Anybody see Dimmu Borgir?

Beyond Black

Beyond Black

Well-known member
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 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.
 
BeZo said:
Breaking news:
Concert Patron complaints that black metal band sounds bad.
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Some BM bands intentionally sound harsh, raw and primitive for atmosphere, DB are not one of them.
They’re albums sound amazing.
 
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
 
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