The recipe for great sounding metal

[Laexit]

I'm curious about metal as a genre. Compared to almost any other genre, it seems very standardized in terms of sound. There appears to be an approved prototype as far as the mix and the overall sound, which is widely followed and used. This is only in comparison to pop music where any sound or mix balance can be justified as artistic choice, even when it's not. But bad mix or bad production in metal is harder to accept. The power of the music relates heavily to the desired and skillfully shaped sound, not just great melodies or harmonies. Obiviously the musicians are the source of this sound but generally speaking great musicians need great production to succeed. At least in my opinion.
So I started to look into this a bit deeper and decided that I need to produce a song that would meet this criteria, in order to understand what it takes. But with limited resources I ended up with another question: can you produce credible and acceptable metal with just tools available in a modest home studio? With pop music, it's not a problem if you are a capable and skillful producer, but metal requires a different approach. How to create that energy that a good metal band produces? How to achieve the sound that many bands have been developing for years? Can I get even close to that?
Well, I tried my best. I produced a basic, traditional metal track with all the incredients I could think of. I had some help from vocalists but I shaped and played the song from start to finish. The video is made by some media students.


So my questions are: is it credible? Does it lack something in your opinion? Is there something obvious that you would have made differently? And would you call it a good sounding metal track in general?

I will continue to discover the secrets of metal and I hope you can help me with that. I hope this gives food for thought to others, too.
Cheers!

 

[Krow]

Go listen to the new Eternal Champion to see what you did incorrectly.

 

[Serjeant Grumbles]

Great metal requires a secret blend of eleven herbs and spices.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Even when sticking strictly to traditional heavy metal, there is actually a great deal of variety. Metal fans also seem willing to accept varying levels of production quality more than fans of most other styles of music.

 

[Baroque]

I'm curious about metal as a genre. Compared to almost any other genre, it seems very standardized in terms of sound.

 

[Baroque]

Yeah stoner metal and thrash metal really have a lot in common. extreme progressive metal and trad doom metal, also very similar. I often listen to metal and think, I wonder if that is Nightwish or Cannibal Corpse, I just can't tell. Atmospheric black metal and technical death metal are practically the same thing right guys. It's all just standardized.

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

Even music in the same subgenre of metal can sound very different. For example, Black Sabbath's Paranoid and Iron Maiden's Powerslave are extremely different.

 

[arg]

That sucked dick. I think he's trolling

 

[EchoForever]

i thought that was a flute in the beginning but it was just a woman singing
im disappoint

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

That sucked dick. I think he's trolling

Music so bad that even you dislike it. What a time to be alive.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Didn't think the song was too bad aside from the cheesy intro/outro and bad vocal performance. But if this is your idea of a "traditional" metal song maybe you should actually listen to metal music before you attempt at making metal music.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

I didn't think it was bad after the intro, but if that sounds like traditional metal to you, you must have been raised on Pain of Salvation and other prog metal of the mid/late 90s. If that's what you like, make that, don't worry about being seen as legitimate. Half the people on this forum think black metal is acceptable, so you're still better than them.

 

[Laexit]

Maybe the 'traditional' gave a wrong message. I meant it terms of typical or mainstream. Something that can be easily labeled as metal. I used fairly oldfashioned galloping bass line and chord progressions, but the guitars had a more modern bite. So it was a mix of things but I tried to achieve a modern sounding metal as a whole. I'm not completely sure what it means nowadays to be honest
By 'standardized' I meant the wall of guitars with tightly compressed drums and the vocalist trying to manage in the middle. This applies to most metal. Of course, the genre itself provides great diversity and music for many tastes. But in general, the prototype is there. It's hard to make metal with 808 style synth drums and two mandolins. You get the point.
Anyway, thanks for the input! It's all good! I will learn my lesson one of these days...

 

[arg]

You need more speed and ass kickery

 

[Elric of Melniboné]

@Laexit

What were the bands that inspired the composition that you posted here? Maybe this would make more sense to me if I knew that information.

 

[Laexit]

Good question. I grew up with the 80's classics: maiden, priest, sabbath, queensryche etc. Then skipped most of 90's and 00's metal. Now I like bands such as Tesseract, Alter Bridge, Katatonia and Sabaton. But what exactly inspired me with this song? I don't really know. It must be a mixture of my preferences I guess. And my image of a good metal tune.

 

[Laexit]

I was (and still am) puzzled with the concept. So I decided to make another one, learning from all the comments and critiques the first one produced. This time I added more challenge: more content, longer duration and more drive. I find it very difficult to keep it together when a song reaches +5 min duration. Especially a home made production with limited possibilities. But so far the few comments I received have been encouraging. So is it an improvement? And what are the problems this time? Am I beating a dead horse? Stone me if this insults your delicate taste buds but I hope some of the stones carry a message that I can learn from

 

[CiG]

My first thought is that it sounds like you're pretending to have passion.

 

[Master_Yoda77]

Do 6 lines of coke off of a hooker's ass and then record some shit and you have the secret recipe for great sounding metal.

 

[EternalMetal]

First off, I feel like your inspiration is disingenuous and seems opportunistic, so in other words you are trying to be a sellout right off the bat. Poor move in metal (or music in general), most people will realize that your music lacks genuine passion and authenticity. Secondly, the musicianship in all aspects is rather boring and lazy; it sounds like a one man band where the focus is entirely on composition, while the actual music is secondary. No riffs, weak leads, generic "passion" solo, robotic drumming with uninspired rhythm, etc. It sounds like a boring version of later-era Dream Theater without the musicianship or attention to detail. This is poser garbage that would only appeal to the lowest common denominator of prog-metal fans. You are out of your element trying to conform to standards that dont exist/belong in metal.

On the bright side, you clearly have the ability to write progressive compositions, and the production values are quite good for an amateur musician. Maybe if you had a more genuine understanding of the metal genre you wouldnt be so confused. Hint, the metal mainstream is not where you should focus for inspiration.