[GentleHands McCoy]

I think about this sometimes, mostly while listening to In Flames and Soilwork, where it's really clear. It's weird, the less cutting edge mixes tend to age better IMO. A Predators Portrait and Whoracle both aged better than their later work production wise. There are a lot of times I listen to melo-deathy stuff and think "This would be sicker with Predator's Portrait style production". There are some cutting edge albums that came out a couple years back that are really dated already. Fatiguing to listen to and the unpleasant kind of nostalgia.

Any opinions? Certainly not confined to just the bands I mentioned. Talking mostly production, music is entirely a different matter.

 

[1377]

I feel like this happens with any kind of production, not just audio. Like you know how there are some awesome looking older movies that have aged pretty well (The Thing, Alien, Jurassic Park) but then the movies that came out in the early days of CG generally look like dogshit (the Star Wars prequels)? Or how there are a ton of SNES games with pixel graphics that still look good but Goldeneye N64 looks comically dated even though it objectively has more advanced graphics?

I mean it's also probably just because metal (especially death metal) went through/is going through a period where brickwalling the fuck out of everything to sound heavier/more intense was/is the norm. Thankfully it seems like bands are starting to either back off that, going for a more traditional sound, or using engineers that have figured out how to get that sound in a way that doesn't feel like someone smacking you in the ears for an hour.

 

[Mike]

I think "Piece of Mind" and "Powerslave" sound great to this day.

Queensryche's "Rage for Order" still sounds fantastic, as well.

 

[Jazzhands]

Queensryche's "Rage for Order" still sounds fantastic, as well.

On the same coin, Empire is a really, really well-produced album, and still sounds good to this day.

Quite a few of Judas Priest's '80s records aged poorly, due to the heavy use of reverb and synths. Turbo, Ram It Down, and Painkiller sound as dated as could be.

 

[Josh]

Deep Purple's Machine Head sounds pretty modern, without a lot of cliches and with plenty of clarity and punch. The only thing that gives away the vintage is the vocal recording quality and the copious amounts of awesome Hammond :lol:

 

[Rev Drucifer]

Pink Floyd's Animals and Momentary Lapse Of Reason
Queensryche Operation: Mindcrime and Empire (The latter even Chris Lord-Alge says is one of his all time favorites)
Metallica The Black Album
Pretty much anything Queen released.
Van Halen Van Halen 1 (I've never checked after hearing this but ALL the guitars are panned hard left and the effects are in the right? That's crazy!)
Any Tears For Fears album
Any Duran Duran album
Dr. Dre The Chronic
Snoop Doggy Dogg Doggystyle

I'm sure I could think of a few more, but what I really miss is the early-mid 90's production sound, across the board. Rap, rock, metal...I miss when drums sounded like someone spent a long time getting a killer drum sound or when the songs had an energy only created by playing together live.

 

[GentleHands McCoy]

I think "Piece of Mind" and "Powerslave" sound great to this day.

Queensryche's "Rage for Order" still sounds fantastic, as well.

Everything Iron Maiden and Queensryche has aged tremendously. There are only a couple 80s albums that are good musically where the production hasn't aged that well. Riot "Thundersteel" for example would be a lot sicker if it was up to par with something like Mindcrime production wise.

Maybe I'm just biased, or maybe advances for recording nose diving and receding popularity had to do with it, but most albums from the 80s aged a lot better production wise than 90s ones.

The U.D.O. album Timebomb has probably the greatest production ever. I love that album. Absolutely unfairly obscure gem. Blew my mind the first time I heard it.

 

[GentleHands McCoy]

^Would be interested to hear what other people think about that album sonically. Because for melodic non extreme metal that's pretty much how everything is supposed to sound to my ears.

 

[Mattayus]

King's X - Dogman. Sounds like it was done yesterday, fucking ridiculous.
Most 90's death metal sounds awful :lol:

 

[Ezerath]

well = Slaughter of the Soul - Carcass.

/thread.

 

[1377]

Slaughter of the Soul - Carcass.

:scratch:

 

[Dana]

Metallica Black album

 

[Drew]

I think, as a very general starting point, most albums that aren't very heavily produced, from ANY era, tend to age better than most that are. Production tends to nail you down to a particular era, so the more obvious it is the more risk that it won't hold up well.

I can think of some exceptions - a lot of Jimi's clean toned stuff still sounds really contemporary to me (Hey Joe, Wind Cries Mary), but one that tends to be more underproduced than some of his more over the top stuff, and two I don't know how much of that is because it's just been remixed and remasted so much over the years. :lol:

 

[GentleHands McCoy]

Deep Purple's Machine Head sounds pretty modern, without a lot of cliches and with plenty of clarity and punch. The only thing that gives away the vintage is the vocal recording quality and the copious amounts of awesome Hammond :lol:

Assuming we are talking about the Rhino remasters (or the originals for that matter) I wouldn't quite agree, the remaster of Burn sounds more modern, but I wouldn't say either is that modern.

 

[Josh]

Assuming we are talking about the Rhino remasters (or the originals for that matter) I wouldn't quite agree, the remaster of Burn sounds more modern, but I wouldn't say either is that modern.

Really? I have a copy I bought like 20 years ago and I'd say the production doesn't sound particularly dated. It's clear, with full frequencies reproduced, the guitars, bass, and Hammond sound up front and heavy, and the overall quality is not particularly woolly or middy.

 

[budda]

Refused "the shape of punk to come" still sounds pretty awesome today.

 

[Jazzhands]

King's X - Dogman. Sounds like it was done yesterday, fucking ridiculous.

Agreed. The album has a raw quality to it, but at the same time, the production sounds VERY modern for a 22-year-old record.

Also, I really like the production of Oomph's Defekt. Another album that could sound like it was recorded yesterday.

Another badly produced album I want to bring up is Black Sabbath's Forbidden, but that album was dated the day it was released. :lol: And I've seen people consider this a good produced album, but I was never a fan of the production of FNM's The Real Thing. The production sounds really thin and claustrophobic. Doesn't take away from how awesome the music is, though.

 

[Venator]

Van Halen - "1," "1984."
Dream Theater "Images & Words" & "Awake."
Whitesnake - "87' Self-Titled."
Lynch Mob - "Wicked Sensation."
Ozzy Osbourne - "No More Tears."
Steve Vai - "Passion & Warfare."
Blue Murder - "Self-Titled."
Queensryche - "Operation: MindCrime, Empire."
Poison's - "Native Tongue."

 

[Oogadee Boogadee]

Queensryche Empire
Megadeth Rust in Peace,
Extreme III Sides
GnR Appetite
SRV In Step
Vai Alien Love Secretions
The Doors - all of their greatest hits
Faith No More The Real Thing
Judas Priest Sin After Sin

 

[Venator]

Vai - Alien Love Secrets

THIS. :agreed: