Seeking advice on amateur Black/Death/Thrash mix

[shaunpug]

Hi all! My name is Shaun and I'm grateful to have access to a forum like this. Thanks for all of the advice you've given to others that I've already read through, and I'm excited to learn more!
I've always been interested in mixing (for metal especially and specifically), and have recently allowed myself the opportunity to try it out. This is a project my buddy and I are working on...I am 100% an amateur mixer.

As far as how I approached the mix, I started by watching through many long tutorials on YouTube from guys who seemed more reputable than others, would try a mix, scrap it and start over. This mix is essentially the 4th time from scratch (even though it's labeled 3.5 haha). This is certainly the best it's sounded, but as a perfectionist, I know it could use more.

As far as reference mixes go, I would absolutely have loved to get it to sound similar to "Viktoria" by Marduk, but I'm not sure I'm quite capable enough to nail a mix that sounds so raw but is clearly well produced.

Anyhow, I was hoping to get some overall feedback and areas of improvement. I know mixes are subjective, but I'm sure I've made some mistakes somewhere!


Tools:
Studio One 4
FabFilters
Rbass
Fortin Nameless

 

[henryjarv]

I would try to cut from about 430Hz a little bit, and maybe boost high frequencies between 4-5k. Tried in Reaper and sounds better to me. But maybe it's better to do that cut to only guitars. Try to boost that area at 0:44, and you should hear how annoying that frequency area is.

But the song is good, something different. Weird mix of thrash/black/death/punk/whatever, and still it works really well. I wouldn't try to compare it too much to any other band, it's good as it is.

...So, I wouldn't change too much in the mix, quite good already.
Of course all those djent/core mixers are going to keep repeating that "Boost the mids! No gain!". It doesn't work for everything.

HJ

 

[shaunpug]

Djent this ain't haha.

I appreciate the feedback! I felt like something needed to be done with the guitars but I wasn't sure what. I'll try out what you suggested today!
Fortin can get pretty harsh so I think I may have went overboard with EQ to begin with.

I also have amp recordings of all of the guitars but stuck with the DI thinking I'd have a bit more control over the sound...but it might be worth trying that out as well and comparing