Left to right: Matt Wallace, Maor Appelbaum, Billy Gould.
Los Angeles, CA (May 28, 2015)—Maor Appelbaum Mastering, a West Coast facility equipped with PMC IB1S main monitors and a Maselec MTC 1X console, recently mastered Sol Invictus, the first album from Faith No More since 1997.
After a hiatus of nearly 18 years, US rock band has released Sol Invictus, a new studio album and a long overdue follow up to the 1997 release, Album of the Year.
Released on May 18 on Reclamation Records and distributed by Faith No More frontman Mike Patton’s label, Ipecac Recordings, Sol Invictus was produced by bass player Billy Gould and recorded in his studio in Oakland, CA. The mastering process for both the album and the two singles that preceded it (“Motherf*cker” and “Superhero”) took place at Maor Appelbaum Mastering.
Mastering engineer and musician Maor Appelbaum noted, “Sol Invictus is a collection of very different songs that work like scene changes within a movie. While each song has to work on its own, it also needs to work as part of the whole project.”
“In order to achieve a cohesive effect, I used quite a big mastering set up, which included two analogue compressors, two analogue EQs and various digital compressors, limiters and de-essers. The monitoring was critical and I was very pleased with the clarity and precision of my PMC speakers, especially when I was playing tracks at high volume. They give incredibly detailed sound, which makes the reviewing process much faster—and they are not fatiguing at all so, if I need to, I can spend longer in front of them without feeling tired.”
“My PMC system incorporates Film filters and is powered a Bryston 4B SST2 power amp,” Appelbaum says. “Everyone who hears the room loves it, including Billy Gould and Matt Wallace, who mixed the album.”
