Metal Reviews

Have you ever listened to an album that was ruined in some way by bad levels, overtriggered drums, a weak guitar tone, or annoyingly high vocals? If so what album was it and what were the sound elements that ruined the album?

Well, Ghremdrakk – Le m’exalte has this problem. Drums are way too loud on this one, they drown all the other instruments behind them. Otherwise it is an outstanding slap of black methul.

And yes, I'm not surprised if any of you havent heard about this band or album.

That bit on that Trivium album where you can hear the vocals. Ugh.

St Anger with those annoying snare drums.

Ba-Dump-Bump!

Abigail williams has the worst production ever on their "black" metal album.

Shogun is one of the best produced/sounding metal albums.

I could prolly list tons of these... usually if I don't like the production of an album I'll turn it off right away. Anything that sounds like this is almost immediately cut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqyuJT9k ... r_embedded

Even if that were rectified I don't think it would've improved things a whole lot.

I like the St. Anger snare drum sound.

Rush choosing not to re-record the demo tracks for Vapor Trails. But instead using them in the final mix.

Ah, then you must be a fan of Stomp.

Anyway, one production mishap that immediately comes to mind is of a band called Melodius from Taiwan that I reviewed last year. There's one really good song on the album, but the chorus is ruined because the fucking backing vocals are put at the front of the mix, with lead vocals pushed to the back. That whole album had mediocre production anyway, better mixing would've easily boosted my score of it ten points.

Emperor's Prometheus comes to mind.

Really? Too clean you found?

The bass drum sound on Cradle Of Filth's Cruelty And The Beast drives me absolutely insane. It's pitched so high that it sounds pretty much exactly like the snare; so much so that it almost kills the music for me.

Bass drum? Oh, you mean that typewriter?

I think it is more that it makes the song really sound goofy and lame and is entertaining in a way. I think once metal gets ridiculous it can't be taken seriously and takes on another level that is has to be judged at.

I liked the St. Anger snare drum sound for similar reasons.

Virgin Steele - Visions Of Eden; the guitars buried in the mix and the use of an electric drum kit nearly kills the album for me, a shame because the songwritting is quallity, hopefully the new album rectifies this.

That all used to annoy me alot but the songwriting is sooo good. I still listen to this one the most for some reason. I can't really seem to fully make up my mind on it, it's kind of actually annoying.. A remaster of some sort would make this one of the best if not THE best VS.

Nah, too distorted.
Muddy.

I guess it was very heavy; I never really noticed it though, obviously.