Modern Metal Production

I came across this video this fine morning, and to be fair, I love the ideas and research done here. For those who don't want to watch this 19 minute dissertation, I'll kind of recap it for you; basically the opinion here is that modern metal scene is missing soul because of META (Most Effective Tactics Available). His opinion is that everyone is playing it safe in music nowadays because they're all using the same tactics. I agree. However, I want to take it a step further. His focus in this video is pretty much only around how production is the problem... and while I do agree, I think I have a few more points to add to it when we're talking about the "soul" of music. The idea of META is definitely streaming through it though.

This is something that you can always argue is almost antithetical to "soul" in every way, and while I do agree to an extent, the digital age we're in allows us to do what we do best a little more effectively. IE our computer stuff shouldn't replace the art, but rather allow us to produce art without some of the toil and headache of the past.

For example, if you are a sketch artist, it can be quite a headache to walk around with 25 different pencils, shaders, erasers, several notepads, and be able to do what you do. Instead nowadays, you might have a tablet, or a computer with a drawing companion or something to that effect. Everything is selectable, you have many options, and you could even expand out of simple sketching and add color to it as well, often with the same programs. Some might argue that digital sketching isn't quite as personal, and maybe you're right, but that sketch artists is still doing all they're doing with their hands and minds, their soul even. The art just may look a little different on a program rather than on a sheet of paper.

In music it's kind of the same way, and I am a perfect example of that here at home. I have an electronic drumkit hooked up to SSD5.5, which gives me the ability to play and make up my own beats and perform them, without the headache of 12 different mics, a loud kit I can never play, and keeping the drums in tune. I have Neural DSP plugins for my "amp" so I don't have to make space for large cabinets and spend 3 grand for great equipment and learn how to use all of it, only to have limited capabilities without purchasing another several thousand in recording gear (mics, interfaces, guitar pedals, etc.).

It's still my hands playing the instruments. It's still my soul being poured into these songs. I don't use any sort of snapping, autotune or correction for what I do personally. I can only imagine a seasoned guitarist or other instrumentalist not having a problem doing what I do. These programs are tools for me to actually get my music off the ground. They are not a replacement for any of the playing style, songwriting, or real instrument playing.

Where I do agree with Varvis (the video creator) is that a lot of folks will stop actually using performance, which does take a good chunk of the humanity out of it. Like for example, you can make a good song on guitar, use copy/paste for all the sections, and then program your bass and drums. Then, you go back and cut into every little mistake you made and correct it. The arrangement, songwriting, and guitar may have some soul, but a lot of it was removed through the use of the tools.

Look, if you're new to any of this... don't let some middle aged dudes convince you not to make music if you don't have all the equipment. By all means, a little bit of soul is better than none at all. That creative fulfillment is more important that some internet opinions.

The point I am trying to make here is that we often use all the digital equipment as crutches and standards rather than tools. You can still make soul filled art with digital tools, so long as you're using the tools to make it, not relying on the tools to make the music or performance.

META sure can be quite appealing to those who are trying to pump out all the things. I totally get it. Even where I work in technology, if it isn't effective and efficient, then what the heck are we doing? It's a never ending rat race to the top. First come, first serve yeah? Eh. To me, art is a little bit different; instead of first come first serve, it's reach and deliver. Art is so highly subjective, music included, that there's always an audience out there for what you do... and the selling factor for most of it is authenticity (where as technology is often efficiency). We crave the human connection.

This is where the economy of art comes into play though. We all want to essentially do the things we love to do, and make a living off of it. The problem is, the world moves way too fast for that. Where 3-5 years for an album cycle was normal back 30 years ago, we're in an age where if you aren't releasing something every year, maybe two, you're often forgotten. If you aren't teasing a single every couple of months, making a new music video, pumping out social content, etc. - then you just tend to fall from the public eye. It creates this insane sense of urgency on the industry as a whole.

META allows art to be delivered under the urgency, and a good chunk of what can deliver it is technology. Which is great. Much like anything else though, it just gets faster and faster. In art, that means you have to make sacrifice after sacrifice to get to where you want to go at that speed. Instead of performing all your verses and choruses, you record them once and copy/paste, meaning you miss out on that performance hit that often makes a "final chorus" great, as the guitar, drums, and vocals just start to feel tired and push harder, creating more emotion. Programming and snapping drums into place cuts the production time down significantly.

It may seem like technology is to blame... no it isn't. It's our use of it. There's plenty of good tech out there, and in fact some of the tools I've mentioned as negatives, are great honestly. Triggers allow you to play at volumes you can't naturally play at. Mistakes can be covered up, corrected, and fixed no matter the context. You don't have to play a song from front to back in the recording session. You have certain amp sims that allow freedom of choice without needing hundreds of thousands of dollars + a studio + a ton of knowledge for it to work. AI nowadays help cut down on research.

This is where competition comes into play. For record labels and musicians to keep up with those demands, shortcuts must be made. I mean, you want to make a living yeah? Your music is only a small part of that... job. Social media will bury you if you aren't releasing things constantly. People will lose interest if it takes a year to release an album. The idea he has of META applies far more to the industry than it does musicians, which creates this idea of clones. It muddies the waters and creates a lot of similar sounds.

Metal Specifically

The competition created skill levels. Who can be the most extreme, the most brutal, the fastest, the heaviest, the loudest, and who can be the tightest? This competition in metal has resulted in my opinion, the desensitization of what made metal edge over others to begin with. We’re less focused on the art itself and more focused on getting to the top of that sweet competition and winning first place in the “most whatever” category. That doesn't mean we can't do both... but it does get tiring of hearing some band do some INCREDIBLE stuff with their instruments... only to realize that the music is repetitive or not as great as you'd like it to be.

Where I think we get caught up is that we tend to think we're not good enough if we're not keeping up with the world's idea of what's good. Let's be real though, that's not really how it's ever been. Even though it isn't metal, Nirvana is a perfect example. Coming out of the 80's where flying solos, talent, and big shows were just blowing people away, and in the background metal was shocking the hell out of people, Nirvana came out with just some well written, emotional songs that required very little talent.

It's not a competition y'all. It's about the art you make and the connection to others. It doesn't matter how good you are. A Tik Tok person once said to keep going, because there's likely one person out there that thinks you're their favorite band. Play to that one person, even if it's you, and just pour your blood, sweat, tears, and heart into it.

All of that ends up creating an entirely different problem... if you've basically simplified and streamlined the production, what's the other part that's time consuming? That's right, the songwriting and style. It takes years to develop your own unique sound. We don't just pick up a guitar and a teacher and suddenly become unique, no, we listen, intake, practice, learn, perform, and that over time develops into a unique blend of influences, soul, and performance that just bleeds out on a record or track.

META takes the idea of efficiency, and applies it to songwriting and style. If you love deathcore, say Lorna Shore, it's real easy to just clone that. If you want a song to move a certain way, instead of exploration, you just apply some standard music theory and move on with life.

Don't get me wrong here... if you love a style or use music theory as a map or guide, not as a tool, then you're not doing anything wrong here. However, the business side of music absolutely takes advantage of this, and also allows those folks who may not be as creative to create art that generally is just the same as everyone else. IE people can create a lot of "soulless" music without ever having to actually be a musician because the META is so dang good nowadays... you don't need soul to release anything. You just need knowledge. I know I am referring to META as a thing, rather than a thought process here, but that's what it feels like to me.

I am going to take a controversial approach to this... but knowledge is anti-art. The more you end up knowing, the harder it is to just actually create art. Knowledge is awesome for logic based tasks - building a house, HVAC units, software engineering, or being a doctor as a few examples. Don't hear what I am not saying though, you don't have to be stupid or under the average IQ to make good art... you just have to approach it with more of a child-like wonder. We live in the age of information. Knowledge is practically constantly pouring into your brain.

Let me ask you... are you more likely to listen to a song where someone said "I want to make a sad song" and used specific chords based on music theory to achieve a somber tone, vocal runs that are basically ripped from successful emotional songs, and lyrics made so generic to apply to the most people, or are you more likely to listen to someone who said "I AM sad" and picked up the guitar and searched for a sound that represented what they felt in their broken heart, and expressed it vocally through very intense and specific lyrics?

Metal Specifically

Metal used to be the genre of music that people didn’t want to go to. The subject matters that you didn’t want to talk about. The styles that were so niche that most didn’t care to listen. Metal got huge over time, now writing is almost a cloneable experience for a lot of bands, especially and specifically the bands who get closer to the extremes, or closer to rock.

META has allowed bands to quickly achieve the sound they're looking for without the need to search and explore for something unique that works.

One thing I will give metal is that it's one of the genres that genuinely does has a ton of unique sounding bands. Where metal tends to fall short is honestly recognizable sound per band. Since the beginning, getting a heavy sound has been the replicated part. Very rare do you find bands could you recognize if they released new music and you heard the band without the singer. Why? Because the singer doesn't have anything that can replace them digitally... well almost AI, but that's a different ballgame.

I have several articles on my site where I basically dunk on humanity itself - not because I hate everyone, but rather I know our nature and can see where we are headed and where we came from. Let's be real here; we care more about money than most things. We care more about putting something out than we do on creating it. Most of us would rather shortcut to the end result than enjoy the journey to get there. We often rely on businesses to deliver our art, and they aren't focused on the art itself, but rather the branding, reputation, and monetary intake.

We also as humans tend to want to exist in a crowd. We want to be involved in something, oftentimes so desperately we will lie, cheat, steal, and change our belief systems to alter our minds to go into "hive mind" state. It makes us feel safe, heard, and sometimes even loved. We don't like to be patient; we want it now. We don't want to do things right, we just want to complete them. We don't want to love ourselves, we want to identify as something and love that because it's easier.

"Why the weird analysis of humans?" - Well because that's the... abuse of META? If anyone was surprised, then you shouldn't be. What efficiencies tend to provide humans is the excuse to be more of themselves without having to be limited or cautious. I mean... technology is a prime example. If you were a garbage human being, but you knew if you battled folks in person you'd get in trouble, then the online world of social media breaks down that barrier so you can exhibit that behavior without consequence. Thus if you want to be a part of a group, make music for that group, produce media for that group... you can.

Which eventually leads to hardcore and die-hard fanbases, some of them absolutely toxic. This in itself... does affect the music. If you're part of a large elitist crowd, then what you make is going to be limited. META will also help you get there QUICK.

Music, metal or not, is highly affected by this. It constantly breaks down barriers, allows for folks to get in the door easier, and helps get sounds to make music that you want without a college degree or loads of money. In theory it's great. In practice, it's a lot people that could be trying harder, that could be a little more unique, that could've chosen to do something amazing... now able to do whatever they want to without repercussions... and often times it's rewarded.

IE the point I am making; it isn't that these tools and methods are changing us... it's that it is bringing out who we already were. Hence, humanity intensified.

In other words - it allows you to be who you really are without societal limitations.

One thing that kind of sucks about living in this age, is that eventually everything gets reduced to business. If it doesn't get reduced to business, then business becomes the central focus and not the art. Metal is no exception to the rule here, as much as you elitists want to think it's not.

Before I go any further, I do want to note what I mean when I make statements like that; the purpose of telling folks that they need to "treat their music as a business" and that things get "reduced to a business" does not mean that those aspects are necessarily the problem. As a musician, if you want to make it a career or something that you can make money off of... well then you need to understand how to manage money, how to reach people, and how to create something that can be monetized - whether that be merch, content, etc.

Business tends to remove the heart from things though. That's where I think it's really taken a turn in the industry. Monetization is the business' king, they really don't care what you sound like or anything, so long as the cash flow keeps coming.

Replicate a popular sound. Sign the right band for the right moment. Decide which artists make it and which don't. That's the label's hold on music. We though, as non-signed artists, tend to take really far too. We aren't patient. We release music and as soon as we make a single song, we're absolutely slaughtering social media with our one track, trying to get listens, shirts made, and all this sort of stuff.

Here's my point, and it has nothing to do with META. Well maybe a little bit. Business and greed is a drive that pushes people a little too hard. If we could truly just live passionately and monetize off of it, that would be a dream. We live in a world so fast though, that we want to monetize our passions before we ever really get the chance to love them. It's about love and creation first, the rest will follow if it's meant to be.

This was way more of a rant than it was a... I don't know, analysis? I don't know y'all. I get lost in thought, and I don't know what to tell you.

All in all, I love the fact that a lot of new things, processes, and technology have come out that allows some dude with a family in a 10x10 room where he works, creates music, blogs, and doesn't get enough sleep, to release well produced, potentially amazing music. However, if I can do that, what can the industry do with their money and high powered versions of the same thing?

One thing in society nowadays is that we're always in a panic, and we know far more than we ever need to. I long for the days where we can just be us, go on our creative ventures in our little bubbles and just live life. That's the hippie in me talking I guess.

Eh, this article was longer than I intended it to be. Move on with your day. Bye!