Please Rip my Thrash Demo appart!

aheadofmetal

Member
Apr 23, 2009
56
0
6
Hey Everyone First post here. I'm trying to get a solid demo to send out this summer and I need some feedback from people who know what they are talking about. I did this all in my beedroom but I I think it sounds pretty good just needs some better eqing or aural exciting....

any suggestions are more than welcome!

www.myspace.com/devilsadvocatethrash

If you want a better quality file I can post it to rapid share...
 
It would be nice to hear a higher quality version, but it sounds pretty good. Guitars are a little honky for my taste, and I would prefer a smoother sound, but that's just my opinion. They definitely have a thrashy vibe. The drums sound a little too mechanical at times. Other than those 2 thing it sounds good. I love the vocals.



P.S. This should have went into the Rate My Mix section.
 
P.S. This should have went into the Rate My Mix section.

Should be, can someone move it?

anyways not bad at all, although I like my thrash bass guitar a lot more bright, more dirty sounding (I dont mean distorsion), not kreator/slayer type bass (as in virtually no bass guitar), still good though, bass can be heard. Guitars are pretty damn good, very old-fashioned, lead guitars remind me of Kill' em All, drums as said before are a bit too mechanic (Im guessing programmed) at times but not bad either. Pretty decent for a demo. vocals are raw as fuck, cool stuff, a bit way too cliche for my likings, but good anyway

btw honky guitars wtf, they're a total win in my book!
 
First of all, I really hate the name "Gas Chamber" as a band name (I am from Germany). I don't know your reasons for choosing this name, so let it be for a moment.

Comments:
  • Very solid oldskool (think of Kill'em all) Thrash Metal tunes, I like that (except for the high pitched screams, but that's just my taste).
  • I like the guitar playing (very tight) and sound.
  • Where's the bass?
  • Vocal phrasing and voice reminds me of early Slayer / Testament. Here comes the part that is somehow hard to explain for me (I am no singer and just repeat a critique that my wife once had about my own singing): The vocals sound as if they did not come from your chest and diaphragm but only from your throat. That again sounds as if they were more spoken then sung/shouted/screamed. This applies to many other metal singers as well (e.g. Kreator).
  • Yes, the drums sound programmed, but although we speak of oldskool thrash metal here, almost every newer metal drum recording sounds programmed (by intention, I guess...).
To summarize: Solid performance, but not very much new or unique elements that we did not already know from the 80's. This might be on purpose or not.
 
+1 on kill em all, cool songs man, its sounds pretty good to me, I really like the guitar tone, the drums do sound pretty programmed though.
 
Tell you what, I love your vocal guitar style.

Lyrics are trying a little bit too hard to be THRASH so it comes off as forced. You don't have to name drop "posers" etc etc and do the power metal scream old school etc. Just tell us you are a thrash band and forge your own style.
 
Thanks for the reviews everyone. I have to say I agree with almost everything everyone says.

1) The name Gas Chamber is going to be changed but I dont know to what. Any Ideas?

2) Im going to redo the bass tracks this summer with an actual bass amp (hopefully an ampeg). I only have an old SVT 5 inch speaker practice amp which is what I used into a bass with 6 year old strings...yea i know...

3) The drums are totally programmed. I don't know how to get them sounding any more life-like though. Any suggestions?

4) guitars were just a marshall dsl no modifications into one sm58. I used a condenser as well but ended up taking it off because it sounded bad.

as far as lyrics go I agree its super cheesy but i kind of like that :lol:

I have almost 10 songs written do you think this is a decent sounding tone for a demo to send out???
 
1-No ideas
2-You should try recording a bass DI and have someone reamp it for you. Blend the DI and amped tracks.....and definitely change those strings ;)
3-What DAW are you using? There may be a "humanizer" plugin. That and working with velocities is a good start to improving them
4-I would ditch the sm58 for recording guitars and use a sm57. will help your tone. but then again, listening to something on myspace sucks so who knows. in my humble opinion, the guitar tone is way too "scratchy."

overall it is not bad at all, but it is lacking in the lowend (better bass recording would help) and fixing up the drums and guitar tone I think would help a lot
 
Its funny I only cut the guitars below about 100 Hz but maybe in this case I will them go the whole way down... it definately sounds a lot less crusty and scrapey when its not in the myspace player...

Yea I agree the bass needs completely redone I will definately mess around with some DI. I do like that punky kinda bass tone for thrash.

I used fruity loops and I think there is a humanizing preset, Ill have to check when i get home.

Another dumb question while I'm at it, does anyone know a way to find musicians that don't suck or only like metalcore? I CANT FIND ANY!:mad:
 
Nice riffs man!! pretty rocking !! Kick is overpowering, there's too much low end in it, covering everything else! I too agree bass could have more top end. Drums obviously sound really programmed. And about guitars being honky, they're just a bit, but it's part of teh old school haha ^^
 
Some good riffs and wicked solos in there man! Yeah, the guitars sound a little scratchy (remind me of Kill em All meets exodus) but it depends how old school you like your thrash, and it's still quite a cool tone and suits the music.

Classic cheese-thrash lyrics but again that's all good for this sort of semi-fun thrash.

I'd say the kick is a little prominent likeSptz has said above...
 
4) guitars were just a marshall dsl no modifications into one sm58. I used a condenser as well but ended up taking it off because it sounded bad.

I really like the guitarsound on your songs on myspace!! It's the oldskool Anthrax/Heathen sound. :yow:

Would you share more info on how you recorded the guitars? Pickups, type DSL, tubescreamer, cab, how loud is the amp, eq/plugins???????


Cheers!
 
I really like the guitarsound on your songs on myspace!! It's the oldskool Anthrax/Heathen sound. :yow:

Would you share more info on how you recorded the guitars? Pickups, type DSL, tubescreamer, cab, how loud is the amp, eq/plugins???????


Cheers!

The guitar was an ibanez RG 470 with stock pickups or maybe a Bill lawrence XL (dont remember if i replaced the pickups when I recorded this) into a boss overdrive (I like to hit the front of marshalls pretty hard because they dont get much natural gain like peavey's or mesas) The amp was a marshall DSL 100 watt no mods into a mesa 2x12 cab with one SM 57 a blanket over that. The amp was turned to maybe 1 or so? haha I personally think turning amps way up to record is notthe best way to go...

I originally miced the cab with a condenser as well (dont remember what kind) But i ended up not using that because it sounded like garbage.

Then right into a lexicon(?) USB preamp which uses cubase. I cut the eq from at about 12000hz and 100hz. One track on each side and thats it! Glad you like it :lol:

I used a multiband eq and limiter on the master bus for a quick semi-master job. Last night I ditched the multiband and finally used a spectrum analyzer. It sounds much better now. :headbang:
 
I really like the guitarsound on your songs on myspace!! It's the oldskool Anthrax/Heathen sound. :yow:

Would you share more info on how you recorded the guitars? Pickups, type DSL, tubescreamer, cab, how loud is the amp, eq/plugins???????


Cheers!

The guitar was an ibanez RG 470 with stock pickups or maybe a Bill lawrence XL (dont remember if i replaced the pickups when I recorded this) into a boss overdrive (I like to hit the front of marshalls pretty hard because they dont get much natural gain like peavey's or mesas) The amp was a marshall DSL 100 watt no mods into a mesa 2x12 cab with one SM 57 a blanket over that. The amp was turned to maybe 1 or so? haha I personally think turning amps way up to record is notthe best way to go...

I originally miced the cab with a condenser as well (dont remember what kind) But i ended up not using that because it sounded like garbage.

Then right into a lexicon(?) USB preamp which uses cubase. I cut the eq from at about 12000hz and 100hz. One track on each side and thats it! Glad you like it :lol:

I used a multiband eq and limiter on the master bus for a quick semi-master job. Last night I ditched the multiband and finally used a spectrum analyzer. It sounds much better now. :headbang:

Any tips for mastering would be greatly appriciated as well...
 
One more thing. If i posted the raw files i.e guitar left guitar right vocals etc. Would anyone be interested in mixing this guy or maybe the comatose song? I'm very interested to see if you guys could really make a diffrence in it!

:)
 
The guitar was an ibanez RG 470 with stock pickups or maybe a Bill lawrence XL (dont remember if i replaced the pickups when I recorded this) into a boss overdrive (I like to hit the front of marshalls pretty hard because they dont get much natural gain like peavey's or mesas) The amp was a marshall DSL 100 watt no mods into a mesa 2x12 cab with one SM 57 a blanket over that. The amp was turned to maybe 1 or so? haha I personally think turning amps way up to record is notthe best way to go...

I originally miced the cab with a condenser as well (dont remember what kind) But i ended up not using that because it sounded like garbage.

Then right into a lexicon(?) USB preamp which uses cubase. I cut the eq from at about 12000hz and 100hz. One track on each side and thats it! Glad you like it :lol:

I used a multiband eq and limiter on the master bus for a quick semi-master job. Last night I ditched the multiband and finally used a spectrum analyzer. It sounds much better now. :headbang:

Any tips for mastering would be greatly appriciated as well...


THANX for the info!:kickass: