# An Incandascence Of the Dark Lord



## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 2, 2019)

Hi guys,

I composed and recorded a new song. I was collaborating here with my wife who is writing lyrics for me. I thought to share it because this kind of music is barely seen here.


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## Saxer (Jun 2, 2019)

I'm far of being a metal head but I smiled while listening! 
What language is it?


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## Alex Fraser (Jun 2, 2019)

The legato transitions in the second flute part stand out a mile and ruin the entire composition for me.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 2, 2019)

Saxer said:


> I'm far of being a metal head but I smiled while listening!
> What language is it?




Elite Partner English or in other words: Parship english.



Alex Fraser said:


> The legato transitions in the second flute part stand out a mile and ruin the entire composition for me.



It was an Eb Clarinet. But I get the point, totally.


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## MichaelVakili (Jun 2, 2019)

I feel the Norwegian black metal. It reminds me of Dimmu Borgirs 'Death cult Armageddon' album. Thumbs up, definitely from me.


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## MartinH. (Jun 2, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I composed and recorded a new song. I was collaborating here with my wife who is writing lyrics for me. I thought to share it because this kind of music is barely seen here.




Very cool Alex! Sounds exactly like I remember the sound of old Dimmu Borgir. Very inspiring to see you put out so much high quality and diverse work. It's already June and I didn't even really start with the black metal album that I planned to make this year...

Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!




AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Elite Partner English or in other words: Parship english.


I know those sites, but I still don't get the joke :-/.


P.S.: Any advice on writing non-meme black metal lyrics? It's reasonably easy to write something that sounds like black metal and uses a bunch of tropes, but that's not what I'm looking for.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 2, 2019)

MartinH. said:


> Very cool Alex! Sounds exactly like I remember the sound of old Dimmu Borgir. Very inspiring to see you put out so much high quality and diverse work. It's already June and I didn't even really start with the black metal album that I planned to make this year...
> 
> Thanks for sharing and keep up the great work!
> 
> ...




Hey Martin,

So I didn´t know you are planning to write an album as well. Very cool man! Once you have something shoot me a pm, would be interested to take a listen.

These lyrics though they seem to fall into bm tropes are definitely not at all like that. They are more a warning or at least they have that intention. There is no appreciation from my side towards it. See it more as an analysis how gluttony has arrived society as I feel these days. I see that as a problem. Maybe paraphrasing but content wise it is the complete opposite of the bm trope (which I find..well..you probably can imagine how I find it.)

I have really no tips, but ask yourself: What topics do interest you worth writing about it. It is a personal thing and choice.



MichaelVakili said:


> I feel the Norwegian black metal. It reminds me of Dimmu Borgirs 'Death cult Armageddon' album. Thumbs up, definitely from me.



Thanks for chiming in Michael and the words. I definitely like the very old albums of DB.


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## ProfoundSilence (Jun 2, 2019)

MichaelVakili said:


> I feel the Norwegian black metal. It reminds me of Dimmu Borgirs 'Death cult Armageddon' album. Thumbs up, definitely from me.


***enthroned darkness triumphant. 

Well the keys remind me of EDT, but the drums definitely sound more like DCA.


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## Crowe (Jun 3, 2019)

Ahhh, I got Potter-baited.


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## MartinH. (Jun 3, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> So I didn´t know you are planning to write an album as well. Very cool man! Once you have something shoot me a pm, would be interested to take a listen.


Thanks a lot for the offer! I'll gladly do that!



AlexanderSchiborr said:


> I have really no tips, but ask yourself: What topics do interest you worth writing about it. It is a personal thing and choice.


Well, there's no lack of things to worry about in the world... I've just always had problems making anything creative that I make "personal". I think I'll just do some creative writing excercises to get rid of the "fear of the blank page" and see where that takes me. Luckily a text is easy to scrap and redo.



AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Maybe paraphrasing but content wise it is the complete opposite of the bm trope (which I find..well..you probably can imagine how I find it.)


I wasn't referring to your lyrics, more speaking in general - when it comes to metal I need printed out lyrics to follow along, otherwise it's "just another instrument" for me. Can you post the lyrics, or is understanding them by ear part of the challenge? Like many of the band logos are so hard to read only a fan of a band could recognize the name... Do you have a logo yet?


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## Hanu_H (Jun 3, 2019)

Yeah, I can feel the spirit of Dimmu Borgir here.  There is few things I would do differently in the mix. I would EQ out some low end from the guitars. I would also raise kick drum, snare and toms a bit. Kick could also have a bit more high end snap in the sound, now it kind of gets buried under everything else. Also make sure that there is basically no mid frequencies in the kick, only some low end and the high end snap. Snare could also be tuned a bit higher for this type of fast blastbeating. But cool song anyways.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 3, 2019)

MartinH. said:


> Thanks a lot for the offer! I'll gladly do that!
> 
> 
> Well, there's no lack of things to worry about in the world... I've just always had problems making anything creative that I make "personal". I think I'll just do some creative writing excercises to get rid of the "fear of the blank page" and see where that takes me. Luckily a text is easy to scrap and redo.
> ...



Ok, I have the lyrics, but its all hand written yet, so probably later after the album is finished part of the booklet then. No logo, not even a name. I think I concentrate first just writing material...



Hanu_H said:


> Yeah, I can feel the spirit of Dimmu Borgir here.  There is few things I would do differently in the mix. I would EQ out some low end from the guitars. I would also raise kick drum, snare and toms a bit. Kick could also have a bit more high end snap in the sound, now it kind of gets buried under everything else. Also make sure that there is basically no mid frequencies in the kick, only some low end and the high end snap. Snare could also be tuned a bit higher for this type of fast blastbeating. But cool song anyways.



Hej Hanu,

Good points, though I already lowcutted some things on the guitars and also tamed the palmmutes with a slight mb compression, cutting them more I feel they loose for my personal taste too much of that lowomppf flair (which I like).

Also while I completely understand the point with the drums from a modern drum sound production aspect, I like for this kind of music not a sound which is too sterile and clicky, I am no big fan of those sounds that much (funny enough I was back then a lot).

I like in that case more that oldschool grit drums which is not like that pop metal production sound. I even think to make that drums even more emermise with the rest of the sound, so while I have done other productions where I am more doing those drum mix, I think here for this kind of style it would just make no service to my vision.

The midcut on the bassdrum is actually there, I am not sure, but you get a complete notch of the mids at all? Doesn´t it loose a bit of "instrument Character"? I mean...cutting out the boxinness, I am totally with you, but cutting out too much kills the "character", isn´t it? Probably buried in the mix, it doesn´t get noticed anyways.

Thanks for the feedback. One thing I will try out and boosting the drums half or 1 db up which could be an idea. Thanks very much.


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## DGravel (Jun 3, 2019)

Awesome guitar recording! Absolutely brutal. Love it! Impressed by the quality of the production. What's you recipe for such a sound?


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 4, 2019)

DGravel said:


> Awesome guitar recording! Absolutely brutal. Love it! Impressed by the quality of the production. What's you recipe for such a sound?



Good question..the recipe..well let me try to answer that:

As an Amp I use a EVH 5150 III profile on my Kemper Amp.
Bass Amp is an Ampeg SVT Blueline.
Guitar is a Jackson Randy Rhoads Custom (Seymour Duncan Bridge Pickup)
Bass Guitar is Ibanez BTB 06 LTD with active pickups, I think they are stock.
Mic is a SE Electronics 2200 going into a distressor into my UAD Apollo Twin device.

Drums are a mix of perfect drums, but there I am mainly using the Cymbals. The shells are a bit mixed from indy libraries. I performed the drums over my midi controller, well lets most of the time.

Keys are all over the place, part of it from my Ensoniq TS 12, but also some synth plugins. Nothing really super special I would say.

I think the performance, mix and production is a lot what makes the sound in the end. So..yeah, using eq, using rooms, delays, compression etc. I think most time I spent for the guitar sounds here, as I wanted really some buttkicker guitar sound but without a quadtracked approach, so there are just one guitar left, one right.

I think also that it helps to have reference sounds, so in my case I am having quite a couple references which I like and I think: Ok from this reference I like the drums sound and from the other I think the guitar sound is something for me and so on. I am afraid, this production is just a result of many years mixing experience. I mean its not the first song in that genre I mix, so, in any case you have more specific question, then let me know. Good referencs are old Dimmu Recordings for instance.


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## Parsifal666 (Jun 4, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hi guys,
> 
> I composed and recorded a new song. I was collaborating here with my wife who is writing lyrics for me. I thought to share it because this kind of music is barely seen here.




I heard some early Emperor and smiled a lot while listening.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 4, 2019)

Parsifal666 said:


> I heard some early Emperor and smiled a lot while listening.


Really possible, mate. I was back then big on Emperor too, definitely somewhere in the sound here and there.


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## Parsifal666 (Jun 4, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Really possible, mate. I was back then big on Emperor too, definitely somewhere in the sound here and there.



The vocals are very strong and certainly distinctive. I borderline worshipped the first Emperor ep (with Enslaved) and Nightside, Welkin (plus really liked the last two albums). So this was a welcome listen for me.

I was pretty much crazy about all those early Second Wave of Scandinavian Black Metal bands: Darkthrone, the early Burzum, Immortal (like a high speed Bathory), Satryricon. Later I went crazy over the mostly-just-a lot-of-fun-to-listen-to bands like Dark Funeral, Marduk.


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## Hanu_H (Jun 4, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hej Hanu,
> 
> Good points, though I already lowcutted some things on the guitars and also tamed the palmmutes with a slight mb compression, cutting them more I feel they loose for my personal taste too much of that lowomppf flair (which I like).
> 
> ...


Yeah, the beautiful thing with metal music is that there is so many ways to do it. I am not actually suggesting anything too extreme, just little tweaks to make it sound more like the cornerstone albums of the genre. That is of course only my opinion and advice, but it would bring more power and clarity to the mix.

About the bass drum...the traditional metal kick doesn't sound anything like the real bass drum. You only need the high end for cutting through and the low end for some punch. Mids are cut to give room for guitars and vocals, because there is gonna be a lot of fast kick drumming. As a example if you listen to the song below, there is no mids in the bass drum. As I said earlier, this is only my opinion but I have mixed numerous metal bands during the years.


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## MartinH. (Jun 4, 2019)

Hanu_H said:


> Yeah, the beautiful thing with metal music is that there is so many ways to do it. I am not actually suggesting anything too extreme, just little tweaks to make it sound more like the cornerstone albums of the genre. That is of course only my opinion and advice, but it would bring more power and clarity to the mix.
> 
> About the bass drum...the traditional metal kick doesn't sound anything like the real bass drum. You only need the high end for cutting through and the low end for some punch. Mids are cut to give room for guitars and vocals, because there is gonna be a lot of fast kick drumming. As a example if you listen to the song below, there is no mids in the bass drum. As I said earlier, this is only my opinion but I have mixed numerous metal bands during the years.





Based on your recommendation you're probably not a fan of "Kvlt Drums" :D
https://www.itmightgetloud.org/product/kvlt-drums/?v=3a52f3c22ed6


In direct comparison between that Dimmu Borgir song and the kind of Blackmetal I usually listen to nowadays I actually prefer the other ones. I can't put my finger on it, but there's something about that Dimmu Borgir track that sounds weird and sterile to me. I much prefer the mix of Alex' track.


And to throw some more examples in the ring to stress your point about there being such a great variety in metal productions, here are a bunch that I enjoyed recently:



Spoiler







https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm_2YMXs738



I'm having a hard time picking a "favorite" to use as a reference track, because as I keep listening to one mix, I get used to it and everything else sounds weird. Maybe I need to go back to these after not having listend to anything for a while and then listen to each one only for a couple of seconds and then switch?


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## Hanu_H (Jun 4, 2019)

Yeah. Actually the Dimmu Borgir song I posted was meant to be a extreme example of the bass drum sound without any mids. I am not suggesting that Alex should mix the songs same way. There is no right or wrong in how someone should mix their metal song, it's all about the song and the feeling you want to create. But when I listen the drums in context of this song, I think vocals, guitars and keyboards are going for the more polished sounding black metal and now the drums kind of stick out(or actually don't stick out ) because of that. I've listened metal for more than 25 years and I've got my share of black metal. I've seen the genre evolve from the harsh punk into a diverse genre of talented musicianship. But like I said, can't say how Alex should mix the song, I can only say how I would mix it.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 4, 2019)

Hanu_H said:


> Yeah, the beautiful thing with metal music is that there is so many ways to do it. I am not actually suggesting anything too extreme, just little tweaks to make it sound more like the cornerstone albums of the genre. That is of course only my opinion and advice, but it would bring more power and clarity to the mix.
> 
> About the bass drum...the traditional metal kick doesn't sound anything like the real bass drum. You only need the high end for cutting through and the low end for some punch. Mids are cut to give room for guitars and vocals, because there is gonna be a lot of fast kick drumming. As a example if you listen to the song below, there is no mids in the bass drum. As I said earlier, this is only my opinion but I have mixed numerous metal bands during the years.





Hej Hanu, 
Here is dimmurized Version. 

Man that reference master is fucking loud..holy shit..the meter doesn´t do any shit anymore on this reference..
I need a beer.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ehlua392amp5tlu/An_incandescence_of_the_dark_Lord_Dimmu.mp3?dl=0


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## Hanu_H (Jun 4, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hej Hanu,
> Here is dimmurized Version.
> 
> Man that reference master is fucking loud..holy shit..the meter doesn´t do any shit anymore on this reference..
> ...


Hah.  Yeah, that definitely sounds more like Dimmu now. Though I think that the correct term for this is dimmufied.  It's actually pretty hard to get a nice sound when so much is happening and it really needs a lot of precise EQing to still have some life and body in the mix.


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## MartinH. (Jun 5, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Hej Hanu,
> Here is dimmurized Version.
> 
> Man that reference master is fucking loud..holy shit..the meter doesn´t do any shit anymore on this reference..
> ...



I like that version too, maybe even a bit more than the original one. I tend to listen at low volumes, so a louder mastering usually sounds better to me.

By the way thanks for putting that quiet intro at the start! I updated my audio driver and that set it's volume slider to 100% without me noticing. I started your track to see if the update worked and boy was I glad it didn't start with a blastbeat part right away because I have my speakers almost fully turned up and use the software volume slider to adjust volume. Normally that's below 20%, not at 100%.


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## MartinH. (Jun 6, 2019)

When you guys compose metal songs, do you write lyrics first and take that as a foundation to find the rythm, or do you compose riffs and drums first and make the lyrics fit to that, or is it a back and forth process? I'm asking because I had the idea that I could just make a primitive kontakt instrument that has short and long placeholder screams and I could block out the rythm of the vocal track with that while composing riffs and later just fill that rythm with meaning. Not sure it's a good idea though. Might need to try both approaches. But I'm still interested in how others do it.


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## DGravel (Jun 6, 2019)

AlexanderSchiborr said:


> Good question..the recipe..well let me try to answer that:
> 
> As an Amp I use a EVH 5150 III profile on my Kemper Amp.
> Bass Amp is an Ampeg SVT Blueline.
> ...


Many thanks for your detailed answer. I am a AxeFX user  that Kemper sound is awesome! Congrats for your mix.


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## AlexanderSchiborr (Jun 7, 2019)

DGravel said:


> Many thanks for your detailed answer. I am a AxeFX user  that Kemper sound is awesome! Congrats for your mix.



No Problem!  Axe FX rocks too! I have still my old Axe FX I here.



MartinH. said:


> When you guys compose metal songs, do you write lyrics first and take that as a foundation to find the rythm, or do you compose riffs and drums first and make the lyrics fit to that, or is it a back and forth process? I'm asking because I had the idea that I could just make a primitive kontakt instrument that has short and long placeholder screams and I could block out the rythm of the vocal track with that while composing riffs and later just fill that rythm with meaning. Not sure it's a good idea though. Might need to try both approaches. But I'm still interested in how others do it.



Will reply soon. Been busy finishing song 2 (vocals) and writing song 3.


douggibson said:


>


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## novaburst (Jun 8, 2019)

you do many types of music and do them very well done.

Putting a lot of energy in music


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