Post by "The Freq" on May 5, 2013 23:54:23 GMT -5
This "Gates of Winter" track PROMETHEUS has been online for a short while and was previewed on the Sault Metal Scene so I'm doing the same here. I'm not a big fan of this style of music but I do appreciate the talent that created this song as a lot of detail and quality went into it. The production is pretty good and to my ears, there are hints of Dream Theater in the song structure. If you disagree, too bad. ;-) There are two things that ruin this song for me and one of those is just my own taste in music, however, the other is the use of programmed drums. The music scene in recent years has totally been absorbed and fascinated with software drums for song writing. What writers and programmers fail to understand is that even though you might create this synthetic drum wall of sound, you fail to understand the dynamics and feel of drums and what a drummer actually plays. Each drum and cymbal has multiple zones on it where sound varies pitch, punch and feel. Add to that the fact that no two drummers play exactly the same even if they were to use the same drumset shows how complex the sound of drums are. You cannot capture that on an electronic kit with 3 zones per pad or rubber cymbal with 2 triggers. It's not going to happen. To me, this Gates of Winter track is ruined by bad programmed drums to the point they sound "toy like". Yes, I know, most will say, f.u.c.k you Glen or it's easier to record a synth programmed drum track or use loops or pieces of existing drum wav files spliced together but those are not feeling "the song" that is written as say, the guitar player was feeling on this track. There is no human connection "drumwise" to the song or its' feel on the track. One of my favourite guitarists "Ty Tabor" from the band King's X has recorded numerous solo albums and twice he use programmed drums and it was always the "weak point" of the production. He listened to fans complain who felt the same way and he actually re-recorded and re-released tracks with real drums. I understand the ease of using drum synths but in my opinion, being that I've been a drummer since 1977, is, use these tools to help create a song, but never use it for the final product. Try and connect with the human factor of an instrument and the song, whether it's one instrument you play and understand OR, one you don't understand. You have to grasp that there is a bridge at how drums connect with other instruments but also within themselves. In this case....drums... are more than just a thuddy sound that takes up space and keeps time. With real drums, this song would definitely interest me more. My other complaint, which is purely my own tastes, are the cookie monster vocals. I'm sorry, it's been done, over and over and it's a tired thing. Yes, there are people that love this sort of thing but I am not one of them. Vocals should be like a guitar or piano where melody is explored to it's fullest but also in harmony. Imagine playing a guitar single notes at a time, all the time without chords. Vocals need chords to help build a song. Maybe some don't understand harmony vocals but there is so much you can do to strengthen a song with powerful harmonies. Growling may add some meat or strength to a song for parts but to me it becomes dull and uneventful when used over and over again. It seems that in the past ten years, singers can only sing at one level when years ago, singers could nail multiple octaves. When you lessen the size of your canvas to create, it becomes the weak link in a production. With all of this said, this song does show some growth in writing for Gates of Winter and I'm sure many will enjoy this tune. For me though, the programmed blast beats are a tad cartoonish. Get some real drums on this track doing parts that can actually be played by a human and this song would be knocked up a few marks. One final thing... which again is my own opinion, but "real drums" don't sound anything like what's on most recordings these days. Over processed drums are a complete joke. Real drums have a voice so don't f**k with them. John Bonham never did so learn a lesson. Why buy 5 or 10 grand worth of drums only to go into a studio and smear digital voodoo all over them during a recording session. That' STUPID! Oh.. a little piece of advice... When programming drum parts, make sure it's actually humanly possible to play. ;-)
