We certainly disagree on that. For this style of death metal at least, those albums you named could not possibly sound any better. Probably my absolute favorite overall sound, production, an mixing in all of death metal - particularly on the Hail Of Bullets albums.

Hah you clearly havent seen Asphyx live. The new songs completely destroy live. I have seen them 4 times now i think and the last the last 2 times where in the past year and goddamn they are in extremely good form live. I can understand not liking the production which i personally deem as not bad but Asphyx live is just incredible. Id but both Asphyx gigs ive attended the past year in my top gigs ever list.

I've seen Asphyx live twice and it was amazing. The productions on Deathhammer and Death The Brutal Way are garbage, I'm listening to Embrace The Death, while the guitar is loud as hell in the mix there are still dynamics to be found. The two newer albums sound like a wall of noise with a false loudness to them, they really sound like fucking shit. I love Dan Swano but not what he's done with Asphyx.

Alright I'm putting in Deathhammer for another listen

Really?
I think they couldn't sound better

Sorry Varth, there is obviously something wrong with your ears. Cause you are the only person I've ever came across that though those albums were mixed like shit. And you are one of the only people who like this style and their old output that doesn't like the current output. Maybe your tastes have changed.

well the mixing and production makes martin sound like hes not that good anymore but hes still brilliant live.

My tastes haven't changed, I listen to the other albums all the time. The highs on the drums sound like Mortician's drum machine at times, its extreme crystal clear highs with a rumbling low end and it doesn't sound right to me, I can never get pulled into the music. The move from murky analog to HD digital is a drop in quality. Maybe there actually is something wrong with my ears, and I'm a bad person etc. but I'm still a fan of the band however I just don't see the need to buy any new releases when it's the same thing arranged in a different order, like Taco Bell.

I don't eat Taco Bell. It's just you. that's all.

This thing dropped today, huh? Looking forward to hearing the whole thing.

Well, GSBC's Facebook says 11/12, but the distributor/label Centurymedia says it goes on sale 11/20.

Full album streaming
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/?p=21589&preview=true

Thanks! Fuck. Yes.

Giving this my first thorough run through now and I have to say...fucking excellent. I'm going to have a hard time deciding if I like this or Asphyx' Deathhammer album better. The samples and streaming didn't do it the same justice as high quality mp3 on headphones is doing right now. Crunchier guitars stand out from the other projects these guys do and of course the mix and production are top fucking notch. We'll see what happens after a few listens. Early indications are very good. It may not be Hail Of (fucking) Bullets, but damn...this is some headbangin' shit done by some of the best.

Varth is correct on those albums sounding like shit, even if the music is decent.

Ya'll's crazy for thinking otherwise.

Wow, another killer album with the dutch death metal scene. Where a small country can be great (football and death metal!).
At moments like these it's great to be dutch, even more so because their going to play the Eindhoven Metal Meeting in a few weeks!

This album SLAYS in every way possible. I hope to get a copy of the album soon. to be totally honest, i enjoyed this very much than the two last Asphyx albums, and i really liked "Death The Brutal Way" and "Deathhammmer".

I fucking love this album!

I totally agree with this. the production just doesn't sound natural and right to me. The guitars are way to loud and crispy (yes you can get to crispy) and the drums are again, just wrong sounding. Asphyx should be one of my favorite death metal bands, but the production of their latest releases keep me from actually enjoying the music. I mean, the production should be kinda murky, natural, kinda unpolished, and absolutely pummeling. But what we get is a loud, abrasive wall of noise.... and it's getting multiplied by the overall clearness. It's a shame because the songwriting is excellent.

All of this also counts for Grand Supreme Blood Court's debut.

This.

Those crispy, crunch, and loud guitars are my favorite thing about this album. The production is fantastic - if you have the technology to deliver a clean, crisp, clear yet smashing, relentless, and pounding death metal album that never lacks power or energy like this one then that's what you should do. This album does nearly everything right.

It compares well to the new Aeon album which. aside from some lyrical differences, has all the same things going for it save for Aeon's being in a newer style. Aeons Black's production is among my favorites of 2012, though I also like a good 'dirty mix' like Binah's Hallucinating In Resurrecture.

It's not a question of a clean or a "dirty" mix/sound, it's that the sound is clinically clean and sometimes sterile. It lacks warmth and that natural mud that old school production had due to technological limitations. Some people just don't like modern production because of that, I happen to stand in a middle line where I judge it case by case. Some I like and some others I don't.

With that being said I don't actually dislike the production that much, apart from being loud as hell, but I do get why others do. I mean, compare the production of Last One On Earth with any of the newer Asphyx/HOB albums. They're worlds apart!

Misfit74 It compares well to the new Aeon album which. aside from some lyrical differences, has all the same things going for it save for Aeon's being in a newer style. Aeons Black's production is among my favorites of 2012

Oh, I think Aeons black's production is pretty good. I don't dislike clean production in death metal as a whole, but it just doesn't fit Asphyx. It's the mix of clean and freakishly loud I don't like. Aeons blacks' guitars are clean, but are also pretty smooth and very well mixed. Asphyx's guitar mix is loud as hell, devoid of any warmth and natural feeling, and just gives me a headache if I listen to it for to long.

I tried listening to this album, but I had to turn it off after like 3rd song. The production makes it impossible to listen. It is mastered obnoxiously loud, as loud as Death Magnetic. The clipping is everywhere. One of the rare cases when the production distracts from the actual material.

im vaguely considering going but id have to book a hotel. Im looking at going to their gig in zwolle as that one is closer.



yeah i can hear that, but it doesnt bother me as much, but it seems that compared with deathhammer martin shines a bit more on this one.


I am personally starting to like this album more with every listen. Initially the first song put online did not really excite but now i quite like it. I would not put this over Deathhammer though. Its also interesting that it doesnt sound that much like Asphyx as you would expect.

This. It just sounds absolutely horrendous. I can't recall the last time that production was so bad that it made me not like the album. This is ridiculous.

There seems to be a fairly divisive split about production. Some like the 'older-styled' production/sound and some (including myself) like the newer, cleaner production/sound like on this particular album. I like the production on this album quite a bit.

Perhaps we should start a thread about production, the importance of one you're happy with, etc. For example, I love the production on most of my favorite albums. It's a big key to making an album my favorite, but how much do I weight it? That's a tough question with many variables. I think it could spark an interesting discussion.

I'm sorry, but the production on this is not CLEANER at all. If anything, it's even dirtier because of ALL THE FUCKING CLIPPING.

Do you have a CD? Perhaps a rip or copy that was designed to have problems for leakage? I don't hear what you're hearing.

I'm basing myself on the official stream.

I wouldn't trust any streaming media to give you the same performance and results as non-streaming media formats. Perhaps that's the issue right there. Mp3, Flac, or plain old CD may have a different result and so far 320kbps Mp3 hasn't given me the same problem you're describing.

Yes, surely the production will completely change from an official stream to a CD even though the stream is of a high quality and most people can't expertly differentiate between slightly differing bit rates

To be completely honest streaming on your browser can sound worse than playing something on the system's media player, and this is due to the sound of the streaming being run through the decoder of the browser. For instance, I was testing my sound card with pitch tones and if I played them through the browser I'd get static noise, when I should get silence. It was only when I downloaded the tones and played them outside the browser that the tests got successful.

And to add a bit of wood to the fire, I tend to notice a big difference between streaming and MP3 on my system. Now if that's true to others or not I wouldn't know.

I agree that whatever DM album Dan Swano messes around with nowadays, has a way too similar and pretty shitty (too modern and anemic) sound. I mean - I like all the HOB material so far, so do I like the last 2 Asphyx albums, but I wouldn't even guess these are 2 different bands, if I didn't know about it.

I still haven't heard the GSBC album, but the sample song I heard made same impression. Hell, the new Incantation album would be so much better if it didn't have the "Swano" touch as well... (It's still a very good Incantation album, though, but it could be WAY better, if the productions was different).

Damn you androdion. I just played a song from it through my actual media player and it still sounded like shit, so you haven't trapped me yet!

Oh you...

It is time to introduce some facts. This is a wave form of track #3 from the album.

Sweet Jesus...

HA!

Amazing.