Finished BACKMASK Mixes!

Dammit, Shane... your stuff just came up in my playlist here at work again and I had to go gushing on and on about it to a co-worker again. You damn well better let us know when this cd hits the shelves for real so I can get my grubby little mits on it. :)

Later,
Jeff
 
Wow, thanks Jeff!

At the moment the future of BACKMASK is uncertain as I no longer have a lineup. I'm working on a bunch of new songs and I am likely going to be changing the name of the project, mainly because nobody understands it.

It's been very difficult to find commited musicians out here to do even minimal regional touring. I can record demos for days, but it's very hard to make a project work if you can't tour on it. If anyone knows any drummers, guitarists, etc. who live in the Los Angeles area and might be interested, have them e-mail me, shane@backmask.com
 
Oh hell yes!! sounds stunning Shane!! overall the mixes sound better, congrats on a job well done...

First of all, the slide riff in "tomorrow is dead" is one of the best i have ever heard in a while! fuckin ace!

The easier on the ears part in "dying again" is lush as well man..

I love the crunch in the guitar sound in every song... really sounds perfect to me...

"Feed the enemy" is easily the catchiest song i have heard you've done! when i first heard that one, it stuck to me for a week or two... :rock:

"Awaken"... probably my favorite though.. since i am a big fan of synths, and that song contains quite a lot... wicked!

Also, Q... how did you get that pumping sound overall on every song? i really think that makes it more agressive, and sounds good to me.. is that something you put on the master bus?

Cheers man!! hope to hear new stuff from you soon again!! :worship:
 
Black neon bob said:
Oh hell yes!! sounds stunning Shane!! overall the mixes sound better, congrats on a job well done...

First of all, the slide riff in "tomorrow is dead" is one of the best i have ever heard in a while! fuckin ace!

The easier on the ears part in "dying again" is lush as well man..

I love the crunch in the guitar sound in every song... really sounds perfect to me...

"Feed the enemy" is easily the catchiest song i have heard you've done! when i first heard that one, it stuck to me for a week or two... :rock:

"Awaken"... probably my favorite though.. since i am a big fan of synths, and that song contains quite a lot... wicked!

Also, Q... how did you get that pumping sound overall on every song? i really think that makes it more agressive, and sounds good to me.. is that something you put on the master bus?

Cheers man!! hope to hear new stuff from you soon again!! :worship:

Thanks... this is an old thread and these mixes are from May, so keep that in mind!

I'm honestly unhappy with the pumping sound, I'm not sure what is going on there, I think a lot of it is the summation of a lot of compression and limiting happening on the overheads plus the mastering chain. Too much compression, it's annoying and sounds unprofessional to me... but to each his own...

These mixes are pretty good but I'm working on a simplified approach, getting more things right from the beginning before handing off to my producer. I think these mixes sound very over-processed, among other issues. It's doubtful that these songs will be re-mixed again, though, as I am starting a new project and going in a more focused/aggressive direction musically. I'll post some of my new stuff when I finish it!
 
Hmmm old threah eh?...

Oh well, my bad, but my comments on the structure and sound on the songs still stand as they are.. it's really good stuff you know...
 
Shane,

Wow... I consider this stuff to be top notch, from a production standpoint. Super catchy tunes, crunchy tight riffing... great vox. It's basically a Soilwork type thing with mostly clean melodic vox. I'd love to hear what your raw recorded tracks sounded like before sending it to your producer. I think the finished product just sounds like what I would hear on an actual CD... not something Billy-Bob did with this Audigy and VAMP2. If you feel like spilling any of the "in-depth" beans about what you and your producer did to go from raw tracks to finished product, I'd LOVE to hear about it.

Good luck with the new stuff. Backmask may be a thing of the past now, but I'll still be singing those five tunes in my head for a few days every time I hear them.

Regs,
Jeff
 
Shane,

I meant to ask you before... is there a way to order the demo from you, as I'd like to have it on disc and not just in compressed audio form for my computer/ipod. I checked the Backmask store but didn't see it.

Thanks, bro.

Regs,
Jeff
 
Wow guys, you are making me think twice about ending the project with the compliments I'm getting here. Maybe it's tunnel vision, maybe all I need to do is change the name but keep the tunes, I'm undecided on these issues still as I write/record more material and look for new band members.

To answer a couple of questions...

Why Pods? Well, at the time, I didn't own a tube amp. That is the only reason. I've had a 6505+ for a couple of months now and I can always reamp these tracks through it. Oh yeah, and I always liked Saigon Kick, and lots of other cock rock. I got into deathmetal once I heard "Heartwork" for the first time, but I'm still a big fan of proficiently executed 80s cheese, among many other things.

Is there a CD? Actually, no, I never bothered getting any made, and I've been giving away my music free on the website since May. Maybe that's stupid... but the idea was to promote and I didn't have the money at the time to get a run of CDs professionaly duplicated, and I refuse to sell CD-Rs, that's really ripping people off.

I will most likely be changing the band name to REPLICANT and revamping the image a bit to something more overtly futuristic and techno/goth metal oriented. The music I'm writing now is going in a similar direction to the song "Awaken" but with more aggressive vocals.
 
Kazrog said:
Wow guys, you are making me think twice about ending the project with the compliments I'm getting here.

You know Shane a lot of people as you can see, love your stuff, there's no use in ending a project like yours!!!!
Sometimes it's so frustating finding the right members who envision what we like most: Music!
I think that as here in Italy I found great guys(there've become my friends too) it's not that difficult in the L.A. area find such great players and friends
to create something big.
Keep on rocking I think you'll find cool people to play with!

Maurizio
 
Hey Shane!!! Gotta say, this is an awesome work!!! The guitars to me don't need a reamp, continuing fiddling with sound will dry your vein!!! Write more of this!!! Very very good!!! The only thing I would change: the voice volume setting, just lower it a little bit! But really it's a minor detail on the overall good work!!! Keep up!!! Listen to 'no giving up' by Crossfade, it contains all the motivations to carry on. :rock::rock::rock::rock:
 
Hell, Shane.. I'd pay for the CD-R of the mastered tracks just so I can have the damn thing.

I wouldn't lose this material dude... it's way too good. I'm going to turn a couple of my buddies onto this and see what they have to say. I expect alot of people feel the same way about this stuff... catchy and heavy are GOOD things.

Later,
Jeff
 
Dude, "Pride" fucking rules! I dig that shit. The POD sounds fucking top notch. The Criminal amp model is my fave and all the stuff we record is based on this amp model now.

The keys add so much ambiance. You gotta keep this shit around and find some new musicians. It's very catchy and heavy at the same time. Quality stuff dude!
 
Well, I've made a final decision, and BACKMASK is here to stay! The new material I'm writing feels like the logical next step for where BACKMASK was headed anyway, so I'm very happy to announce that I will be releasing the existing 5-song EP for sale soon while I finish up 10 new songs.