Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
It's not just a question of effort, though. The production has to fit the style of music. Not all styles of metal sound better when they have higher production values, crisper tones, and have melodies that jump out of the mix.
Take for instance Infernal Stronghold. Their first LP was recorded in a rather nice studio, and their second was recorded with only 11 mics being played "live." Their second sounds far better, as it fits their "raw" style of blackened crust/thrash. I know the guy who mixed/mastered their second album, and it's not that he just works better with lower production values. He has a really clean, high-end production on his (formerly solo) project, Woe, and that sounds great because it fits the style of black metal he plays in Woe.
I tend not to like the really polished styles of black and blackened metal (with some exceptions such as Woe, Shining (Swe), Vreid, etc.). I usually gravitate towards the raw, dirty, and ugly varieties (like Darkthrone, Iskra, Infernal Stronghold, Ork Bastards, etc.).
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I never meant to imply that the low production values were a lack of effort. I understand fully that the raw sound is a personal choice. I just guess we have different opinions, with you generally preferring that sound and me preferring the more refined sound for this genre of music.
I don't want to sound like I'm putting down any form of music, I love it all. Literally. I'm sure you could tell me just about any genre and I could either name something I like or find something I like with a little searching.
Also, as for the debate over what is metal: Based on the usual defining characterists, slipknot is far more metal than dream theater. This doesn't mean that Slipknot is better than dream theater, not at all. Metal is not a perfect genre, there are certainly bad examples of metal. Metal fans, imo, try far too hard to defend their favorite genre, by trying to prove that any bad metal bands "aren't metal." Bad Art is still art. Bad cars are still cars. Bad movies are still movies. Bad metal is still metal, whether you like it or not.
Remember what metal started as: Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, etc. Slipknot in those days would be considered on the same level as something like goregrind today. The standards of what is "heavy" may have increased in time, but the definition of metal hasn't.
Just my two cents on the matter.