Day 8: final day of guitar tracking.
Producer: "Okay man, thats a wrap."
Hannemann looks down at his guitar...Sees the pickup selector was in the middle position for the past week.
Producer: "Jeff, are you okay? You have gone pale."
Hanemann: "Fine...nothing..wrong..all good. See ya!" (door slams, squealing tires)

As several people have said, my first impression is that the songs are actually quite good - definitely better than 'Christ Illusion' and probably better than most of the stuff on 'God Hates Us All' too. There's some melody, some proper riffs (rather than just atonal grind). Tom Araya sounds fantastic too, really varied and interesting - the middle section of 'Human Strain' is brilliant.
The mix isn't as bad as I'd been fearing, it's just very different to most of the stuff around now. The drums, bass and vocals sound fine (though I've never liked a Slayer kick sound, and this one keeps up that tradition), but the guitars do sound really odd. I'd say they're under-gained - at the start of 'Snuff' there's barely enough sustain to keep them going. And I don't know about the pickup/position choice; to my ears it they almost have that Tele sound to them. The only metal band I can think of with a similar tone and twang is Unsane, but they make it work and Slayer fail miserably.
The other weird thing is how dry it all is. Most bands spend ages trying to sound huge, especially with the drums, but this CD sounds really small close. Even the snare sounds bone dry. It's like they took Rubin's advice from 'Reign In Blood' about turning the 'verb down on the guitars and applied it to everything.
Steve
I agree with your points. I don´t have problems with drums, bass and vocals, but the guitars are weird. The record is dry like a some days old biscuit. I don´t like Fidelman´s work..Death Magnetic was a catastrophe, too. Even the GH3 version is far away being excellent.yeah, cos fidelman is mixing/producing it. squashing it to all fuckery like dm.It's amazing how similar this cd sounds to Death Magnetic.
This whole organic drum approach really worked for Slayer. Did NOT work as well for Metallica and In Flames.
It's amazing how similar this cd sounds to Death Magnetic.
listen to this on a proper stereo (car stereo, monitors, etc) and you'll never want to listen to it again. drums are dry as fuck, sitting on top of the mix, with the cymbals being painful due to all the treble. guitars are massively undergained. the master is completely squashed.
yeah, cos fidelman is mixing/producing it. squashing it to all fuckery like dm.


Its good , its metal and not trying to be anything else.![]()





