Battle for the Evil Sound
Since I've started recording music, I've become more sensitive to the overall sound of a given album. I've taken more interest in how the instruments are mixed and the tone that each individual musician is contributing. I enjoy going through a band's catalogue and taking note of the different ways the band and their production team chose to present their albums. I did this recently with Rage Against the Machine and determined that Evil Empire is my favorite sounding album they released. This doesn't mean it is my favorite album (You'll notice from my profile that The Battle of Los Angeles is number 12 on my all-time favorite albums list while Evil Empire doesn't crack the top 20.) I just prefer the general sound over their others. The recording strategy that makes this album stand out above the others is the fact that they turned Tom Morello's guitar down in the mix and let the other band members embody a more salient role. This was certainly a risk, because Tom Morello is definitely the most talented musician in the band; however, by bringing him down in the mix, the rhythmic undertones come through far more prominently. This gives the album an added punch that it would be lacking otherwise. Evil Joe Barresi employed a similar tactic when recording/mixing Tool's 10,000 Days. However, instead of bringing Adam Jones' guitar down in the mix, he decreased the level of Maynard's vocals. On previous Tool albums, Keenan's vocals "floated" above the intense tones being delivered by the other members of the band. However, Barresi reduced the vocal level on 10,000 Days and it helped add depth and power to the songs on that album. Again, this was a big risk, because Keenan's voice is one of the most compelling instruments in rock music, but songs like "Vicarious" or "Jambi" wouldn't sound so huge if this tactic was not incorporated. It takes a bit of selflessness from the musician who sacrifices his stance in the mix, but if done properly, the end result can be more profound than it would be if he battled for that stance.
