Gear
For the audiophiles, musicians, and tone junkies.
Hades explains each of the major setup configurations which form Hades Descent's signature guitar tone.
This may make more sense to read from the bottom upwards, to fully understand the evolution of the sound.
The Monolith Era
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I still kept some of the Line 6 setup for The Monolith, albeit the rig underwent some minor changes. The Solar A1.7D LTD limited edition 7 string made a return for this one for most guitar parts.
The Line 6 Badonk amp on the right was now preceded by a Horizon Precision Drive (again following the Periphery influence) instead of the Ibanez Tube Screamer but I started working with the Bogner Uberkab T75. Still a 4x12 cab but not Celestion vintage 30 speakers in this one. I was trying to keep the top end a bit more controlled for this album, hence started experimenting with different speakers in the 412.
I did the same thing on the left but using a virtualized Peavy Invective amp (more Periphery). The left channel also retained the Line 6 Badonk with the faithful Mesa 412 60w+70w V30 speakers, and the right had the Blackstar 412 / Orange PPC 412 cab combo both loaded with the V30s, played through a Mesa Mark 4 on the lead channel.
This time I chunked up both sides using various settings in the NeuralDSP Fortin Nameless Suite. This one is a bespoke amp sim designed by Mike Fortin and originally modelled on a Marshall Plexi, but then pushed into the extreme by Meshuggah to create the Fortin Meshuggah. So it’s perfectly capable of giving aggressive deep tones whilst maintaining clarity in the low end. I really like the tone on this and I think given some even more aggressive pickups (which will start to feature in upcoming releases) this will really shine, so I expect it’s going to become a go-to probably over the Line 6 setup I have today.
Although only dual tracked, the tones were blended in the mix to create a thick and reliable tone that I’m still pretty happy with.
The lead work was done through the same Line 6 Helix Native setup with a Tube screamer into the Mesa IV on the lead channel with 412x 60w+70w V30s in different mic combinations (one close center, the other offset and angled). The virtualized custom RMC Real McCoy 1 wah tone has stayed in the setup, but doesn’t feature too widely on this album. There’s some during Brian’s solo in “Tomorrow Is Dead!” but I think that’s about it. Brian recorded his parts on his green Carillion custom guitar which is loaded with Bareknuckle War Pigs, producing a brutal tone that makes his parts sing. I’m not sure what Karl used for his solo but it was recorded in Serpent Headed Studios in Dallas where he does a lot of his Nile work, so he probably used a Marshall DSL100 head or maybe a Splawn custom amp and a Marshall 412 cab loaded with Celestions - but I don’t know for sure.
The bass tone stayed more or less the same as the preceding album, the S2 Orange Amp with the Van51 and the Bogren amp sim. The only difference here was a bit of an equalisation and compression overhaul and most of the parts went through another Tube Screamer, on a low setting just to give a bit of colouration.
/Hades
Niflheim Era
Despite having a massively different sound for “Niflheim”, I didn’t actually change much in the stack. The amps were the same as Solitary Path, with just a few tonal adjustments. In permafrost I added a third lead guitar part which used NeuralDSP Archetype Petrucci for some variation.
The main change to the guitar tone was going from the Solar 7 string across to an Ibanez RG8 (8 string). It plays really nicely, but I wasn’t content with the stock pickup, so I fitted a handmade distressed Bareknuckle Aftermanth pickup in the bridge. I rarely use the neck pickup so that one is still stock but it doesn’t feature on the EP. The Bareknuckle is awesome, I have a lot of time for this pickup.
We also thinned the bass part a little for some reason, as we just retained the S2 Orange Amp but not the Bogren. If I recall, this was because the 8-string has a chunky low end so having a big bass line too would have made the 100-200hz range a bit messy. It was already challenging to keep the kick pedal impactful amongst the 6 string bass and the 8 string guitar, so we made some sacrifices on the gurth of the bass tone.
To keep the guitar tightness under control, I also used some noise gating on the way into the Line 6 Floor, especially to get the nice chunky riffs in “An Everlasting Desolation”.
/Hades
The Solitary Path To Armageddon Era
Recording for this album started before the EP was even finished, so it’s no surprise that the foundation blocks for the tone were heavily borrowed from Solaris Exterminatus. Again, the Solar 7 string was used for most of the album.
I kept the Badonk to Mesa 412 60w+70w V30 cabs on the right with only a few tweaks to the tonal balance. On the left the Blackstar 412 V30 and Orange PPC 412 V30 cabs survived but the Badonk amp was replaced by a Mesa Boogie Mark 4 on the lead channel. I also got more into blending my tones so to accompany the Line 6 signal chains, I started experimenting with NeuralDSP’s Gojira suite, with some Bogren RevC amp sim which is based on the Mesa Boogie Rectifier just to thicken it all up a bit. Same approach on both sides but slightly different tonal adjustments on each side to better complement the main tone in the Line 6.
Bass was now done through an S2 Orange Amp approximation with a Van51, but also blended with a Bogren Bass amp sim which I’ve been using for quite a while now.
Lead work was done through Line 6 Helix Native with a Tube screamer, Mesa IV on the lead channel with 412 60w+70w V30s in different mic combinations to give some thickness to it. I usually have one mic up close straight down the middle for high end clarity and then one offset about a third of the way out at an angle to give it some lower end depth - I do this on a lot of the rhythm tones and the lead was no exception. I also used a virtualized RMC Meal McCoy 1 to get that G’nR-style crystal clear wah tone. Some of the lead work was on the Solar, but other faster parts felt more suited to my Ibanez PIA 3761, which is the new Steve Vai model to supersede the old JEM guitars he was famous for. This guitar is just made for elegant lead work so when I need to step up the pace, I favour this one.
/Hades
Solaris Exterminatus Era
I spent countless hours fine tuning the tone for the first EP, to make a sound that sat well between the orchestrations and vocals. In the early days pretty much everything was recorded on my Solar A1.7D LTD limited edition 7 string. It’s still my favourite guitar to play - the Evertune bridge is a thing of wonder - but I’m particular about pickups and the stock Duncan Solars eventually led to me modding the guitar further down the line. But for this EP, and the first album, it was the Solar with standard Duncan Solars tuned to B standard.
Guitar-wise, everything went through a Line 6 Helix Floor pedal, with a meticulously crafted set of tonal configurations that I built up over a long time. Generally most tracks were dual tracked, with each track going into one or more virtualized amps and then one or more cabinets which were usually an Ownhammer faithfully accurate Impulse Response, before going through post-effects. The rhythm guitar all went into a virtualized Ibanez TS808 Tube Screamer to give it some aggression.
Right channel went in parallel into a Line 6 Original virtual amp - the Badonk - and a virtualized Revv Generator 120. Co-designed by Misha Mansoor (Periphery) it’s more than capable of holding the definition and clarity of a baritone guitar. From there it was into an IR of a Mesa Boogie 4x12 cab loaded with a combination of Celestion 60w and 70w Vintage 30 speakers.
On the Left, the Tube Screamer fed into just the Line 6 Badonk, but then was split between two cabs, one based on a Blackstar S1-412A with Celestion V30s and the other an Orange OOC 412 V30. As you can tell, I love the 412 cabs with celestion vintage speakers - they handle the balance between aggressive tones and control really well.
Then on the cover of "Demon Of The Fall" I had to level up further, with a third rhythm guitar part in the mix. This one went into an virtualized ENGL Fireball 100 - made famous by the likes of Rammstein and Marty Friedman - which had a pair of slightly differently mic’d Mesa 412s with the 60w and 70w vintage 30s in. Just using different mic spacings to blend a thicker tone here.
The cover also has some cleans in it, two tracks which went into representations of a Fender Twin Reverb and a Hiwatt RD-103. I’m a big David Gilmour fan so getting the chance to work these clean tones into the track was a real opportunity
Bass was originally recorded on an Ibanez SR306, a beautiful six-string bass with some meaty pickups. This went into a Wounded Paw Battering Ram virtualized drive pedal for some edge, then an Ampeg Super Vacuum Tube amp with 4x10 HLF cab under it. I’m also a big Rush fan so looking to Geddy’s setup (he uses a pretty similar amp stack) was a no-brainer.
Vocals were done through a Shure SM7B - what else - into a Scarlett Focusrite interface with a Cloudlifter for the phantom power. There was also a ART vocal channel strip introduced during the process which provided some light compression, EQ and minimal gating. I did the the vocals for this EP (except obviously Steffan’s work on “The Flight Of Sol”) before we changed things up for the album.
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