songwriting and performance is great.

mix is way too low overall. and then on top of that the guitars are too low in the mix for my tastes you can barely hear them. also it sounds like it's only a single guitar track? if you did 2 separate guitar tracks it would sound fuller.

bass I can't hear it at all and the drums sound way too drum machine like which well I know they are programmed but still sounds too obvious of that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S6qfbvhzNI -> Graverobber, my old school death metal band

You can find us on bandcamp too
http://graverobber.bandcamp.com/album/conscious-autopsy

Goooood shit dude, I like everything about it, except maybe the vocals could be less boomy, especially the lows. But even then they're not exactly bad, it's more of my preference for certain things rather than anything objectively poor. Certain bits could use a tiny bit of tightening up, that's all since I'm struggling to find anything to criticise. I listened to the entire EP actually. Solid work.

Thanks! Sadly the vocalist you hear on the recordings has quit, so now it's me doing it and it sounds totally different. There are actually more songs recorded but those aren't online yet (they will be once the tape is offically out)

Do it. Lots of bands try too hard to be as dissonant and chaotic as possible when trying to write OSDM and while there's a niche for that, I find it refreshing when bands opt for just groovy catchy riffing. That's what Grave, Bolt Thrower and Entombed were all about anyway.

https://soundcloud.com/alasunder

I already posted in the 'what have you been up to' thread. I have been having a hard time getting feedback of any kind, even from friends. I think I understand why, nothing I've done is fully realized, it's mostly sketches and improvisations. Still I would really appreciate anyone's impressions on any of the posted tracks
I think 'Anakariim' and 'Aflona' are closest to what I'm trying to achieve.

Well you are lucky I am here and I'm willing to take a listen.


I'm going to listen to the two you are talking about.

Way too much reverb on everything. I honestly can't tell you are playing a guitar for most of the song. You sound like you are in a goddamn windtunnel. I can only hear the kick in the slower part on aflora which is the best section that and the chugging though the kick disappears again. Vocals sound alright like I said everything is drenched it way too much echo and reverb.

Listening to Anakarriim.. again can't make out a ton but it's better than the last track. I can't really say much on riffs cause it's kinda like a wash

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmRpVUa3HgU
Cover of Insomnium's "Weighed Down with Sorrow".

The vocal technique I used isn't really the traditional death growl I'm used to, but it was the best technique I could do to enhance the somber atmosphere. Also, I tried to put the vocals further back in the mix like this band is known for. The only thing I didn't do was the string intro, because I never really thought it fit with the rest of the song.

I don't know if cover songs are frowned upon in this topic, but I'm mainly wanting everyone to focus on the mixing and mastering instead of the songwriting, so I figured I'd post a cover song. Also, I didn't see anything advising against covers, so here is one.

Have at it, guys.

Covers are okay as long as you kinda give a heads up about what you are looking for on what you want feedback for.

I'm unfamilar with the band so I'm not sure how close you came to sounding like them or what liberties you used in the song. but the mix is good, I didn't really notice the bass was programmed till the middle of the song. Vocals sound great. I say you did a good job with it, the guitars seem to lack a bit of clarity meaning there is a tad bit of white noise but I only noticed it more towards the middle of the song. but I think it should be something to be proud of. I think you did a good job cause the song I dug so maybe I'll go check out that band.

The guitars are recorded DI so that might be why it's a little less defined. The band itself doesn't vary much from the style of that particular song, but they are still really good. Anyway, I appreciate the kind words!

I've just finished a 6-track black metal demo that I've been working on for a while, and some opinions would be nice.
http://zamorak.bandcamp.com/
https://soundcloud.com/zamorakmetal
The recording quality isn't great or anything, but I invested a little bit of money in decent equipment so I hope it sounds alright.
Thanks in advance to anyone who gives some feedback.

Not much to say, Zamorak, your BM sounds really classic, like the one I grew up with in the 90's. I liked it, it's straightforward and free from the more modern elements that ruined this style over time.
No problem whatsoever about the sound and execution, if drums are genuine they are tight, if synthetic it doesn't show, so good job overall. I'll listen to your demo with a bit more focus later I guess.

I'll give it a listen when I get home this evening.

Thanks for the feedback SLK. Pretty consistent with previous reports. That it's an indistinguishable mess. I haven't felt any desire to record something new in a while but when I do I'll consider reducing the reverb and trying to get a better mix. I'm trying to create an atmosphere over clarity but guess the balance isn't right.
For what it's worth I remember quite liking your submission to Black October.


I listened to 'The Halls of Eternity' a few times. The productions was noticeably 'digital' sounding to me which I consider a negative, but the main riffs were good, and that's the most important thing. A nice balance of dissonance and harmony, which I think is important in creating moving Black Metal. The vocals I don't care for, I've never liked that croaking style, it carries no power to my ears. And the bass 'solo' was awful haha. But overall I hear the potential for something really good/

Yea I know the feeling I did that for the Ange De La Mort release and while a ton of people dig it, I personally feel it was too much reverb so I know the album there will be less, though a common love was the 'armageddon' toms, that was my submission for Black October.

Zamorak, the overall tracks are low so that cuts down on the digital sound and the programmed drums which I typically hate to death, they are alright here, meaning this is a good start or ep or whatever. It sounds exactly what you were going for so there is nothing wrong with that, just seems like it would sound more full with actual instruments on everything. It would just really bring it all to life then.

Thanks to everyone for checking it out, I appreciate it. The vocals were kind of improvised because I never really had any opportunity to practice up until the night I recorded them, and that was the first song I did. I actually think I was getting more of a hang of it as I recorded more, haha. I'm going to look into getting a session drummer until I get good enough to do them myself, but is there anything else I can do to get rid of the digital sound?

There is supposed to be some humanizer type filter or program to do on the drums but I have no idea I play drums and record drums. as far as the rest... nothing that I know of cause I never have to deal with those issues.

Hi guys I recorded a song today, I like to think it has some "progressive" elements, thoughts?

https://soundcloud.com/lrhtmetalhead/so ... ctraw-demo

Finally put together a track I'm kind of willing to share with people... All thoughts are welcome - moving forward to further "releases" I'd like to keep whatever's good in here and drop whatever's not obviously. Re: The obvious matter of the length- I find it almost impossible to work without some kind of self-imposed constraint, so I was challenging myself to squeeze the whole song into 66.6 seconds. Maybe it would have been better to pick a slightly longer duration but I can't decide.

https://soundcloud.com/ivoryblade/cosmolocube

ENJOY! (supposed to be death/thrash btw)

I'd definitely like to hear some feedback on my latest EP: https://unlifedeathmetal.bandcamp.com/a ... -of-unlife

Nice crunchy guitar tone and the playing is pretty good too. There are lots of recent doom bands *cough*CONAN*cough* who sound like they just play everything really slow in one take without bothering to pay attention to what it sounds like (i.e. whether a note is muffled at the wrong time or feedback/saturation becomes unpleasant to the ear, etc). I definitely don't get that impression here. You might want to consider a more "bassy" sound though, just because most of the guitars are just rhythm and a little more presence in the bass-guitar frequency range would be welcome.

The drum (programming?) is nice and interesting to hear. Unfortunately most of the drum samples are total shit but I gather that's not a very big deal with music like this. Except for the toms - the toms sound excellent for some reason.

Lyrics are completely incomprehensible but I assume that's what you were going for. The actual vocals are good, no newbie shaking-mic stuff to my ears at least.

Song-wise, tracks #3 and #4 are an obvious highlight but the trippy backward-ness of track #5 is an excellent outro. Personally I thought tracks #1 and #2 took a while to get the ball rolling but then again maybe that just makes the next three songs more impressive by contrast.

Overall an enjoyable listen.

Thanks!

Yeah this was back with I was still using my old Marshall so the tone isn't so great. I got what I could out of it, though. I've recently upgraded to a much much better combo amp (Ampeg VH140C) and I can't wait to record with it.

The drums are programmed, using probably one of the better programs I could find (hydrogen) with one of the more realistic sounding kits I could find. I'm not too keen on the samples either, but they work I suppose.

With the lyrics/vocals, that was the vocal that came naturally when making Death Metal. I would like to possibly develop it into a higher, more raspy tone eventually, and I'm always picky about releasing my lyrics to the public.

Track 4 was probably my favourite out of the bunch. Definitely had trouble finding a way to start it off, so I just said fuck it and went with the drum only thing. 1, obviously being the intro, and 2 were supposed to set sort-of a dreadful mood, 3 and 4 being the main section, and then 5 to end on the same dreadful feeling.

Glad you liked it though, check out my other stuff if you liked this!

https://soundcloud.com/matthew-brown-21 ... ough-draft

Edit: https://soundcloud.com/matthew-brown-21 ... gh-draft-2
(No pitch stabilizer on vocals, minor EQ and leveling differences on vocals)

This is my first time using Soundcloud, so I apologize if anything seems unprofessional about my account. Anyway, I just finished this song about an hour ago, and I need some opinions on the general mix and what-not. Last original song I posted (not the cover), I was told some of the vocals were a little loud. I took that advice and pushed them back in the mix a little bit from the last song, so hopefully it sounds better. This is the rough draft, so it will probably be edited a little bit before I finalize it.

Rambling aside, let me know what you guys think about... well anything. Progressive metal with a focus on atmosphere, not technicality... comparable to Hypocrisy's atmospheric sound, except much more clean vocals.

Here is a track from my band Volition. Its a rough track so its not the final mix, the album is still being recorded and its 70% done at the moment. Please give me your feedback. Much appreciated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9LfOGUgYb8

more metalcore. just adding the keyboard in it doesn't make it progressive. I mean you even threw a breakdown in it. The part I really liked was earlier in the song that sounded like some power metal. really basically :25-26 seconds. i like that transition it kinda reminded me of yes. that's the only part out of the whole song that's progressive. outside of that. this is 101 metalcore. nice shredding though, so you can play it's just not damn progressive. do some fates warning and then come back and say it's progressive.





it sounds like OH MY FUCKING GOD from Strapping Young Lad for most of it outside of the slow part. Would have never thought this was death thrash at all. each time after your vocals I expect to hear "OOOHHHHH MMMYYYYY FFFUUUUCCCCKKKKIIINNNGGGG GOD!" But it doesn't sound like a full song, sounds like here is these 2 parts I'm going to seesaw back and forth and then a slow part to break it up and then the same 2 parts again and that's it. more like a sample than anything.








I was about to say what the fuck did you do to that Ampeg if that was recorded using it cause it def didn't sound anything like how the Ampeg sounds

I would love to hear this ep with that distortion, is this a single guitar track doubled? cause it doesn't sound like two separate tracks at all.

Don't mind the programmed drums but that's what I expected. just a little too rigid for this.

Hello,

This is the first demo song I've recorded for my funeral doom project, Benumbed. I'd appreciate it if you could check it out and give me some constructive criticism. Be honest, and harsh if you must!

http://benumbed.bandcamp.com/releases

Thanks a lot!

I'll give it a listen to in just a moment. funny you pick Benumbed cause all I can immediately think of is the grind band Benumb who I love.

Arkhane listening to the second one. everything sounds really nice, I like that I can hear the bass. the vocals sound set right. personally i think the guitars should be up another notch or two. just because the kick is pretty loud but other than that, I normally don't listen to this style often but you did it very well. Kinda reminds me of Therion. also a little like Primordal.


Here is a track from my band Volition. Its a rough track so its not the final mix, the album is still being recorded and its 70% done at the moment. Please give me your feedback. Much appreciated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9LfOGUgYb8


jesus christ another fucking song with rain and horses galloping. if this is 70 % done I'm guessing a ton of work is going to be done in the last 30mins. Sounds like the drums are completely untouched. while I hear both the guitar and bass it's all so low it really sounds like a band practice recording. the drummer needs to practice his double bass. though he is so far back in the mix I can hear how sloppy and unable he is playing double bass.

This is pretty cool. Guitars sound a wee bit thin but I dig the atmosphere and the rest of the instruments/vocals balance. Reminds me of Summoning actually. The overall build up is done well.

https://soundcloud.com/ipab_productions ... tating-the

This is an unreleased track from my band (or rather, it's actually on my vocalist's soundcloud but wasn't on any physical releases). Basically a rerecording of a song from the debut album with a different lineup for guitars/bass/drums. All feedback is welcome but advice on the production/sound would be most appreciated, as reference for approaching the mixing for the next/third album.

Haha, guess I'll never stop being a core kid. Thanks a lot for the feedback, though. You are always spot on, but, I mean, the actual "progressive" elements I though it had (apart from the clean transition) were that I used time measure changes that weren't overly technnical but that I felt that flowed well with the song, the part at 0:40 is basically 4/4 + 5/4 all way long, the one at 2:40 is entirely in 7/4 and there is even a 15/8 that just fitted at the end of it Oh, well, guess I was wrong with that.

Thanks again SLK, I'm really glad that you take your time to listen to it, I'll go and listen some Fates Warning ASAP !

Somefella... needs more of you on that track.

You are welcome, just remember progressive doesn't mean putting together odd times otherwise Coalese would be considered progressive (they aren't) or candiria (they aren't by any means)

for funeral doom the guitars need to be much much louder. suffocating almost. right now it's mainly drums and vocals. and the drums are way cutting through the mix. and really how the rhythm track is, I feel it should be hitting on the downbeat of the drums, right now it kinda needs a more human element to work with cause it's too mechanical. outside of the mix and drum programming it could be quite enjoyable if those were fixed.

Thanks for taking the time to listen, and for the feedback, SLK. I wasn't sure what you meant by this, though:


Could you explain? Thanks!

It sounds like while it is in time. it doesn't sound like the drums and guitar are paying attention to each other at all. like when you are downstroking the notes on the guitar the drums aren't matching it. I feel it would be more impactful if it was. right now the drums are just holding a time signature down and you are working the guitars around however with no mind to those drums or viceversa. it's something that would be easier for me to explain if I was there first hand with my drums.

Right, I think I get what you mean. The rhythm guitar should lock in with the drum beat, instead of playing a separate rhythm?

Yea that's what I'm saying. I mean it's not totally distracting but to me I feel it would be stronger. But maybe if the guitars were massive sounding I wouldn't be as mindful of it.

I was about to say what the fuck did you do to that Ampeg if that was recorded using it cause it def didn't sound anything like how the Ampeg sounds

I would love to hear this ep with that distortion, is this a single guitar track doubled? cause it doesn't sound like two separate tracks at all.

Don't mind the programmed drums but that's what I expected. just a little too rigid for this.[/quote]


Yeah, I'm definitely thinking of maybe rerecording the EP with the Ampeg once I get a good recording set up here. Would've done it sooner but I have no way to record currently, which blows. All of the guitars have 2 separately recorded guitar tracks, except for any leads, and yeah, I need to start finding better drum samples to use.

But the songs... solid.

I appreciate the feedback guys, I hope I didn't post too soon after the Insomnium cover. But anyway, I'm listening to a few songs right now. I'll probably reply to them separately.


Nothing really stands out, but it's not a bad track in any sense. The weird palm mutes could use some beef. They sound pretty great around 2:45 with that second guitar doing some melodies. The really slow palm mutes before the clean section have way too much negative space between hits though. I liked it for the most part. I'm just nitpicking right now. Good funeral doom.

Edit: I also have to second what SLK said about the guitars hitting the downbeat exactly when the drums do. Otherwise, it could get messy.

Naw it wasn't too soon. i try to listen to everything that everyone posts. Now whether or not people like my feedback that's a different story. It's all opinions.