But first, a word about tone. This playlist is intended as a cut-and-dry list of [mostly] guitar-direct-into-amp sounds. My inner effects geek wants to party all over this thing, but then I'd wind up with Cave In taking up all of the slots. Just the tones, ma'am.
Ah, but we also know the old maxim, "Tone is in the fingers." Tone is not just guitar specs and amp/pedal settings. A player is the beginning and the end (the alpha and omega, if you will) of tone. This is one of the great mysteries of the craft. Tiny nuances like the placement of fingers when a player frets, the force of pressure holding the strings down, the angle of the pick in the strumming hand, the speed of the wrist versus the forearm, et cetera... I could have Eddie Van Halen's exact guitar(s), plugged into his exact rig, with his exact settings, and not sound like Eddie Van Halen. With years of practice I might come close, but ultimately that tone would still elude me. (And anyway, I'm not such a gigantic fan of EVH that I want my playing style and gear choices to be modeled after his. [I just committed an egregious sin in guitardom by admitting this.])
Is it possible to nail down just ten songs? I just...
(In chronological order of when I first heard these songs)
Metallica - "Through The Never"
Alright, so I realized that there was something missing all the way back to my first couple of posts in this blog. Back sometime in the early '90s ('93?), my dad got to sit next to Kirk Hammett on a flight. He was so pumped on it when he got back that he took me and my brother to the grocery store, brought us over to the magazine racks, pulled one down (Hit Parader?) and showed us the rock star that he got to meet. "Cool, Dad!", said my brother and I in unison.
After that, it was all about the Black album, but only when it was "the guys" riding together in the family stationwagon. I loved listening to it. I didn't know much about music back then, but I did know that I specifically liked the sound of the guitars. The grittiness of HIGH-GAIN, though I didn't have a way of describing it. And tracks like "Through The Never" had that fast palm-muting and the scooped mids—other terms I couldn't have named—that made everything sound so urgent and dark. As far as I know, the band primarily recorded with a Mesa/Boogie Mark IV head.
I could pick just about any song from the Black album. I know I'm not "supposed" to like it more than Metallica's earlier thrash masterpieces, but this record started my fascination with high-gain guitar; I just didn't know it yet.
Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
Once I got into listening to music for my own, The Colour And The Shape found its way into my 8th-grade life and hit me like a Mack truck. Balls to the wall Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier all over this album. Huge presence, tons of gain, full throttle. I think I remember reading somewhere that Pat Smear recorded some of his parts with a baritone guitar—tuned all the way up to E rather than B. Insane. Anyway, by the time I started playing guitar, I knew for sure that I wanted that brightness, that presence, though it took some time to figure out how to get it.
Weezer - "My Name Is Jonas"
I think every person remembers the first time they heard Weezer's Blue album, honestly. It's impossible not to know. Me? I saw the "Buddy Holly" music video on MTV sometime in '96 or '97 and it was the coolest thing I had seen or heard then. But it took me all the way until August 2001 (I was 16) to pick up Blue at a Wal-Mart, take it to my car, and get blown away by those first few power chords. I still wrestle with the idea of picking apart every detail of that rhythm guitar tone (and anyway, Michael Adams, you beat me to it), but it's just so magical that I don't think I would ever want to ruin it for myself. It's a fuzzy gift that just keeps on giving. "My Name Is Jonas" will forever remain my favorite Weezer song and...
I'M STILL IN LOVE!!!
Wait a minute... P-90 PICKUPS?!?!
Starflyer 59 - "Duel Overhead Cam"
Still riding high from the Weezer trip, Starflyer 59's Gold was another... gold... standard for me. This is where I first learned about the concept of layering guitar sounds. Layers upon layers upon layers of dark, fuzzy power chords accentuated with washes of feedback, tremolo, chorus, and reverb for a surf-on-drugs feel. I like the clean palm muting in "Duel Overhead Cam" on the verses a lot, but the wall of sound at 3:18 is heavenly. This kind of layering doesn't work for metal, but it's still cool and I come back to it frequently.
Failure - "Another Space Song"
One of my all-time favorite songs isn't a full-on crashing rocker. The main guitar riff in "Another Space Song" boasts a sparkling, lightly-clipped tone, floating above the thick bass distortion. I got the chance to see Failure play live on their reunion tour this year and I still don't get how they get the tones that they do. There's an ethereal quality behind it all and it can't just be gear-related. There's a reason why hardcore bands like Cave In and Hopesfall eventually took cues from space rock giants Failure, and also Hum. Greg Edwards and Ken Andrews, teach me your secrets.
Mastodon - "Blood And Thunder"
And thus, the time came for me to delve into the world of metal guitar. The tones on Leviathan are more organic and tend to "breathe" more than most of the other scooped-mid active-pickup sounds that dominated metalcore ten years ago. This was the impetus for choosing to purchase the Seymour Duncan SH-6 Distortion humbucker (after reading that Mastodon were using them) and it was definitely a great choice. I've had the Duncan Distortion in three guitars in the past and it served me so well that I'm going to stick with it for the current build.
Mastodon continually prove that players don't need ALL of that gain available to them; when you have great riffs and can play with the right tension and urgency, your guitar sound can still pack a serious punch while displaying reserve. To all the bros who resort to "broo-tall!" 8-string scooped tones, chill out and listen to a Thin Lizzy record every once in a while.
The Smashing Pumpkins - "The Everlasting Gaze"
You thought I was going to pick anything from Siamese Dream, didn't you?! I hated the rhythm tone on Machina / The Machines Of God when I first heard it, but it grew on me. The harsh, gritty, "industrial" guitar edge fits the mood and themes of the record perfectly, and somehow sticks out in front when it needs to and also backs off to allow other frequencies to float over it. Strange. "The Everlasting Gaze" kicking from the pre-chorus to the chorus is the best example of this. Overall, though, Machina suffers from subpar mixing and mastering. Definitely looking forward to the upcoming remaster which I assume and hope will be next year.
The Ocean (Collective) - "Orosirian (For The Great Blue Cold Now Reigns)"
To my knowledge, The Ocean (a German band) use, or used, Diezel amps (a German brand). Their main guitarist and songwriter, Robin Staps, had a VH4 head when I saw them live in 2008 and man, what I wouldn't give for one of those... Thunderous low end thick with a gain structure that's folding over on top of itself. Intense, mean, bitter, brutal, bludgeoning, every other kind of word that evokes a furrowed brow and gnashing of teeth. It works perfectly as the music isn't overly technical; otherwise it would prove to be too muddy. Check out the last parts of "Orosirian" at 5:32 and 6:06. By the way, palm muting on a single chord is brilliant way to end a song.
Also, check out the call-and-response section on "Ectasian (De Profundis)" at 5:41.
Third Eye Blind - "Wounded"
I'm surprised this song made it to the list, but the jingling clean chords on the verses just get to me. Sounds to me like a Strat through a compressor pedal through a tremolo or some modulation with maybe a slapback echo on it. Pure power pop ear candy. I can't get enough of it. If I ever buy a compressor in the future, this song will be the sole reason why. Oh yeah, the rest of the song is rocking, too. Those first two Third Eye Blind records have some fantastic guitar and bass tones. (By the way, Arion Salazar is one of my favorite bassists.)
Every Time I Die - "Underwater Bimbos From Outer Space"
There's something killer about riding on the guitar's lowest string and having it sound like an alien laser beam cutting a tank in half. Or something like that. The trick, in my opinion, is about matching an alnico-magnet humbucker ("thinner" than ceramics but accentuates top end) with a high-gain stack. This "thin-ness" cuts through when you're picking as hard as you can so that the string goes sharp—razor sharp. I'm able to replicate this well with my Burstbucker-equipped Gibson Explorer. ETID have been big endorsers of Orange amps in recent years.
All photos in this post are pulled from Google search.
Here's a great lyric video for "Another Space Song":
No comments:
Post a Comment