Heavy Music

There is a portal inside of a garage in Van Nuys, California, that leads to another world. A world of crushing heaviness, monstrous sounds, and violently compelling breakdowns. Despite its modest size, The Pit Studio has drawn decibel disciples from across Southern California...

Anthrax, Testament, Overkill, Stormtroopers of Death, Nuclear Assault, Vio-lence... Alex Perialas is responsible for dozens of classic metal records from the '80s and '90s, mostly made in his studio, Pyramid Sound, in his hometown of Ithaca, New York. These records are...

Over the past four decades, producer/engineer Terry Date has racked up a gallery of multi-platinum monuments to his golden ears. Unforgettable moments from his catalog include the important role he had in shaping the sonic direction of rock through his groundbreaking work with...

Randall Dunn is creating what might be Seattle's next chapter in the dark and loud tradition of Northwest music. From the Sonics and Jimi Hendrix, to the U-Men and grunge, the Pacific Northwest has a reputation for spawning loud, raw blues. A tireless and prolific man, his...

New York City's independent metal scene has recently burst into mainstream view. At least two venues are primarily putting on heavy music shows nearly every night of the week. Several of the best metal blogs are based out of the city, and there's an exciting diversity...

I'm a big fan of Arturia's soft synth collection; they have some of the best sounding and well-modeled "vintage" software synthesizers available. So I jumped at the chance to try out their new super-affordable MiniLab hybrid controller. Not because I needed...

Recording involves several processes — preproduction, tracking, mixing, and mastering. The methods involved in each step have changed greatly over time. Musicians, engineers, mixers, and producers have more choices than every before with regard to how they navigate through the...

Located near Mount Shasta in Northern California is a thriving complex known as RadioStar Studios. In four different rooms people are making music — mixing, tracking and overdubbing constantly. How did this come to pass? Sylvia Massy made a good name for herself as a producer in...

Mike Patton keeps busy — that's for sure. Since his early days with rock band Faith No More (pioneering the rap-rock genre with their seminal hit "Epic"), through the schizophrenic compleit⁄ies of Mr. Bungle's three albums, to his more recent work...

Ross Hogarth is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet. His career spans multiple genres, years, and artists, and his discography reads like a Who's Who of the music industry. Having worked on everything from legendary hair metal of the '80s to Grammy-winning...

Almost everyone knows that the last few years have ushered in a slew of new tube microphones. Low-cost ones, pricey ones, colorful ones, plain ones, transformer- balanced, and transformerless ones. There's even a phantom-powered tube mic out there. Seems if there was a way...

Adrian, for years, has been the brains behind the Dub Syndicate "band" and On-U Sound label in the UK, but here is his first "solo" record. Are you looking for the future of rhythms, dub and studio trickery? Adrian calls it "a contemporary dancehall...

Joe Chiccarelli is a great pal of ours at Tape Op, so we keep an eye out for work he does (although I was too scared to listen to the Elton John record he worked on...) So here I open up this Clem Snide CD, and Joe's name is spelled wrong. So I check some American Music...

Billy Anderson recorded one of hard rock's most intriguing and fucking coolest albums in history — Jerusalem, by the now-defunct legendary stoner-rock band Sleep. It was a lengthy one-track sonic low-end frequency voyage into unknown that was almost too volatile to be put...

Jenny is a occasional writer for Tape Op, former member of Tsunami, Grenadine and Licorice, and used to run Simple Machines Records (who put out a great booklet on how to release your own album years ago). She's also got a great, silky voice and writes some memorable tunes....

When people talk to me about movies, I mention that I follow directors and rarely pay attention to actors. When it comes to records though, I don't think I'd pick music based on who "produced" it. Much of the time, production is just a job, and if you look at...

Uh Oh. Everyone knows the kiss of death for any studio is to put out a compilation CD of the stuff that they've been working on. It's then that you find out that the hip, cool studio that Pavement cut a few tracks at really spends their time recording Michael Bolton...

Stop me if you've heard this one before.  A couple of L.A. rich kids with too much time on their hands buy some recording equipment, rent a space and start recording their own album, which they proceed to press themselves and sell at gigs and local record stores. ...

Spoke appears to be more of a sketch pad for musical inspirations rather than a complete project which in turn makes it come across as unassuming and inviting.  Calexico is mainly John Convertino and Joey Burns who have recently produced  and/or played with many...