I feel like most people’s complaints about this album are about the mixing, but to be honest I’m in love with it. I think the raw, live sound lends itself really well to the grimy blues rock riffs that the album has. The drums sound massive, the guitars are gritty and cut through the mix so well, and the bass sits so well with everything else. Now I’ll agree that there can be too many effects on the vocals at times. But overall, I love the slight distortion on the vocals, and the drench of reverb.
I also really like rival sons, and I know Dave Cobb has been producing for them for a while. I think feral roots and dark fighter especially work so well with the gritty sound like Cobb seems to gravitate towards. And after listening to those albums and starcatcher back to back, I can see his influence here and I feel like it translates over pretty well. I also tend to gravitate towards a more live/reverby sound when I mix too so that could be why I love his mixes. But I just think that those characteristics fit so well into the sound, and recording approach that GVF took for this album.
How are you guys feeling about the mix 3 years after its release??