Rock albums with modern production and a great vintage drum sound

Clockwork Angel

Junior Member
Hi!

I' doing a research to find rock albums with modern production and a great vintage drum sound. I'm focused on albums after 1990. When i say vintage drum sound, i think of a somewhat minimalist miking, natural and airy tone, no samples and lots of character. Looking for opnions and suggestions. It will help if the playing is great, and the songs too.

The albums that are in my present list so far:
[1992] Rage Against The Machine - Self Titled
[1994] Soundgarden - Superunknown
[1994] Pride & Glory - Self Titled
[1995] Van Halen - Balance
[2002] Queens of the Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf
[2008] The Raconteurs - Consolers Of The Lonely
[2009] Them Crooked Vultures - Self Titled
[2010] Black Keys - Brothers

Honorable Mentions:
[1995] Ozzy Osbourne - Ozzmosis ("Superunknown" sounding, but a little more modern tone on the drums. It's the same producer).
[1997] The song "London" from the Self Titled album of Third Eye Blind (very "Songs for The Deaf" sounding).
[2010] The song "By the Sword" of Slash' Self Titled album (reminiscent of Bonham on "No Quarter")
 
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Check out anything by Black Country Communion..! Good stuff and great classic drum sound.

Also, U.F.O. 'Walk on Water'.

Sadly, i never listened to something from Jason Bonham that catched my ears, too generic, and the production spoils the albums of Black Country Communion for me.
I will check the one from UFO, thanks!

Pretty much all the Clutch albums. They seem to capture JP's big drum sound like they did in the days of old.

Thanks for the suggestion, i listened to some songs and sounds good. What album from them have that little extra magic, in your opnion?
 
From your list relating to that same time period you have to include Nirvana's Nevermind.

Dave Grohl has a Tama Bell Brass in there with a big fat Zil A 22 Medium Ride and a 15" rack and 18" floor.

Crashes not so sure but probably 18 19 or 20 Zil A MTs or Meds

In any case a great vintage classic rock sound.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, i listened to some songs and sounds good. What album from them have that little extra magic, in your opnion?

Honestly, everything from Blast Tyrant through to the most recent offering Earth Rocker, has managed to capture some great drum sounds. That's not to diminish several of their older albums either......they are definitely worth a listen........but from a pure studio perspective, anything from the above time frame will give you the sort of drum sounds this thread has been designed for.

It is also worth taking particular note of the album 'Jam Room' though......it is older than those I've specified and it is certainly not amongst their best or most commercial song writing efforts. However, it is most definitely a "drumming" album. JP absolutely cuts loose and the drum sounds they've managed to capture on that particular album are exactly what this thread is all about IMHO. If you truly wanna hear "old as new", then give it a fair hearing.
 
When i say vintage drum sound, i think of a somewhat minimalist miking, natural and airy tone, no samples and lots of character.


If you want a more Keith Moon Vibe... Muffs...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsxyaZhdW1s

If you're looking for something raw and full of energy.. Form of Rocket's 2003 album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBv7EPJi03o

If you're looking for Lo-Fi retro, The thermal's first album....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf5wlXR9q3c
 
I don't think of Nirvana's Nevermind as delivering a classic rock sound, the drums sound is actually rather unusual/ odd (not a bad thing), to my ear there is a significant amount of processing. Now this is normal in rock but even then it's not an open vintage sound, more like an EQd, medium compressed big sizes.


From your list relating to that same time period you have to include Nirvana's Nevermind.

Dave Grohl has a Tama Bell Brass in there with a big fat Zil A 22 Medium Ride and a 15" rack and 18" floor.

Crashes not so sure but probably 18 19 or 20 Zil A MTs or Meds

In an
 
Opeth Pale Communion has a great classic drum sound. Very 70's and tasteful.

New Toto album.

Jason Bonham hasn't really got his own sound, as someone mentioned it's a generic studio sound. Plus he commited sacrilege in the Zep reunion by using a double bass drum pedal.
 
Listen to Bullhead by the Melvins.

It pretty much has to be music with some space in it. Anything with blast beats or double bass need to be more accurate and tend to have a more processed, modern sound.
 
Lots of Great suggestions! The best for me so far was the Clutch's Jam Room.

Nirvana's Nevermind may have some samples, sounds artificial to me, plus the mix of the album is awful. I don't really like Nirvana, but the drumming is great. For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8NZOlNbZKM

Listen to Bullhead by the Melvins.

It pretty much has to be music with some space in it. Anything with blast beats or double bass need to be more accurate and tend to have a more processed, modern sound.

I listened to the album, and Bullhead really have a good drum sound.

I think it's not really that easy... It needs a really good drummer, drums perfectly tuned, a great room, a producer and an engineer that knows how to capture that, good songwriting and a lot more. Some bands and producers can't even reproduce the magic that they got at some moment. Listen to For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge from Van Halen, then A Different Kind Of Truth, then Balance. It's very obvious that Balance it's special, at least in the drums tone. The producer Eric Valentine, seems to be more consistent, but i think it depends on the band a lot. Listen to Third Eye Blind's London, QOTSA's No One Knows and Slash's By The Sword. Its sounds great and familiar, but not all his works sounds this good. This was recorded using just one mic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FzziEGoUfQ

I think the nineties, for some reason, were really special.
 
Definitely Clutch. I was riding around with my brother-in-law over the holidays, jamming to Clutch in his car. He has a really nice stereo system in his car and that was one of my first thoughts, that sure is a wide open "vintage" sound there.

Some other current favorites are Truth & Salvage Co., Rival Sons, and Alabama Shakes. Also the last few Black Crowes records.
 
definitely Mount Carmel. WITCH!!! (the Self Titled record), Radio Moscow,The Sword - Age of Winters, The Heartless Bastards, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, maybe Tame Impala depending on your tastes, Wolfmother.

Also, that Black Keys record has drum samples all over it.
 
ITT: Records that are over 20 years old that are considered 'modern', despite the fact that the era of drum sounds we describe as 'vintage' was closer in time to those records than those records are to today.
 
From your list relating to that same time period you have to include Nirvana's Nevermind.

Dave Grohl has a Tama Bell Brass in there with a big fat Zil A 22 Medium Ride and a 15" rack and 18" floor.

Crashes not so sure but probably 18 19 or 20 Zil A MTs or Meds

In any case a great vintage classic rock sound.

With sample "augmentation"
 
+1 for Tame Impala. Those guys have a very great taste in vintage gear all around. It takes a while to dig the sound because of the effects that they use, but after a little listening, their brilliance does start to shine. Definitely some of the best psych-rock I've heard in a while. I should also mention that it's all orchestrated and recorded (every part) by frontman Kevin Parker.

Check out the song "Half Full Glass of Wine".

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Check out Mutemath's album "Odd Soul". Killer funky/jazzy playing. Darren King is an animal. I'm a big fan of the song "Quarantine" off that album.

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Arctic Monkeys self titled "AM" album has some killer vintage groove to it as well. Their song "Arabella" has all sorts of vintage sleaziness oozing out of it.

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Both of the Raconteurs albums are great as well. Patrick Keeler is my favorite current rock n' roll drummer. Check out "Store Bought Bones" on the first album and "The Switch and the Spur" on the newer one.

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D'Angelo just released an album called "Black Messiah". I'm still getting my brain wrapped around it. Questlove absolutely tore it up. Check out that groove on "Sugah Daddy".

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Queens of the Stone Age did (imo) one of the best albums ever with their "Like Clockwork...". This is some of Dave Grohl's finest work. The song "Vampire of Time and Memory" has Pink Floyd written all over it.

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I really like the drum sound on this particular track by Them Crooked Vultures, "No One Loves Me and Neither Do I"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YvXJFh5IuE

I think it's actually pretty raw and natural sounding, for a modern day rock song.


I love the drum sound on Songs For The Deaf, but they really went to great lengths to get that sound. They recorded the drums without the cymbals first and then dubbed the cymbals afterwards, on almost all of the songs.
I'm not sure if you can call that minimal? It's a great record, nevertheless. The overall production is on point!

Lots of good stuff on this thread.
 
Not sure if this would fall into your category or not, but check out the album "Veheissu" by Thrice. IMO, it has a much less processed drum sound than a lot of modern music.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu_GTH5fr3Y
 
Anything by the black keys before the Brothers album. Thickfreakness in particular has a real vintage feel.
 
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