I’ve been listening to this song again because there’s something about it I couldn’t put my finger on that just bugs me. Sure, the vocals in the chorus are not great, and sure, there’s really not a lot of inspiration behind the stock ass rifts, but it’s more than that.
It’s the mix. The song is completely uninspiring because it’s mixed like elevator music. It’s incredibly dull sounding, there is zero presence or bite to any of it. The guitars sound like they were totally neutered in post, the drums sound small, and the vocals, which are clearly not supposed to be the most important element of the song, are pushed way too far out front.
I was probably too hard on the song at first, which I posted about earlier in the thread. I’ve listened to it a few more times and I think that most of my criticism about the writing is fair but not enough to get mad about. But I think the main source of that criticism seems to stem from the song being boring and uninspiring, which is honestly probably due to just how terribly the track was mixed.
I think the whole thing could be improved if the drums actually had the slightest amount of punch to them whatsoever, and if the mixing console’s treble knob on the guitar tracks didn’t sound like it was turned almost fully counterclockwise. If you’re going to record a song like this, the guitars need a little bit of snarl and sizzle to them, and the worst part is that you can tell the guitars had that behind the microphone but were deadened and muted in post.
Whoever mixed this track completely, utterly failed at their job.
