A YEAR-END LIST FROM SEAN GOLYER (OAK PANTHEON)

 LISTMANIA 2013  9 Responses »
Dec 222013
 

(We again invited recording engineer and musician Sean Golyer (Oak Pantheon) to give us his year-end list of personal favorites, and he again agreed.)

As is customary for three years now (wow, really?), my list primarily consists of the albums that got the most spins, as well as a few blasphemous unmetal picks for those willing to explore a bit. This may leave out otherwise very choice albums from a year jam-packed with crazy good metal. Seriously, 2013 has been extraordinary, particularly for those of us with a penchant for the blackened side of things. Unfortunately, as of late I’m just too busy in my personal life to check them all out or give them more time. But these are the albums that stood out to me the most and kept my interest well beyond the first listen.

Caladan Brood – “Echoes of Battle”

What’s there left to say beyond what I’ve already said over at Metal Bandcamp? This album came out of nowhere early in the year and I’ve been listening to it pretty regularly ever since. All the coolest, heaviest parts of Summoning wrapped into a very well-produced and mixed package. One of those few examples that truly live up to the title of “epic”. Feathers might be ruffled, but I enjoyed this release far more than the actual Summoning album that came out this year. This is always how I’ve wanted them to sound, which is purely subjective and selfish on my part, but hey, we’ve all got our own tastes. Continue reading »

AN NCS INTERVIEW: SEAN GOLYER

 Interviews, Phro's Posts  8 Responses »
Jan 022012
 

EDITOR’S NOTE:  Phro gets serious. Using Jesper Zuretti’s recent opinion piece as the inspiration, he interviews budding producer/engineer Sean Golyer, and the result is one of the most informative and articulate interviews we’ve published. You’ll see references in the interview to Oak Pantheon’s 2011 release, The Void. We’ve written about that EP a couple of times, most recently here. To hear more of Sean’s work, he has a SoundCloud page at this location.

Phro’s note: A few days ago, Jesper Zuretti provided No Clean Singing with an excellent opinion piece on the song quality vs recording quality debate.  (Or maybe he sparked the debate?)  I noticed some comments written by Sean Goyler (producer for Oak Pantheon’s excellent The Void) and was interested in getting a different perspective.  This interview was conducted via e-mail, so if some things seem out of place, my apologies.  While I don’t think Sean is deviating all that greatly from Jesper’s main points, I do think he has some great things to add to the conversation.

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Is there anything about yourself that you think readers should know to help us get a better view from your perspective? 

I’m just another Midwestern American guy who really loves his metal. I grew up on classic rock and folk in the suburbs of Minneapolis, MN and was turned to the dark side of music during my latter years of high school. It started innocently enough with power metal and sludge but has since taken me into the realms of extreme metal, doom, post-metal, crust, and countless other genres and sub-genres. Around the same time in high school I was introduced to some friends who would later come to form Oak Pantheon, a small independent metal band that released its first EP in July of 2011 and is currently working on our debut full-length album. Continue reading »