Bash this song

[1n54n0]

What's up guys? I'm glad to be back in the forum after a few months far.

I made this cover of Meshuggah's This Spiteful Snake (obZen) for a tribute in the MeshForum.

SoundClick artist: in death is life - page with MP3 music downloads

It's the first of a few cover songs I'm recording in order to put my producing skills in practice.

Next one is gonna be Metallica's "Escape", I'll post it as soon as is done, along with a couple original songs for my band.

This Spiteful Snake for now. By the way, I'm having some problems with the soundclick player and the song sometimes plays very slow. If you experience this problem try another browser or download the song.

[brandondrury]

The guitars are nice and HUGE. They have a bit of fizz on them, but in a way that works. What did you use on the guitars?

When the hole band kicks in the recording sounds damn good!

Brandon

[brianinogang]

nice recording. my only comment is the guitar tone. its nice. but if you're trying to simulate the meshuggah sound, i think it needs less mids more bass. and maybe amp sims/impulses to further "heavytize" your tone. just my own opinion bro. anyway nice metal mix

[1n54n0]

Thanks for your input guys!

Brandon: I used my Gibson Les Paul Studio tuned to a low F, Guitar Rig 3 and a Waves Compressor (I'll recall the name later), I think a did some parallel compression on the guitars. Also some eq'ing and reverb.

It's a bit fizzy because a used a bit more distorsion than usual in order to have some sustain because of the low tuning. Meshuggah's tone is more articulate, I suppose they don't need that much gain in their amps because of the EMG active pickups compared to my passive pickups.

There are two main rhythm guitar tracks, and no bass, after all it didn't fit the mix and I had so little time to try different sounds because of the deadline. I'll probably try it again someday to see if it fits well.

brianinogang: You're right, this tone is quite different from Meshuggah's 8-string tone, and I really like it but I'm still trying to get that over the top metal tone. I'll try your suggestions. Thanks a lot!

[uab9253]

I was raised on 70's and 80's metal and even continued with some of the "heavier" stuff in the late 80's/90's with Metallica, Pantera, Megadeath and Anthrax, but I guess I just don't get some of this stuff. This would definitely benefit from the addition of bass, but the guitar tones leave me a bit flat. Everybody keeps trying to get heavier and heavier - how much further can we go than a pure square wave? Even Slayer had some dynamics - an old buddy of mine is way into the modern death metal scene and I just can't get my head around it.
So for me, as much as I recognize that it is probably a correct interpretation of that style, I would still rather hear something in the guitar that speaks. All the detuned, loose strings (now 7 or 8 at a time) just flapping and pushing air around doesn't do it for me. At least with some of the bands mentioned above, as monotonous and the downstroke can be, there were some serious right hand rhythm stuff going on, particularly with Dimebag and his brother on the drums. Talk about being locked in!
The pads and synth sounding stuff at the beginning do help add some interest to the track. The autopanning on some of the ambient stuff was cool too.

[1n54n0]

Thanks for you comment man. I must say, you are right about the dynamics thing in this song. It's not an excuse, but Meshuggah's music is really complex (rhythm-wise) and they usually don't focus on dynamics, because of that all the sounds have that brick wall compression. I actually tried to add some dynamics in the first minutes by using those pads and samples and then just bring that wall of sound at 2:30.

I'm mostly into 80's thrash metal and I love the balance of its complex and catchy guitar (and drums) parts, I totally worship Pantera's approach to this, and I agree with you about them. Those guys playing is as tight as it gets.

I'm recording some cover songs because I can focus on those aspects (dynamics, getting the right sounds, etc) without the songwritting getting in the way and distracting me from that production stuff. I hope I can apply all this lessons to my music later.

I'll post a cover song my band recorded last year, so you can go ahead and leave your comments.

[uab9253]

I am doing the same thing with covers. Trouble is, I've been doing it for 20+ years. I have written a couple of songs, but mostly I dig on being able to say "check this out, I played all instruments on this" and one way to get people to dig it is give them something they already know. Plus my songwriting is weak. From the first time that I put a lead on top of a rhythm guitar with two tape recorders, I was "out of the band" at that moment.

[1n54n0]

Check these out, the two of them recorded by my band, the first one is an original song, the second a Metallica cover.

Please review this mix

One more song

[uab9253]

I listened to the original and it is pretty cool. Didn't have time for the Metallica cover. I don't know how mp3 compressed the online version is, but the bottom end was lacking. The drums and bass were sort of buried. Cool stuff tho