As title says, I’m looking at top produced / mixed / engineered albums in the Hard rock / Heavy Metal genre.
Rage Against the Machine same title album and Tool’s Fear Inoculum are pretty great to test headphones and get a bit analytic.
Any other suggestions ?
When I mean Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, I mean any sous genre : Progressive Rock/Metal, Thrash, Groove, Metalcore, Djent… you name it. Not picky! I just went to be pointed towards albums that have great mixing and recordings, where all the separations are clear and defined.
Sonder by Tesseract. Anything by Porcupine Tree. Most of Dream Theater. Some of Metallica’s remasters are good, but you have to be careful. Haken’s work generally sounds great. Ozzy’s remastered No More Tears. Those come to mind quickly. There are others.
Agreed. Much of Ayreon’s catalog is The Source and Electric Castle also stand out to me. I haven’t gotten into Transitus quite as much yet, but it has a few outstanding cuts on it.
I know taste in mixes can be super subjective but I’ll list off a few favorites.
Hail Stan by Periphery is one of my absolute favorites in recent years from a mix standpoint. (Djent?)
The Death Of Me by Polaris (Metalcore)
Nothing Left To Love by Counterparts (Melodic Hardcore/Metalcore)
Melancholy by Shadow Of Intent (Deathcore)
Reclaimer, also by Shadow Of Intent, quite a different mix style between the albums but I love both
Sun Dethroned by Moonshade (Melodeath)
Super throwback here but Slipknot’s self titled still sounds superb to me and I use Sic as a trial track for new gear all the time.