DevourerMetal

21 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'd assume that claustrophobic means narrow, close and compressed? Band playing in a small room with all the windows closed? I'll be honest, while the production on the new album doesn't bother me, it doesn't sound particularly wide or airy to me (granted I am listening on Youtube) although it does sound noticeably better to me than the one track I heard on Youtube from the 2020 album. That track sounded compressed and claustrophobic. So you're moving in the right direction!

 

Thanks, I put so much work into making these albums and always try to improve it so moving in the right direction is good at least. I tried to make it a bigger and more solid mix than the earlier albums and I think I succeeded with the vocals at least, guitars are okay too but it can always be improved. The main issue I had with the guitars was getting rid of annoying frequencies without making it sound dull.

The drums could have had more room sound mixed in.. No one ever mentioned the previous albums sound claustrophobic even though I think they're more narrow and thin than Raptus. The bass on the previous albums sound more like a guitar than a bass, very distorted and thin, but I used a different amp (Darkglass Alpha Omega 900) this time that sounds more rounded.

When I think about claustrophobic sounds it makes me think of death metal albums from the 90s where they used almost only the closest mics on the drums, not much room sound. Maybe Immortal's Blizzard Beasts too, but I don't think it's a bad thing on any of the old albums, like CCs Tomb of the Mutilated or Deicide's Once Upon the Cross. Maybe claustrophobic isn't as bad as it sounded to me at first. 

It's nice to be welcomed by you all, thanks 😀

A reviewer said that the sound is "claustrophobic" and it bothers me because I think it's the opposite of that. "An intentional production style" even, although I aimed for a wide and powerful production. I can't say I really understand what a claustrophobic sound is. Narrow?

I post things on this forum as Devourer but my name is John Falk. I play bass in the Swedish osdm band Sorcery and guitar in the extreme metal band Devourer. I'm 42 years old and have been playing in bands since I was 14 so I've been doing it for a while now. I've played drums in a couple of bands, Sorcery amongst others, so I'm not specialised in any instrument, I play all of them good enough to play the stuff I want to play 😉. I've never been good at promoting my work very well so joining this forum was to be able to tell people about the things I release.

11 minutes ago, Destructhor81 said:

Black metal doesn´t need to have a raw production to qualify as black metal in my opinion. Sure, i prefer a more natural and rough sounding mix since it just adds to the listening experience in my opinion. I want a drums to sound like drums and not like perfectly programmed samples that could have been done with a drum computer. Call me crazy but i´d rather listen to Capricornus´ sloppy but natural sounding drumming on the early Graveland releases then Hellhammer´s perfect but clinical drumming on the last few Mayhem releases.

Keep in mind a raw mix doesn´t mean you can´t hear the individual instruments. There´s a big difference between a raw mix and shitty mix where everything sounds like a wall of white noise.

A lot of times when black metal bands rely on a polished and sterile production (Dark Funeral, Dimmu Borgir, late era Gorgoroth) you just lose some of that chaotic, raw magic that we know from the early 90´s albums. It just sounds soulless like it was produced by a computer instead of a bunch of musicians if that makes sense. I´m still able to enjoy those albums but whenever that dreaded Nuclear Blast-esque production pops up i instantly lose interest in the material.

I gave a few of your songs a spin and i kind of get what he means. The overall sound and tuning of the guitars sounds somewhat closer to death metal then black metal at times, although it´s still clearly rooted in black metal. My guess he was just being polite since there are clearly enough black metal elements present in your music. But at the end of the day who gives a fuck, you can´t please everyone right?!?

Abbath's drumming on 'Battles in the North' are so chaotic and awesome at the same time. He can hardly play the double kick but it doesn't matter one bit. Hellhammer is an excellent drummer but the production takes away too much dynamics and character on some of the albums he's played on. Not on 'Wolf's Lair Abyss' though, perfect production and the song 'Ancient Skin' is an all-time favourite of mine.

It was too bad Black Metal Promotion didn't accept 'Raptus' because this is the first album I've tried to promote a bit more.  For all of our previous releases I just sent it to a couple of reviewers then let it go and went back to writing new songs instead.. Any help or PR tips would be greatly appreciated guys!

7 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Keep trying, there are many other YT channels besides BMP. This is clearly black metal to me. Blackened death maybe you could say but gun to head it seems to lean more towards black than death. Maybe some people don't like blackened death, they want black metal to be pure 2nd wave, idk but this is definitely black metal. Maybe he just didn't like it and was trying to be polite? To be fair though it does not sound like most of what I hear on his channel. He has a high standard there and a brand to consider as well as his own personal tastes and he can't be expected to accept every submission. Someone will probably pick it up though, it's not bad.

That's not a FA cover is it? I see gasmasks with little elephant trunks and it makes me wonder.

He said he thought Raptus was good but that it sounds too much like Death Metal. He uploaded our 2nd album Across the Empty Plains from 2017, it's similar in style but not as well-produced as this one (in my opinion at least), that's what made me think it's a bit strange to deny this one.

What do you mean by FA cover? The Devourer gasmask was first introduced on our 2019 album Dawn of Extinction and it's stuck with us a bit since then, but we didn't do it intentionally, it was the artists idea. Both the cover for that album and this one was drawn by a guy from Russia who calls himself Vald, he has a Facebook page called Vald Evil Arts where he posts his works.

25 minutes ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Hey - you've gotta keep your own music in the Promote Yourself section, I moved your promo post there. I did listen to a little bit of it. Sounded fine to me. I suppose the drum mix and overall sound is a bit death-metally, but no more so than some other stuff that channel has posted, and they've got some stuff up that's way more polished. Maybe whoever runs the channel has an honest feeling that your album doesn't fit in, maybe they were just looking for an excuse. Seems subjective and inconsistent, like every other music opinion.

In principle, personally, no, I don't think black metal has to sound "raw"... I like a lot of stuff that does and I can see why some people might prefer that vibe above others. I think knee-jerk purism is dumb. Good luck, and I feel your frustration, getting turned down sucks even when it's just a YouTube stream.

Thanks for moving the post and giving your thoughts on the matter

Doesn't the music take precedence over the production? Devourer's new album was rejected by the YouTube channel Black Metal Promotion for sounding too much like Death Metal, even though it's musically more Black than Death, at least in my opinion. I've put so many hours into producing the album as best as I can, and I think it's an improvement over our previous albums. The first comment on YouTube was "Amazing Black Metal sound! Great Guitars and imposing vocals! Hail Devourer 🤘😈✊". I decided to change the genre description to Blackened Extreme Metal because it seems to offend people to call it Black Metal. Now I feel like an outcast among outcasts..

We were planning on having the YouTube channel Black Metal Promotion do a full album video premiere but he declined to upload it because it doesn't sound like Black Metal, even though it's more Black Metal than Death Metal in my opinion, at least musically. Why does it matter so much how the production sounds? Isn't Black Metal and Metal, in general, a lot about doing the best you can with what you have?

We uploaded it to our own YouTube channel instead, and the first comment it received was "Amazing Black Metal sound! Great Guitars and imposing vocals! Hail Devourer 🤘😈✊". After that, I decided to change our genre description to Blackened Extreme Metal.
I'd greatly appreciate it if you who like the album would take a minute or two of your time and post the link to the album video on Facebook, Reddit, online forums like this one or any other place you can think of!