Emperor Cover

[Mr. Niel]

http://mrniel0.tripod.com/ME-LOSSCURSE.mp3

This came out pretty good. I purposely didn't master it as hot as possible cause brickwalling it made it sound really crappy.

Drums programmed/performed with EZdrummer. Guitars and bass are PODxt.

Me on everything. Emperor rules.

 

[Metaltastic]

Whoooaaaa, fucking awesome dude! I love this album, and this song isn't my favorite on the album, but it's still damn good - great job especially on nailing the riffs, tone, and especially vox. I feel everything could use a fair bit more reverb (especially the drums) to give it that "ringing from the storm-covered mountains" vibe the original has, but you're damn close dude, especially with the keyboard patches. Even though the vox are pretty low in the original, I feel yours could still come up a bit, cuz they sound really good (and I like the panning you did on the backing vox as well). Man, I don't really like black metal in general, but there are exceptions, and Emperor is one of 'em.

 

[Mr. Niel]

Originally, this was going to be unmixed and totally covered in reverb, like the original! :smirk: But I wanted it to be a bit different, particularly with trying to make the guitars audible, cause there are some great guitar riffs on this song. The vocals were left low as well to make room for the guitars, the eq curve I used for them is insane looking, I basically cut alot of everything out except for highs, and it was still getting in the way. I feel bad for the guy that had to mix this stuff originally, there is so much going on in these Emperor songs...and obviously they were huge fans of reverb at the time!

Thanks for listening!

 

[mr.L.]

Pretty cool dude. Emperor has been one of my favorite bands for many years and it's nice to hear one of the classics in a different way. I think you should dirty up the drums a little, maybe put a small amount of distortion over them and raise the rooms a bit and I agree with metaltastic that the vocals should come up a bit. It's nice to actually be able to hear some of the notes the bass is playing btw, although the timing is a bit shaky at times. If you want to approach the original sound some more reverb over all instruments is needed. Everything produced by Pytten in that era was pretty much drowned in reverb hehe. I can see how people hate that kind of production, but I personally think it worked out very nice on several albums and some of his productions sound a lot more creative than some of those modern hyperpolished, ubertriggered and dry mixes we're all used to today. On Anthems I guess it would have been better if there was a little bit more clarity however, but the music more than makes up for this. Haven't heard any album that comes close as far as songwriting, complexity that actually adds to the songs (instead of being just lame wanking/showing off) and energy in a long time .

 

[Mr. Niel]

Pretty cool dude. Emperor has been one of my favorite bands for many years and it's nice to hear one of the classics in a different way. I think you should dirty up the drums a little, maybe put a small amount of distortion over them and raise the rooms a bit and I agree with metaltastic that the vocals should come up a bit. It's nice to actually be able to hear some of the notes the bass is playing btw, although the timing is a bit shaky at times. If you want to approach the original sound some more reverb over all instruments is needed. Everything produced by Pytten in that era was pretty much drowned in reverb hehe. I can see how people hate that kind of production, but I personally think it worked out very nice on several albums and some of his productions sound a lot more creative than some of those modern hyperpolished, ubertriggered and dry mixes we're all used to today. On Anthems I guess it would have been better if there was a little bit more clarity however, but the music more than makes up for this. Haven't heard any album that comes close as far as songwriting, complexity that actually adds to the songs (instead of being just lame wanking/showing off) and energy in a long time .

Good points about Pytten's stuff. I agree with this, especially compared to today's modern metal mixes. I don't hate that old production, not at all actually, I just didn't want this to sound just like the original version.

I should probably bring up the vox a tooch in a few places. I didn't notice the bass playing was off at all, although it's pretty much one take straight through, so it's definitely possible that I missed it. There are slight guitar flubs too (left channel), but I left em for the rawness factor.

I think I will redo this version and then also make a super reverb mix for fun as well!

Thanks for listening!

 

[niks]

I just happened to listen to this album today and then noticed this topic. It must've been quite some work to do all those parts yourself by the way. What's cool is that I think that your mix still feels "black metal" despite being different compared to the original.

Are those Drumkit From Hell samples by the way? I'm not too familiar with the software beyond a little testing a while ago so I don't recall the sound exactly.

 

[lordcthulhu]

Fuckin' Awesome!! Not too many bands attempt to cover Anthems-era Emperor because of the intense atmosphere that worked an absolute treat on that album. This is even better than the Immortal cover you did before, nice work

I do wish the bass was louder in Anthems - when you can hear it in places such as the start of The Loss and Curse of Reverence and In Longing Spirit, it sounds cool, ultra dirty!

...Now someone needs to cover With Strength I Burn.