The problem with the new Mastodon...

[ZEEGLER]

There is some great material on this CD, and I've been listening to it quite a bit, but there is something about it that doesn't sit well, and I just figured out what it is. The bass frequencies, especially the kick drum, are too "thumpy" and overpower everything else. When I went back and forth between The Hunter, OMRTS, and the new one, it's a very noticeable difference. The usually sparkly vocals and guitar are buried behind the massive thump of the kick drum and it's fatiguing to the ears. I'm not sure if they had a different guy mixing this time, but in my opinion he screwed it up.

[ajaxlepinski]

It's amazing how some pro recordings have amateur issues.
A lot of albums have hi hat bleed all over the snare - a simple piece of cardboard shielding, over the snare mic, solves the problem.
An overwhelming kick is just lame but, I have to admit, I made some recordings with a loud kick. I think it was an issue with the monitors - my monitors only went down to 40kHZ and there may have been some louder tones, in the 20k to 40k range, that I couldn't hear, that came through during playback on other gear.

[CptCyanide]

Their new single really bothers me (show yourself). The snare is completely crushed and pumps so much. It sounds like they overcompressed it and all you hear is bottom mic without any attacks. Maybe that's what they were going for but it kills me

[JerEvil]

Their new single really bothers me (show yourself). The snare is completely crushed and pumps so much. It sounds like they overcompressed it and all you hear is bottom mic without any attacks. Maybe that's what they were going for but it kills me

#rickruben'd

[ajaxlepinski]

Just listend/watched some YouTube vids of Emperor of Sand...
When you have a guitar based band, you shouldn't make the vocals and drums the loudest part of the mix... it's not a dance tune!

[Holy-diver]

The albums is awesome, fuck tha hatahs

[redeyes]

I really don't like the production on most new metal albums. Total amateur hour.

[Anomaly]

I really don't like the production on most new metal albums. Total amateur hour.

I agree. It's so much cheaper to record these days, but that also makes things sound rushed. I think the peak era for production was the 90's. That was when producers were really getting the most out their musicians and engineers. As far as metal is concerned, they weren't afraid to scoop the mids too, which I think is still a really cool thing if done right. Not everything needs to have cranked mids, to the point of making it sound incredibly fatiguing. So many new albums are so fatiguing sounding, and lack punchiness.

[Chris Z]

Saw the live video for Show Yourself from Kimmel, good song.