Questionable production: amazing results

[Motörbastard]

Blasphemy: Fallen Angel Of Doom....

[Tee]

I'm really not a fan of Scott Burns production at all, but he produced some of my favourite metal albums. Morbid angel, death, sepultura etc. These are good despite the production though and you've just grown up with them that way. If they had better production initially, fuck knows how good they could have been.
In the case of Burzum and the likes, the minimalist production goes hand in hand with the material and enhances it somewhat. Filosofem  really has that ancient, hypnotic vibe. Nattens madrigal and pure holocaust are also great examples of raw recordings where the riffs really stand out and the production just suits the pace and atmosphere of the music.

[Yolo Swaggins]

Anybody have any links to any of the early BM bands discussing their recording techniques and aesthetic choices regarding their production? I was always of the mind that at the genres inception the cold nasty production was a happy conincedence rather than something deliberate and would love some insight from the minds behind such a genre defining approach to production.

[Juggz]

I remember reading an interview with Vikernes where he talked about using the studio headphones as a microphone (they're essentially the same concept just polar opposite design intention, a vibrating diaphragm which converts a sound to electrical energy vs a vibrating diaphragm which converts electrical energy into sound) which will work as a mic, but badly, and a crap amp. In fact, it might not even have been a guitar amp but running the guitar through a shit hi-fi or something along those lines. I have no idea where to find the interview, however.

[Yolo Swaggins]

Now that you mention it I think I recall seeing that as well as an interview with fenriz talking about his old tape decks. Will do some digging so!
Ride for Revenge - The King of snakes is an album that comes to mind. A barbaric and primative production for a barbaric and primative album.

[Eoin McLove]

I completely agree. The King of Snakes is one of the most original and unique sounding records in black metal. Still their best work.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Now that you mention it I think I recall seeing that as well as an interview with fenriz talking about his old tape decks. Will do some digging so!

A whole section on it in Until the Light Takes Us

[Yolo Swaggins]

I completely agree. The King of Snakes is one of the most original and unique sounding records in black metal. Still their best work.

I actually think it was you who put me onto them on the old forum. Much obliged.
Cheers for the until the light takes us shout, I don't think I ever did get round to watching it. Or if I did I didn't commit it to memory.

[lifeeternal]

https://youtu.be/wKZx3uOZt6s
Varg talking about recording the Burzum.
Reverorum ib Malacht - Dé Mysteriis dom Christi is an obvious one, so murky and muddy sounding but a brilliant album

[Pedrito]

I hesitate to put Watchtower's Control and Resistance in this thread..an incredible album, the production is uffff, unusual to say the least, very tinny. It all works, I love it, but does the production 'help' the album or the music in general? Does it create it's own atmosphere? Undoubtedly. That said, I would love to hear them instruments way closer in my ear...ahhh a conundrum, and exactly the conundrum I was posing in creating the thread.

[Juggz]

Control and Resistance is perfect. It's only the guitar which is unusual but, given how Jarzombeck plays, it is an ideal solution to such a unique player. If it were any more beefy the arse would drop out of it when he moved off the low strings, which he does a lot. The bass and drums are all of the meat on that one. The guitar is allowed float over the top. It's a great production.

[Pedrito]

You're right, the guitar would die a death..so a non-questionable recording. Jesus what an album.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Anacrusis - Manic Impressions is similar to that. Just a very weird tinny production yet which seems to fit perfectly with the also very odd music, and especially vocals.

[Juggz]

You're right, the guitar would die a death..so a non-questionable recording. Jesus what an album.

Still nothing else like it

[Juggz]

How about Leprosy and Spiritual Healing? Objectively, they sound fucking terrible, but they're perfect. They could not sound any other way.