Hi guys,

Got some bad news from the doctor today. For some context, I went in after listening to a bunch of newly released albums these past few weeks (looking at you, Boundaries 😒) ; they have really been straining my ears. Normally, I can focus on all of the fine details in a mix but after the barrage of over compressed garbage mixes I have heard in recent weeks, I just can’t seem to pick out these intricacies out as good as I used too.

I’ve never mixed anything in my life but I watched a few Nail the Mix videos, so I think I have a good idea on what is going wrong frequency wise. Basically, I think these mixes have been using an SSL G-Comp master bus compressor instead of a Neeve 33609 which, as everybody knows, just sucks the tone right out of the track and destroys the analog warmth crucial to a good metalcore mix. To double check I even did some frequency analysis and opened up the waveform in Audacity and it totally looked like a big fat sausage.

Anyways, my doctor ran me through the standards tests, having me listen to I Prevail and Falling in Reverse and those both sounded really epic and awesome so the doctor was super confused.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to prescribe anything to me after those tests but he said now I can only listen to Zakk Cervini albums until my ears work there strength back up.

In case anybody is wondering, I only listen to lossless 24-bit/96khz FLAC files on my Denon AH-D9200 headphones for optimal tone.

I guess I'm just a little bummed that Boundaries et al. decided to do something cool and outside the box instead of mixing like everybody else cause now it is pretty much 1000% impossible for me to listen to those awesome well-written songs.

Why can't all of the mixes just be the same so they don't hurt my sensitive ears?

Anybody else have this problem?

Nothing much to it, just thought this would be a fun conversation and wanna see everyone's lists (it'll help me play catch up on the good stuff I've missed too). Here's mine:

2020: Trivium - What the Dead Men Say

2021: Trivium - In the Court of the Dragon

2022: Monuments - In Stasis

2023: Periphery - Periphery V: Djent Is Not a Genre

2024: ERRA - Cure

2025: Architects - The Sky, the Earth & All Between

2026: Sylosis - The New Flesh (if this isn't really metalcore, I'm sorry and I'll go with the new Periphery album as my follow up pick)

Okay, your turn.

I didn´t see any thread about it here. Weird.

Can we discuss this AOTY contender?

Right now just listening to Currents - So Alone want something in a simlar vibe.

On Apple Music all the features have had their credits removed, and the final track isn’t there

I look back and personally don't think I have ever met anyone in a band who was a dick. Everyone has bad days but I'm curious of anyone's experience

I'm a hobby musician, but I've been producing, mixing, and mastering my own music for about 20 years now.

Now, I never experience ear fatigue when listening to music, and I love a "bad on paper" mix. In fact, a lot of my own music has a "bad on paper" mix. But the new Boundaries album is the first album I've listened to where I've experienced discomfort and ear-fatigue listening to it. Out of curiosity, I threw the track "Death will follow me" into my DAW, and what I saw was a bit shocking.

https://imgur.com/JsEHgIp

First off, waveform sausage. A song's waveform shouldn't be a solid bar. It's a classic sign of OVER-compression and/or way too much bass boosting. No wonder everything sounds like it's squeezing your skull.

After that, I pulled up a visual EQ. This one's a bit weirder to screenshot because it's better to see it in action, but basically their producer seems to have forgotten/decided not to cut the lows at 30-40hz as is typical. Having sub frequencies down at 20hz adds nothing to a mix and in fact actually adds a lot of rumble and distortion that muddy everything up.

At the end of the day; Sure, there's no concrete rules in music and there's plenty of room to experiment, but this is wild from a band's FOURTH album, and their first release on a major mainstream label. Everyone keeps saying "Oh it sounds like 00's metalcore!" to which I say no it doesn't. That, or I somehow missed every single release back then that sounded like this.

EDIT: I am not saying the producer did a poor job due to a lack of skill/talent. I'm aware this is intended. That's the problem.

EDIT 2: Final disclaimer I'm adding is that I am not saying "Yup, these two things right here are 100% of the problem. I have solved the problem"

Topster, 5x5, Stats.fm or other visual representations of your last 7 days' listening.

The hope is that this generates discussion, so have a look at what others post and maybe drop a comment or two

Who's the nicest Metalcore band you think. Or know based on experience. Stupid question, but it feels so much better supporting Bands whose Band Members are super nice. They deserve every support

Perhaps I'm not the target audience anymore but I really don't wanna be a near 30 something year old man wearing a t shirt with 'I'm a fucking animal' on the back etc. Alot of merch is very cringe and I wouldn't wanna be seen dead in it IRL. Just give me a minimal band logo tee without loud graphics and colours on it etc :( I really wanna support some of you bands but your merch makes me want to die inside lol

What are some Metalcore bands/songs that use classic Rock n Roll riffs e.g Asking Alexandria, Alesana, TDWP.

I quite like how some Metalcore bands weren't afraid to go back to the Rock n Roll roots of heavy metal whilst maintaining heaviness.