raw or polished production?

First, I'd like to say that this is my first post. I'm pretty stoked: I've been checking this forum out for about two years, but, for why I don't know, didn't sign up until now. As a 20 year old male in Victoria, BC, I can say it's nice to be able to finally be with my own kind of people (not the fancy club goers we have here).

Anyway, what do you guys think about modern, overly-polished production in (most) metal albums?

I think it's safe to say that most rock'n'roll enthusiasts prize raw production that resembles albums of the 70s (I'm one of them). But, metal is a different story: as a much more musically dynamic and intellectually engaging genre, does metal require the better technology to do justice to the art? Perhaps old-school thrash bands would better fit raw production, but more technical metal seems to sound much better with the elaborare production.

old school death metal >>>>>>> RAW

uncle saxon's cold shower rendition of BRITNEY doing WHITNEY

'I WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU' >>>>>> POLISHED

:hails: :hails:

For me it depends on the musical style. For punk, sleaze, glam I like raw production. For symphonic, industrial and power metal, I like polished.

For instance, a slick production of The Clash or Rancid wouldn't sound right. But a raw production of something like Nightwish or Therion would sound like a mess.

Quote :

For me it depends on the musical style.

Exactly! To me they both have their place.


Welcome dude!!

Yeah, I agree with Toho, it completely depends on the band and the music. For instance, I think bands like Nevermore benefit hugely from Andy Sneap's slick production ways.

worst production

sheesh

SEARING MEADOW - corroding from the inside

you can't hear the vocals WHATSOEVER over the guitars

besides that it would be an awesome melodic death metal album!!!!!

Even raw production should still sound decent. Lizzy Borden's "Starwood" project is a prime example of lousy production ruining an album. Great sleazy, punk/metal that sounds like it's being played through a transistor radio.

Welcome, production is never really much of an issue with me as long as the music is good. The production would have to be phenomally (sic) bad for me to reject it for that reason. So basicaly which ever one inhances the music better gets my vote (in other words-some music works better raw, some music works better polished).

Welcome to the board Firehouse,I like it either way depending on the music.Theres alot to be said for raw,biting,energetic production

I agree with the "depends on what kind of music" thought.

For example, a raw thrash or death band shouldn't have overly high production values. It takes away from the music itself. I guess that's why I don't care for Death after Spiritual Healing.
However, a singer like Ozzy needs high production values because he's a terrible singer and a low production value would reveal that he sounds like a dying bovine in real life.

Depends on the band.Take a band like "Ratt" and i think their best stuff was their earlier material where it was well produced but had alot of edge and rawness to it.The latter years of that band suffered from "overproduction"-of course the songwriting was better early on as well.Some bands do benefit from having the producer take the reins,however.Having dealt with a couple engineers/producers (unless you get a good one )i believe their main job is to F things up.

On this subject, I think that many modern bands that have the "slick" production values are at a disadvantage because of it. They start to sound too samey. I think that is just a downfall of the digital age. An analog propduction sounds warmer and fuller to me.

For example, take Queensryche's debut EP. The lower production value on that one enhances those songs, IMO. Same for many of the early Metal Blade releases like the Omen albums or Nasty Savage albums. Their less than stellar production values add a special something to those albums. Can you imagine how different an album like "You Can't Stop RNR" would sound with a digitally clean production? It would ruin the whole feel of that album.

differebt bands have different sounds, in both style & production. i love the raw, grim sound of Darkthrone, however, i wouldn't want to hear Nevermore attempt it. they sound much better crisp & polished.

It does depend on the style in my opinion, for punk, thrash, death its all about raw natural, unashamed, unexperienced, etc. But if your listening to symphonic/ melodic metal it has to be refined. It all depends on the mood thats trying to be relayed to the listener.

Is it possible we universally agree???

I think most metal heads would echo this line of thinking. If you are Black/Death/Thrash only maybe you don't care, or if you're Melodic/AOR only you always want crisp, clean sounds. But I think most metal heads have broad enough tastes where they would say, like we all have, "It depends".

I love my black/thrash/death/old speed metal/punk metal/thrashcore RAW AND PRIMATIVE and i also love many raw heavy metal bands too. My HARD AOR, MELODIC HARD ROCK, GLAM METAL etc....is okay RAW or POLISHED.

Raw like sushi.

I'm with what everyone else said. But I do have a soft spot for the rawer productions. It always seemed to have more heart. I tend to connect to it faster. As Spectre said, it sounds "warmer and fuller".

Depends on the band!

Depends on the album and the band. But I do lean more towards rawer production, I hate it when albums are overpolished

Honestly? I have no problem when a band's first couple of albums are raw, but when it's there WHOLE FREAKIN' CATALOUGE, I have a problem with that.

For example, I happen to be a fan of black metal (both first and second wave), but my one pet peeve about the genre is that most of these bands choose to keep a raw, underbudget producton style even after they manage to sign million dollar recording contracts. Now, this isn't true for all of them (take Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir, even Dark Funeral), and even the independent ones (like Summoning) manage to ramp up the production values over time. But dammit people, at some point you gotta start putting more cash into the studio.

I mean, I understand alot of these bands are more of a hobby than anything, but c'mon.......even Summoning can make well-produced albums and they aren't even that big of sellers!

I think part of it has to do with the idea of "selling out". Look at how badly people started ragging on CoF once they started making well produced albums.

I'm definitely more on the melodic side of things around here, but there are a lot of albums I own in the 'hair metal' or AOR genres that I wish had the guitars beefed up a bit (or a lot).

I like raw stuff. If it is overpolished it sounds like crap IMO but I hate when the " most kvlt, most gr1m!" black metal bands have super raw production so that you can't hear anything. An album like "Transilvanian Hunger" has production I like. But then again it does sometimes matter on the genre.

Depends on the band/album for me... if it's a collection of good songs, they can overcome a bad production job (most of the time).. i.e. Twisted Sister's STAY HUNGRY. As mentioned in another thread, the production on that album blows ass, but it's still a classic disc.

However, all the fancy production tricks in the world can not turn bad songs into good ones.

if the metal is great, i don't give a fakk for the production...i'll leave it for the "critics".... i'll never change some killer 80's demotapes, even if some sound like they were produced in the bottom of the well, for nowadays productions.....