Best/Worst Production

[Alongside Death]

Simple.

What albums have the best or worst production in your opinion?
What bands are generally known for excellent/shitty/exceptional production?

I am also interested about your opinion about bands that were known for good production, but failed miserably on one of their albums. And the opposite, what bands had crappy production but advanced with every new album.

Discuss.

 

[ConnorFromHell]

Metallica had a great sound on most of their albums apart from St Anger, which they fucked up completely.

I love Devin Townsend's production, that kind of "wall of sound" with all the multi-tracking and layering, it's brilliant.

 

[Saparmurat_Niyazov]

Flemming Rasmussen was Metallica's best producer, and probably one of metal's best, period. Just listen to Morbid Angel's Covenant, for example. Devin Townsend is also good, so is Peter Tägtgren, Neil Kernon, and Terry Date (though most here don't like the bands he's worked with).

 

[TheInsane]

Metallica had a great sound on most of their albums apart from St Anger, which they fucked up completely.

They actually fucked up Death Magnetic as well to the point that it is unlistenable. So their recent track record isnt good at all.

 

[IntoPhagist]

Nevermore - Enemies of Reality
In Flames - A Sense of Purpose

 

[A1a23]

I like a lot of Peter Tagtgren's production work in various albums from Hypocrisy, Immortal, Marduk, Dark Funeral, Dimmu Borgir, Enslaved, Borknagar, Amon Amarth, and a bunch more.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Production that correctly highlights or enhances aspects of songwriting/musicality that are effective in conveying whatever message a band wants to convey is the fucking shit. One great recent album that does this well is Lost Soul - Immerse In Infinity. A few other favorites include Textures - Drawings Circles (sounds exactly as open, expansive and progressive as it needs to without selling itself short like the band they obviously love [Cynic, duh], nor going too pompous and pretentious [also like said band they love yet are better than] and Soilwork - Natural Born Chaos which was done by Devin Townsend and sounds amazing.

Bad production is just bad. So, on the other side of the coin, Soilwork's Sworn to a Great Divide has god awful production that makes no fucking logical sense, it's a damn good thing their songwriting on that album is generally pretty good, and a bit out of the ordinary for them. Other bad production jobs, imo, include Defeated Sanity - Psalms of the Moribund which is absolutely fucking abysmal and muddy for no reason whatsoever, and Morbid Angel's Blessed Are The Sick, which, in addition to having some really boring/filler/non-stimulating songs, has some flat fucking production. I much prefer Altars for its right-for-the-jugular, straight-up, catchy yet compositionally superior style (and the production doesn't detract from the riffs).

Oh, and the aforementioned Cynic may have musical chops but, other than that early demo (which I give a pass cuz it's a demo), they've never managed to combine solid songwriting with well-done/fitting production, which is fucking retarded considering how well-liked they are. Focus just sucks intensely all around, but I remember hearing "Evolutionary Sleeper" live before Traced in Air came out, and it sounds AWESOME live in that one video...then, way to go guys, you sterilized the shit out of it and now it sounds god awful.

P.S. Andy Sneap is also a shit producer and anyone who likes him as such can fuck off and die.

 

[Lateralus14]

I really love when murky production is actually done right i.e. The Ruins of Beverast's Rain Upon the Impure or Thergothon's Stream From the Heavens

 

[Satanist Hobo]

I don't really pay attention to production but CoB's HCDR was pretty shitty, in Needled 24/7 his voice bugged out every time he screamed.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Thergothon's Stream From the Heavens

Probably the hallmark "technically 'shit' production suits this so fucking well" album, that isn't black metal anyway

 

[WCannibal]

Anything that isn't as raw as this is overproduced bullfuckery.

 

[Alongside Death]

Production that correctly highlights or enhances aspects of songwriting/musicality that are effective in conveying whatever message a band wants to convey is the fucking shit.

Exactly. From all the shitload BM bands that try to sound dark and grim The Ruins Of Beverasts Rain Upon The Impure is a great example of good BM production. Although its production is silent as fuck and muddy it fits perfectly to the climate of the album. Dark mood is achieved, The Ruins of Beverast executed it very well. So I also agree with Lateralus14 on this subject.

Of course I could talk about nearly perfect, crystal clear production on Dimmu Borgirs few albums or Old Man's Child, but I wanted to focus on some less commercial bands.

I love the sound in Demolition Hammers Epidemic of Violence, it's kind of silent but everything is perfectly audible IMO. Time Bomb was good but inferior to EoV when refering to production.

I also like Pig Destroyers (for example Terrifyer) but after 20 minutes of listening to them I really wish to hear something with some fucking bass. Assucks Anticapital is a lot better and it is a lot older.

Briefly about bad production. Hate Eternal pretty much fucked up their latest album. The drums stick out just too much. Artery Eruptions latest album, goddamn, shit covered in vomit. In genre where "primitive" production may be a good solution, Artery Eruption just ruined it. Carnal - True Blasphemy is a good example of an album thats production isn't everything.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

Agree on Artery Eruption, another good point. On the other hand, Gorepoflesh do it right.

 

[The Butt]

P.S. Andy Sneap is also a shit producer and anyone who likes him as such can fuck off and die.

.

Also I love how theres a subforum here dedicated to him for wannabe producers to post in.

 

[Onder]

On the other hand, Gorepoflesh do it right.

I agree. Do you think they're so evil that they wanted the sound to be this "fucked up" or was it caused by some cheap Ncaraguan studio? Either way, I will have to listen to it tonight, it drives me fucking insane.

On the topic of production, sound can fuck album up or give it another dimension. Of the top of my head: One of my all-time favourite albums Pagan Altar's M&Ms have the voice so fucking much that it fucking hurts, which is shameful. Fortunately all the voice is on one frequency really, as that grey guy is like a razor among vocalists, so you can put it down a little yourself.

I also like evil/rawer and dark production in deathmetal (and of course black metal, but I take it as a sure thing there). I don't care much about bass as I rarely notice it, i.e. I rarely concentrate on it solely (unless the song has no balls or the bass is like a bulldozer everywhere which is dusturbing). I dislike when there is one particular drum that is high or something (right now this reminded me of Saprogenic's Wet Sounds.. where there's 20 inches ride in one of those songs that is two times louder than everything else at it can freak you out when you don't know the songs or something (otherwise thumbs up for that album )

What I dislike most is when the guitars come off from sides (it can be one guitar with enhanced stereo!) so the group doesn't sound complex but just like recorded tracks put together.

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I agree. Do you think they're so evil that they wanted the sound to be this "fucked up" or was it caused by some cheap Ncaraguan studio? Either way, I will have to listen to it tonight, it drives me fucking insane.

With art, including music, I always assume that the artist would not release something for public consumption (demos don't count since they are intended to be private usually) unless every aspect of it were how they intended. It could be a coincidence but I staunchly refuse to accept that possibility as reality even for a second.

I like the rest of your post though. M&M is fucking insanely good, but you're right that the vocals are like a fucking razor a lot of the time. I also agree about Saprogenic...also, that guy doesn't know how to do a double bass run in time at all. Or he is bad at triggering. Fortunately this aspect was improved on Ichneumonid; unfortunately, it's a step down in every single other aspect

 

[Onder]

With art, including music, I always assume that the artist would not release something for public consumption (demos don't count since they are intended to be private usually) unless every aspect of it were how they intended. It could be a coincidence but I staunchly refuse to accept that possibility as reality even for a second.

I know what you mean, but I can imagine musician going to studio having his image of how the final thing is supposed to sound and then when the final thing differs but it doesn't affect quality or even makes things better (unimaginably!) he lets it be that way. I know myself that the final product differs a lot of the time from what one thinks it would be like, you may call it incapability on the artist's side (to recreate the abtract idea, which is his job, kind of) but I actually consider it one of the beauties of creating art - the way how reality changes the abstract thought you see. Maybe I'm just too positive.

 

[Blind Guardian]

I think the production on Blessed Are The Sick is great. With the drums for example, the production is tight and slick when needed (Fall From Grace), and a greasy reverb-mess when needed (Blessed Are The Sick).

 

[V.V.V.V.V.]

I know what you mean, but I can imagine musician going to studio having his image of how the final thing is supposed to sound and then when the final thing differs but it doesn't affect quality or even makes things better (unimaginably!) he lets it be that way. I know myself that the final product differs a lot of the time from what one thinks it would be like, you may call it incapability on the artist's side (to recreate the abtract idea, which is his job, kind of) but I actually consider it one of the beauties of creating art - the way how reality changes the abstract thought you see. Maybe I'm just too positive.

No, that's actually a fairly beautiful way of making your point.

 

[Satanstoenail]

With art, including music, I always assume that the artist would not release something for public consumption (demos don't count since they are intended to be private usually) unless every aspect of it were how they intended. It could be a coincidence but I staunchly refuse to accept that possibility as reality even for a second.

I think with metal, especially with older stuff, most artists were happy if the end product sounded half decent. Most metal albums are made on a shoestring budget with limited recording time, so to get them sounding "perfect", the exact combination of good playing, good sounding gear, good engineer/producer and good studio has to be achieved. If the process goes wrong somewhere and the end product sounds terrible, the band can't exactly ring the record company and ask for another recording advance.