bombastic black/death metal with lots of synths, real classical guitar

[abigor731]

i'm currently in the final stages of mixing an album for my own band

i know its not so common around here, but i'm a black metal guy and i like reverb, fizzy guitars, and unnatural drums, yet somehow i also like stuff that is well produced and listenable,
getting both to a reasonable extent is not an easy task, and the dense arrangement doesn't make it easier
i especially wrestled with the vocals a lot and still don't really like them somehow
i get the feeling it does sound quite extreme, but is it still listenable?

tell me what you think, my ears are really tired

http://a.freeupload.us.to/dl.php?file=1325812773.mp3
(my dropbox was full so i tried the hosting site of the guy that posted in the offtopic section sometime ago)

 

[ArnaudM]

If you need some special helping ears, you can always count on me.
From what I listened to, I would just say the reverb on drums is overwhelming., especially on the kick. The snare sounds also too crushed : it lacks a bit transcients from my point of view.
But from an esthetic point of view, even if I think the whole maybe too much compressed, I like the kind of industrial feeling in it. It is a very, very good song, using classical Sympho black metal harmonic constructions with a lot of taste and feeling and a personal sense of dramaturgy. I do like it very much, especially the acoustic guitar parts, which confer to the whole something both strange and full of melancoly. Looking forward to earing to the whole album.

AM

 

[abigor731]

its definately a certain kind of "industrial" esthetic that i'm after

here is the next version:
http://a.freeupload.us.to/dl.php?file=1325869432.mp3

i considered the observations you made and completely got rid of the reverb on the kicks, funnily its not really noticeable on the whole mix that its not there anymore (i had expected i'd totally miss it), and it does sound a little bit clearer,
thank you for your feedback arnaud

i also backed off on the master compression a bit, i think its not pumping anymore, but that ear-fatiguing quality is still there, somehow i get the feeling that its caused by the snare verb and also the guitar top end, there's constantly a lot of high frequencies going on all the time
i thought about compensating for that by mixing the vocals really dark and in the background, like darkspace for example, but its most likely not woth it

in this extracted mp3 there's some sort of synth glitch in the beginning, i really don't know why

 

[fatalforce]

Wow, really well composed. The guitars have great presence and the choirs/symphony create a great atmosphere. Maybe since you are struggling with the vocals you could try slight tube saturation. It will brighten them up a bit. I dig the delay you have on them so maybe bring that up so they don't become so harsh when you add the saturation. The drums sound a bit thinner in your second version though.

 

[ArnaudM]

I really dig the song. I listened to it twice yesterday and it's a great piece of black metal. I really like the Dark Funeral-isch guitar tone, and I think the über compressed way it sounds is exactly what black metal needs to be evil and aggressive.

But I wonder if the drum settings you used are really made for your purpose. To be honest, it reminds me a lot of the first THE AXIS OF PERDITION album, and it sometimes wastes the whole.

I have made a synth kick drum sample for industrial black metal that could fit perfectly. You also should try something else for the snare : on the track you uploaded, the tone reminds me of a white noise. I think the song would be nicer with something more precise.

Note that the trouble you felt with mixing the voices is maybe a result of your drum settings : the voice is centered in the panoramic space, and so are the kick and the invasive snare.

About the vocal delay, it's really cool, but I would have more drastically cut the bass AND the high frequencies on the delay send track (telephone sound), so that the lead vocals would gain more legibility.

Hope it helps.

AM

 

[abigor731]

its definately the snare reverb that causes a lot of problems, it creates a constant metallic "wash",
i love how it sounds, but its what makes it tiring to listen to and interferes with all the other stuff
i really wanna keep it though, it somehow reminds me of what black metal used to sound like when i started listening to it and it all just sounded like one big wash of noise to me

god i remember listening to that axis of perdition stuff on myspace, it has indeed a crazy drum sound, when i first listened to it i liked it, but it is indeed ear fatiguing after a while

here is the current version, did lots of changes, however only subtle
to be honest, at that stage, i don't wanna change it too drastically anymore
http://a.freeupload.us.to/dl.php?file=1325959693.mp3

 

[nutsock]

cool song!