Top metal producers collaborate with Huddersfield on unique mixing project

Eight of the world’s leading metal music producers have worked with University of Huddersfield researchers on a unique project to highlight their different approaches to making the same song sound as heavy as possible.

The different mixes of the track In Solitude, are available to study along with the original reference mix to reveal how the acclaimed producers of genres from metal to reggae really work. 

The work on In Solitude is the culmination of Heaviness in Metal Music Production (HiMMP), a research project that started in 2020 with around £200,000 of funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Project visits legendary recording studios

Amongst the producers who shared their expertise was Grammy winner and Huddersfield honorary doctorate holder Andrew Scheps, who has worked with Adele, Johnny Cash, Black Sabbath and Metallica.

And among the studios where different versions of In Solitude were mixed were Rockfield in Wales, where Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded, and Atlantis in Stockholm, where ABBA laid down some of their most famous songs including Waterloo and SOS.

“The project has looked at finding out what ‘heaviness’ in musical terms means from a production perspective,” says Dr Jan Herbst, Professor of Music Production and Director of the Centre for Research in Music and its Technologies.

“We also looked at other aspects, like performance quality, songwriting and arrangement because production can only enhance what has been composed and recorded. What was unique was that we wanted to work with eight internationally-renowned producers on the same track.

In Solitude producers: Andrew Scheps (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Adele, Beyonce, Metallica), Fredrik Nordstrom (In Flames, Opeth, Arch Enemy), Jens Bogren (Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, Sepultura), Mike Exeter (Cradle of Fith, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath), Josh Middleton (Sylosis, Architects), Adam 'Nolly' Getgood (Periphery, Animals as Leaders), Dave Otero (Khemmis, Archspire), Buster Odeholm (Born of Osiris, Oceano, Hacktivist)

“We are proud of the spectrum we worked with, from seasoned producers like Andrew Scheps and Fredrik Nordström to younger, emerging talent like Buster Odeholm, who is only 26. We have covered people who have worked with the great old-school bands like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, to very contemporary artists like Humanity’s Last Breath.

“The multitrack was sent to all the producers for them all to mix separately themselves, something that’s not been attempted before with producers of this level. Sometimes a ‘shoot out’ may be arranged when record labels or bands want to see which mixing engineer might be the most appropriate, but this wasn’t a competition to see who has the ‘best’ mix.

“We wanted different perspectives, how they interpret ‘heaviness’ and how they go about achieving it. We visited each producer, travelling through Europe and the US, to interview them about their work and to document their mixes.”

Anyone wanting to discover more about how the producers arrived at their decisions has a wealth of material available that the project has made available. Each producer spoke extensively with Dr Mark Mynett, National Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Music and Music Technology, with a string of clips available on HiMMP’s YouTube channel.

There is also an extensive online dataset that can be accessed, containing the original multitrack of In Solitude and the eight different mixers that can be broken down and analysed.

Producers show differences and similarities in approach

For Jan, the In Solitude mixes produced not only some compelling new versions of the song, but some fascinating insights into the producers’ methods.

“We found a lot of commonality in the views, but also a lot of unexpected differences. For some producers the technology is the most important thing, it guides everything. For some, technology is just a means to accomplish expression. Jens Bogren says that creating the heaviest album begins in the rehearsal room by picking the heaviest songs there – it’s about the music, the emotions, how it resonates with the audience.

“Whereas Buster Odeholm doesn’t care about the vocals or lyrics, he is interested in the textures and the sounds.”

There are more outputs from the project in the offing, with a research monograph and an educational book from Routledge, as well as a journal article on perceptions of heaviness based on interviews with musicians and fans at the Bloodstock Festival in Derbyshire.

Mark Mynett released the original version of In Solitude in 2021 to help raise funds for specialists and technicians who were affected by the live music shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.