Metal Reviews

I listen to music almost all of my waking hours, and the other day
I was thinking about what good sound means to me. I am constantly
trying to improve the equipment that I have to get a more
pleasurable listening experience.

These things are of course very individual, but I am a bit curious,
what metal albums do you consider to have the best sound?
(When listing, please mention the genre)

.:crast:.

Slough Feg - Ape Uprising, or any of their last three albums. Heavy Metal. Simple distorted guitars that sound fucking amazing.
Neurosis - Given to the Rising. Sludge. Lots of effects on the guitars and huge drums.
Opeth - Watershed. Has some of the best sounding acoustic guitars and vocals I've heard on any album. Which isn't really a metal thing, but everything else is great too and in general I'd say it's one of the tastiest metal albums there is, sound quality wise.

Tool's stuff and Converge's later albums are nice too for seeing how well I can hear the seperation between guitar and bass.

...And Justice For All. - There is something wrong with your setup if you complain there is "No Bass" it should sound punchy in the high-lows and pulsing on the low-lows. A lot of people don't have a system with a good reproduction under 80hz, that is where this complaint stems from.

Dungeon - One Step Beyond - The Guitars should be Bass Heavy and thick but shouldn't sound muddy or sound like a Bass.

Rush - Presto (not metal but here for a reason) same thing as AJFA. If this album has a metallic sheen about it, there is a problem with too much treble in the mix. If it sounds way too cold, there is a lack of mid-range. The Bass should be high and tight.

Prong - Cleansing - Another album to check for an over-metallic sound. The guitars should scream, but not sizzle.

Pantera - Dimebag's solos should not pierce your ears.

Vision Divine - The Perfect Machine - great benchmark album. Timo and Fabio outdid themselves here.

Children of Bodom - Follow The Reaper - Again, too much metallic sheen or brightness is going to be very apparent here.

Tarot - Suffer our pleasure - The Bass should not be distorted or clipped sounding, but should be very heavy and basically dominate the mix. You should be able to hear every note.

Dream Theater - I&W - the snare drum should cut through the mix, but not sound nasally, if it does, there is too much 1K, if it sounds sharp or fizzles, there is too much 4-8Khz.

Dream Theater - Awake - "Lifting Shadows off a dream" the Bass guitar on this song should sound like a bass cabinet. If it is too flat, you need treble and if it doesn't vibrate the walls behind your speakers at realistic SPL, there is not enough low end. During this part of the song at high volume you should feel the kick drum in your diaphram. This is the perfect song to check for infamous "one note bass" you should hear a definite and very noticeable change in the overall vibration for different notes. There should never be a presence that exists on all the notes.

Motorhead - Ace Of Spades - There should be good amount of treble and high-lows and low mids in lemmy's bass. This album should not sound muddy and it shouldn't be hard to make out the instruments.

Marillion - "Kayleigh" the guitar solo should sound thick and nasally until the octave shift, when it shifts octaves it should still sound a bit nasally but bright and not piercing, and of course each note should have it's own feel to it.

Morifade - Domi<o>Nation - The Guitars should be thick and blend well in the bass, but there should be a distinct separation thereof.

Dio - Holy Diver - a great album to check to make sure the cymbals are not too bright in the mix

I usually use Angra's newer albums, Dream Theater, Rush, Boston and Tool to check the integrity of the tone of the drums. You should certainly be able to hear the space inside the shell and between the head and the mic.

Rush - Permanent Waves, "The Spirit of Radio" - This album is prone to silibance in the vocals, especially on this song during the line "all this machinery making modern music, can still seem open hearted, not so coldly charted..." the vocal should be relatively smooth and not lisping or hissing. In General I'd check various albums, possibly even something from "haunted" by SFU to make sure that the words are not hard to understand.

That's a good start.

What noodles said about Neurosis. "Given To The Rising" is one of the best sounding Metal albums out there, imo. also Converge. No Heroes has such a furious sound.

Also, Deathspell Omega's "Kénôse" has a really organic sound that I like a whole lot.

Baroness's "Blue Record" also sounds really good. I like how they have that "dirty" guitar sound for some of the solos.

Death - Symbolic

Mayhem-De mysteriis dom Sathanas
Very dark and crystalline sound..not to mention hearing Varg's bass parts it's really eerie..

Eyehategod-Dopesick
Hearing the guitar feedback and that downtuned guitar fuzz..
Sounds like a jam session..

Cult of Luna-Somewhere along the highway

yet another clear production piece, it's just the fact that the guitars are so perfectly layered.. Possibly one of the best more recent albums I own..

Decapitated-Nihility

Nothing really special on this one, the guitar tone just sounds so dry and the riffs resound with a powerful chug.

Dismember-Like an ever flowing stream
just that crisp Swedish tone.

Suffocation-Effigy of the forgotten

gritty, dirty, and powerful.. Easily the most brutal album of all time..

Celtic Frost-Monotheist

Tagtgrens mix created the heaviest guitar tone of all time..

I like what Scar Symmetry has going on with their album Pitch Black Progress quite a bit.

Probably Machinae Supremacy's Overworld after that, and then In Flames on A Sense of Purpose.

Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness has a great sound, too.

I tend not to care so much about production/engineering/hurr but listening to Dark Tranquillity's Fiction now and all the instruments sound great and stuff.

Though it's not exactly clean or anything, I always liked the metallic sound of Destruction's Infernal Overkill.

My problem with stuff like newer Dark Tranquillity and Scar Symmetry is that there isn't a lot of distinction between the individual instruments, especially guitars. It kinda blurs together into one chunk of sound that doesn't have much detail going on.

Cult of Luna and Baroness are good choices.

This thread is making me wish my new amp was fixed so I could PLAY THINGS on it >:[

I've always considered the production on Van Halen's debut to be absolutely perfect.
Everything is balanced just right, and with a good system it really comes out.
Clean, crisp, but not overpolished in the least.

That album has terrific sounding vocals and an outstanding snare snap. I enjoyed the hell out of that one for the sound.

I agree, but will qualify that with saying the panned guitar took a lot of getting used to. I mean I really hated it for about 2 years. I think I used to have to have the old greatest hits tape that I played in in mono through a karioke machine when I was about 12. I'm probably making this up, but maybe the radio versions are different mixes because I never noticed that until the CD.

Are the old versions of the albums panned eqaully to both channel or has it always been like that?

All the old versions have the guitar in one channel.
The overall quality has that live-in-the-studio sound, though, which I really like. I had the original vinyl, and it really sounded good through my old mans system this was back when you had to buy every thing as a component.
He had these 200wpc speakers by Pioneer , the HPM-100, and they sounded incredible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_HPM-100

Yeah, it's top notch.
Everything is crystal, without losing it's metallic edge.

I still do that along with some modifications through DSPs added into the mix. I Use a cheap ass 100wpc techwood amplifier and I use 240watt technics. Right now the speakers are in storage (i miss them, :( I grew up with them) so I'm relying on my Sony MDR-7506's and the sound is not very conducive to headphones.

St.Anger