. . .
In Steven Rosen’s Wheels of Confusion: The Story of Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi recalls having the budget for two days in the studio when recording Black Sabbath’s debut album. To put it mildly, the recording situation was less than ideal. With just two days of time, one of which would be used for mixing, the band recorded everything live with few second takes.
I think that Black Sabbath sounds good considering the era’s technology and the band’s non-existent budget, but it could certainly be better. I’m sure that the band wishes they’d had more time to record the album. Fortunately, it didn’t set a precedent for shoddy-sounding heavy metal records.
I could fill pages with examples of great-sounding metal albums, but that would be to focus on the genre’s sonic triumphs. We have to take the good with the bad, and that means pulling back the curtain on some of the genre’s sonic mistakes.
This series has four parts, each with three albums damaged by their production. Some of the albums are classics, while others are merely great. Three of the albums are damaged beyond listenability, but one of those albums is nevertheless considered a classic. Seven genres and subgenres will be represented across the series. A poorly-produced album is much like a novel with spelling errors and grammatical mistakes. The ideas may or may not shine through, and the audience has to work that much harder either way.
I’ve focused on albums that were released by bigger labels so as to emphasize the extent to which these albums are mistakes. I don’t feel that records by lesser-known bands funded by small labels are worth discussing, because those circumstances are out of both the label’s and the artist’s control. If an album is recorded for Catastrophic Vaginal Gurgulation Records on a budget of $5.52 and a six-pack, I can understand that it will probably sound like ass, but I’m not going to take anybody to task for that. When Roadrunner forces a genre stalwart into Sonic Atrocity Studios, we’ve got a problem.
A piece about crummy recording quality needs to mention …And Justice for All. That album’s sonic quality has been debated to death, so I don’t feel the need to discuss it. If you’re wondering, I think it sounds terrible, but I know that a lot of you disagree. I’m also avoiding discussions about demos, because frankly, a demo only has to be good enough to generate interest in the band, not to appeal to the marketplace. Finally, I’m ignoring albums that had crummy recordings but arguably benefited from it. Early Venom, early Bathory, and much of Manilla Road’s discography are examples of rough but beneficial production.
We’ll kick this series off with three albums from some of Norwegian black metal’s biggest names: Immortal, Emperor, and Mayhem.
. . .
1. Immortal – Battles in the North
I imagine that Battles sounds like being caught in a blizzard on a Norwegian mountainside. I’ve read a few reviews that claim this album has the atmosphere that black metal strives for. I think the production is responsible for that atmosphere. I’ve always found that Immortal’s songs focus on riffs rather than playing a sound, so a clear production benefits the band. Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism and Blizzard Beasts sound worse than Battles, but I don’t consider them great albums. If I did, I’d have the same complaint as I do with Battles.
The bottom line is that this album has a static- and treble-ridden guitar tone that blurs the riffs. Annoyingly, Immortal got a much better production out of Studio Grieghallen on the preceding album, Pure Holocaust. How the hell does that happen? Battles and Pure Holocaust even have the same engineer, Pytten. I guess Immortal wanted to sound like this.
(From Pure Holocaust)
. . .
2. Emperor – In the Nightside Eclipse
I’m gonna catch shit for this one, but hear me out. Yes, Nightside is apparently an example of the much-vaunted and sought-after black metal atmosphere. Yes, it sounds obscure and might induce a trance. But no, it does not sound good, and no, the production is not appropriate. Listen to the Hordanes Land split. “I Am the Black Wizards” explodes out of the speakers. It’s raw, it’s noisy, and it’s powerful. It’s everything a black metal recording should be. Metal is first and foremost about guitars. The Hordanes Land split has guitars and drums. Nightside has some gauze and some muffled thumping. I much prefer the split/EP versions of the songs from Nightside, and I can only wonder how much greater that album could’ve been with the production from the split/EP.
(In the Nightside Eclipse)
(Hordanes Land split or Emperor EP)
. . .
3. Mayhem – Ordo Ad Chao
I think this album’s oddball recording was intentional. But intentional or not, I hate it. Ordo Ad Chao sounds murky and swampy. It sounds lo-fi at times. The guitars, vocals, and different parts of the drum kit jump or drop in volume on a regular basis. The second guitar is buried under all the other instruments most of the time. The drum tone is fantastically awful.
I don’t know what to make of this album. Sometimes I think that the recording quality accentuates the weird music, and other times I think that the recording style makes the music sound weird. Mayhem twisted black metal with Grand Declaration of War, and they twisted black metal even harder with Ordo Ad Chao. I’d love to hear these songs using the recording quality of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas or Chimera. That would clear up the mystery as to whether the music of Ordo Ad Chao is as bizarre as I think it is, or only as bizarre as the recording makes it sound.
A Wise Birthgiver
. . .
you know, i like when mastodon goes really poppy and shit on THE HUNTER, but goddamn the vocals are fucking loud in the mix. is it just me?
I didn’t notice that on that particular album. But as a rule, I think the loudness of the vocals directly correlates with how much mass appeal they’re trying to have. You pick some really underground record (off Catastrophic Vaginal Gurgulation Records, perhaps) and the vocals are buried in the mix. But if you have Metallica, Slipknot, or even Slayer, the vocals are going to be way louder. The average person (as opposed to the kvltest metalhead) likes to hear vocals, a lot.
I don’t know if you heard the last Godsmack album, but they tried to make it really loud with minimal clipping. To accomplish that, they turned the volume on the instruments down whenever the vocals came in. It was really annoying, even for someone (like me, I’m not ashamed to say) who’s normally a fan of the band.
Good observation on loudness of vocals to mass appeal correlation. I never really thought about that, and you’re right.
By this logic, High on Fire are pushing all-out for pop acceptance. The vocals on Snakes For the Divine were absolutely booming.
Totally backed on Godsmack
A welcome surprise!
Maybe it’s because metal has succumbed to the cliche that the human voice no longer has value as a tonal singing instrument, only as extraneous texture. If 99.9888% of all metal bands weren’t afraid to approach vocals by the mindless standards set by the extreme metal landmarks of the past 25 years, then there’d be something new to talk about. It’s just like indie rock. Indie rock can’t fathom coloring outside the lines of atonal whining. Extreme metal and indie rock both need an Ann Wilson, a Steve Perry, a Steve Marriott, an Etta James. God, what a breath of fresh air that would be.
I agree.
The thing that elevates songwriting to greatness is the ability to come up with a good vocal melody. Because, simply put, people like it when they can sing along to the song. (that counts for metalheads too, even if many may not like to admit it)
The thing with a lot of metal bands is not that they’re afraid to approach melody, it’s that they’re unable to. They just lack the songwriting capabilities and/or the feel for musicality. My take, at least.
Which isn’t necessarily a problem. After all, a lot of extreme bands have made it work as well, even achieving mainstream success.
Primordial has really loud vocals and they’re hardly mainstream.
yeah but i feel primordial is really trying to make some catchy hooks/riffs with some of their songs. especially “No Grave Deep Enough”. and the vocalist really knows hot to belt out a fucking tune. as for High on Fire, well they’re definitely relatively poppy, compared to like brainoil or something
but yeah @FMA you’re totally right dude
It’s just a correlation, not an absolute law. It makes sense for Primordial, because vocals are the prime selling point there. I’d have to go back to listen to Snakes for the Divine though. I’m not sure why they’d do it.
Well, the album is loaded with vocal hooks. I mean, FROST HAMMAH! Pike is actually a pretty solid singer; his voice is rough, but the melodies are there. Still, he’s a tad too loud for my tastes on that record.
You didn’t get the memo: http://pitchfork.com/features/show-no-mercy/8761-death-to-black-metal/
Remember, Hunter, the history of a time to come rests in fretless guitars.
not to troll or anything, but the way that article was organized fucking sucked. i mean i love yall (Liturgy) and Deafheaven, but you two bands have almost nothing in common, musically speaking. The only reason to pair Liturgy and Deafheaven is cause yall might dress similarly and receive the same label from critics. Even your responses were completely different in agenda and scope (your categorical imperative vs. Deafheaven’s intensely personal songwriting). why does pitchfork always have to ghettoize shit into microgenres while pretending like they’re not doing precisely that? its just another way of segregating non-corpse painters i guess
This goes to some lengths to answer or at least delve into your final question. http://nplusonemag.com/54
I’m very surprised there wasn’t a Darkthrone album on this list :\
But that was essential to Darkthrone’s aesthetic, and to some degree, the evolution of the genre — and most importantly it was a very conscious choice on their part (they even named it the “Necro” sound).
To anyone who hasn’t listened to them, I cannot recommend highly enough the recent Darkthrone (and Isengard) reissues with Fenriz’ commentary tracks. Among other things, he talks a great deal about the recording conditions and process. And he is, of course, a riot. “Goatlord” (arguably the shittiest-sounding, and DEFINITELY the weirdest, album in Darkthrone’s catalog) is especially enlightening.
I held off on including any Darkthrone album because they chose to make their records sound like they did, for better or worse, and because I personally think their ’sound’ works for them. Goatlord’s pretty horrible though.
They’ve always been conscious of how sound quality influences the listener. When they did Soulside Journey, they brought Uffe Cederlund into the studio to help them get the nastiest Sunlight/HM-2 guitar tone possible.
Those Fenriz commentary versions are so great and hilarious!
Darkthrone did choose that sound, I’ll give you that, and it certainly did work for what they were going for (although some of them sound a bit better than others). Those Darkthrone reissues with Fenriz commentary do give a lot of entertaining insight. Then again, though, you do ponder whether Ordo Ad Chao’s sound was intentional too (I have a hard time thinking that Hellhammer let his drums sound like that on purpose though, although maybe he was feeling froggy that day).
Either way, good article, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the series! As I was listening to Confessor this morning, I have to wonder if that one will make an appearance somewhere
You said:
“I’m also avoiding discussions about demos, because frankly, a demo only has to be good enough to generate interest in the band, not to appeal to the marketplace.”
I would counter:
“ANY MUSIC only has to be good enough to generate interest in the LISTENER, not to appeal to the marketplace.”
I don’t understand basing personal taste on marketplace appeal. Is that really what listening to metal is about?
Cool article, and especially appreciate the audio comparisons. I love articles like this that think deeply about canon works, rather than just the usual new record reviews that are so common (easy) on other blogs. Thanks!
Personally I see demos as something a band gives out for free to labels, metal fans, etc. to generate interest. If someone hands me a piece of music for free and it sounds subpar, I’m ok with that. It’s a mix of intent, pragmatism, and circumstances out of artistic control.
When you mention personal taste – do you mean a band’s decision on how they sound on record? All bands are conscious of how they sound when recorded. Darkthrone aim for a certain sound as part of their artistic intent. Other bands want to be heard by as many people as possible. They want people to buy their records, so they go to professional studios and spend a considerable amount of time and money on recording, mixing, etc. That’s appealing to the marketplace, at the very least to the extent that they don’t want the record to tank and get dropped by the label or have their art be passed by.
I agree with everything you are saying, to be clear. Yes, a band has every reason to want to appeal to the marketplace, and we all as a population of consumers of music make up that marketplace. However, no assessment of aesthetics should take “market appeal” into account, as this is not an aesthetic value.
I’m not even sure that is what you were saying, I was mostly making a comment on the industry, and also the way alot of people think. I’m sure you have had a discussion in which someone vehemently defended their favorite band, citing record sales as a definitive strike against your perspective of distaste. 50 bazillion Linkin Park fans can’t be wrong… right?
It’s like saying blue is better than red because it sells better, or seems like it would sell better.
However, I completely understand your point about not discussing demos -here-, as they are never meant to stack up sonically against full, ‘proper’ releases.
I would just like to reemphasize that “Any music only has to be good enough to generate interest in the listener, not to appeal to the marketplace.” and by that logic any demo can be as good/sound as good/make my ears as happy as any million dollar major release. As I see it, the other way of thinking is a concession to marketing and capitalism, much in the way that fashion dictates what makes women attractive to mainstream male tastes, or flashy colors and sticker price make people think ferraris are “better” than hondas.
thanks for participating! For some of us, there just aren’t enough people around to talk with about metal (or even less that want to talk about ’sound.’ Cheers!)
-WK
Ok, I think I see what you’re saying: just because a demo doesn’t have bajillion dollar production doesn’t mean it’s not art or as good as something with high-end production. I agree.
I don’t know how long you’ve been reading us, but: we’ve had some interesting articles on tone and sound. We did an article about the heaviest albums in standard tuning, articles about guitars, and this particular gem:
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2010/08/top-10-unconventional-metal-guitar-tones/
Thanks for reading!
The first Black Sabbath album sounds absolutely perfect! I do, however agree that ‘In the Nighside Eclipse’ could really use some more guitar in the mix. As well as this, I really can’t agree with your comments on the first Immortal album it sounds great, and is a classic album in my eyes. The Immortal records done with Peter Tagtgren suffer from typewriter-clickity-clackity drums.
I love Battles and it is a classic. I just wonder if it’s better than Pure Holocaust, and I’m missing that because of the production.
You’re partially reading my mind – Peter Tagtgren and clickity drums are both discussed in later installments. Thanks for reading!
I dunno, it might be a per-track thing.
I mean, Majesty of the Nightsky and Cosmic Keys both have some excellent guitar, especially in the solo-ish bits on the latter.
Black Wizards is a fine track, but I agree that the recording/mastering leaves something to be desired.
(And on Battles, Cursed Realms is my favorite, perhaps because it has cleaner guitar sound.)
Great post and, while my first reaction to your including Ordo Ad Chao was »no way, the production perfectly matches the content matter!«, on second thought I have to agree that it would be very interesting to hear that piece of molten corrosive lava with a »clean« production. Maybe it would indeed highlight that the murky production was intentionally chosen to gloss over (no pun intended) unfocused songwriting.
Looking forward to the other installments!
Disclaimer: I think Ordo is by far Mayhem’s best (read: most interesting) album!
If only Ordo Ad Chao’s production was as powerful and mesmerizing as the production and sound on the Lurker Of Chalice album.
The author of this post has lost all credibility to me in terms of judging music. Three of my absolute favorite albums, each of which have unique and mystifying production.
Well, that’s weird. He said that, at a bare minimum, each of these albums is “great”, and he provided a great defense for why he thinks the production doesn’t work. You don’t have to agree, but if he can make you understand, that’s what’s important.
Someone else agrees that Wrath of the Tyrant has a better atmosphere than In the Nightshade Eclipse!
I just realized: that picture looks really familiar (link). I’m not saying I have any rights to it, but I can’t remember where I found it either.
Agree that the earlier Emperor sounds better than “Nightside”, strongly disagree with everything else. Someone else already touched on it, but the sound on the first Sabbath is the gold standard for what records should sound like and makes a strong case that every band should only get two days in the studio.
One extreme metal record that actually was ruined by production was Venom’s “Possessed”. The earlier stuff was gloriously shitty- that record was just hard to listen to.
I’m progressively realizing this Richard Street-Jammer guy has some pretty crappy taste. Battles in the North over Pure Holocaust??? Psssh.
Further, anyone who thinks the first Black Sabbath album sounds shoddy (or could be improved upon) is mad as a hatter.
@thewolf you’ve misinterpreted me. I think pure holocaust is better than battles. What i was saying is that if battles had better production, it could be better than pure holocaust. I can’t hear the songs well enough to tell. Since i can’t hear battles’ songs well enough to tell if they are better than those on pure holocaust, I’m forced to conclude that pure holocaust is better.
Since we’re in agreement on pure holocaust being better than battles, does that mean we both have crappy taste?
I’m mad as a hatter and proud of it. Thanks for the compliment!
Alright, we’re square on early Immortal then. I think Battles suffers most from bad song-writing. Most of it, until the end, is blazing speed and there’s not as much infectious melodies (where as {Pure Holocaust is full of them).
I don’t know dude, with the tech death post and then the comment about Sabbath, I feel like you have a slight preference for things some would call over-produced (or slick).
One thing I’d wished I put in about Black Sabbath’s debut is that it also shows how good a band can sound in difficult circumstances. It’s also worth mentioning that technology is not much of a barrier – early rock and roll classics sound great but were recorded on 1, 2 and 4 track recorders.
I can see why you’d think I have a preference for overproduced or slick. To some extent you’ll just have to take my word for this – I don’t prefer slick recordings, but I do want to hear what the band is playing. Also, heavy metal is at its heart blue collar music based in rock and roll and by extension the blues. Metal is meant to be cranked up on a stereo or in a car. If it doesn’t sound good when you blare it, I think that’s a problem. Darkthrone are masters at raw but clear, and if you crank their albums, they sound damned good.
Up above, I mentioned Bathory, Venom, and Manilla Road, all bands that I like. I reviewed the newest Manilla Road, I noted that the production is thin and then also pointed out that it’s part of the band’s charm. Some of the commentors disagreed and thought it sounded too bad! I’m a huuuuuuge NWOBHM fan, and many of that genre’s classics have rough but functional production. I think Diamondhead’s white album sounds better than the major label funded followup, and the white album was supposed to be a demo.
As for tech-death, my liking it is not the same thing as me preferring slick productions. Modern tech-death comes wrapped in shiny foil, and there’s little I can do about it. I’ve also never stated whether I think it’s too slick, not slick enough, etc. Effigy of the Forgotten and None So Vile aren’t exactly overproduced, and those are some of tech-death’s finest albums. Also, tech-death needs more clarity on record than, say, Disma or Morbus Chron.
If you read future installments, you’ll see that I’ve got at least two albums in the piece that I consider overproduced. An accurate but boring draft title for this series was albums with inappropriate production; that’s the spirit of what I’m talking about. Finally, thank you for disagreeing with me on tech death – life becomes very boring when everybody agrees.
Lol. Did you seriously just get mad about the production quality of three black metal classics? The “lo-fi” production is one of the hallmarks of Black Metal. It’s not supposed to sound clean and clear. The intention is to make the music inaccessible to hipsters. So I guess in your case it worked out for them.
When these came out, hipsters didn’t exist yet. So I hardly think that was a concern.
First, he’s not mad. Second, he stated that they’re classics. Third, if you need shitty production to make your evil metal inaccessible to “hipsters”, you’re not doing it right.
Also, I’ve read plenty of interviews with metal bands that admitted their early records sounded like shit because they didn’t have money, not because they aspired to sounding like they were recorded over a phone line. But, hey, if you like shitty-sounding music, you can always buy a $15 boom box at Walmart and stab the speakers with a knife. Even Nickelback will sound like Darkthrone.
“if you need shitty production to make your evil metal inaccessible to ‘hipsters’, you’re not doing it right.”
Beautifully stated.
Thanks! I’ve had people use variations of that argument on me before and I’m always baffled by the logic.
The funniest part is that I know people that a lot of metalheads would consider to be hipsters who love Darkthrone and Mayhem precisely because of the defiantly lo-fi “not meant to be listened to or enjoyed” thing.
You can’t win if your goal is to alienate hipsters. They’ll just embrace you harder. Much to my amusement.
You know, as much as I love Manilla Road, there’s no reason for them to still sound that bad. At least in the case of Playground of the Damned, I feel like it’s a hindrance, whether or not it’s intentional at this point. I mean, sure it’s “their sound,” but you can be lo-fi without being tinny and having drums that sound like wet cardboard and tupperware. The unfocused, baby-shit brown cover matches the sound perfectly.
I’m with you…I’ve always found “in the nightside eclipse” damn near unlistenable.
Never could get into “battles in the north” or “blizzard beasts” either. I sure tried, back when I was first getting exposed to black metal, but those albums just sounded so goddamn shitty…
I think the production on Ordo ad Chao rules!!
I worked with a mastering guy who knows the Death Magnetic mastering guy pretty well. According to said DM mastering dude: the horrible distortion was entirely Rick Rubin. He wanted everything louder and dirtier… but the album wasn’t produced to sound that way. So during some stage of outputting the tracks, Rubin forced this mastering engineer to crank the bus output to extreme levels, pushing everything way into the red. All the engineers knew it would sound like shit, but Rubin was oblivious. So when they went and brickwalled the compression on top of an already distorted mix, it was like putting a firecracker in a dog turd: it just blows the shit right at you.
The mastering engineer is on record with the statement about the mixes being loud when he got them, and Metallica themselves have claimed that they left Rubin in control of things after a certain point.
What blows my mind is that Rubin has been in the industry for, what, 3 decades or so? I find it hard to believe that he didn’t know that a loud master of a loud mix would fuck it up even further. (I’m not accusing anybody of lying) On the other hand, if he controlled the mixing process and didn’t realize the loud mix already made it shitty, I guess he either didn’t know or didn’t care about the loud mastering.
I also hope that this hasn’t affected the engineer’s career. That’s a hard spot to be in: piss Rubin off and get a reputation for disobedience, or put out a piece of shit with his name on it.
With Rubin I imagine it being a situation where ego outweighs common sense, thinking the rules of audio (in this case, physics) are for pussies.
Production is for fucking posers.