Riffs That Shook The World #1: Metallica – Creeping Death

NEWS
Riffs That Shook The World #1: Metallica – Creeping Death
And the winner is...
28/08/2014 ~ by Metal Hammer
Topping our poll of Riffs That Shook The World – as voted for by you – is the legendary Creeping Death by Metallica.

What is it that hits you hardest about Creeping Death? Take a second to think about it, because this thrash metal journey has plenty going for it. Is it that thunderous, thudding introduction that shoots adrenaline through your veins, getting straight to the point and setting the riotous tone from the very first note of the song? Maybe it’s that middle section that slugs away like body blows from a heavyweight boxer and includes what could very well be the most definitive gang vocal ever recorded? The epic scale and tone of the guitar solos? The dual guitar moments that added a sophistication and element of class to the “hunt and kill” rhetoric thrash had made its forte by 1984?

Whatever it was, it was apparent upon the release of Ride The Lightning that Creeping Death was unchartered territory for both Metallica and metal as a whole.

“Creeping Death was one of the first songs responsible for the musical growth of the band, I think,” reflects Kirk Hammett. “It was one of the first songs written for Ride The Lightning and it was a clear step in the right direction. It was as heavy as anything on Kill ‘Em All but on a technical level, we had put that much more into the writing and arrangement and we made it more demanding for ourselves, and it set the stage for therest of the album.”

Though the song obviously goes down as a Metallica classic, dig a little deeper and you can find that Hammett’s former band Exodus had a tiny part to play in the creation of this metal masterpiece…

“James and Lars hammered that song out in a day and then called me down to the rehearsal space,” Kirk reveals of the song’s origin. “They got to the ‘Die by my hand’ riff and they started grinning at me and I laughed because I’d had that riff kicking around for so long and we’d used it in an Exodus demo, but it just worked in Creeping Death so well. I wrote it when I was 16 years old, definitely still in high school, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is heavier than a lot of the bands that I listen to,’ and thought I’d touched upon something. It was the first riff I ever wrote that was in that sphere and I’ll always have tremendous affinity with it for that reason.”

It’s perhaps in the live setting that Creeping Death has solidified its reputation as owning one of the biggest riffs in the history of metal. From sweaty clubs in the mid-80s to the stadiums and festival headline slots they occupy today, Creeping Death is second only to Master Of Puppets in the Metallica canon for most live airings ever, and is regularly deployed to open the band’s live set. Indeed, after a weekend of Glastonbury coverage that involved insipid pig vomit like Ed Sheeran and Arcade Fire, Creeping Death opening Metallica’s setlist on the main stage felt like a bazooka being fired at a hippie commune.

“Mission accomplished, then!” laughs Kirk. “It’s a song that pulls you in from the very beginning and we open with it for that reason. You don’t have to build yourself up; from the first second it pulls you in and the set goes from there.”

Perhaps the most impressive thing about the track is that it still sounds so crushingly heavy a full 30 years after its release. When you consider how dated some things from as recent as the late 90s and early noughties sound (have you listened to Soulfly, Drowning Pool or Static-X lately?), that Creeping Death still sounds like a Michael Bay scene set in Hell tells its own story.

“I can only speculate, but I think one of the things that makes it so timeless is that it sounded like nothing else that was going on at that time,” summarises Kirk. “It didn’t have anything to do with any of the trends that were going on. It didn’t sound anything like what would become hair metal and it only had elements of what was going on in thrash and when you can’t tie a song or a sound to a particular point in time, it means you can’t date it and that’s probably why people would say it’s stood the test of time so well. I’m proud of that.”

Location:Hempland Rd,Mountville,United States

How Hetfield relies on fans Metallica frontman tells how supporters get them through tough times.

How Hetfield relies on fans
Metallica frontman tells how supporters get them through tough times.
12/08/2014 ~ by Stef Lach
James Hetfield admits he isn't always in the right frame of mind for a gig and says he relies on the audience to help him through the show.

The Metallica frontman says he makes eye contact with a member of the crowd whenever he needs a boost – and adds that the trick never fails. Watch the full interview below.

He tells Hitradio 03: "I mean, we're all human, and sometimes we feel very communicative and sometimes we don't. But most of the time, if I'm not feeling good and then we get up on stage, I just look at somebody in the eye and just say, 'Hey, I need your help tonight.'

"I mean, I'm not asking them directly, but through the eyes I'm asking them, 'I need your help.' And they give it to me, somehow."

08/12/2014

Location:Hempland Rd,Mountville,United States

http://productionadvice.co.uk/how-to-make-your-music-loud/ by Ian Sheppard

Sorry there is no video in this post.

[Update - I've posted a video demonstrating many of the techniques I talk about in this post - to check it out, click here.]

Today I’ll tell you how to make your music loud.
Yes, you read that right.
This post will tell you how to get your music really loud. Regardless of the fact that I’ve been interviewed on Radio 4 arguing passionately against the Loudness Wars, even though I’ve always said that the best way to get your song to stand out on the radio is to avoid pushing the level too hard, and despite having started Dynamic Range Day to raise awareness of the fact that listeners don’t care about loudness…
Today I’ll tell you how to make your music loud.
Why ? As a response to this article on MusicRader.com
How to make your music loud

(Subtitled – “Win the loudness war with our step-by-step and audio guide”)
Now immediately I should say – I love MusicRadar. It’s a great site – I highly recommend it. Masses of news, posts, discussion and information for anyone interested in music and music technology. They were one of the first places to pick up and post about how bad Death Magnetic sounded, and link back to my blog. As a result, Wired magazine and the Guardian found the story and started writing about it, and the rest, as they say, is history. The bad press generated by Death Magnetic has done a fantastic job of raising awareness about this issue, and I for one am very happy about that.
So, MusicRadar rocks.
But that post is useless.
Sorry, but there it is. My reasons for saying so though, may not be what you’re expecting.
Here they are:
It doesn’t explain anything – All you get is a list of steps, with no reasons given, or discussion of what they are intended to achieve. Without the whys and wherefores, people will just cherry-pick suggestions and end up doing wrong or harmful things to music that didn’t need it
No concepts - I’m going to list some fundamental rules that will help you make any piece of music louder without killing the sound. None of them are mentioned in the MusicRadar post
Some horrible suggestions - The article refers to a “mild” 4:1 compression ratio – that’s the harshest setting I ever use !
The example song is almost useless for learning purposes. Anyone can crush and compress the life out of electronica – no-one has any idea what it’s “supposed” to sound like anyway. You can’t hear if you’re doing any damage to anything. How are you supposed to “win the loudness war” with a tutorial that deliberately tries to get “crunch from the upper mids and trash from the highest frequencies” ? Surely “winning” is getting a high level without making it sound terrible ?
It doesn’t even end up that loud - The dynamic range of the clip at the end of the tutorial is about 7 or 8 dBs. That’s loud – as loud as I ever happily make anything, but it’s hardly going to win any awards for loudness when Metallica and others crush their music down to only 2dB DR.
And sadly, it sounds bad, too. No impact in the kick or snare, distorted bass, two-dimensional sound and linear dynamics.
Now I’ll tell you what should have been in that post. It has some useful techniques hidden away in it, but how you’re supposed to figure out what they are, I have no idea…Here are some rules to help you make your music masters loud (if that’s what you want to do)
Make the mix loud
All too often loudness is treated as a mastering issue, but steps 1-10 of the MusicRadar post are actually about mixing – and that’s exactly the right way to do it, they just don’t spell it out clearly enough. There’s no point in recording everything as dynamically as possible, and then deciding to squash it to hell at the last minute.
Compress guitars, bass and vocals in the mix – guitars and bass at the amp itself, ideally. I don’t advise compressing to tape, though – with 24-bit audio it’s not necessary, and it’s too easy to overdo it.
Balance EQ
An unbalanced sound will never feel loud. This has happened to me on several occasions – I’m looking at the meters pegging, and listening and thinking “but it doesn’t sound loud”. Then I take a step back and realise there’s no bottom end in the mix. Whack in a low shelf EQ or broad parametric, and suddenly the room is heaving.
Coming at it from another angle, you can use our ears’ sensitivity in the 2kHz region to make guitars and drums sound aggressive and loud, without pushing up the average level too much. Don’t overdo it though, or it will sound harsh and thin. Whatever strategy you decide on, don’t overdo it. Balance is everything. (Here’s a post with more tips on using EQ.)
Take it easy with bass
Having made sure you have a balanced mix, be restrained with the bass. Bass is one of the first things to distort as the levels go up, which is why if you listen to most “ultra-loud” CDs you’ll find they either have distorted bass, or are actually fairly bass-light. Again this is a technique the MusicRadar article uses, but doesn’t spell out.
Using a low-cut filter to stop very low frequencies getting out of control is a good tip, too – but again, use with caution. Personally I love bass and prefer to sacrifice a little level for a nice big bottom end : )
Work to retain dynamics – by hand
This may seem paradoxical, but it’s absolutely key. As I’ve said before, without quiet, there can be no loud. Often when mixing, you work hard to get the balance between sections of songs to work dynamically – so the chorus kicks in when you want it to, for example. At the mastering stage though, this can be too much.
If you lift up the intro to a healthy level, by the time you get to the end all the processing will be flat out. If you get the end right, the intro may still be too quiet.So, either automate the compression to adjust to each section of the song, or do what I do and adjust the overall level of each section of the track going into the compression. If the chorus is compressing too much, reduce it’s level a little.
You’ll find there’s a balance point where it sounds just as loud, but the compressors aren’t flat out. Give the mix room to breathe, even if it sounds punishing most of the time – every time you ease back on the accelerator a little, the more scope you have to floor it 8 bars later.
Use multi-band compression
Once again, MusicRadar suggest this, but don’t explain why – and, I have issues with the settings they’re using. Multi-band compression is a great way to boost the average level of a mix, without introducing pumping (for example in the high frequencies when a kick drum is triggering gain reduction). It’s also a great way to completely mash a mix. Here are some multiband rules of thumb to avoid this:
Use the same ratio in all bands – different ratios can sound unnatural
Use similar amounts of gain reduction in all bands – this avoids changing the sound of the mix too much
Never push a band beyond the point where the gain reduction returns to zero several times per bar – it doesn’t achieve anything except unnatural, squashed sound, and the compression doesn’t work efficiently
Multiband compression is a complicated subject, and I get so many questions about it that I’ve released an eBook and video about using it in mastering. To watch a free 50-minute webinar about multiband compression, click here.
(By the way, if you’re new to compression in general or would just like a refresher, this article may help you out: Using compression to add punch, warmth and power to your mix )
Use low ratios and avoid short attack times
This is a general rule for any kind of compression. Almost all of the time I use ratios between 1.5:1 and 4:1. Once the ratio gets much above 4:1, you are almost limiting anyway. Remember, the higher the ratio, the higher the threshold should be, to avoid over-compressing your mix.
Short attack times kill audio – I seldom use an attack time shorter than 20ms, except where I have a particularly “spiky” sound to deal with. (A very clicky bass drum, say) In mastering I often use attack times of 70ms or longer. We have limiters for controlling peaks and transients, why try to use a compressor to do this ? Check out the screenshot in the MusicRadar article – they have attack times of 2ms in every band ! No wonder the result sounds dull and lifeless.
(Note – All multiband compression is not created equal. I’m lucky enough to be able to use TC Electronics’ compression in their System 6000 processor. I can’t promise you’ll be able to get such good results with other multibands. If you’re interested though, I’ve written about the best multi-band compressor plugin I’ve found so far.)

Use multiple stages of compression, with low gain reductions
Once again, the MusicRadar post does this, but doesn’t tell you, or say why. Heavy compression is always audible. Use compression gently at different stages throughout the recording and mixing process – some on the instrument when playing, some in the mix, maybe some on the mix buss for some styles of music, then some gentle multi-band, and finally some mild limiting. These gradual increases will allow you to get higher average levels without killing the music.
Don’t overdo the limiting
Limiting is an important part of the “loudness chain” – as I’ve said, it allows you to use longer attack times on compressors and not worry about any peaks that might get through. Limiters are brutal, though, and more than 2 or 3dB gain reduction almost always has a detrimental effect on the audio. Don’t over-compress your mix.
I’ve covered this before, in my post How to avoid over-compressing your mix. How can I say it again, in a post titled “How to make your music loud” ? Because it’s crucial. As I said above:Without quiet, there can be no loud
That doesn’t stop you having a loud mix and master, but the truth is, there is no point in consistently going lower than DR8. (Don’t know what “DR8″ means ? Read the last link : ). Beyond that level of compression, you simply suck impact and loudness out of your track. It makes your track sound quieter (because people, or broadcast limiting, or playback normalisation, turn it down anyway) and it will be crushed, distorted and fatiguing as a result.

So, there you go. Hopefully that gives you some extra understanding of what the MusicRadar post and example are doing, and where they’ve gone wrong. Listen to how much cleaner the version at Stage 12 sounds, for example.
I regularly use these techniques to master songs that are actually louder than the example I’ve been criticising, but sound better – hopefully you will be able to, too, if loudness is your goal. Just remember my catch-phrase:
Louder is better, but too loud is worse

Related articles

• The "Loudness Wars" (travislachner.wordpress.com)
• Ableton Live Tutorial: Mastering In Live (blackpills.wordpress.com)
• Little War Twins and Winter Wave (chrisfromthepast.wordpress.com)
• Audioengine D3 Premium 24-Bit DAC (pcmag.com)
• Music Is My Radar (shsufox.wordpress.com)