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EvergreenSherbert
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:48 pm
Posts: 1271
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:12 pm 
 

Guitar is usually my focus when I'm listening to any kind of music, so guitar tone is one of the first things I notice. Share some good tones if you've got them. I'll give some of my own too.

It's short, but the riff at 3:03 in "Benedictine Convulsions" is basically the perfect tone:
Spoiler: show


Revocation always seems to have sick tones, here's "Spurn the Outstretched hand":
Spoiler: show


I'm starting to warm up to this crazy chainsaw tone:
Spoiler: show


Maybeshewill has always been talked about as a post rock band, but their album "Not For Want of Trying" has some crazy riffs. If I could find metal bands who use something like the gritty guitar tone at 0:59 in the song below, my life would be complete.
Spoiler: show
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MatsBG
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 5:02 am
Posts: 148
Location: Norway
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:27 pm 
 

I have always loved the guitar tone from "Piece of Mind"! It's just so sharp, yet so full! As a drummer, this was also the first album where I REALLY noticed the guitar tone.

Spoiler: show

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Benedict Donald
Veteran

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am
Posts: 3066
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 3:21 pm 
 

Randy’s tone on “Blizzard” is literally perfect to these ears.

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Nocturnal_Evil
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Apr 19, 2021 12:00 am
Posts: 668
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 4:02 pm 
 

Loudness' tone on Thunder In The East is beautiful.

Dokken got really close to capturing it too, especially on Back For The Attack.

I also like Cannibal Corpse's tone on Torture.

What makes a tone a good one varies wildly between bands/subgenres, but those are the ones which readily spring to mind.
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Rocka_Rollas
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:08 am
Posts: 1260
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 4:04 pm 
 

I can't believe how much distortion Grave Digger had on "Excalibur" album, yet still remain a somewhat amount of clarity...

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Benedict Donald
Veteran

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am
Posts: 3066
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 4:08 pm 
 

Dont laugh, but Motley Crue's tone on "Shout At the Devil" is friggin' razor sharp. It's awesome.
Too bad they never again approached that sound.

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oldmetalhead
Metalhead

Joined: Tue Apr 13, 2021 1:30 am
Posts: 839
Location: Helltown, United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 4:18 pm 
 

Nocturnal_Evil wrote:

Dokken got really close to capturing it too, especially on Back For The Attack.


The first two guitar players that came to my mind for having incredible tone were George Lynch (Dokken) and Criss Oliva (Savatage).

Vivian Campbell had a nice tone on the first few Dio albums. I don't know how he sounds these days.

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King_of_Arnor
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2020 12:35 pm
Posts: 777
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 5:20 pm 
 

Dave Carlo's tone on Razor's Evil Invaders
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lordcatfish
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:44 pm
Posts: 1461
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 5:58 pm 
 

Always loved the guitar tone on Midian by Cradle of Filth. The riffs have weight, and there's a bit of muddiness that I like. The leads and melodic parts sound really good too.

The guitars on Annihilation of the Wicked by Nile have a nice, crisp heaviness to them.
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doomicus
Metalhead

Joined: Wed May 14, 2008 5:58 am
Posts: 1261
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 6:35 pm 
 

Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. Always and forever. It's an addiction for me.
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Benedict Donald
Veteran

Joined: Tue Aug 24, 2021 10:36 am
Posts: 3066
Location: United States
PostPosted: Tue Dec 07, 2021 8:27 pm 
 

doomicus wrote:
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. Always and forever. It's an addiction for me.


Great call.

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Deathdoom1992
Metalhead

Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 9:19 am
Posts: 555
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:36 am 
 

I've always thought the lead tone on Heartwork is amazing. Perfect clarity, amazing sound, and enough crunch to fit the music and not sound out of place or flowery.

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Metal_On_The_Ascendant
Veteran

Joined: Fri May 22, 2015 6:38 am
Posts: 2973
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:49 am 
 

Neurosis on Times of Grace.
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Bushido
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:38 am
Posts: 35
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:54 am 
 

Anything by Andy Sneap in the late 90s and early 2000s

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Zerberus
Metalhead

Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 4:29 pm
Posts: 2325
Location: Denmark
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:05 am 
 

Hooded Menace on Fulfill the Curse is so fucking heavy, punchy, crunching yet well defined.
When they let it ring at 4:15 on the title track, that's just pure bliss. Wish I knew how to replicate that tone.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsYjR0l9UlY
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MetlaNZ
Veteran

Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:45 pm
Posts: 2696
Location: Lost in Necropolis
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:42 am 
 

doomicus wrote:
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. Always and forever. It's an addiction for me.

I'm addicted too.

Also Metallica "The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited". Absolutely killer sound to the guitars and everything else on this little beauty.

Damn I wish they would revisit that garage.

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therealvivs
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2010 4:26 pm
Posts: 566
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 8:59 pm 
 

Oh boy, so many come to mind... where to begin?
Some examples of big bands anyone will recognise:

Celtic Frost - Monotheist
Tool - Ænima
Alice In Chains - Dirt
Dream Theater - Awake
Nevermore - Dead Heart In A Dead World
Meshuggah - ObZen
Death - The Sound Of Perseverance
Angel Dust - Enlighten The Darkness
Immortal - At The Heart Of Winter
Neurosis - Given To The Rising
Watain - Sworn To The Dark
Behemoth - Evangelion
Process Of Guilt - Erosion
Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side
Neuraxis - Asylon
The Crown - Cobra Speed Venom
Undergang - Indhentet Af Døden

(. . .)

Different tones for different reasons suit different bands and create a particular atmosphere and overall sound, so I don't necessarily have a specific kind of tone that I immediatly prefer over another.

In general I'm not a fan of ultra polished and plastic sounding guitars, neither piss poorly produced, buried and weak tones.
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101wildturkey101
Metal newbie

Joined: Thu Nov 26, 2020 2:14 am
Posts: 30
Location: United States
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 10:54 pm 
 

So many good ones, but I just finished listening to Unfathomable Ruination's Enraged and Unbound. I LOVE how beefy and chunky their sound is. I think the actual tone itself has balls attached to it

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AxeCapitol
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:38 pm
Posts: 589
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Wed Dec 08, 2021 10:59 pm 
 

Always liked the tone on Gods of the Sun by MDB. Not their most celebrated album, but the guitars are so icy cold and suit the atmosphere perfectly.

Similarly, Paradise Lost perfected their tone on Icon. Perfect blend of Doomy heaviness and mainstream guitar anthemic rock.

Type O Negative are my all time favorite band, but their guitar tone was lacking bite and balls. Mercifully they compensated for this with Pete’s awesomely heavy low end filling in all the gaps.

And for what it’s worth, the guitar tone on the black album is just perfection.

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thrashinbatman
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:31 pm
Posts: 1534
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 10:26 am 
 

it may just be recency bias but im obsessed with the guitar tone on the new Exodus record. ive always loved Gary Holt's tone and i really think he outdid himself with this one.



the tone on Accept's Blood of the Nations is also fantastic. it's just so mean and crunchy.



the tone on Queensryche's Empire is massive. not a single frequency wasted. just perfect.



in a different direction, the tone on Razor's Violent Restitution is NASTY. so aggressive and in-your-face; it fits the material so well.


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Deathdoom1992
Metalhead

Joined: Sat May 07, 2016 9:19 am
Posts: 555
Location: United Kingdom
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 1:23 pm 
 

AxeCapitol wrote:
Type O Negative are my all time favorite band, but their guitar tone was lacking bite and balls. Mercifully they compensated for this with Pete’s awesomely heavy low end filling in all the gaps.


I love Type O, but I have to agree with you here. I like Kenny Hickey as a guitarist, but I hate hate hate his tone on the first 3 records. So murky and the guitar constantly feeding back (feedbacking?) is SO grating to listen to at points (not sure if that's a part of the tone exactly but I just have to mention it since it drives me insane whenever I put on some early Type O.

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Lord_Of_Diamonds
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:23 pm
Posts: 1618
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 2:20 pm 
 

Soilwork's Chainheart Machine and Carcass's Heartwork are the epitome of metal guitar sounds for me. Heartwork's tone is especially impressive when you consider that it was done with G12T-75 Celestion speakers, which are hated by many metal guitarists for some reason.
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pressingtoplead13
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:05 pm
Posts: 740
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 2:52 pm 
 

I absolutely love the tone on "Amongst the Catacombs of the Nephren Ka" by Nile, probably my favorite guitar tone ever. Also really enjoy "Ithyphallic" by them too, although I dont like that album nearly as much. Other tones that stand out are "Are You Dead Yet" by Children of Bodom, "Gore Metal" by Exhumed (The original), I feel like that album just oozes out of the speakers.

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Xymosys
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2011 9:19 am
Posts: 1253
Location: Croatia
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:05 pm 
 

Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time...I'm no expert, I dunno how it is called, but man, that synth guitar tone is bigger than universe itself!

I second Type O negative!

Then there are more:

Paradise Lost - Icon - It feels soooo eerie and haunted in a way, almost sacral.
Lake Of Tears - Headstones - Stoner tuning just in a right way!
Samael - Ceremony - Crunchy, tasty and accessible black metal tone.
Anathema - Alternative + Judgement + A Fine Day - modern, crystal clean and sharp.
My Dying Bride - The Angel - Like hearing lamentations from the netherworld.
Tiamat - Wildhoney - Monumental as fuck.
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ThePoop
Metalhead

Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2011 8:38 pm
Posts: 1075
Location: America
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:39 pm 
 

Thorns 2001 self-titled album, has for my money, the perfect black metal guitar tone. Lows and mids at absolute 0, fizziness/swarm of bees to the max. I just absolutely love it. To me it's so fucking nasty that it almost sounds like it's illegal to listen to. Snorre is a tech wizard and though others have tried to replicate the tone, I haven't heard it nailed quite as well as this album.

What's funny is I am overall lukewarm about the album. There are some songs I love and others I don't care for, but that tone man..... just perfect.

EDIT: I'll also add Burzum's Filosofem for a similar effect. It's a damn near perfect tone for black metal, and in intentionally trying make the productions as poor as possible (as the story goes) I think Varg stumbled on quite a satisfying guitar tone for those songs. "Jesu død" would be half the song if that guitar tone/distortion wasn't trebled and fuzzed out to all fuck. It almost hurts my ears listening to it, and I mean that as a good thing.
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thrashinbatman
Metalhead

Joined: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:31 pm
Posts: 1534
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:04 pm 
 

Lord_Of_Diamonds wrote:
Soilwork's Chainheart Machine and Carcass's Heartwork are the epitome of metal guitar sounds for me. Heartwork's tone is especially impressive when you consider that it was done with G12T-75 Celestion speakers, which are hated by many metal guitarists for some reason.

T75s used to be way more common but since V30s have come out, the T75 has gotten way less popular. T75s dont always work, but when they do, they really do. i dont use them often but sometimes they fit into the mix exactly.

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Lord_Of_Diamonds
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:23 pm
Posts: 1618
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:14 pm 
 

They used to be the stock Marshall cabinet speakers, I don't know if they still are. I think they work best with amplifiers with lots of midrange and high end - like a Marshall - because of their inherent scooped and dark sound.

I'm not very fond of the Vintage 30 sound. It's too mid-forward and always has a buildup around 4 or 5 kHz that sounds like an icepick in my ear. Some great sounds have been made with Vintage 30s, but they're not the be-all end-all of metal speakers and I prefer the sound of less mid-heavy, more high-power speakers anyway. But as soon as the Mesa Rectifier/5150 and Rectifier cabinet with stock V30s became the de facto standard metal tone (mostly thanks to Andy Sneap and a whole ton of early 2000s heavy music), people seem to be reluctant to deviate from that sound too much. The number of emulators and impulses out there for 5150s/Rectifiers and V30s is massive, too, so new guitarists who are starting to record their own stuff will stumble across those products, get that sound, think it sounds good, and not deviate from it. Experimentation is key and I think it's lacking in guitar sounds these days. Even when people get their hands on gear that isn't a V30 or a Rectifier, they still try to make it sound like one of those or weigh it against one of those. YouTube metal guitar gear demos are riddled with this sort of thing.
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I really don't want power metal riffing to turn into power metal yiffing any time soon.

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Fearoth
Metal newbie

Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 4:09 pm
Posts: 231
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 6:39 pm 
 

Love the guitar tone on the album A Shedding of Skin by Protector for some reason, a thrash/death gem of a LP that aged quite well IMO.

I just checked and I can't believe those guys still don't have a wikipedia page.

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acid_bukkake
SAD!

Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 10:45 am
Posts: 2232
Location: United States
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 9:25 pm 
 

Skinless - Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead has the greatest guitar tone in brutal death metal history.
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AxeCapitol
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Oct 13, 2021 12:38 pm
Posts: 589
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Thu Dec 09, 2021 11:07 pm 
 

Deathdoom1992 wrote:
AxeCapitol wrote:
Type O Negative are my all time favorite band, but their guitar tone was lacking bite and balls. Mercifully they compensated for this with Pete’s awesomely heavy low end filling in all the gaps.


I love Type O, but I have to agree with you here. I like Kenny Hickey as a guitarist, but I hate hate hate his tone on the first 3 records. So murky and the guitar constantly feeding back (feedbacking?) is SO grating to listen to at points (not sure if that's a part of the tone exactly but I just have to mention it since it drives me insane whenever I put on some early Type O.


I know exactly what you mean with the “feedbacking” reference. Most evident on their debut - Slow Deep and Hard - most notably during the doomier dirge sections. Very uncomfortable and grating to listen to, but I’m sure that was the point. Pete wanted to be the opposite of a Barry Manilow song - instill disgust and discomfort in the listener. In that endeavor, Type O certainly succeeded - though not my cup of tea!

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~Guest 280883
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 1:34 pm
Posts: 556
PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 3:53 am 
 

I was just going to point that out - isn't the thin, feedbacking guitar a big part of their appeal anyway, when combined with other elements? It makes space for the central elements in the mix and the feedbacking is congruent with the overall dementia.

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TheGreatTrendkiller
Metal newbie

Joined: Mon Jan 12, 2009 1:28 pm
Posts: 59
PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:11 pm 
 

Well Painkiller is kind of an obvious choice. Its not the "perfect" tone but it fits the type of speed metal they were going for and more importantly it fits the style Halford was going for. IMO a big reason why the song never sounded right with Owens live, even though one could argue he could technically replicate the studio vocals.

Horrorscope - Overkill. What can I say? To me the perfect thrash sound. Super crisp and with that thrash edge that's so necessary.

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jimbies
Noose Springsteen

Joined: Thu Jul 21, 2016 2:52 pm
Posts: 4145
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 6:42 pm 
 

MetlaNZ wrote:
doomicus wrote:
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. Always and forever. It's an addiction for me.

I'm addicted too.

Also Metallica "The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited". Absolutely killer sound to the guitars and everything else on this little beauty.

Damn I wish they would revisit that garage.


Maybe they'll make another guitar out of it?

https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/n ... f-puppets/

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MetlaNZ
Veteran

Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 6:45 pm
Posts: 2696
Location: Lost in Necropolis
PostPosted: Fri Dec 10, 2021 10:59 pm 
 

jimbies wrote:
MetlaNZ wrote:
doomicus wrote:
Hellhammer/Celtic Frost. Always and forever. It's an addiction for me.

I'm addicted too.

Also Metallica "The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited". Absolutely killer sound to the guitars and everything else on this little beauty.

Damn I wish they would revisit that garage.


Maybe they'll make another guitar out of it?

https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/n ... f-puppets/

Very cool. That guitars gonna be worth some bucks if it ever goes to auction.

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Deg
Mallcore Kid

Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2009 5:59 pm
Posts: 9
PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 12:18 pm 
 

savage nailed it on the loose n lethal album

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mjollnir
Metalhead

Joined: Sat Jul 17, 2004 4:14 pm
Posts: 2056
Location: United States
PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 12:54 pm 
 

My favorite tone has to be Criss Oliva's tone....especially on Hall, Gutter, and Edge of Thorns. Never heard anything else like it.
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aloof
avant-gardener

Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:18 pm
Posts: 3174
Location: never neverland, palm trees by the sea
PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 1:34 pm 
 

just two mentions of Paradise Lost, and neither about Greg's lead tone!? mesa so sad... :/ :(


mjollnir wrote:
My favorite tone has to be Criss Oliva's tone....especially on Hall, Gutter, and Edge of Thorns. Never heard anything else like it.

+1
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DMac77
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 1:08 pm
Posts: 88
Location: Canada
PostPosted: Sun Dec 12, 2021 2:02 pm 
 

Everything Bill Steer has done sounds great to me, especially the Necroticism/Heartwork era.

Devin Townsend can pull some amazing tones, the lead parts on "Deep Peace" for example, or his massive wall of sound stuff.

I really love Rust in Peace, I think the guitars on the record perfectly suit the material.

Alex Lifeson is my favourite guitarist of all time, and mostly because he has some of the most diverse sounds of any player. He never stopped evolving, and always found a way to "fit" the style Rush was trying in each era. The later 80's stuff is criminally underrated, like his tone on "Territories". He's gone from Zeppelin worship, to Police style sounds to heavily textured stuff like Vapor Trails. So many other players will find their comfortable pocket and stay in it, but Alex seems to always want to explore different areas.

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des91
Metal newbie

Joined: Tue Nov 25, 2014 8:51 pm
Posts: 361
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 2:15 pm 
 

One album that I go back and forth on whether I like the tone is Destruction - Eternal Devastation. Some days I think that trebley sound is badass and really gives a buzzsaw feel to the Thrash. But others I’m just like this would sound so much better as an album overall if they had the sound of Terrible Certainty.

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soul_schizm
Metalhead

Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:55 am
Posts: 764
Location: United States
PostPosted: Mon Dec 13, 2021 2:42 pm 
 

Benedict Donald wrote:
Dont laugh, but Motley Crue's tone on "Shout At the Devil" is friggin' razor sharp. It's awesome.
Too bad they never again approached that sound.


Not laughing. I loved Mars' tone on that album.

I'm a huge fan of Lynch's tone on Back for the Attack. My understanding: he nearly drove himself and everyone else crazy in the studio obsessing over his tone. But he friggin' nailed it.

Love Grave Digger's beefy tone on their latter albums.

Amon Amarth is pretty much a clinic on how to sound heavy as hell without a ton of distortion.

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