Pasi needs to stop mixing for Sonata...
I don't wanna sound like an asshole, but from the 4 mixings he's done for the band, I only like one... and mind you, I like it a lot. The
Sonata Arctica Open Air section of
Live in Finland. But as for the rest, the full
Live in Finland, that may some remember, I took
Blank File and basically remastered the whole thing, adding the audience signing and stopping Tony's voice from piercing my ears.
For the Sake of Revenge is also a mix that I was never much of a fan. I feel that only a few tracks seem to work, but Jani's guitar sounds horribly distorted for some reason, and it's not his setting, because there's this 2004 video in Tavastia, and his guitar sounds clean and powerful, not like coming through a radio or something, always felt that was a thing for the guitar in
For the Sake of Revenge. Like I said, some songs work but never was totally a fan of the mixing.
Pariah's Child felt really weird, because anyone can say anything they want about
Stones Grow Her Name, but it was still mixed by Mikko Karmila, and
you can feel it. The
Wildfire duo sounds A LOT like
Reckining Night, and I always appreciated that on both tracks. I guess
Pariah's Child isn't the only album like that anymore, since this
Ecliptica sounds like that too. A teacher in college told me
"Once you study mixing and audio engineering, you'll never enjoy music the same, since you'll be able to notice when a mix is not as good" and he couldn't be more right. I'm really appreciating Mikko's mixing a lot more, and Mika Jussila's mastering. He mastered the albums all the way to the 2006 re-makes of
My Land and
Replica, both beautifully mixed and mastered tracks.
I stated this when news of this first came to light. This album
NEEDED Karmila at the mixing desk. Pasi is just... not good enough to mix Sonata Arctica, and it shows the most in this album. It reminds me a lot to Timo Tolkki's album on
Revolution Renaissance,
Trinity, an album I never got into because the mix is TERRIBLE. Dry and boring. This album is not THAT bad, but is far... and I mean
FAR below of what I listened on
Reckoning Night, Sonata's Power Metal masterpiece in my opinion. I'm not sure if the band realizes this thing about the mixing, but the mix for
Ecliptica Revisited sounds amateurish and reminds me MUCH MORE of the
Ecliptica Sessions recordings, a bunch of demos, than the 1999 studio release. It makes me sad, cause I doubt this opinion would ever reach the band, and if it does, I'm gonna come up as a total dick/asshole, but this is really a big issue for me. Once the album releases, I'm gonna try my
damn hardest to work on the tracks like I did with
Live in Finland's
Blank File, cause this album deserves more.
About the performance of the band, and I really want people to notice this but...
Elias is really, REALLY stepping up his game for this one. Every single guitar part I heard in the samples, and I mean
every single one sounds MASTERFULLY played, and it's something that
FAAAAR exceeded my expectations for this album. I knew he would have a monumental task ahead, to follow on Jani's hardcore speed playing on
Ecliptica, and I kept wondering how would he do here, and even though I knew he'd do well, I never expected for him to do
THIS WELL. I'm seriously super impressed by his guitar playing here. The bass is actually well played, and reminds me more to Janne's than Marko's... too bad it's kinda lost in the background of the song because of...
-sigh- the mixing. Tommy is also playing really well, and you can really tell he has come a long way from the
Ecliptica days. He retains the speed and power, but here and there he adds new riffs that he could have never played back then. And again,
Blank File's intro exposes the mix
HORRIBLY. It sounds like a home-made demo. The original intro was really harsh, yet SUPER CLEAN. Here, it sounds more like something you'd listen in your garage... I can't find another way of describing it... but it's the mixing, not his playing. Henkka's playing is great. I believe it's on par with the original, if not slightly better. You can really feel his seal in the solos but... ugh, the keyboards get lost in the mix, like they did in
Kingdom for a Heart's solo. I mean, what's up with
UnOpened's intro? That's not a problem of playing, the sound was treated horribly. For Tony, I feel it's a mixed bag. He has parts I really like how he's singing, and I can't wait for the
Destruction Preventer scream towards the end, and in this one the mixing (again????) is pretty bad when it comes to several layers of voice, and it really doesn't help him that his voice sounds above everything else,
NOT UNITED as it should be. Yes, it's the lead melody, but that doesn't mean it should feel disjointed from the rest of the instruments. With that said, there are a couple sections where his singing feels a bit "stock", but I can assure you it'd sound better, was it mixed properly. Because his voice sounds a lot more genuine, and there are parts that sound really good, like that high pitch part in
Letter to Dana. I really like his voice much more on this than in the original. His voice, not the singing, which is sometimes good, other times a bit dull. I do like it, but I do understand people who may say he sounds bored.
Overall, I have mixed feelings. Most of the musical performances are pitch perfect, and sound really good... but the mixing is seriously ruining many of the tracks. I don't know how much most people will notice this, but I know I do...
I've never missed Karmila as much as here... cause I can live with the Live albums sounding a bit strange, and
Pariah's Child is a bit of an odd ball... though I wonder if it is because of the mix, and I said I missed Mikko there too, but to revisit
Ecliptica, I feel the album deserves more than a
regular treatment... and it REALLY deserved the original mixing/mastering duo that worked on the original record.
I don't even know how much the album will "improve" with the treatment I plan to give it after release, but I still want have to try and do something...
And yes, I'm totally buying this, despite everything... I'm just sad that this will hardly ever reach the band in the way I'd like it to reach them.
I can only hope, that for future albums Pasi will become "very busy" or something, and that they'll give someone else the mix/mastering task, but I don't see it happening. But as far as
Ecliptica Revisited is concerned, it's spilled milk already... unless for a freak chance of luck they were like
"Hey... you know what we should do?... Have Mikko mix this again and have it released as a digital thing only" or something.
P.S. I really love Elias' guitar playing in the record!!
