That's bullshit. That's what a bunch of edgy Norwegian teens said in interviews to sound way cooler than they actually were. They were beginners, they had no money, they had very limited understanding of what the hell they were doing, but since they also had an axe to grind with "false metal", the only out they had was "yeah its totally supposed to sound like that". I´m sure they were keenly aware that their recordings were awful.
@@ChernobylAudio666 I totally agree with you mister nice beard. I really did'nt know them until today, because of: exactly what you said. I now listened to some songs and they sound like my first recordings with all those masked frequencies. I totally believe, that I would have listened to them before today, if they had a sound guy like you! My honest and biggest respect!
Exactly! Trve Kvlt Black Metal is meant to be Raw and Original, not that clean "Black Metal" shit! I agree with your opinion, shit it's not just an opinion. It's straight facts!
Love it. Doesn't sound overproduced by any means, but gives a much less unflattering presentation to the musicality of the song than the original. Black metal needs more of this.
You took all the magic out of it and it transformed into a current generic blackmetal sound. It can help new people enter the genre. It's not that I'm a necrosound fan but there are productions that need that style of sound
@@Mrvegas6666 I don't think his comment really represents the kind of dogmatic, closed-minded view that was called out at the beginning. He gave it a listen and just didn't like the effect of the more polished production. I felt the same way about it, though it was still interesting to hear the song like this.
I agree with what you're saying 💯%... however I do understand what Scott is saying here too... that Black Metal does not appeal to the masses! I believe Black Metal is cool when it's "raw" is because the listener is supposed to be "scared" and people are "scared" by the odd or unusual... so the odd or unusual is in the unbalanced nature of the mix! Black metal emphasizes certain elements while disregarding other elements to make the listener feel unsettled... I'd actually love to hear Scott come up with a shitty Black Metal mix! Because I actually feel like that is still "mixed"!... perhaps an overembellishment of a positive aspect of the song!
I love the early 90s BM albums but I would also love it if someone did this sort of thing with all of them. Especially In the Nightside Eclipse. There are so many great passages in that record that I would love to hear properly for once.
Seas of Unrest by Darkmoon is at the top of my list of black metal albums I wish had been recorded and engineered semi properly. It's a masterpiece and deserves a remaster but I feel like it would be difficult to fix.
Having heard a few black metal interviews, I feel like it wasn't actually what they wanted sonically, but they just came up with an excuse for not having a lot of production knowledge or poor recording situations. A lot of the early Mayhem stage antics weren't really designed to do much other than mess with people (if you didn't leave the venue after the pig skulls got thrown into the crowd, then you would miss the last train home) and fill time when there wasn't a vocal part (or they forgot their lines).
Sorry, I didn't do a full playthrough or a full song, this was just an experiment to see if people would actually care to hear something like this--but this is something to consider for me now!
The shitty production is part of the gatekeeping. The casual listener doesn't like bad production. The initiated fan will like it though. It's like any other extreme metal. There are black metal bands with good production out there. The new Tsjuder is a good example.
I wish you've done another experiment and replicated their sound. It's not a challenge to make everything crisp and well polished with modern software cause it was created to make it that way.
Bad production was never a goal in itself. At the time (and even more so today), there was a tendency to hide bad songwriting beneath slick studio production and pointless technical prowess. Who cares how many scales you know or how your instruments sound when you have nothing to say? I'd say production is irrelevant as long as you can actually hear what's being played. When you buy your instruments at a supermarket and record them into a headset, you have nothing left to lean on but the actual music. It's a self-imposed limitation meant to improve yourself. Gorguts did a similar thing when they wrote Obscura. They intentionally avoided muted chord riffing, because that had become a stock technique people relied on to just functionally drag the song along. What happens when you strip away surface techniques like that and force yourself to keep writing? Well, the music can go to some very interesting places.
I'm old and was around when all this came out. I get the atmosphere they were creating but could only take one or two songs before it was fatiguing. I could listen to an album of this production
Those bands were making due with what they knew and could afford at the time. MOST of them had their production work evolve as they learned and could afford better gear, and more time/expertise in the studio. Even Burzum albums got better quality, and he still insisted on doing things himself. I think you did a great job of keeping the raw energy, and unpolished feel of the OG, but making it clear enough that you can actually distinguish the instruments and enjoy it without needing to be in the right headspace.
That ended up sounding pretty great! It's definitely an interesting experiment. A lot of early extreme metal in general was plagued by questionable production, whether by choice or not. Ulver's Nattens Madrigal always stuck out to me, given how good the acoustics sound the rest of it has to be a choice. But, there's a lot of really incredible music in there that I feel like gets a bit lost in the production. And this is coming from someone (as you well know) that genuinely does like a lot of that early production sound. All that said, you managed a pretty good middle ground here, looking forward to more!
@@ChernobylAudio666 yeeeep a big sheeet! Interesting how a death metal musician and producer with a death metal singer are teaching us how old school BM should sound in order to be enjoyed by more people. Next time teach us how NSBM should talk about LGBT rights in order to be enjoyed by a vast audience, 💕
Great experiment...While i love the old recordings (They give me this nostalgic feeling) i definitely prefer this approach because it is more balanced and a lot more chungy and fat and clearer at the same time...Awesome work as usual 🔥🔥🔥
I think I'll always have a soft spot for those old recordings, but when bands go for the necro trve kvlt sound these days, I view it more as a crutch to hide poor songwriting. Your version sounds rad, despite my incredibly hurt butt. The mix kinda reminds me of Totenwache. Oh, And also, Massacre frakin rules.
You should check out Moonblood rehearsals for the kind of sound where you can't hear the guitar, only drums, vocals and feedback. That's what I would touch up and like to see as a remaster, because why spend time recording something, even if trve kvlt necro, if you can't even hear half of the instrumentalization. Other than that, I like it as underproduced as possible, no matter if bm or DM, but I can also live with some mixing
I love it! some of my fave BM sounds so harsh I get ear fatigue listening to it so I don't. Some of these have fantastic song structures that are melodic as hell but are overlooked because of the "necro" recordings.
This video really showed how important production ( or lack thereof) is in black metal. I'm not a huge black metal fan but this "natural" production did not work with this song in my opinion. I thought it didn't work because the end result felt bare and underwhelming. I think metal sounds best if you exaggerate it in some way. The default way people exaggerate black metal is by drowning it in distortion 😂 .
When I was a teenager every young "guitarist" would have loved two things: 1) To play fast as hell (shred till your fingers fall off!); 2) To have the same sound of John Petrucci (compressed, clean and "round").... Now I'd love to be able to reproduce the sound of Tony Iommi in Vol.4 or the sound of early(??) Candlemass (listen to the solo of "Bewitched"....etc...)! On the other hand, "shredding" is still a thing....lol
I never thought this album sounded like shit..but I know what you're saying. Also I don't think the point of black metal was ever or should ever be to try and attract as many fans as possible.
Sounds great, and the overall black metal vibe is definitely there. The sound of many of those classic albums is, like you said, undeniably part of the genre’s cultural phenomenon and ethos. But by today’s standards, it’s quite hard to sit through and enjoy those mixes for long-unless someone is truly willing to isolate themselves, embrace all the noise, and embark on a sensory journey into the abyss.
Early 90s BM is basically teenagers figuring out their amateur or home recordings skills with cheap gear, not following any rules, just distilling pure energy, hatred, symbolism and trance. There was no DAWs, no Money for Studiorecordings. They're also came out of the 80s where Rock and Metal was at top of the Mainstream. They don't gave a fuck if "people would enjoy" and Darkthrone still do it that way.
I skipped the talking part after minute and I wonder could this be titled as DARKTHRONE - transylvanian hunger cover Or was there something mixed in from actual album
@ yes, anyway cool cover. First thought from title was remastering.. But yeah a most thinnest sounding album from DT so to speak. Didint matter back in the late -90 with cassplayer and beer in a plastic back😆
I am not a Blackmetal expert by any means. As I am older now i appreciate the genre. But if back in the day it sounded like this, I may have gotten into it earlier. Great vid Scott!
I'm convinced that a lot of this stuff is just pure nostalgia and pointless gatekeeping. It's like being nostalgic for big fat scan lines on old tv's and fuzzy picture quality on VHS tapes. It was part of what people had to deal with back then, and maybe that era is emotionally comfy for you... but it wasn't an "aesthetic choice". It's just what we had. No one in their right mind would go, "oh man, John Wick would have been sooo much better if it was viewed on a shitty VHS tape"... UNLESS watching it that way takes you "back to the good ol' days". These bands didn't have any fucking money, or good equipment... they just made some shitty recordings of interesting and original music, and when people rightly pointed out that the sound quality sucked, their pride and lack of ability to simply admit they were broke and couldn't do any better. This led them to act like it was intentional, and then after that they probably continued to do it out of spite. But really... you think these dudes knew ANYTHING about recording? Oh, sure, they COULD have made a really nice sounding recording with lots of expensive mics and proper engineering, but in their infinite adolescent wisdom simply CHOSE to record the whole album with two SM 57's. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Like, why is this narrative even a thing? They weren't creating a recording aesthetic or mood... they were broke. No labels were ready to throw production budget behind that sound. The music was too new, too aggressive, and definitely too evil. It's not a coincidence that my first recordings of thrash metal just happened to share similar production quality with black metal classics. I didn't have any equipment, and I didn't know what I was doing. I just wanted to get the sound onto a tape, and while I got it there, it sounded awful. The difference is, I don't pretend that's how I wanted it to sound. I think black metal DOES need some grit, dirt, high end bite, and sometimes even the reverb can be cool, but you can get there without throwing away all of your production knowledge and solid recording/mixing practices. Sanding it down to inoffensive, standard rock/metal tones isn't the way, but... come on. Those early recordings sucked and hold back the music, and if the black metal community had any capacity for self-awareness, they'd admit that immediately. I think we all know that's not going to happen, though. The whole concept and argument are both so dumb lol.
Sorry, I have to say it, but that "being resourceful with a four-tracker" aspect is really an important element in Transilvainian Hunger, as well as the Isengard Pagan Metal stuff that Fenriz did. There's a reason why this sound is still sought out by listeners, and it's even more relevant in this day and age, where on one hand you have VSTs dominating the production world, and on the other you have all these countless boring so-called "Raw Black Metal" and only a few really know how to do it tastefully. I already knew how this song sounded with clean production as Gehenna ruined it when they covered it for Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone. However, I did appreciate the demonstration, and I think this actually sounds less "wrong" than the Gehenna cover version.
This was a cool experiment! It’s great. I do not enjoy overly produced black metal. Behemoth is a bit hard for me to get into and along with later Dimmu and Cradle albums. 20 years ago, I had a district manger tell me the reason that they got into hardcore was because of As I Lay Dying’s slick production and it sounded “better” tho him compared to other albums he had heard previously. I found that to be insightful.
ngl.. at first, I thought the comment section was going to be a massacre, that out of the way... some creative stuff I was not expecting! SMG ELE Drums are pure fire!!! imo!! I'm guessing you did velocity variation just enough for it not to sound robotic, but still solid all along the song. BTW this made me ready pull the trigger on Neural Fortin!! so lmk if you have an affiliate link!! I really liked the result, the essence is still there, but the end result sounds really wide, balanced and modern!! Awesome stuff!
I'm also not going to lie, I was prepared to be stabbed and burned without mercy, lol. I don't have an affiliate link for the Neural stuff, but can highly recommend!
Hell Yea! Fuckin awesome!! Darkthrone is one of my all time favorites, even all the way back to Soulside Journey. I think you should definitely do more old school black metal🤘🏻🤘🏻 To anyone that doesn’t know the back story, Transylvanian Hunger sounds like shit because Peaceville was treating Darkthrone like shit and pressured them to release a new album, so they recorded it with a 4-track tape recorder and mailed it to Peaceville.
Cool experiment. I APPRECIATE THAT YOU DID THIS. Now that I have that out of the way (and hopefully all the fellow keyboard opinion-givers can prepare for my incoming verboten hot take): I also think it just makes the song sound like everything else in BM right now. I don't hate it, I just don't care about it at all - which is probably worse if you are a producer looking to give a "breakout" band a "breakout sound". Nekro production is what made BM stand out in first place. Any person with an amp and drum sim could get this result with stock plugins. Therefore let it be semi-anathema or whatever. Or don't, who cares. Also, I hate that everyone has to give a trigger warning now about a difference of opinion. sheesh, when did metalheads turn into a bunch of pansies. There that's it, It's okay everyone, no one got hurt. Everyone is allowed their stupid opinion. I will go back to my cave now.
Tr00 kvlt elitists be tr00 kvlting! When I mix black metal clients I clearly put a lot more work into a unique guitar tone with more balls, but it's still significantly easier (and more logical to me, personally) to have very good sources that could then be made to be dirty or sound 'shitty' in a pleasant, musical way. Seeing as how this video performed, I'll brainstorm how to show that this can be done to demonstrate that.
@ChernobylAudio666 I know what you mean. I struggle the same way to find the balance of proper filth and character while still doing the music justice and conveying properly played parts. Again no disrespect to anyones taste. I am a fellow in the box mixing dude, so I am no exception to my own criticism. But there IS something badass about the fact that darkthrone got those tones in a shack in the woods on the gear they had. Just saying, maybe a young band might want to try saying fuck it and actually try recording in a shack or in a different way to get the source tones rather than a DI into a computer.
I stand back-to-back with you on that against the unwashed hordes of circus imbeciles ( I say that with love) Black Metal has so much blown potential. I think a lot of power is lost in every. Single. Element playing as many notes as possible in a given second. A sonic shmear with little dynamic range and waaay to many un-Abbey Roaded verbs.
This is a hilarious contrast to a video I recently watched where someone made the worst possible mix in the style of your average Trve Kvlt band. Your mix isn't overproduced in the slightest, it sounds very natural/raw. I went to go listen to the original to compare, and for a moment I was wondering "when are they going to cut the lo-fi intro and go into the actual song?" A bit of foolishness on my part lol
This was a cool experiment. However, the "Lo-Fi" production was one of the reasons why early Darkthrone was so good. As the whole point of black metal was, to act like a middle finger to the mainstream.
Honestly, there are no rules in music and taste....so.... However I actually like minimal/analogic sound, lo-fi even.... it applies across the board too, I could not imagine Pornography or Disintegration (The Cure) without the '80s sound! What's normally awful, enhances those records! Good work, btw.... I'm just trying to elaborate, it's not a critique! Eheh
Musically it's still worthless, but you indeed made it sound sonically good, and not even by doing all kinds of crazy trickery. Just the most basic stuff and smart decisions that simply make sense.
Been composing and playing Black Metal for almost 3 decades now and I´ve been saying exactly that for almost half the time: If Black Metal have had much better production it´d been much better; take Emperor for example, that´s a band with superb riffs, if half of their albums been recorded and produced properly they´re been way better than they already were and still heavy as F***, many of the "golden era" records have such amazing riffs but half are unintelligible, so what´s the point then? When Dimmu re-recorded Stormblast it make a good, solid point right there and it wouldn´t been more commercial, people wouldn´t even got near that anyways. Good production doesn´t take away your credibility, evilness or whatever, it just makes music sounds better and fortunately most bands are noticing and being aware of that, professional or not.
I couldn't imagine listening to In the Nightside Eclipse in any other way than how it was recorded. Some were prevuous demos but I like to "find" the riffs buried under the production in black metal. Too many modern bands I can hear the melodic riffs and everything else out the gate. No mystique or mystery.
This sounds like McDonalds tastes: generic. Black metal was born because death metal turned more digestible along the way. Extreme music will and should always divide. A fuck you is a fuck you, no matter how crooked the finger is. Black metal is pure. That’s the point.
Wish alot recordings sounded better, not just black metal. Early death metal, thrash metal. Example. Megadeth killing is my buisness or early sepultura.
I like the sounds of those early recordings, something about it makes the music better to me. However, I do wish they'd release a remastered version. I'm hoping for a remastered Schizophrenia
Came out good. 🤘 I can remember first getting onto Black Metal 20 years ago. My first question to the record shop owner was... why does it sound like shit😂
More elaborated sound, some Black metal is just poor productions, but that's what they want to project, Respectable but for those who love great productions and invest time and money on that as me, I prefer bombastic and complex productions, just my opinion
You call your metal black? Nah final result is an objective improvement. I like early Darkthrone and think that sound is important, especially considering the simplicity the music and often poor performances... but Transylvanian Hunger is such a terrible sounding album. Really cool to hear a faithful recreation.
There are lofi black metal bands that came out with hi-fi stuff and nobody really likes it. Imagine if a band like Keys to the Astral Gates and Mystic Doors were all of a sudden hi-fi and produced to this standard? hahaha at least half of their fanbase would go meh and move on. Maybe I'm wrong...
Oof. Ouch. Right in the stomach. The crown jewel of black metal underground culture becoming a disposable toy for the youtube content-machine and its mashup culture to chew and spit on. Usually I would be mad and say some nasty words but I'm just sad. That's enough internet for the day.
@@ChernobylAudio666 Don't take it that personally, my critique is aimed at the culture that encourages this behavior, not you. But if I was making clickbait junk for youtube I would grow a thicker skin instead of harassing viewers.
Black metal desperately needed this 20+ years ago. A lot of knuckleheads ruined their own art out of a misplaced desire to 'l33t' and 'pure'. Would love to see stuff from Diabolical Masquerade, early Arcturus/Ulver, Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse given this treatment.
I honestly don‘t think Darkthrone really sounded like shit. That special „necro“ sound was an integral and deliberate part of their music.
That's bullshit. That's what a bunch of edgy Norwegian teens said in interviews to sound way cooler than they actually were.
They were beginners, they had no money, they had very limited understanding of what the hell they were doing, but since they also had an axe to grind with "false metal", the only out they had was "yeah its totally supposed to sound like that".
I´m sure they were keenly aware that their recordings were awful.
Agreed.
Agree regarding their original sound but Transylvanian Hunger is on another level. Trve ass (imo)
now it sounds like dark funeral
0:35 "more people would enjoy it"......... that's the part you don't get.....
Spot on
No, that's the part you don't get.
@@ChernobylAudio666 I totally agree with you mister nice beard. I really did'nt know them until today, because of: exactly what you said. I now listened to some songs and they sound like my first recordings with all those masked frequencies. I totally believe, that I would have listened to them before today, if they had a sound guy like you! My honest and biggest respect!
@@ChernobylAudio666 but you never truly understand unless you've ever been there
Exactly! Trve Kvlt Black Metal is meant to be Raw and Original, not that clean "Black Metal" shit! I agree with your opinion, shit it's not just an opinion. It's straight facts!
The fact that you have to front load this with so many careful caveats, tells you everything you need to know about black metal fans 😃🌈
I'm still waiting for the onslaught, lol
wHaT thE fvCk diD yoV jVst sAid?!?! 🤬 ... haha
RIP your inbox lol
Love it. Doesn't sound overproduced by any means, but gives a much less unflattering presentation to the musicality of the song than the original. Black metal needs more of this.
Sounds great. You really pissed off the Trve Kvlt dudes though 🤣
Well, it was an expected reaction haha
If you piss off the ideological fanatics you are probably doing it right.
@@Imperialomen stop using big words to sound smart just call it elitism like it is 😭
@@youtubsux-z4f it's worst than elitism we are talking about extremism, it's worst. Words are important and I choose the words I use very carefully.
@@Imperialomen in a world like this, you call bm fans extremists? Why?
You took all the magic out of it and it transformed into a current generic blackmetal sound. It can help new people enter the genre. It's not that I'm a necrosound fan but there are productions that need that style of sound
imagine getting called out at the start of the video and still commenting.
@@Mrvegas6666 I don't think his comment really represents the kind of dogmatic, closed-minded view that was called out at the beginning. He gave it a listen and just didn't like the effect of the more polished production. I felt the same way about it, though it was still interesting to hear the song like this.
I agree with what you're saying 💯%... however I do understand what Scott is saying here too... that Black Metal does not appeal to the masses! I believe Black Metal is cool when it's "raw" is because the listener is supposed to be "scared" and people are "scared" by the odd or unusual... so the odd or unusual is in the unbalanced nature of the mix! Black metal emphasizes certain elements while disregarding other elements to make the listener feel unsettled... I'd actually love to hear Scott come up with a shitty Black Metal mix! Because I actually feel like that is still "mixed"!... perhaps an overembellishment of a positive aspect of the song!
@@Mrvegas6666Imagine voicing an opinion contrary to others!!
@@corrupted_realm Nope. I'm replying to the guy who called out the comment, like he wasn't allowed to express it! Also, his comment was fine
This is like when George Lucas added a bunch of CGI in the original Star Wars triology.
I didn't add anything extra, just subtracted the shitty frequencies xD
@@ChernobylAudio666You added a bass guitar by subtracring fequencies? ;)
@@4rkham there is a bass in the original ;)
I love the early 90s BM albums but I would also love it if someone did this sort of thing with all of them. Especially In the Nightside Eclipse. There are so many great passages in that record that I would love to hear properly for once.
Exactly what I just posted. Yeah, right? so many good albums/sonds that would been phenomenal and better with proper production.
Seas of Unrest by Darkmoon is at the top of my list of black metal albums I wish had been recorded and engineered semi properly. It's a masterpiece and deserves a remaster but I feel like it would be difficult to fix.
THIS is the kind of content I was looking for. Thank You.
Not a criticism, but the low fi raw sound adds alot to the atmosphere. Its like the 1st Sabbath album, raw as hell, but no way you'd change it.
Finally, I can see myself flip flopping through a forest in High Def!
Haha, that one made me chuckle, nice one lol
Send a link to Fenriz. 🤘🏻
Cool video man, sounded good!
Having heard a few black metal interviews, I feel like it wasn't actually what they wanted sonically, but they just came up with an excuse for not having a lot of production knowledge or poor recording situations. A lot of the early Mayhem stage antics weren't really designed to do much other than mess with people (if you didn't leave the venue after the pig skulls got thrown into the crowd, then you would miss the last train home) and fill time when there wasn't a vocal part (or they forgot their lines).
can't find the link to the full song
Sorry, I didn't do a full playthrough or a full song, this was just an experiment to see if people would actually care to hear something like this--but this is something to consider for me now!
Would you share the multitrack for mixing trainning? Could be even the processed tracks. I liked your mix, but I would love to change some things. :D
The shitty production is part of the gatekeeping. The casual listener doesn't like bad production. The initiated fan will like it though. It's like any other extreme metal. There are black metal bands with good production out there. The new Tsjuder is a good example.
I wish you've done another experiment and replicated their sound. It's not a challenge to make everything crisp and well polished with modern software cause it was created to make it that way.
TH is really funny cuz they never really got that raw before and after again. I think Fenriz dubbed it "the height of their insanity."
Bad production was never a goal in itself. At the time (and even more so today), there was a tendency to hide bad songwriting beneath slick studio production and pointless technical prowess. Who cares how many scales you know or how your instruments sound when you have nothing to say? I'd say production is irrelevant as long as you can actually hear what's being played.
When you buy your instruments at a supermarket and record them into a headset, you have nothing left to lean on but the actual music. It's a self-imposed limitation meant to improve yourself.
Gorguts did a similar thing when they wrote Obscura. They intentionally avoided muted chord riffing, because that had become a stock technique people relied on to just functionally drag the song along. What happens when you strip away surface techniques like that and force yourself to keep writing? Well, the music can go to some very interesting places.
"It's just fun, okay?"
👿👿👿
I'm old and was around when all this came out. I get the atmosphere they were creating but could only take one or two songs before it was fatiguing. I could listen to an album of this production
Those bands were making due with what they knew and could afford at the time. MOST of them had their production work evolve as they learned and could afford better gear, and more time/expertise in the studio. Even Burzum albums got better quality, and he still insisted on doing things himself.
I think you did a great job of keeping the raw energy, and unpolished feel of the OG, but making it clear enough that you can actually distinguish the instruments and enjoy it without needing to be in the right headspace.
That ended up sounding pretty great! It's definitely an interesting experiment. A lot of early extreme metal in general was plagued by questionable production, whether by choice or not. Ulver's Nattens Madrigal always stuck out to me, given how good the acoustics sound the rest of it has to be a choice. But, there's a lot of really incredible music in there that I feel like gets a bit lost in the production. And this is coming from someone (as you well know) that genuinely does like a lot of that early production sound. All that said, you managed a pretty good middle ground here, looking forward to more!
Now, my mate, it sounds like sheet.
Must say
It sounds like a white piece of paper? Interesting!
@@ChernobylAudio666 yeeeep a big sheeet! Interesting how a death metal musician and producer with a death metal singer are teaching us how old school BM should sound in order to be enjoyed by more people.
Next time teach us how NSBM should talk about LGBT rights in order to be enjoyed by a vast audience, 💕
Oh man, do this with some old synthy stuff like from For All Tid
Now let's do this experiment on Diabolical Masquerade stuff xD
Great experiment...While i love the old recordings (They give me this nostalgic feeling) i definitely prefer this approach because it is more balanced and a lot more chungy and fat and clearer at the same time...Awesome work as usual 🔥🔥🔥
I think I'll always have a soft spot for those old recordings, but when bands go for the necro trve kvlt sound these days, I view it more as a crutch to hide poor songwriting. Your version sounds rad, despite my incredibly hurt butt. The mix kinda reminds me of Totenwache.
Oh, And also, Massacre frakin rules.
You should check out Moonblood rehearsals for the kind of sound where you can't hear the guitar, only drums, vocals and feedback. That's what I would touch up and like to see as a remaster, because why spend time recording something, even if trve kvlt necro, if you can't even hear half of the instrumentalization. Other than that, I like it as underproduced as possible, no matter if bm or DM, but I can also live with some mixing
I love it! some of my fave BM sounds so harsh I get ear fatigue listening to it so I don't. Some of these have fantastic song structures that are melodic as hell but are overlooked because of the "necro" recordings.
This video really showed how important production ( or lack thereof) is in black metal. I'm not a huge black metal fan but this "natural" production did not work with this song in my opinion. I thought it didn't work because the end result felt bare and underwhelming. I think metal sounds best if you exaggerate it in some way. The default way people exaggerate black metal is by drowning it in distortion 😂 .
Awesome as usual! Love the PSA at the start!
Fine work, Scott. I like the old productions, but they do get fatiguing. Better production gives a much enhanced listening experience.
Pardon my ignorance, where is the playthrough?
End of the video \m/
When I was a teenager every young "guitarist" would have loved two things: 1) To play fast as hell (shred till your fingers fall off!); 2) To have the same sound of John Petrucci (compressed, clean and "round").... Now I'd love to be able to reproduce the sound of Tony Iommi in Vol.4 or the sound of early(??) Candlemass (listen to the solo of "Bewitched"....etc...)! On the other hand, "shredding" is still a thing....lol
Love this, i honestly feel the same. Always loved balck metal, but the production lets it down massively. This is awesome
I never thought this album sounded like shit..but I know what you're saying.
Also I don't think the point of black metal was ever or should ever be to try and attract as many fans as possible.
It gets diluted and changed into something it isnt..kind of like whats happened with death metal 🙄
Sounds great, and the overall black metal vibe is definitely there. The sound of many of those classic albums is, like you said, undeniably part of the genre’s cultural phenomenon and ethos. But by today’s standards, it’s quite hard to sit through and enjoy those mixes for long-unless someone is truly willing to isolate themselves, embrace all the noise, and embark on a sensory journey into the abyss.
Early 90s BM is basically teenagers figuring out their amateur or home recordings skills with cheap gear, not following any rules, just distilling pure energy, hatred, symbolism and trance. There was no DAWs, no Money for Studiorecordings. They're also came out of the 80s where Rock and Metal was at top of the Mainstream. They don't gave a fuck if "people would enjoy" and Darkthrone still do it that way.
This just sounds like modern black metal, great mix even if it's not my cup of BM tea.
I like it. Next time maybe a longer playthrough? Please! 😊
Haha this was an initial experiment but looks like it could turn into something!
Killer video Scott. I gotta admit. I like grimy sound of old school punk and black metal but I like your take too. Your productions are always killer.
i hate when bands reissue albums 30 yrs later trying to polish the OG mix-- keep it real
Gehenna already did Transilvanian Hunger with a little bit more "production". The Gehenna version is a very good cover.
We want GRAUSAMKEIT next! 👿
I skipped the talking part after minute and I wonder could this be titled as
DARKTHRONE - transylvanian hunger cover
Or was there something mixed in from actual album
Talking parts are important. They provide context and information, often to a degree that would answer questions you might have! 👍
@ yes, anyway cool cover. First thought from title was remastering..
But yeah a most thinnest sounding album from DT so to speak.
Didint matter back in the late -90 with cassplayer and beer in a plastic back😆
Now add vinyl/cassette saturation.
I am not a Blackmetal expert by any means. As I am older now i appreciate the genre. But if back in the day it sounded like this, I may have gotten into it earlier. Great vid Scott!
Just found your channel. Subbed. There aren't too many black metal channels out there. Keep it up. 🤘🏼
Hey man, thanks! Yep... I do extreme/black/death metal only!
@@ChernobylAudio666 Hey, even if you only do black metal occasionally I'm with it. 👍🏼 Too many channels don't do black metal at all.
I'm convinced that a lot of this stuff is just pure nostalgia and pointless gatekeeping. It's like being nostalgic for big fat scan lines on old tv's and fuzzy picture quality on VHS tapes. It was part of what people had to deal with back then, and maybe that era is emotionally comfy for you... but it wasn't an "aesthetic choice". It's just what we had. No one in their right mind would go, "oh man, John Wick would have been sooo much better if it was viewed on a shitty VHS tape"... UNLESS watching it that way takes you "back to the good ol' days".
These bands didn't have any fucking money, or good equipment... they just made some shitty recordings of interesting and original music, and when people rightly pointed out that the sound quality sucked, their pride and lack of ability to simply admit they were broke and couldn't do any better. This led them to act like it was intentional, and then after that they probably continued to do it out of spite. But really... you think these dudes knew ANYTHING about recording? Oh, sure, they COULD have made a really nice sounding recording with lots of expensive mics and proper engineering, but in their infinite adolescent wisdom simply CHOSE to record the whole album with two SM 57's. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Like, why is this narrative even a thing? They weren't creating a recording aesthetic or mood... they were broke. No labels were ready to throw production budget behind that sound. The music was too new, too aggressive, and definitely too evil. It's not a coincidence that my first recordings of thrash metal just happened to share similar production quality with black metal classics. I didn't have any equipment, and I didn't know what I was doing. I just wanted to get the sound onto a tape, and while I got it there, it sounded awful. The difference is, I don't pretend that's how I wanted it to sound.
I think black metal DOES need some grit, dirt, high end bite, and sometimes even the reverb can be cool, but you can get there without throwing away all of your production knowledge and solid recording/mixing practices. Sanding it down to inoffensive, standard rock/metal tones isn't the way, but... come on. Those early recordings sucked and hold back the music, and if the black metal community had any capacity for self-awareness, they'd admit that immediately.
I think we all know that's not going to happen, though. The whole concept and argument are both so dumb lol.
Sorry, I have to say it, but that "being resourceful with a four-tracker" aspect is really an important element in Transilvainian Hunger, as well as the Isengard Pagan Metal stuff that Fenriz did. There's a reason why this sound is still sought out by listeners, and it's even more relevant in this day and age, where on one hand you have VSTs dominating the production world, and on the other you have all these countless boring so-called "Raw Black Metal" and only a few really know how to do it tastefully.
I already knew how this song sounded with clean production as Gehenna ruined it when they covered it for Darkthrone Holy Darkthrone. However, I did appreciate the demonstration, and I think this actually sounds less "wrong" than the Gehenna cover version.
This was a cool experiment! It’s great. I do not enjoy overly produced black metal. Behemoth is a bit hard for me to get into and along with later Dimmu and Cradle albums. 20 years ago, I had a district manger tell me the reason that they got into hardcore was because of As I Lay Dying’s slick production and it sounded “better” tho him compared to other albums he had heard previously. I found that to be insightful.
ngl.. at first, I thought the comment section was going to be a massacre, that out of the way... some creative stuff I was not expecting! SMG ELE Drums are pure fire!!! imo!! I'm guessing you did velocity variation just enough for it not to sound robotic, but still solid all along the song. BTW this made me ready pull the trigger on Neural Fortin!! so lmk if you have an affiliate link!! I really liked the result, the essence is still there, but the end result sounds really wide, balanced and modern!! Awesome stuff!
I'm also not going to lie, I was prepared to be stabbed and burned without mercy, lol. I don't have an affiliate link for the Neural stuff, but can highly recommend!
@@ChernobylAudio666 bummer... paging @NeuralDSP this guy needs to be on your radar! Keep it up man!!
Hell Yea! Fuckin awesome!! Darkthrone is one of my all time favorites, even all the way back to Soulside Journey. I think you should definitely do more old school black metal🤘🏻🤘🏻
To anyone that doesn’t know the back story, Transylvanian Hunger sounds like shit because Peaceville was treating Darkthrone like shit and pressured them to release a new album, so they recorded it with a 4-track tape recorder and mailed it to Peaceville.
I would love to see you do grausamkeit. If you think darkthrone sounds bad you need to listen to grausamkeit
This sounds fiiiireeeeee haha 🤘🤘I'm happy that Transilvanian Hunger finally has bass :D haha
Fucking SICK my dude!!
I like your version, if only the reverb on Toma could had more verb it would more great
Cool experiment. I APPRECIATE THAT YOU DID THIS. Now that I have that out of the way (and hopefully all the fellow keyboard opinion-givers can prepare for my incoming verboten hot take): I also think it just makes the song sound like everything else in BM right now. I don't hate it, I just don't care about it at all - which is probably worse if you are a producer looking to give a "breakout" band a "breakout sound". Nekro production is what made BM stand out in first place. Any person with an amp and drum sim could get this result with stock plugins. Therefore let it be semi-anathema or whatever. Or don't, who cares.
Also, I hate that everyone has to give a trigger warning now about a difference of opinion. sheesh, when did metalheads turn into a bunch of pansies.
There that's it, It's okay everyone, no one got hurt. Everyone is allowed their stupid opinion. I will go back to my cave now.
Tr00 kvlt elitists be tr00 kvlting! When I mix black metal clients I clearly put a lot more work into a unique guitar tone with more balls, but it's still significantly easier (and more logical to me, personally) to have very good sources that could then be made to be dirty or sound 'shitty' in a pleasant, musical way. Seeing as how this video performed, I'll brainstorm how to show that this can be done to demonstrate that.
@ChernobylAudio666 I know what you mean. I struggle the same way to find the balance of proper filth and character while still doing the music justice and conveying properly played parts.
Again no disrespect to anyones taste. I am a fellow in the box mixing dude, so I am no exception to my own criticism. But there IS something badass about the fact that darkthrone got those tones in a shack in the woods on the gear they had. Just saying, maybe a young band might want to try saying fuck it and actually try recording in a shack or in a different way to get the source tones rather than a DI into a computer.
I stand back-to-back with you on that against the unwashed hordes of circus imbeciles ( I say that with love) Black Metal has so much blown potential. I think a lot of power is lost in every. Single. Element playing as many notes as possible in a given second. A sonic shmear with little dynamic range and waaay to many un-Abbey Roaded verbs.
Sounds good to me 🤘
This is ALOT better then a lot of old school black metal but it’s just the vocals I can’t stand
You might like the Russian black metal band Second to Sun then, they release instrumental versions of their albums.
This is a hilarious contrast to a video I recently watched where someone made the worst possible mix in the style of your average Trve Kvlt band. Your mix isn't overproduced in the slightest, it sounds very natural/raw. I went to go listen to the original to compare, and for a moment I was wondering "when are they going to cut the lo-fi intro and go into the actual song?" A bit of foolishness on my part lol
PLEASE make this a series!!!! I always thought Bergtrollets Hevn by Gorgoroth needed a re-recording given it sounds amazing live.
Exactly! so many gems there and would sound way better with proper production.
Sick this is amazing
This was a cool experiment. However, the "Lo-Fi" production was one of the reasons why early Darkthrone was so good. As the whole point of black metal was, to act like a middle finger to the mainstream.
Honestly, there are no rules in music and taste....so.... However I actually like minimal/analogic sound, lo-fi even.... it applies across the board too, I could not imagine Pornography or Disintegration (The Cure) without the '80s sound! What's normally awful, enhances those records! Good work, btw.... I'm just trying to elaborate, it's not a critique! Eheh
Musically it's still worthless, but you indeed made it sound sonically good, and not even by doing all kinds of crazy trickery. Just the most basic stuff and smart decisions that simply make sense.
Been composing and playing Black Metal for almost 3 decades now and I´ve been saying exactly that for almost half the time: If Black Metal have had much better production it´d been much better; take Emperor for example, that´s a band with superb riffs, if half of their albums been recorded and produced properly they´re been way better than they already were and still heavy as F***, many of the "golden era" records have such amazing riffs but half are unintelligible, so what´s the point then? When Dimmu re-recorded Stormblast it make a good, solid point right there and it wouldn´t been more commercial, people wouldn´t even got near that anyways. Good production doesn´t take away your credibility, evilness or whatever, it just makes music sounds better and fortunately most bands are noticing and being aware of that, professional or not.
I couldn't imagine listening to In the Nightside Eclipse in any other way than how it was recorded. Some were prevuous demos but I like to "find" the riffs buried under the production in black metal. Too many modern bands I can hear the melodic riffs and everything else out the gate. No mystique or mystery.
I hate that you did this but it sounds amazing!
Yeah this is a great idea!
This sounds like McDonalds tastes: generic. Black metal was born because death metal turned more digestible along the way.
Extreme music will and should always divide.
A fuck you is a fuck you, no matter how crooked the finger is.
Black metal is pure. That’s the point.
I think you should remix the whole album! This sounds amazing.
I think this is worse
Now do soulside jouney but with gojira production
Wish alot recordings sounded better, not just black metal. Early death metal, thrash metal. Example. Megadeth killing is my buisness or early sepultura.
I like the sounds of those early recordings, something about it makes the music better to me. However, I do wish they'd release a remastered version. I'm hoping for a remastered Schizophrenia
Came out good. 🤘
I can remember first getting onto Black Metal 20 years ago.
My first question to the record shop owner was... why does it sound like shit😂
For me, the unappealing part of black metal is somewhat the shitty recordings, but mostly the edgelord bullshit.
This sounds good, dude. I dig it.
black metal with good production isnt black metal but i agree with the edgelord BS
Please do immortal
The more black metal content the better 🤘
What kind of nonsense is this? Blasphemy! 😅
Black metal fans when they hear anything other than white noise 😡😡😡
😂
🤘🔥
More elaborated sound, some Black metal is just poor productions, but that's what they want to project, Respectable but for those who love great productions and invest time and money on that as me, I prefer bombastic and complex productions, just my opinion
There you ruined totally! 👎🏽👎🏽
I would definitely listen to the album more than I do the original if it sounded like this.
You call your metal black?
Nah final result is an objective improvement. I like early Darkthrone and think that sound is important, especially considering the simplicity the music and often poor performances... but Transylvanian Hunger is such a terrible sounding album. Really cool to hear a faithful recreation.
There are lofi black metal bands that came out with hi-fi stuff and nobody really likes it. Imagine if a band like Keys to the Astral Gates and Mystic Doors were all of a sudden hi-fi and produced to this standard? hahaha at least half of their fanbase would go meh and move on. Maybe I'm wrong...
Sounds way better still not gonna be a fan of the genre though.
Oof. Ouch. Right in the stomach. The crown jewel of black metal underground culture becoming a disposable toy for the youtube content-machine and its mashup culture to chew and spit on. Usually I would be mad and say some nasty words but I'm just sad. That's enough internet for the day.
Yes, go to bed, make sure your Mommy turns on the nightlamp for you after she finishes reading "The Little Engine That Could." You'll be okay, buddy!
@@ChernobylAudio666 Don't take it that personally, my critique is aimed at the culture that encourages this behavior, not you. But if I was making clickbait junk for youtube I would grow a thicker skin instead of harassing viewers.
Thanks Scott ! 🤘🏻 Now i can listen to Darkthrone 😁
ulver - nattens madrigal would benefit greatly from a better sound
nice. close to shit but not shit.
Black metal desperately needed this 20+ years ago. A lot of knuckleheads ruined their own art out of a misplaced desire to 'l33t' and 'pure'. Would love to see stuff from Diabolical Masquerade, early Arcturus/Ulver, Emperor's In The Nightside Eclipse given this treatment.
Why do you sound so mad about black metal fans, did one of them wrong you at some point in your life?
Are you actually concerned or not really? Be honest.
Adults in the room. Black metal fans. One of these things is not like the other.
Sounded great. Really cool experiment.