Introducing: my metal band Hoarfrost!

[Nyaricus]

That doesn't mean it works. Maybe its just me but your high pitched screams remind me of Dallas Taylor (original vocalist for underoath) and that equals puking in my mouth. Of course this could just be my experience as a screamer in metalcore band talking. Our screams are quite different then you black metal types.

Heh, I actually really enjoyed those albums - but my main influence for my BM screams are Burzum and Nargaroth, which were bands I got into early-on in regards to Black Metal. Now I also include Impaled Nazarene, (early) Behemoth and Dark Tranquillity (the vocalist has a very Blackened-Death growl) as influences as well, though oviously not all of those can be show-cased on a mere three tracks

In my defence, my throat has been giving me (some) problems recently and has been very dry, and we'd been jamming for a couple of hours already before we even recorded those tracks. With BM screams, it does (unfortunately, health wise and all) come more from the throat than death metal growls, and thus, long story short, my high-pitched screams are basically shot during those recordings + a craptastic PA system. They tend to sound much fuller on other days, though. But enough excuses

Thank you for being gentle with your opinion lol

If you're going for the raw black sound...that's cool. But yeah, try to get some better acoustics. I hear haunted forests during winter -- particularly at night -- are great.

LOL, love the idea Acoustics unfortunately have to suffer ATM due to our jam space, but we are (to make note of this) not necessarily going for a raw BM sound at all - just jumping back and fourth over the Death and Black Metal line without necessarily straddling it 100%

Hey Ny,
Listened to Rise ov Thor - will give a detailed producers take if you wish. Warning, I'm brutal. That said, any input on a project in its infancy is always good input, well other than the "you guys suck!!!" type of input.
Give a tag back and I'll parse it.
Thunderfoot
Seat of the Pants Productions

Thunderfoot! You know I of course appreciate any feedback you have to offer And while you might be brutal, I shall simply assign my band mates to make something even more brutal than your opinion so as to overcome it

...


Or something like that.

cheers,
--N

 

[warlord]

Dude, why are you using a PA system instead opf an actual mic?

 

[Kurashu]

LOL, love the idea Acoustics unfortunately have to suffer ATM due to our jam space, but we are (to make note of this) not necessarily going for a raw BM sound at all - just jumping back and fourth over the Death and Black Metal line without necessarily straddling it 100%

Hey, worked for those crazy 'Wegians, didn't?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hey Ny!

I won't be any less brutal than T-Foot.

Disclaimer:

You know that I love metal, but this genre isn't my cuppa, but it (and related forms) is not alien to me.

Negatives:

1) I have to agree that some better accoustics would help out.

2) It seemed to me that there were some times when someone was off-tempo, usually on the changes. Its hard to tell with that recording, but that is what practice is for.

3) A note from growing up with a professional Music Teacher for a mother- if your voice is giving you fits, don't force it. This applies to ALL forms of vocal music. You could cause lasting damage- the kind that requires surgery that doesn't have success rates over 75%.

So if you find yourself not in top shape when practice time rolls around, don't force your vox. Find another way to participate.

Warming up the vocal chords before practice or performance will also help with keeping your voice clear and healthy. I know a lot of vocalists swear by things like warm/room temp water, hot teas with lemon (or some other kind of citrus) or coffee, all of the above without sweeteners or fatty things like milk or cream. That way your throat is warm, relaxed, and (generall) free of phlegm. Cool/cold drinks can cause a bit of contraction that puts additional stress on your voice.

Smoking? Bad.

Postitives:

1) Your vox are clearer than most in the genre.

2) Your band's overall sound is pretty good. Despite the recording quality, if that disc came across my desk, I'd want to hear more. Possibly something live in a more open space type setting, so the music could breathe. Besides the bands you mentioned, parts of it reminded me of Kyuss.

 

[Nyaricus]

Dude, why are you using a PA system instead opf an actual mic?

I will admit my noobishness when I say this: isn't the amplifier that vocalists use a PA system? IE guitarists have guitar amps, and vocalists use PA systems? Honestly, I thought that was the correct term, and feel free to prove me wrong... I am using a Shure SM-58 mic with it.

 

[Nyaricus]

Hey Ny!

I won't be any less brutal than T-Foot.

Disclaimer:

You know that I love metal, but this genre isn't my cuppa, but it (and related forms) is not alien to me.

Negatives:

1) I have to agree that some better accoustics would help out.

2) It seemed to me that there were some times when someone was off-tempo, usually on the changes. Its hard to tell with that recording, but that is what practice is for.

3) A note from growing up with a professional Music Teacher for a mother- if your voice is giving you fits, don't force it. This applies to ALL forms of vocal music. You could cause lasting damage- the kind that requires surgery that doesn't have success rates over 75%.

So if you find yourself not in top shape when practice time rolls around, don't force your vox. Find another way to participate.

Warming up the vocal chords before practice or performance will also help with keeping your voice clear and healthy. I know a lot of vocalists swear by things like warm/room temp water, hot teas with lemon (or some other kind of citrus) or coffee, all of the above without sweeteners or fatty things like milk or cream. That way your throat is warm, relaxed, and (generall) free of phlegm. Cool/cold drinks can cause a bit of contraction that puts additional stress on your voice.

Smoking? Bad.

Postitives:

1) Your vox are clearer than most in the genre.

2) Your band's overall sound is pretty good. Despite the recording quality, if that disc came across my desk, I'd want to hear more. Possibly something live in a more open space type setting, so the music could breathe. Besides the bands you mentioned, parts of it reminded me of Kyuss.

Thanks! I'll answer those one-by-one.

1) Agree on the acoustics

2) It's likely the bassist, simply because due to scedualling that was his third time playing with us in as many months, and he had done those songs only once the practice before we recorded them. He's quite competent though, and we have faith in him

3) And yeah, I totally agree with all of what you said here - and trust me, I did a ton of research on it when I was first taking the dive last year as a new vocalist. Pretty much, we figured "eh, let's do some recordings today, we have the laptop here" and I said "alright, but I really have one more take left and then I'm done" - I knew I was pretty much done for the day, and I've taken it easy all week on my voice since then because I wanted to make sure I'd give it rest. I always drink room-temp water, and after the jam I'll go home and have a nice couple cups of tea & honey to sooth over my throat Thank you for the advice though, it's sincerely appreciated.

As for the positives, thank you for complimenting my vocals. As you've likely gathered, I am moreso a newer vocalist than an established one, so thanks for that! As for Kyuss, I've never heard them, but I've heard a lot about them. I kinda agree we have a nice "sludgy" sound going on, which is kinda-sorta what Kyuss play, IIRC.

Thanks again!

cheers,
--N

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Kyuss did some astounding "stoner metal" albums before breaking up- decendent bands include Slo-Burn, Queens of the Stone Age, and Eagles of Death Metal.

 

[Kurashu]

Mentioning stoner rock/metal without mentioning Electric Wizard? What blasphemy is this? Are ye Balors? Also: Uhm, Clutch? Possibly the best rock band ever.

As for the sludgey sound, I don't really hear it. A slow, chugging death style, yes. But not sludge. It doesn't have that crushing, annihilating, chugging misanthropic weight behind it. Compare to Knut, Accept Death, Eyehategod, et cetera. Similar style, but I wouldn't call your band a sludgey blackened death metal band. Though, I wouldn't mind hearing one of those bands; mayhaps with a few more adjectives: symphonic, progressive, technical, melodic, industrial, and avant-garde.

Joking aside, you guys bring decent blackened death to the table. That is respectable, especially in a time when "zogm br00t@l" reigns supreme. Fiddle with your style, perfect it, don't end up being like Behemoth -- well, do but keep writing good albums. Belphegor is probably a better model instead.

 

[Nyaricus]

As for the sludgey sound, I don't really hear it. A slow, chugging death style, yes. But not sludge. It doesn't have that crushing, annihilating, chugging misanthropic weight behind it.

Yeah, I meant sludgy as in a slower, chugging Death Metal rather than the sub-genre proper

Compare to Knut, Accept Death, Eyehategod, et cetera. Similar style, but I wouldn't call your band a sludgey blackened death metal band. Though, I wouldn't mind hearing one of those bands; mayhaps with a few more adjectives: symphonic, progressive, technical, melodic, industrial, and avant-garde.

I still have yet to really get into Sludge Metal *ducks* - but I think that style could be really interesting. The band I know most from that is Pelican, and they are quite progressive in their own right and likely not the greatest intro to the "real" SM.

Know what style of band I'd really like to have (aside from this BDM project, which was the first of two )? I want a band which fuses late-era Prog-DM Death (ala ITP and SoP) with the bombastic Prog-Power Metal of Blind Guardian (ala ANatO) with a hint of the later, more electronic style of Dark Tranquillity. A crazy combination of a Progressive Melodic Death/Power Metal band! I've never heard a band playing this style, but I know for a fact it would be fantastic!

Joking aside, you guys bring decent blackened death to the table. That is respectable, especially in a time when "zogm br00t@l" reigns supreme. Fiddle with your style, perfect it, don't end up being like Behemoth -- well, do but keep writing good albums. Belphegor is probably a better model instead.

Yeah, the whole Brutal Death / Deathgrind / Deathcore fixation right now is pretty much going to burn out sooner than later, and that/those style of music (while having some great, even *fantastic* bands in it - Nile, Suffocation, Lykathea Aflame, Despised Icon, older Underoath) is mostly disposable, unfortunately enough. It's been awhile since a band with true integrity in that section of the metal scene has arisen :\

cheers,
--N

 

[Kurashu]

Its not even so much the brutal death and deathgrind spheres -- it's deathcore. Deathcore represents a trend towards brutality without talent or meaning. Sure, some of the songs are catchy but they're catchy in the same way 80's synth pop songs are: all the wrong ways. They're just breakdowns with sloppy riffs to support them. *shrugs* As always, there are exceptions to the rules: Animosity is pretty good, so is Belay My Last. But overall, the scene is just a bunch of copycats doing the same song over and over and over.

Brutal death and deathgrind are often technical in some small way: Origin, Cephalic Carnage, et cetera. Or write real songs, not just a hodgepodge of riffs and breakdowns: Suffocation, Nile. These two aren't disposable in the least. Disposable is slam death: bands who are too far stuck up Devourment's rectum they know what the band had for breakfast.

Anyways, Pelican isn't real sludge. They're...uhm...what's that genre again? Oh yes, post-metal/metalgaze/atmospheric sludge/progressive sludge/art metal/art-core/art sludge. Pelican falls into that ??? zone along with Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna and Ganon. Good bands, but not sludge.

Eyehategod, Knut, Dystopia, Crowbar, Accept Death, Dead In The Water, Grief, et cetera, that slow, crushing, weight of the world behind this wall of destruction that harnesses the power of glaciers to kick your betwixt your legs, that's sludge. That's probably about the best description of sludge I can give you: Earth kicking you where the sun don't shine.