Anybody see Dimmu Borgir?

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Beyond Black

Beyond Black

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I saw DB with Hulder last Thursday at the Vic Theater, Chicago, and the sound was horrible.
I’ve seen a hundred shows there, great venue and the sound usually kills, so it’s not the venue.
Sound was awash in mids and reverb, wishy washy af with no distinction between instruments and no cut/punch in the highs/lows. All the beautiful and haunting BM melodies were completely lost in the mix, and you could tell the bands were on their games, so it was no fault of their own.
Also, I mistakenly thought that Hypocrisy and Suffocation were on the bill, but Hypocrisy had to drop off the tour and the mighty Suffo are only doing select US dates. In hindsight I’m glad they weren’t there with the possibility of them also being sabotaged with the shitty sound.
Glad we got free tickets from a friend with a Jam Productions hookup, more money for $14 beers.
Whoever did the sound deserves a Blood Eagle…
 
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Sounds like a case of either a) soundman has horrible ears/skills or b) one of the dudes in the band demands horrible tone from the FOH but I'd harbor the guess that choice a is the correct one. In either case a double chocolate donut would improve the situation considerably.🍩
 
Well duh, what situation wouldn’t be improved by a double chocolate donut?
I can’t imagine they’re not touring with their own soundman. If so he certainly doesn’t live up to the level of Norwegian musical excellence I’ve come to expect.
 
I am not a dummy burger fan at all, but I can totally understand going if you thought suffocation and especially hypocrisy (who are one of the best live metal bands ive ever seen) were on the bill

I've seen DB at a couple of festivals and they always sounded like crap, but I honest to god couldn't tell if that was an artistic choice - the guitar players used those mooer preamp pedals (the 5150 model) for a long time, and it did not sound great live
 
I’m not really into them, but their productions are pretty stellar, surprised they sucked
 
I saw them at Ozzfest years ago and they were fkn awesome. Tones were clear, super heavy punishing on the blast beats. I was never into them before I saw them live that day and realized what I was missing out on with those first couple of records.
 
DanTravis62 said:
I am not a dummy burger fan at all, but I can totally understand going if you thought suffocation and especially hypocrisy (who are one of the best live metal bands ive ever seen) were on the bill

I've seen DB at a couple of festivals and they always sounded like crap, but I honest to god couldn't tell if that was an artistic choice - the guitar players used those mooer preamp pedals (the 5150 model) for a long time, and it did not sound great live
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They each had a halfstack on each side of the stage, one Recto and a Blackstar, but the amps weren’t powered up.
I’m thinking they were using something digital like you mentioned possibly running through the cabs. The guitars had an artificial, elastic tone that didn’t sound natural with no cut.
I love them through Death Cult Armageddon, (Puritanical being my favorite) after that I fell off. The albums and productions became too over the top and symphonic for my tastes. The new album is more stripped down and back to their roots, but still far from their best work.
I was seriously fucking bummed when I realized Hypocrisy and Suffo weren’t playing, they were my real incentive for going. I haven’t seen DB since Ozzfest on the Puritanical tour over 20 years ago and I expected much better.
 
Beyond Black said:
Because all BM sounds like Nattens Madrigal 😂
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Dude black metal has some of the lushest, most detailed productions imaginable - even most of the big bands when they were broke nobodies had huge sounding productions ( everything by Enslaved, Mayhem DMDS, Emperor literally everything)

And that has influenced modern black metal bands just like the 4-track style influenced a lot of modern bands - I can't imagine Celestia "Frigidis Apotheosia" without the big lush production and reverb drenched acoustic guitars.

Tropes are the only reality apparently, and every black metal album sounds like Paysage D'Hiver and Nattens Madrigal and Under a Funeral Moon because that's the meme hurr durr
 
DanTravis62 said:
Dude black metal has some of the lushest, most detailed productions imaginable - even most of the big bands when they were broke nobodies had huge sounding productions ( everything by Enslaved, Mayhem DMDS, Emperor literally everything)

And that has influenced modern black metal bands just like the 4-track style influenced a lot of modern bands - I can't imagine Celestia "Frigidis Apotheosia" without the big lush production and reverb drenched acoustic guitars.

Tropes are the only reality apparently, and every black metal album sounds like Paysage D'Hiver and Nattens Madrigal and Under a Funeral Moon because that's the meme hurr durr
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Frigidis has one of the best productions in the genre.
Absolutely perfect sounding BM album.
 
Beyond Black said:
Frigidis has one of the best productions in the genre.
Absolutely perfect sounding BM album.
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That record has some of the best melodies i've ever heard recorded by any band of any genre - and it literally kick-started the whole gothic neo-romanticism thing in black metal so it was so groundbreaking it created/developed a genre of its own

There's a ton of black metal bands with huge, lush sounding production jobs on their records though

Ondskapt and Watain both sound massive and heavy with big modern guitars like everyone jacks off over on RT

DMDS, Glorior Belli, DsO, and the aforementioned Celestia sound like they were recorded in a fucking cathedral, I know DSO used a bricasti for those massive detailed reverb sounds, which, i'm sorry, if your records require a 40 thousand dollar reverb unit you don't get to call it "lofi"

I think it's just because people that don't know the genre associate the meme as reality honestly, because I cannot for the life of me imagine someone who's heard a lot of black metal not understanding
 
thats disappointing...
i was fucking heartbroken when i found out hypocrisy wasn't able to get over here. i've never been able to see them in a proper situation. i saw them twice as a 1st band out of 4 on a big bill. so bad sound, rushed/short sets. 25min on house sound type shit. I was really looking forward to this pairing. I love dimmus first 5 or 6 records, but lost interest after that. I got to see them on an ozzfest off date in grand rapids, in the summer if 2004. i think they kinda shared a gig with another tour... Darkest Hour was on the bill and some other bands, can't remember (edit: Bleeding Through)....anyway, they played on a generic backline of rectos, in street clothes with no facepaint, and they fucking CRUSHED. Small venue, small crowd, low stage with no barrier. it was bad ass. I have seen them at least 6 times, and its always been good. i wonder what was up.
 
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JimAnsell2 said:
thats disappointing...
i was fucking heartbroken when i found out hypocrisy wasn't able to get over here. i've never been able to see them in a proper situation. i saw them twice as a 1st band out of 4 on a big bill. so bad sound, rushed/short sets. 25min on house sound type shit. I was really looking forward to this pairing. I love dimmus first 5 or 6 records, but lost interest after that. I got to see them on an ozzfest off date in grand rapids, in the summer if 2004. i think they kinda shared a gig with another tour... Darkest Hour was on the bill and some other bands, can't remember (edit: Bleeding Through)....anyway, they played on a generic backline of rectos, in street clothes with no facepaint, and they fucking CRUSHED. Small venue, small crowd, low stage with no barrier. it was bad ass. I have seen them at least 6 times, and its always been good. i wonder what was up.
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Just fyi hypocrisy (especially peters voice) absolutely CRUSH live the last few tours

That band just gets better and better and are supremely underrated
 
Saw them last night in Denver, fucking killed it. Such a bummer, saw someone else say that about the show you went to. Last night they were so dialed though. I was real impressed with the drummer playing barkers parts… Kings of the carnival creation was totally nuts and spot on. The toms were fucking huge but not all triggered.
 
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