Banger! I would only bring up the cymbals/hhat/ride a tiny bit in certain sections of the song (e.g. verse) because there is so much detail in Dirk`s play, and it would be a shame if it was all buried underneath the wall of guitar. Other than that, it`s a great mix with a lot of energy. I especially like how the song gets more powerful from verse to chorus - great job.
Next-level tip:
If you want to bring the mix to the next level, do another automation pass and ONLY work on small little details. Don`t touch anything else; your focus is to make me feel something when I listen to this song. Define that something.
Let`s say you want me to feel strong and powerful when I listen to the song. You could therefore raise the volume of the rhythm guitars from 03:52 to 03:55 by 0,5 to 1 db to add more energy to that part. Or make the snare/kick/toms 1 db louder in the last chorus starting at 4:10 up until the end to add more energy/excitement. Or remove the eq cuts on the guitars for the vocals (if you have made such cuts) at 4:30 to make the guitars bigger and take up more space in the last riff to make them sound fuller and richer - creating this huge wall of sound with guitar, bass and drums modern metal is known for.
Whatever you do, all those changes need to be felt, not heard. As soon as a regular listener can clearly hear that something has changed, it`s too much. Their brain starts to focus on the change and they stop "feeling" the song. You need to avoid this at any cost.
The goal is to add more excitement /energy to your mix to force a reaction from the listener. It´s all about emotions, and a good mix puts the spotlight on exactly those parts within a song that help to bring out those very emotions in me. Everything else - the roughmix, the compressor settings, the EQ cuts on the bass, all of that is just a means to an end so that I as a listener feel something while listening.
Next-level tip:
If you want to bring the mix to the next level, do another automation pass and ONLY work on small little details. Don`t touch anything else; your focus is to make me feel something when I listen to this song. Define that something.
Let`s say you want me to feel strong and powerful when I listen to the song. You could therefore raise the volume of the rhythm guitars from 03:52 to 03:55 by 0,5 to 1 db to add more energy to that part. Or make the snare/kick/toms 1 db louder in the last chorus starting at 4:10 up until the end to add more energy/excitement. Or remove the eq cuts on the guitars for the vocals (if you have made such cuts) at 4:30 to make the guitars bigger and take up more space in the last riff to make them sound fuller and richer - creating this huge wall of sound with guitar, bass and drums modern metal is known for.
Whatever you do, all those changes need to be felt, not heard. As soon as a regular listener can clearly hear that something has changed, it`s too much. Their brain starts to focus on the change and they stop "feeling" the song. You need to avoid this at any cost.
The goal is to add more excitement /energy to your mix to force a reaction from the listener. It´s all about emotions, and a good mix puts the spotlight on exactly those parts within a song that help to bring out those very emotions in me. Everything else - the roughmix, the compressor settings, the EQ cuts on the bass, all of that is just a means to an end so that I as a listener feel something while listening.