I want a dirty new record

[atilla000]

Yesterday evening, I decided to forget for half an hour about my studying and listen to some Still Life with a decent pair of headphones. Yeah yeah, beautiful, returning memories, blahblah you know how the story ends...
But after a while a was getting more focused on the sound than on the songs in fact. It seems to me that there's so much more in the Still Life sound than in the recent Deliverance sound, Deliverance seems more polished, sterile...
In still life you can really hear the harmonics of the fat open E string (the moor), you hear the higher strings scream in the big chords (is that because of the gibson SG?).
Enough of that.
I want the new Opeth cd to sound less engineered (sorry moonlapse), more natural, I like the newer Opeth songs, but not the sound, it's too metal..

 

[Nico]

This man is so incredibly right I could die right now. Maybe I'll just go eat something instead.

 

[FUBAR]

Yeah the new stuff does sound a bit pro-toolish. But you say you dont like the new sound cuz its too metal. Opeth are a metal band

 

[Nico]

I don't get why anyone would consider over-production "too metal". Metal is meant to be raw aggression.

Well that's enough of that, back to my food.

 

[atilla000]

I don't get why anyone would consider over-production "too metal". Metal is meant to be raw aggression.

Well that's enough of that, back to my food.

That was the word I needed. Raw. Today's metal isn't raw anymore, and the sound of Deliverance is certainly NOT raw. The sound Still Life and MAYH is.

 

[BurnoutBomberman]

I also hate when records are overproduced and sound sterile. I also have noticed that the majority of the records that are trying to have that live atmosphere end up sounding like shit. Btw I also hate live records.

 

[Ermz]

Yesterday evening, I decided to forget for half an hour about my studying and listen to some Still Life with a decent pair of headphones. Yeah yeah, beautiful, returning memories, blahblah you know how the story ends...
But after a while a was getting more focused on the sound than on the songs in fact. It seems to me that there's so much more in the Still Life sound than in the recent Deliverance sound, Deliverance seems more polished, sterile...
In still life you can really hear the harmonics of the fat open E string (the moor), you hear the higher strings scream in the big chords (is that because of the gibson SG?).
Enough of that.
I want the new Opeth cd to sound less engineered (sorry moonlapse), more natural, I like the newer Opeth songs, but not the sound, it's too metal..

On the contrary, I totally agree. Since Still Life is less polished and compressed, you actually have amplitude variations and all sorts of little harmonics and sonic undertones through all of the parts. You can listen to the album again and discover something you hadn't heard last time. The recent albums simply aren't like that. Everything is in the foreground, the parts are focused, polished, sterile... Still Life was rich with tonal colour.

The reason you can hear those high notes so well is because they used moderate distortion and layered the guitars to all hell. That's what lets Opeth get away with those big embelished chords.

But I would really like to see a greater focus taken on song writing as opposed to the production. The production is only an asset when you use it to further the instrumentation that's been written, not to compensate as we've seen recently.

 

[atilla000]

Also pretty weird is the fact that recording BWP and Deliverance both took more than a month (don't know it exactly) and SL was recorded in 2, maybe 3 weeks. I guess Deliverance took so long because of the problems, but BWP? (Just checked the cd: "during the months of August to October...")
Maybe they wanted to experiment a bit. Let's hope they've discovered enough tricks by now and concentrate on the cool stuff as moonlapse says.

 

[Anarkissed]

I'm personally happy with the 'new' sound, but to me it's no better or worse than their pre-BWP albums. Whilst Still Life definitely does have that certain 'tonal colour' to it, I find that it lacks the punchy sound found in the later albums. Which is why it's a win-some-lose-some situation. Some people will prefer the newer, more modern sound, whilst others will find the older sound more appealing. Either way, dont count on Opeth going back to their old sound - you have five albums for that!

However, production aside, if there is something i like more about their first albums, it's their acoustic parts. Worn out topic i know, but damn i miss them...

 

[atilla000]

four albums.

Let's make two of it. The first two don't really have a nice sound.

And a return? Maybe, they have a little bit the "you don't know what to expect imago", so...

 

[Luz]

Agreed on what Atilla000 said. Also, Blackwater Park (a good record) it's totally over-produced, that's why MAYH and SL sounds very fresh today and I like more than Deliverance or BP.
And don't forget Opeth is a metal band (Orchid and Morningrise sounds like metal made in hell though)
\m/

Luz.-

 

[B Crouch]

I agree with all of these, the first 4 albums are raw as hell, BWP is very over produced, but I think Deliverance sound pretty good and tight to be honest, I like that one.

 

[prowlergrig]

Let's make two of it. The first two don't really have a nice sound.

let's make one of it.. mayh's production is muddy and you can't hear the bass in most heavy passages..
what i'm saying is that if we dismiss the first 2, we can find enough reasons to dismiss the 3rd..
..yet another reason why still life is in a league of its own.. imo

 

[Jinn]

Natural sound is what ruined Damnation for me.

When you get settled down, with it playing in your headphones, you relax... FINGERSQUEAK!!!!

Fucking fingersqueaking...

 

[Nico]

the first 4 albums are raw as hell

Uhh... what?

Go listen to some fucking Sabbat or Toxic Holocaust.

 

[atilla000]

let's make one of it.. mayh's production is muddy and you can't hear the bass in most heavy passages..
what i'm saying is that if we dismiss the first 2, we can find enough reasons to dismiss the 3rd..
..yet another reason why still life is in a league of its own.. imo

Still Life indeed is a masterpiece on it's own. But the reason why I connected MAYH with SL are the magical interacting guitar sounds on it. It IS more brutal and muddy, but it exactly that messy feeling (twisting dualling ending riff of April) that I miss on the 2 newer cd's.
I just mean that I'm looking for an intelligent pile of guitar riffs, mixed with right feeling. Hmm, I think that's a nice description

 

[[KOTNO]Narrot]

gibson sg? w00t?


fingersqueak....i love that

 

[Zivilyn]

fingersqueak....i love that

.

 

[Don Corleone]

another reason why still life is an amazing record SENT to humanity.

 

[Ermz]

Yes, compression really makes the finger noises of an acoustic stand out. They're present on all of Opeth's albums, yet not quite as audible as the later ones.

By the way, the first two albums are the only 'raw' ones. But speaking comparatively in the metal realm, they don't even touch some other bands who sound like they took a laptop with a computer mic into the woods and recorded their albums there.