Maximum Sonic Impact: (Authenticity/Commerciality) Fidelity-Dualism in Contemporary Metal Music Production

By focusing on the qualities – as well as the associated processes, approaches and techniques - that provide recorded and mixed contemporary metal music with maximum sonic impact, the author intends that this chapter partially address an apparent literary gap in the field. This chapter proposes that sonic impact is afforded through an effective balance between clarity, heaviness, sonic weight, and performance precision, with each of these qualities having the potential to impact and inform the other. Different bands and their respective productions need these characteristics presented in different ways; however, a recording that delivers a deficient sense of all four of these qualities is inevitably weak.