Custom remastering of the album.
"The only flaw is the uneven and vague production, which gives great clarity and emphasis to keyboards and guitar sound, but blurs distinction of the full range of the drum kit, and drowns out vocals to the extent that a significant degree of the vocalist’s expressive presence is often lost to the oblivion of indistinguishable sound" -TowardsMorthond
"The guitar tone is really softly-rounded, and making a lot of the riffs really indistinct if not inaudible beneath the overly loud keyboards and thundering drums. People talk about how hard the album sounds when it kicks in, and how great that main riff is in 'I Am the Black Wizards', but don't much talk about the stuff in the middle. They just went too far trying to create that wall-of-sound and ruined it a bit for me..." -Muloc7253
"It sounds like Emperor recorded this album in a concrete basement, through a PVC pipe, into a broken microphone, with their equipment covered in mud. Then it sounds like they played the recording back through a blown out speaker at full volume into a telephone and recorded that to the final album." -MikeB "Metalhead"
"...the bass is near nonexistent, and the guitars are screaming for clarity. The whole production process seems missing, and consequently the album sounds very messy." -Ashwin Kulothungun "Chs"
"The vocals are overpowered by the drums, the drums are overpowered by the guitar, and the bass is nowhere to be heard. The whole thing is just mishmashed together." -"no_one_special"
"The guitars sound somewhat muddy, the drums are slightly fuzzy, and there are too many instances where the vocals are drowned out by the instrumentals." -BlademasterDezo
"...it sounds like you've just thrown a wet blanket over your speakers once you put it on; it sounds muffled, not raw, not 'true', just drowned out." - waiguoren
Stage 4
After a few listening, i still find something annoying which give me pressure on the ear and headache. Some sort of low frequency high energy ring. I suspect it was the bass guitar and guitar fault. True, when i do a frequency sweep, the culprit was picked up in the range 100-160hz. Interestingly, i came across this article article recently. Quoting from it,
"You hear the bass, and it doesn’t necessarily sound bad, but there’s something about the low-mids that almost seems to “press in” on your head? I used to be annoyed by this, but I later realized that these headaches are pretty helpful for mixing! Initially, I couldn’t tell what was causing the headaches, but I finally figured out that it was the bass. Particularly somewhere between 100 and 500 Hz."
Let's look at the DR report of the original issue:
In The Nightside Eclipse [1994 original issue]
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DR Peak RMS Filename
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DR9 -0.09 dB -13.02 dB 01 Intro.mp3
DR8 over -9.14 dB 02 Into The Infinity Of Thoughts.mp3
DR9 over -9.80 dB 03 The Burning Shadows Of Silence.mp3
DR10 over -10.36 dB 04 Cosmic Keys To My Creations & Times.mp3
DR9 over -9.92 dB 05 Beyond The Great Vast Forest.mp3
DR9 over -9.99 dB 06 Towards The Pantheon.mp3
DR8 over -9.03 dB 07 The Majesty Of The Nightsky.mp3
DR8 over -9.39 dB 08 I Am The Black Wizards.mp3
DR9 over -9.40 dB 09 Inno A Satana.mp3
Official DR value: DR9
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In comparison, the dynamic range of the 1999 reissue remastered is significantly reduced:
In The Nightside Eclipse [1999 Remaster]
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DR Peak RMS Filename
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DR6 over -7.41 dB 01 into the infinity of thoughts.mp3
DR7 over -7.77 dB 02 the burning shadows of silence.mp3
DR8 over -8.31 dB 03 cosmic keys to my creations and times.mp3
DR7 over -7.88 dB 04 beyond the great vast forest.mp3
DR7 over -7.97 dB 05 towards the pantheon.mp3
DR6 over -7.04 dB 06 the majesty of the nightsky.mp3
DR6 over -7.36 dB 07 i am the black wizards.mp3
DR7 over -7.40 dB 08 inno a satana.mp3
DR6 over -8.29 dB 09 a fine day to die.mp3
DR6 over -7.14 dB 10 gypsy.mp3
Official DR value: DR7
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Finally, the DR report of this 2012 custom remastering.
In The Nightside Eclipse [2012 custom remaster]
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DR Peak RMS Filename
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DR10 -4.34 dB -17.39 dB 01 Intro.wav
DR10 -2.80 dB -14.16 dB 02 Into the Infinity of Thoughts.wav
DR11 -2.29 dB -14.34 dB 03 The Burning Shadows of Silence.wav
DR13 -0.88 dB -14.88 dB 04 Cosmic Keys to My Creations & Times.wav
DR11 -2.32 dB -14.32 dB 05 Beyond the Great Vast Forest.wav
DR11 -2.48 dB -14.96 dB 06 Towards the Pantheon.wav
DR10 -2.87 dB -13.88 dB 07 The Majesty of the Nightsky.wav
DR10 -1.81 dB -14.26 dB 08 I am the Black Wizards.wav
DR11 -2.01 dB -14.16 dB 09 Inno a Satana.wav
Official DR value: DR11
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