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Fri Sep 19, 2014 4:12 pm
Posts: 3
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Sep 21, 2021 1:07 am 
 

Opeth-Pale Communion has some of my favorite production but I don't know if that really counts for "modern production" considering it uses a more retro acoustic approach. It sounds amazing though. Get yourself some high quality headphones and a quiet listening environment and give it a go.

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