Man I miss the late 90s

[Ermz]

So I'm sitting here in the dark listening, for the first time in however long, to my old teen favourite band, Stabbing Westward, and wondering what the hell happened. Nearly all of my favourite records were recorded around that time period. Darkest Days and Fallout go hand in hand as my two most nostalgia-evoking experiences, bar none, and music these days just does not have that same profound emotional effect on me anymore.

Just listening to the songs themselves I can STILL appreciate the PRODUCTION and MUSIC because it actually sounds like the bands. I'm not being bombarded with gridding, autotuned cockslapping, and 20 layers of snare samples.

Opeth - Still Life
Stabbing Westward - Darkest Days
Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve/Chaosphere
Fredrik Thordendal - Sol Niger Within
In Flames - Whoracle/TJR

I mean do I even need to continue? There were some great records in early 00 too, but it seems in the late 90s we really peaked in terms of finding the right balance between just writing good music and presenting it well on record. It was at that point where the Gothenburg sound was getting refined and In Flames were on the crux of taking it in that poppier direction. Meshuggah had just started truly finding their sound and essentially single-handedly creating the djent movement. Let's not mention that Opeth at this point created their magnum opus, which is still one of my favourite metal albums of all time. Finally, Fredrik went off to write one of the most batshit, amazing albums I've ever heard in my life, & Stabbing Westward were writing awesome emo-anthems that narcissistic teens were jerking it to.

Just to give you an idea as to how things have changed over 10 years, here is an ol 90s pic of Stabbing Westward:

and here is Chris Hall (the lead singer's) 'new' band:

What the FUCK happened? Even emo was less gay in the 90s... shit. Even at my very worst as a teen I wasn't even scratching the surface with the shit that's currently going around.

...sigh. I can't wait for the old-man rants to start when I hit 40 or 50 and music inevitably continues on this downward slope.

 

[Jevil]

I miss the late 80's and early 90's, when I was a teen.
Helloween, Gamma Ray, Rage, Grave Digger, Running Wild, Scanner, Sabbat, well.. most of Noise Records.
And of course the classics like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, the good high school days.

 

[Charles J]

I loved that Stabbing Westward album as well, and still do.

Dude, those 2 pictures really solidified how fucking laughably horrid things have become.

It's like the over-pompous and cheesy days of the 80's. Now, almost all ask themselves 'wtf was I thinking???' when looking back at pictures, etc.

I have a feeling we are in a 'wtf was I thinking' period right now. The music, the look and especially a majority of the productions are NOT GOING TO AGE WELL.

Generally speaking, of course. =D

 

[Erkan]

Wow that last picture is just... wow... it just reeks of homosexuality.

 

[SocialNumb]

^

 

[GarethSE]

i should probably be worried of the fact that i can get into tighter jeans then any of those guys

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Damn. Darkest Days is an excellent album, and I love the chorus on Torn Apart. That pic is absolutely facepalm material.

 

[Line666]

i should probably be worried of the fact that i can get into tighter jeans then any of those guys

I'm pretty confident I could as well.

 

[_Brutalism_]

In the second pic, how old are those guys anyway?

If they're past their mid-20s AT MOST = uke:

Well even if they're still young, that's just beyond words.

 

[Pot]

I miss the late 80's and early 90's, when I was a teen.
Helloween, Gamma Ray, Rage, Grave Digger, Running Wild, Scanner, Sabbat, well.. most of Noise Records.
And of course the classics like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, the good high school days.

i´m with jevo

 

[Zombietakeover]

Yeah wow they look soooo gay.....

i agree the 90s was much better.....i liked when bands looked like this

 

[Metal Overload]

Yeah wow they look soooo gay.....

i agree the 90s was much better.....i liked when bands looked like this

You mean, when bands give a fuck about their look, and they didn´t worried about their hair and their clothes and make up, yeah.

 

[motomoto]

I miss the late 80's and early 90's, when I was a teen.
Helloween, Gamma Ray, Rage, Grave Digger, Running Wild, Scanner, Sabbat, well.. most of Noise Records.
And of course the classics like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, the good high school days.

+109.457.193

 

[Harry Hughes]

Yeah, I miss the 90s too and yeah most of what counts as emo today I found absolutely disgusting and I will not be seen dead wearing makeup and ultra tight jeans. Some of my favorite albums are definitely 90s albums.
But do I look to the future too? Fuck yeah.
The 00s brought me some of my favorite albums too, and one of my favorite genres of music nowadays, basically didn't exist in the 90s.
In terms of "just writing good music and presenting it well on record" I think it's something the post metal movement has done well. I don't really hear any autotune in much of it and in general it has a very organic nature to it and you can practically feel the effort the band put into it just bursting out of the speakers.
Sure you'll sometimes find more flaws in the performances compared to some of the technical death metal stuff where everything is punched in practically riff by riff, heaps of sample replacement etc, but it's because these bands are so obsessive about microscopic details and just want to get the overall picture out there which is having a damn good composition that totally floors you emotionally.
In a way it's kinda like the old Black Sabbath records approach. Plenty of flaws to be heard but what you heard is exactly what you got really.
A lot of modern thrash, death, black metal etc, just doesn't interest me anymore so I tend to look to the more experimental, the more textural stuff now

 

[plague_rider]

and here is Chris Hall (the lead singer's) 'new' band:

thats a damn shame...

Yeah wow they look soooo gay.....

i agree the 90s was much better.....i liked when bands looked like this

thats the truth and a half, thats why i appreciate bands like lamb of god/devildriver who don't put on an all-singing-all-dancing stage show with pyros and shit, they aren't combing their hair to one side during the set, no gimicks, just balls out metal

 

[Fifth_Horseman]

Great observation Ermin, a viewpoint that I totally share. Kinda noticed that in the past too...
So I was sick in bed the last few days and just as always when I'm in that condition, used the time to listen to old albums (usually I don't find the time for that).

Now, I was thinking about that topic, and I was quite astonished as it occured to me that actually of ALL my favourite bands (= all of which I own basically their whole discography), the albums that stick out are the ones from 1998 and 1999.

So a big +1 to me for Opeth - Still Life (1999), but now I can also add:
Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black (1999)
Testament - The Gathering (1999)
Dan Swanö - Moontower (1998)
Cannibal Corpse - Gallery of Suicide (1998) ... well that one's actually a tie with Bloodthirst.

Now as for the production, listening to Dreaming Neon Black today I just could not imagine that album with an Andy Sneap production. It wouldn't fit.
Andy's mixes are great for what they are, all instruments clear, punchy and in your face, balls to the wall metal. That's why IMO his mixes work exceptionally well for thrash bands. Testament, Exodus, Megadeth (the new one, holy shit!) never sounded better than with Andy behind the console. Yet Deliverance is one of my least favourite Opeth productions. Not because it's a bad mix - technically it is really good, and Andy did a great salvage job on that recording nightmare. Just doesn't live up to the atmosphere of the other Opeth albums for me.

The newer Nevermore albums work really well with Andy's productions too, they are pretty straight and in your face.
But Dreaming Neon Black is different; like the music and Warrel's vocals, the production portraits desperation and tension and it is actually quite dynamic, like the soaring ending to the title track or the acoustic/solo middle part of "Deconstruction". It has a special, dense atmosphere with many layers of sounds, and though you can make out the details if you listen for them, they don't jump in your face. Just today (I must have listened to the album many dozen times, no idea) for the first time I really noticed Warrel singing a background melody during the solo of "Deconstruction". Typical holy fuck moment. Yes, I almost did shit a brick.

It's like standing in front of a misty forest, you can only see a few lines of trees, but the whole forest is still there and you know it. It's a special, mysterious atmosphere, inviting you to explore as you are walking into the forest (or listen to the album!)
Did I mention I like misty forests?
Well, a typical Andy Sneap mix would scream "FOREST!"... what you hear is what you get and it wouldn't be quite as mysterious, but still marvelous to look at!

Now, I also noticed that whenever I have the time to listen to old albums, it's pretty much those same old albums, the ones mentioned above plus a few others. I already have a special stack of them on my DVD player, while the rest of my collection is collecting dust on the shelf. Those other albums were nice when I bought them, but they didn't age as well. I'm sure I'll never get tired of listening to Still Life or Dreaming Neon Black.


Ok, that's what happens if I'm stuck at home for days not being able to do anything. LOOONG rants!

 

[Ermz]

. That above post is where I find myself constantly at odds with being an engineer/producer looking for the best 'technical' production, and also a music lover who cannot get past the fact that the most precious albums, the ones with most character are the ones with glaring production flaws. At what point do you cross the line and start to HURT the music with over-production? I think that's as much a battle as learning the skills to create a 'technically perfect' production.

One of the bigger drawbacks is likely that we've almost abolished the use of tape entirely. There must have been something added by the medium that created a natural vibe around the performances. Perhaps as technology gets better and our saturation plug-ins get 'on the level' we can start recapturing some of that? I don't know, it's a long shot but...

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that a few of you guys are Stabbing Westward fans. I thought it was just a teen angst thing for me, but I truly do still love that music... It really is atrocious what happened with Chris' new band. At the very least they covered a few SW songs in their live sets for the last few years. I think the 'glory' days for that alternative, brooding industrial music are well over.

It's all food for thought. In my never-ending search to get better at this gig, I need to balance this out and work out where to draw that line, and how to do so while continuing to get work, and letting the music shine on its own merits. This is why I'm so reluctant to delve into the world of gridding vocals syllable by syllabe, autotuning bass etc. Does it actually HELP the record, or just help to DATE it?

 

[slashvanyoung]

The days before mass, broadband internet definitely had some magic I'm missing nowadays. Now everything is so demystified and also so devaluated...

It gives and takes...

 

[Felix Neumann]

The days before mass, broadband internet definitely had some magic I'm missing nowadays. Now everything is so demystified and also so devaluated...

It gives and takes...

+10000000000000000

Unfortunately

Gimme a time machine back to the early 90´s as I´ve had listen to "Sad But True" or "The unforgiven" the first time as a 10 years old kid.

Same with "Seasons in the abbyss" or "Rust in Peace".

I never had a feeling in the last ten years what I could compare with it.

 

[zakky]

I miss the late 80's and early 90's, when I was a teen.
Helloween, Gamma Ray, Rage, Grave Digger, Running Wild, Scanner, Sabbat, well.. most of Noise Records.
And of course the classics like Iron Maiden, Metallica, Anthrax, the good high school days.

+11111111111111111111111111