Phodg

So I've listened to the new Abbath a few times. I like the songs, but the mix is atrocious. The drums just swamp everything - vocals, riffs, even guitar solos. I'm having a hard time getting through that.

morriscroy

I don't really listen to a lot of black metal these days. Though listening to Dread Reaver on youtube, the drums are somewhat "loud" in the mix but I found it still listenable.

Going back further in time, the most notorious album where the drums are so loud in the mix that it covers up everything to the point where everything else is almost inaudible, was the Horst Mueller version of Sodom's "Obsessed by Cruelty" that was released on the american Metal Blade pressing. (The west german Steamhammer version was a completely different studio session with a very different mix). It sounded like the guitar was a minimal "scratch track", where they likely never got around to formally tracking the actual guitars properly.

cultshock

I agree that the mix is drum heavy and not great, other reviewers have been mentioning that too. I have a vinyl copy on its way to me, I'm hoping that sounds a bit better.

Yeah, the US version of Obsessed by Cruelty is one of the most drum heavy/guitar light (almost non-existent) metal albums I've ever heard. Chris Witch Hunter was a hell of a drummer though, RIP.

cultshock

Speaking of Abbath, I highly recommend his "I" album, Between Two Worlds. It's a standard metal album (perhaps you could call it "blackened heavy metal" due to Abbath's vocals) by a black metal "supergroup": Abbath on vocals/rhythm guitars, King ov Hell (ex-Gorgoroth, Abbath band) on bass, Ice Dale (Enslaved) on lead guitar, and Armagedda (ex-Immortal) on drums. Really solid album, unfortunately OOP, but you can find used CD's floating around. I'd love the vinyl but it only had one limited pressing that now goes for hundreds of dollars (hopefully Nuclear Blast represses it like they recently did with Demonaz's March of the Norse, another great album).

morriscroy

Here's a good example of a rough mix with only a guitar "scratch track", before the actual multi-layered guitar tracking was done for Sepultura "Mass Hypnosis" (from "Beneath The Remains").




(IIRC, this rough mix version was a bonus track on a late-1990s remaster of the "Beneath The Remains" album).

cultshock

My CD of Kvaen's second album (plus t-shirt) just showed up in the mail (still waiting for my vinyl copy to show up). I was a big fan of their 2020 debut and their second effort does not disappoint, it fucking rips. Great melodic black metal/blackened thrash, with a bit of viking metal thrown in. Recommended!

beavis69

I dig it, not sure I'll buy it though. For whatever reason 2022 just hasn't had a release that clicked with me yet. I like the new Immolation, Hellfrost & Fire's new one is pretty good, and I'm looking forward to the new Undeath/Corpsessed/Viogression albums. Feels like I liked alot more at the start of 20/21 than this year.

morriscroy

Listening to the third Evil Invaders album "Shattering Reflection", which was released today. It sounds somewhat different than their first two albums, which the latter sounded like generic mid-1980s speed/thrash type stuff.

My first thought was "Shattering Reflection" sounds like early Blind Guardian, Testament, with elements of Savatage in the slower paced passages. More melodic guitar riffs and even more varied vocals, where the vocalist actually does some actual real singing.

morriscroy

Speaking of more varied vocals, came across the recent Arch Enemy video "Handshake With Hell" on youtube.

The vocalist actually does real singing in her natural voice range, in addition to the generic lower range death metal style vocals.

stvn1974

I got the new Meshuggah today...it sounds like Meshuggah.

cultshock

Alyssa did a bit of that on "Reason to Believe" on their last album as well. And here's an acoustic version of the song where she does entirely clean vocals, she can sing quite well.

Fist of Doom Jr

Alissa also has a solo album done, but hasn't set a release date (so as not to conflict with the Arch Enemy album). She said it'll have both clean and growly vocals.

morriscroy

Recently came across a Venom dvd at a nearby record store which I haven't been to in over a year.

I vaguely remember seeing the vhs tape back in the 1980s, but never purchased it back in the day. It was a live concert from 1985 at Hammersmith Odeon, where some of the live tracks sound like the same versions on the 1986 Eine Kleine Nachtmusik live album.

(I didn't know Venom actually re-released some of their old live videotapes on dvd).

beavis69

Bittersweet, new Artificial Brain album is out 3 June. It will be the last to feature Big Will on vocals after he left the band. The new single is increadible and the the first thing I'm really looking forward to this year.

morriscroy

Witchhunter was decent back in the day.

Though many years later on "The Final Sign of Evil" in 2007, it sounded like he has hardly played any drums after leaving Sodom. Very messy drumming on the final sign.

morriscroy

I listened more closely to the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik live album and compared it to the versions on this live 1985 Hammersmith concert dvd.

Offhand, I think only five or six songs on the dvd are similar or identical to the Eine Kleine Nachtmusik versions: Too Loud For the Crowd, Nightmare, Countess Bathory, 7 Gates of Hell, Witching Hour, and (maybe) In Nomine Satanas. Though the dvd versions sound like there's less artificial reverb/echo, than the corresponding live album versions.

(The second disc of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was from a 1986 concert at the Ritz in New York City).

Back in the day when Eine Kleine Nachtmusik was first released, it was almost impossible to find at my then-local record stores. I had to do a special order at several then-local record stores. The first two stores said they couldn't order it. A third store tried to order it, but it never arrived. A fourth record store was able to order it, and it took over a month to arrive.

cultshock

To be fair, he was in the final stages of acute alcoholism by 2007, and he finally died of liver failure the following year, so it's not surprising that his drumming was pretty bad by that point.

morriscroy

Listening to Blitzkrieg's "Time of Changes" album from 1985.

(Metallica did a cover of their song "Blitzkrieg" from the 1981 single buried alive).

Offhand, it's not so obvious how they influenced Metallica. The guys in Metallica must have been listening to some old demo tapes from them.

cultshock

I bought a repress of that 1981 7" single that came out a few years ago, great song.

morriscroy

Cool.

Back in the day, that 1981 7" single was another title which was almost impossible to find.

More generally, a lot of those old 7" vinyl released by Neat Records were generally almost impossible to find. Even doing special orders.

morriscroy

For example, back in the day I tried ordering some of the Venom 7" vinyl via special order. Titles like Bloodlust, Die Hard, Nightmare, etc .... In those days before the "singles 80-86" cd was released, this was the only way to get the studio versions of non-album songs liek "In Nomine Satanas", "Die Hard", etc ....

(Allegedly a 7" picture disc version of "Die Hard" was released in america by Megaforce or Combat in the early-mid 1980s, but I have never seen it).

Unfortunately these venom 7" vinyl special orders never arrived, even after trying to order through several different then-local record stores which specialized in imported vinyl.


Ironically, the original uk Neat Records 12" vinyl versions of these same Venom singles were much easier to find.

At the time I managed to get the 12" picture disc version of Nightmare, which had an extra track of a live version of Warhead (likely the same version from the 7th Date of Hell live videotape from a 1984 concert at Hammersmith Odeon). Around the same time, I found the uk 12" vinyl versions of Manitou, Warhead, and Nightmare with a different cover. Slightly later I found the "Hell At Hammersmith" 12" vinyl, and the Possessed album picture disc.

Unfortunately the Possessed picture disc sounded horrible, where even the Combat and Banzai versions sounded much better. The problem with Possessed was that they tried to cram a lot of stuff onto each vinyl disc side, where the overall loudness sound level was mastered at a lower volume than if each vinyl side had less songs. The picture discs in those days were not mastered nor manufactured very well, where the record surface noises was a lot louder and noisy than the typical generic black vinyl. So the net sum of a louder overall record noise levels + mastering at a lower volume = really crappy sound.

The first time I ever heard a decent sounding version of Possessed, was the first cd version from the mid-1990s released by Castle Communications. No mastering issues with the volume levels on the cd.

cultshock

Yeah, those early 7" Venom singles were great, wish I could have found some. I was happy when the "Singles 80-86" CD came out so I could finally listen to those songs. And boy, picture discs from that era sounded terrible.

morriscroy

What I didn't know at the time, was that the american Combat Records releases of the first three Venom albums actually included many of those 7"/12" singles songs as "extra" tracks.

Welcome To Hell - In Nomine Satanas, Bursting Out
Black Metal - Acid Queen, Die Hard
At War With Satan - Manitou, Woman

As mentioned earlier in this thread, for whatever reasons the Combat versons of the first three venom albums were difficult to find at my then-local record stores, where I ended up buying the Banzai versions on one of my trips to Toronto. It turns out the Banzi versions were just duplicates of the first or second vinyl pressings of the original Neat Records uk versions. (The first uk Neat pressings of Black Metal didn't have the song "Bloodlust" on it).

The Combat cd versions of the first three Venom albums released in 1992, appear to be the same tracks as the Combat vinyl versions from the mid-1980s with the "extra" tracks.

cultshock

I had the Canadian Banzai vinyl or cassette versions of those three albums, so no bonus tracks. Damn, I just checked the Banzai Welcome to Hell on Discogs, it sells for over $200, wish I still had my copy!

joeblow69

The new Septicflesh is pretty good