my bands new ep is out, feedback would seriously be appreciated

[Enemy242]

yeah i know i do this a lot but i'd really appreciate it if you guys could give me some feedback this time. its basically a new band this time around since our singer was replaced by me and i did all guitar and vocals on this cd (except 3 guest solos which we had a guy in the local band Fog Of War do) and we did it in 4 days at a really professional studio. I think it sounds good but if we had more time to record and mix and master it could be a lot better (i was also sick during vocals which did not help at all) but it would be cool if you could tell me what you think. the first 3 tracks are up on our myspace (i promise this will be the last time for a long time i pimp any of my band stuff haha)
www.myspace.com/invectionmetal

 

[Brooks]

Fun Fact: if you make that link clickable, eight times as many people will follow it.

 

[azal]

the guitar tone is kinda aids.

are you using some kind of a boss processor or something? For this kind of straight up thrash you should just be plugging into a marshall and wailing. don't over think it.

I might have liked this more if it wasn't interupting my listening to Anthrax - Among the Living.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Ok, first listen:

Guitars are too fizzy for my taste and the drums could use waaay more attack and bottom (snare and toms), they just don't cut at certain points.

Did you track DI-tracks from the guitars and do you have the separated tracks for each instrument (I hope you insisted on that)? If so, you could get someone to remix this if you're not happy about it. There are many up-and-coming engineers (the Andy Sneap board bursts with talent) out there who would gladly take a shot at it for free for practising. You could post the raw tracks for one song and then pick the guy whose version you liked best and get him to remix the whole bunch...

Just an idea...

Edit: My personal reference for a kickass yet not sterile modern thrash mix is Municipal Waste's "The Art Of Partying".

And good choice to remove the singer, your voice isn't that spectacular or sticking in one's had but it's far from being as annoying as your old singer was. So good job on that one...

 

[Enemy242]

the guitar tone is kinda aids.

are you using some kind of a boss processor or something? For this kind of straight up thrash you should just be plugging into a marshall and wailing. don't over think it.

I might have liked this more if it wasn't interupting my listening to Anthrax - Among the Living.

i had to do both guitars so i had to make 2 different tones so i made them on a pod and then we ran it through a 5150 head in the mixing room and mic'd a cab in the live room. maybe that wasn't such a good idea (the cab was only mono too) but yeah the guitar tone is ok but we could've done way better if we didn't have to track all guitars and solos in 10 hours including setup. thanks for the feedback though, most people liked the tone more than i did so i feel more with you.

@slash
yeah the studio keeps the tracks, we just didn't have the time and amount of dvds it would take (like 5) to get all the rough tracks. maybe sometime soon we'll ask for the rough tracks since they keep them for years and then see about remixing, the drums sounded wayyy heavier before mixing, so heavy and attacking it was almost overbearing. thanks again for the feedback.

 

[Jeff-Loomis-fan]

i dig the guitar sound...ok maybe its not the professional sound most bands go for, i like it

 

[Swabs]

Guitars are too fizzy

 

[WhiteBeastofWotan]

Its certainly competent Thrash metal. I prefer my thrash to be either slightly blackened or melodic, so the style is not entirely my cup of tea. But I'd go to a show and headbang to it, for sure.

 

[Dead Winter]

I second what Max said.

 

[azal]

I also agree with brooks' point about clickable links.

 

[Shpongled]

the guitar tone is kinda aids.

are you using some kind of a boss processor or something? For this kind of straight up thrash you should just be plugging into a marshall and wailing. don't over think it.

I might have liked this more if it wasn't interupting my listening to Anthrax - Among the Living.

edit: nevermind, you agree with him.

 

[DreamNeonBlack]

Very old school Thrash, if you told me this came out in 88 I'd believe it. Especially the vocals. Reminds me of my high school daze!

Not bad overall, I agree the mix could use a bit of tweaking but I've also heard ALOT worse.

 

[Enemy242]

thanks a lot for the feedback guys, i really appreciate it! i'm surprised a lot of people say it sounds oldschool, i don't really hear any oldschool vibe nor do we try to be oldschool but thats never a bad thing i guess haha!

 

[azal]

also like chris said, there are so many young dudes into this stuff these days that you really didn't have to spend so much money on a professional studio, you could have linked up with a recording nerd from the sneap forum, recorded the shit in his basement or living room and had him make the demo sound a lot more refined. Big studios won't put in the time and effort to get everything to sound how you want it to, from my demoing experience.

If you had DIs of the guitars without effects, I know about 5 people that could make it sound amazing in an hour on the most basic home recording software.

 

[Dead_Lioness]

Very old school Thrash, if you told me this came out in 88 I'd believe it. Especially the vocals. Reminds me of my high school daze!

Not bad overall, I agree the mix could use a bit of tweaking but I've also heard ALOT worse.

I agree,

thanks a lot for the feedback guys, i really appreciate it! i'm surprised a lot of people say it sounds oldschool, i don't really hear any oldschool vibe nor do we try to be oldschool but thats never a bad thing i guess haha!

..and also: Enemy, (what is your real name anyways? ) If you say you didn't hear 'old school' in it, what was your 'musical goal' with this?
Just curious!

 

[Mephistophiliac]

Everything's already been said: oldschool goodness, lacking guitar tone, decent vocals. The only thing I'd say is get a flash drive or two and grab the files from the studio.

Also, I don't really much of a problem with the drums as someone said. Modern drum production would push it away from the old school feel.

 

[slashvanyoung]

Also, I don't really much of a problem with the drums as someone said. Modern drum production would push it away from the old school feel.

I'm definitely not talking sterile, completely sample-replaced and dead-on-beat quantized drums (sounds like it wasn't recorded to a click anyway), just a bit smart eq'ing and a bit of tasteful sample-enhancement to augment kick and snare (which wouldn't be necessary if mic'ed right in the first place and given that the drummer is a heavy hitter - hard to tell from this mix, but he plays some cool things).

Not trying to talk this down, I like this hardcore-influenced thrash a lot and it's definitely listenable but I think this is sold under value...

As I said before, Zeuss showed IMO with the last Municipal Waste record that you can make an organic record with oldschool vibe that still has the clarity and punch of modern productions.

Guys like him and Jens Bogren (latest Katatonia, Opeth, Amon Amarth) are IMO the best thing that happened to the production side of metal lately.

 

[Shpongled]

One thing I've learned in all my years in bands is that it's pretty much ALWAYS a waste to spend big money on a high profile studio/producer/artist unless someone else (ie not anyone in the band, preferably a record label) is paying for it. One of my last bands dumped over $20,000 on an album and we broke up about 2 weeks after it was "released". Very regretful choice, spending that money.

It might seem like a good idea to spend the big money and take a chance... but 99% of the time it's not. I even remember thinking "If the album flops and we break up, at least I'll have the experience." And that is true... but god fucking damn, what a waste of money that was. I wouldn't make that decision again when you can do things yourself nowadays for so cheap (we all even considered that but were promptly talked out of it by a particular band member in order to spend the big cash). Even in bands before that, we'd dropped decent money on studio recordings that ended up not being worth it. It's too easy and efficient to do things yourself now.

As far as the music, I'm sorry but I was done with thrash halfway through the 90's. Just not my bag anymore, but you guys sound like you're having fun so rock the fuck on!

 

[slashvanyoung]

I agree with you Kevin, there are ways to get a good or great sounding record for dirt cheap nowadays, but if you're investing in a high-profile studio and personnel, you're not only investing in sound but also in name-dropping. But that only makes sense if it's guys like Sneap, Richardson, Zeuss, Nordstrom etc.

But you won't get to work with these guys anyway until you've reached a certain status.

 

[neal]

the new vocals are 1000% better than the old guy