Heavy Music

The engineer/producer behind the sound of the '80s Metallica albums is Flemming Rasmussen and his Sweet Silence Studios, located in Copenhagen, Denmark. These early Metallica records, Ride the Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice for All, brought a whole new light...

If you know a thing or two about punk and hardcore from the last few decades, you’ll know the name Will Killingsworth. His band, Orchid, brought unbridled passion to the ‘90s screamo scene, while Bucket Full of Teeth explored more noisy experimental fringes. From his Dead Air...

Paul Malinowski is a cornerstone of the Kansas City, Missouri rock scene. His production beginnings from the 1990s and 2000s, plus his presence in the close-knit late-'80s scene, helped spawn the now-iconic KC sound. Paul is an engineer, producer, and musician who was a...

A little over a decade ago, the A Band Called Death documentary brought cheers and tears to music fans worldwide, telling the fantastic tale of proto-punk band Death's rediscovery. Having been fortunate to attend the swanky premiere party on Sunset Strip, I first met the...

Jarrett Pritchard has seen some shit. After coming up in Florida's extreme music scene, he slugged it out as an educator, live sound engineer, and re-recording mixer for television before getting called back into action for loud and heavy bands. The likes of 1349, Exhumed...

Tampa, Florida's Obituary have been making meat n' potatoes death metal since 1984. Their last several albums document a journey through learning the art of production for the metal veterans, especially for drummer Donald Tardy. Obituary constructed their base of...

In the past few decades, something wicked has crept out of the Central Jersey swamp, slowly rising into the foothills and beyond. Horrific sounds that meld flesh and circuitry in a cyber-metallic world of one man's creation. Well, one man and his trusty staff of engineers...

It's a snowy March morning, and I'm enroute to Corpus Studios in Queens to hang with Arthur Rizk. Arthur's driven up from Philadelphia to chat before he works live sound at the Bowery Ballroom. He was up late mixing, but seems genuinely happy to catch up with the...

Longtime Tape Op contributor Scott Evans has played in a band called Kowloon Walled City for many years. In October of 2021, KWC released their fourth LP, Piecework. Recorded by Scott at Oakland's Sharkbite Studios, and mixed at his own Antisleep Audio, Piecework has been...

There is a portal inside of a garage in Van Nuys, California, that leads to another world. A world of crushing heaviness, monstrous sounds, and violently compelling breakdowns. Despite its modest size, The Pit Studio has drawn decibel disciples from across Southern California...

If you've listened to metal records produced in the last two decades, you've surely heard the work of Andy Sneap. Killswitch Engage, Megadeth, Carcass, and Judas Priest are only a few of the artists whose works have been given his treatment: tight, snarling mixes where...

At this point, Buzz Osborne and Dale Crover are the Melvins. They've recorded over 29 studio albums in all types of spaces and show no signs of slowing down. I caught up with Buzz and Dale for a couple of days on their "double bass player tour" (with Jeff Pinkus...

Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, Stormtroopers of Death, Nuclear Assault, Vio-lence... Alex Perialas is responsible for dozens of classic metal records from the '80s and '90s, mostly made in his studio, Pyramid Sound, in his hometown of Ithaca, New York. These records are...

Over the past four decades, producer/engineer Terry Date has racked up a gallery of multi-platinum monuments to his golden ears. Unforgettable moments from his catalog include the important role he had in shaping the sonic direction of rock through his groundbreaking work with...

Randall Dunn is creating what might be Seattle's next chapter in the dark and loud tradition of Northwest music. From the Sonics and Jimi Hendrix, to the U-Men and grunge, the Pacific Northwest has a reputation for spawning loud, raw blues. A tireless and prolific man, his...

New York City's independent metal scene has recently burst into mainstream view. At least two venues are primarily putting on heavy music shows nearly every night of the week. Several of the best metal blogs are based out of the city, and there's an exciting diversity...

I'm a big fan of Arturia's soft synth collection; they have some of the best sounding and well-modeled "vintage" software synthesizers available. So I jumped at the chance to try out their new super-affordable MiniLab hybrid controller. Not because I needed...

Recording involves several processes — preproduction, tracking, mixing, and mastering. The methods involved in each step have changed greatly over time. Musicians, engineers, mixers, and producers have more choices than every before with regard to how they navigate through the...

Located near Mount Shasta in Northern California is a thriving complex known as RadioStar Studios. In four different rooms people are making music — mixing, tracking and overdubbing constantly. How did this come to pass? Sylvia Massy made a good name for herself as a producer in...

Belleville, New Jersey, is a deceptively quiet enclave up the river from Newark. A beautiful mural here, a grungy secondhand shop there – it's a collision of worlds. A bit like the mild-mannered Evetts himself, who politely offers coffee before dissecting the aggressive...

Mike Patton keeps busy — that's for sure. Since his early days with rock band Faith No More (pioneering the rap-rock genre with their seminal hit "Epic"), through the schizophrenic compleit⁄ies of Mr. Bungle's three albums, to his more recent work...

Ross Hogarth is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. His career spans multiple genres, years, and artists, and his discography reads like a Who's Who of the music industry. Having worked on everything from legendary hair metal of the '80s to Grammy-winning...

Almost everyone knows that the last few years have ushered in a slew of new tube microphones. Low-cost ones, pricey ones, colorful ones, plain ones, transformer- balanced, and transformerless ones. There's even a phantom-powered tube mic out there. Seems if there was a way...

Adrian, for years, has been the brains behind the Dub Syndicate "band" and On-U Sound label in the UK, but here is his first "solo" record. Are you looking for the future of rhythms, dub and studio trickery? Adrian calls it "a contemporary dancehall...

Joe Chiccarelli is a great pal of ours at Tape Op, so we keep an eye out for work he does (although I was too scared to listen to the Elton John record he worked on...) So here I open up this Clem Snide CD, and Joe's name is spelled wrong. So I check some American Music...

Billy Anderson recorded one of hard rock's most intriguing and fucking coolest albums in history — Jerusalem, by the now-defunct legendary stoner-rock band Sleep. It was a lengthy one-track sonic low-end frequency voyage into unknown that was almost too volatile to be put...

Jenny is a occasional writer for Tape Op, former member of Tsunami, Grenadine and Licorice, and used to run Simple Machines Records (who put out a great booklet on how to release your own album years ago). She's also got a great, silky voice and writes some memorable tunes....

Beware stereo salesmen everywhere. Be on the lookout for customers appearing with a reference album bearing the audio trademark of one 'Joe Barresi', for then your knowledge of signal-to-noise ratios, wattage, ohms, oversampling, woofers and tweeters will truly be...

When people talk to me about movies, I mention that I follow directors and rarely pay attention to actors. When it comes to records though, I don't think I'd pick music based on who "produced" it. Much of the time, production is just a job, and if you look at...

Uh Oh. Everyone knows the kiss of death for any studio is to put out a compilation CD of the stuff that they've been working on. It's then that you find out that the hip, cool studio that Pavement cut a few tracks at really spends their time recording Michael Bolton...

Stop me if you've heard this one before.  A couple of L.A. rich kids with too much time on their hands buy some recording equipment, rent a space and start recording their own album, which they proceed to press themselves and sell at gigs and local record stores. ...

Spoke appears to be more of a sketch pad for musical inspirations rather than a complete project which in turn makes it come across as unassuming and inviting.  Calexico is mainly John Convertino and Joey Burns who have recently produced  and/or played with many...