A big part of the mixing clarity, is the fact that there is practically no distortion on the guitars. He probably could have tracked most of that record on a cranked Twin.

Also, like Snaxo, i would love to hear anyone do anything interesting on an eight string.

That said, i kind of feel like 8 strings are kind of pointless in bands that have bass players.

I would rather see someone go the other way, and try to make a metal record on a fucking mandolin.

You don't need Mondo Gain to sound heavy.

Sometimes less sounds heavier

Think compression here. It is, after all, a byproduct of distortion. Less fast compression = more attack vs. killing the transient. (Metalcore band name? Killing The Transient? ) Oftentimes = more Balls And Chunk.

There's a point of saturation after which, IMO, you don't gain anything in heaviness. Even in my metaller days I preferred loud, cranked, more... if not "vintage" at least not "modern"-flavored amps with less preamp gain. They were chunkier to my ears with lower tunings. They had a sharp attack to them that sounded violent and aggressive that I really like.

If I had more money I'd be half-tempted to buy an eight to go noisy-nuts on it. As it stands now the Agile 7-string Tele is... tempting as a future purpose. I've been playing in drop and open D enough to warrant having that lower note accessible, and my love of low-tuned bass is well known. Those sorts of instruments frustrate me because no one does anything interesting or creative with them ever. And I have no problems with chunky riffs or shredding it up, but that's all anyone ever does with them, ever.

Wow, I never realized how little gain there is on the guitar tone on Obscura till you pointed it out.


I just played it, and...
You're right.

No accompanying doobie, unfortunately.

Oh, and I forget;



Math metal with 8s.
Probably not what you were thinking of, but..

Agreed. Although I am biased, as I think Gorguts is the best band in death metal.

There's a busker on the subway here who does jazz comping and walking basslines at the same time on an eight string?

It's kinda djenty, but it's also creative and interesting.

Listening to a Ride The Lightning vinyl ripped to digital at 33 rpms.


Surprisingly not unlistenable, interesting in it's own way.

I'm one of those guys that thinks vinyl sounds better than anything digital.

Meaning slower, or faster?

I should still have a record player somewhere around here that plays @ 16rpm or so. It was IIRC, for classroom/filmstrip audio stuff. I used to love playing everything i owned at 16rpm.

It is slower, Hetfield sounds like a constipated, angry demon.

This time with the doobie.
Jon Anderson truly has the greatest sense of melody of any singer I can really think of.

Haven't heard this one in quite a while:

Goddamn, Roundabout rocks so much shit.

From that one, Heart Of The Sunrise is absolute bast. Actually, even though as an album, i prefer Close to The Edge, Heart Of The Sunrise is probably my favorite Yes song.

I haven't sat down and listened to all of Heart Of The Sunrise.
I have been so enamored with Close To The Edge (I have gathered atleast total 30 plays on this bastid) that I am only just now really starting to digging into Fragile.

Another i havena heard in a bit: