Questionable production: amazing results

[Pedrito]

Some of my favourite albums are buried in a production that shouldn't have worked but just make them sound even better.

While I wouldn't say Cirith Ungol's King of the Dead is awful by any means, it's clear it's a shoestring job and it sounds all the better for it. Actually it adds a mystique and otherworldly/cavernois vibe to the album that just transports me immediately to dimensions unknown..the stars aligned for it.

Some of my favourite ever music by the Misfits or Samhain is tin can alley stuff but I wouldn't change it for the world.

What are your favourite albums that would have the sound engineers out there reaching for the flamethrower?

[ochoill]

Mayhem "Ordo Ad Chao".  I fuckin love it and wouldn't have it sound any other way, but from a technical standpoint it is muck.  Suits the album down to a tee, and a perfect example of producing to suit an atmosphere rather than a crispy clean product.

Mr. Bungle "California" - in a different aspect, this sounds immaculate and again is made in a very particular way, using the production as an instrument as well as a required process.  But Trey Spruance's description of the process is absolutely demented and would surely drive most modern producers into a fit.  It was done all analog, but still used something like 64 tracks a song, manually punching in tracks onto each other, a few lads moving faders to get it to tape right, with spruance basically organising the chaos.  The whole linked interview is great anyway if you're a Mr. Bungle fan.  Again not bad production, by any means, but unfathomable method.

I could pull 100 older albums out of the hat that sound shocking by modern standards but work great for the music or era, but those are two recent ones I was thinking about.

[Ducky]

Under the Sign of the Black Mark sounds like total shit but you'd never have it any other way.

The oomph in the drums really makes up for its basic nature.

[Eoin McLove]

90% of my record collection.

[Eoin McLove]

The likes of Burzum and Darkthrone made it an art form.  Using minimalism in production terms to achieve something that was anachronistic and sounded threatening, cold and anti-social. I remember hearing that stuff on the metal show as a kid and being creeped out by it.  I was too young to get it and it affected me to just hear something so cold and ancient sounding.  I knew next to nothing about it but the sound made me think it came from some backwards,  lawless and dangerous place where life was miserable and medieval. Little did I know that that was the exact effect they were going for.  Truly amazing vision.

[Wiseblood]

Megadeth - So Far... So Good... So What!

Way too much reverb, weirdly recorded drums etc but it perfectly captures the feeling that Mustaine was off his nut on lots of drugs.  The result is disjointed, manic and claustrophobic sounding but utterly perfect also.

[blessed1]

Maidens debut.
This is one of my favourite albums of theirs but I wish the production was more like killers.
Such a flat sound on it and no it doesn't make it better sounding to me. Just sounds shit but the songs are really amazing.

[blessed1]

The likes of Burzum and Darkthrone made it an art form.  Using minimalism in production terms to achieve something that was anachronistic and sounded threatening, cold and anti-social. I remember hearing that stuff on the metal show as a kid and being creeped out by it.  I was too young to get it and it affected me to just hear something so cold and ancient sounding.  I knew next to nothing about it but the sound made me think it came from some backwards,  lawless and dangerous place where life was miserable and medieval. Little did I know that that was the exact effect they were going for.  Truly amazing vision.

I always wondered about this.
Did they actually know what they were doing or was  it just a case of not having any money and just recording on the cheap.

[Juggz]

Burzum, for sure, was intentionally shit sounding.

[Juggz]

No Place for Disgrace by Flotsam & Jetsam. It's fucking abysmal sounding. Every instrument sounds individually terrible and when you mix them altogether... ouch. Fuck knows what they were thinking but I love that album. They released a re-recorded version a few years ago with a much better mix, it sounds really good, really punchy.

It just doesn't cut it, though. That shit old mix has a vibe about it which you just can't beat.

[Juggz]

I'd also nominate everything Michael Rosen produced. He did something horrible to distorted guitars, some awful processing which sucked the life out of them but the thrash stuff he did is timeless.

[The Heretic]

Bathory

[Pedrito]

Holy Terror Mind Wars is one where I think a modern clean sound would have detracted from a certain claustraphobia and frenzy that tears from the speakers.

Black metal is almost the opposite of what I'm talking about in that them old Burzum albums would sound ridiculous panned and upfront. Amazing art really when you think of how the 'poor' production became almost as important as the actual music in that regard.

[Makeshiftatomsmasher]

Obituary. Slowly we rot. Love that dank rotten tone on it. The mix/master job they did few years ago proved just how much the original  worked.

[Carnage]

I always hated the production on Slowly We Rot, it sounds really flat to me. Admittedly, I haven't heard the remaster but I thought Cause Of Death sounded much better, apart from the muffled cymbals (a few of Scott Burns' albums are like this, Human and (the worst culprit) Harmony Corruption spring to mind).