Recording & Mixing Modern Rock & Metal

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Sold-out arena tours, guitar-driven mainstream hits, designer death metal T-shirts—there’s no doubt that the resurgence of rock and metal is in full swing, and while the core foundations of the genre remain (live instruments played by real people), the process of making and releasing the music is in the midst of a modern-day makeover. 

The result: an exhilarating new era, characterized by the pure energy of a guitar-heavy sound, combined with genre-blurring, world-building, and AI-enhanced creativity.   

To give us an inside look at the contemporary rock and metal scene, Vintage King Audio Consultant Patrick Carpenter hooked us up with four of his clients, who also happen to be some of the best producers, engineers, mixers, and songwriters in the business. Read on to find out what is driving the rock and metal renaissance, how music industry trends impact studio sessions, why it’s worth it to view AI as an ally instead of an opponent, and what gear shapes the songs at the heart of it all.   

Meet the panel:

Patrick Carpenter: For nearly 20 years, Patrick has outfitted professional recording spaces for a wide range of clients. His expertise spans all genres, but his passion for heavy music shines in his work with our four featured music makers.

Dan Braunstein: Producer, mixer, engineer, and co-owner of The Hallway Studios in Los Angeles with fellow panelist Zach Tuch. A well-established name in the metal/active rock world, Dan is known for his award-winning work with Spiritbox, Dayseeker, Silent Planet, and more.  

Zakk Cervini: Producer, songwriter, and engineer who earned a GRAMMY nomination for his work on Blink-182’s California. Zakk’s other credits include mgk, YUNGBLUD, Good Charlotte, and Sleeping with Sirens, and he works his magic from not one, but two studios: a sunny home studio and a state-of-the-art space at MDDN Studios in Burbank.  

Drew Fulk aka WZRD BLD: GRAMMY-nominated producer and songwriter with over twenty #1 Billboard Rock Songs to his name. His diverse list of clients includes Lil Wayne, Knocked Loose, Disturbed, Kim Dracula, and A Day to Remember.

Zach Tuch: Multi-Platinum-certified producer, mixer, and engineer specializing in alternative rock, hardcore, and indie rock, known for his work with bands like Knocked Loose, Cafuné, Movements, Julie, Touché Amoré, and Heart Attack Man.

What defines the rock/metal genre in 2025?  

Drew Fulk: What excites me about heavier music right now is when an artist has a really clear, unapologetic vision that turns their music and visuals into a full experience. Bands like Knocked Loose, Sleep Token, and Ice Nine Kills are great examples. Every detail, from the songs to the videos to all of the visual artwork, feels completely true and unique to who they are. To me, the artists connecting all those dots are the ones building the most loyal and excited fanbases right now, and it’s really inspiring to watch it come together at such a high level. 

Dan Braunstein: I think the average listener is becoming way more open and interested in hearing something that's a fully fleshed-out piece of art instead of a condensed radio song. There will always be both types of listeners, but I feel as of late, there is more of an appetite for experimental music. 

What is driving that shift?

Drew: Streaming has played a huge role in this shift. Artists started to realize: “If someone can go from Kendrick Lamar to Elton John to Behemoth in the same playlist, then maybe we don’t need to stick to one flavor for 12 songs straight.” That freedom is seeping into how albums and even individual songs are being made. It’s giving artists permission to take bigger risks and follow whatever excites them in the moment. It’s a really fun time for music.

Dan: I would like to remind artists that it's okay to have variety, and if you look at music in all of history, bands and artists had different types of songs on one record. But now, in our genre especially, it’s like “We need 12 rock bangers!” But you can have a myriad of things on that record that sound completely different if you're down to go there. That’s important; I want to hear more of that.

Are artists worried that people will get confused about their musical identity?

Dan: Artists have a little bit of that inherent fear of releasing the next new thing. Now, I have to give my therapist credit for this—he told me if I ever quote him in an interview to say his name, so as Dr. Harry Stark says: ‘You don't want to operate off of fear, you want to operate off of goals’.

If someone asks what your goal is, the worst thing to say is, “Well, I don't want to sound like this.” Or, “If I do this type of riff, everyone's going to think I sold out. And if I sing it like that, I'm not going to have a hit song.” Don’t approach creativity in that format. You want to switch those to positives, so in the studio, say: “I want to make something that feels evolved or is exciting,” and go after something rather than trying to create with avoidance. 

Zakk Cervini: With the way music is consumed today, I think an artist’s connection to their fans is super important. Whether or not you have a hit song or songs on the radio, if you can go out and play shows to 5000 people and make the music that you want to make, that's a pretty good career to have, and I feel like it's more possible than ever for people right now. It’s funny because these are niches in a sense, but they're giant niches, so there's all this music that's not necessarily mainstream, but that has a gigantic core audience, and feeding that audience is the way to success these days.

How does a platform like TikTok—where so much music is discovered these days—impact rock and metal songs, which are typically not as easily designed for bite-sized clips as a pop song is?

Drew: When I'm working with pop-leaning artists, it's way more of an elephant in the room. Rock and metal are definitely diverging from that pull of instant virality and creating more of a deeper journey with their fanbases—it’s just counterculture. Culture is going one way with TikTok, streaming, and shorter songs, and the rock and metal artists are creating the counterculture right now. That's always been the reason why rock and metal existed—to be different from pop, and today, the biggest artists in heavy music are the ones leaning fully into that mindset and making something fans can’t get anywhere else.

Zakk: I've had a few songs go viral on TikTok and seen artists' careers change within the course of a year because of that. But if you ask why that song went viral? No one knows! It seems kind of random, so it's pointless to create with that in mind because what if you put all your effort into trying to create this viral TikTok moment, wind up sacrificing the quality of the song, and then the song doesn't get a reaction on TikTok, and it's just a shit song. Artists I’ve seen, where TikTok is a factor in their success—I think they would be successful with or without it. TikTok just happened to be a modern catalyst for them, but if it wasn’t TikTok, it probably would have been something else. It’s the old adage of ‘the harder you work, the luckier you get.’

Zach Tuch: Years ago, I actually had an A&R person call the studio when we were making a record and be like, “Are there any TikTok-able moments in any of these songs?” To piggyback on what Zakk was just saying, there is no knowing! And creating with any sort of aim to do that is soul-sucking and lifeless. I'd rather create something that we all love and hope the universe loves it as well.  

Dan: As producers and songwriters, our North Star always has to be making a song that we love. At the end of the day, if that's not our goal, then I don't know what we're doing here. That accomplishes two things: if you have great taste and trust yourself, you're always going to have something that you stand behind, and the results are going to be good. The second benefit is that when you go home at the end of the day, you will feel like you're being genuine to yourself, and you're not going to burn out so easily.

What is different about the industry today as compared to when you started out?  

Zakk: One thing that's changed since I started doing this about 15 years ago is that rock and metal music is big and accepted. I don't know if it's as big now as it was in the early 2000s, but it's bigger than it's been in so long. It’s not uncommon for bands in the genre to sell out arenas or play major TV shows like Jimmy Kimmel, which is crazy! Bands in this space lowkey do better than some pop and hip-hop artists these days because their fanbases are so devout, and that’s so cool to see. That’s something that I never really expected, and it's happened over the last five or six years.

Dan: I feel like the reason that's happened in rock and metal is that the heavier the music, the more devout your fans are. To acquire a taste for that kind of music, you have to be really into it. If you look at the average pop or hip-hop listener and then the average rock listener as far as engagement goes, and as far as how obsessed that listener is with the artist, to me, one fan in rock must equate to 1000 fans in pop music.

The listeners and fans of rock and metal music care so much about the band; they care about engaging, going to shows, and being part of the community. Counterculture creates culture at the end of the day, right? A lot of music is kind of getting stale now, so as a result, there is a new cultural shift. Even younger kids who were never into rock are going, “Wow, this is cool. I want to be part of this.”

You’re even seeing designers making death metal shirts, and it's like, “Holy shit! I was wearing death metal shirts when I was 13 and a loser in high school.” [Laughs.] Now cool people are wearing this! What the hell? So the counterculture is dictating what's cool, and rock is starting to become cool again.

How do things that impact the industry at large today—like streaming, AI, and artists doubling as content creators—affect you in the studio?

Drew: I don’t know many rock and metal artists who are constantly thinking, “We’ve got to pump out as much content as possible or people won’t care.” In pop and hip-hop, artists often don’t tour as heavily, so they need to stay in front of their audience in other ways. Rock and metal, on the other hand, are full of tour warriors—they’re out on the road, in people’s towns, reminding fans they exist in person. That gives them a little more leeway compared to having to shout nonstop on the internet. But the ones who can do both—tour relentlessly and share content in a way that feels authentic—put themselves in the best position to really grow. 

Dan: It builds longevity, too; you can build a real fanbase that lasts when you're actually showing up in someone's town. As far as AI goes, it’s just a tool. People make it out to be a big, scary thing, but I find that it's not any better or worse than someone coming in with a demo. Someone could say, “Hey, I have this AI song that I made with a prompt,” and we could extract one line from it, and then you end up making a whole other thing around it.

Lately, I’ve been using a site called Lalals to clone any vocalists that I am working with. That allows me to recreate their exact vocal tone and use AI to transform any voice into their voice. This is great if there’s a missing background or harmony I need to do really quickly; I’ll just sing it myself and transform my take into the original vocalist! I’ve even used it to change lyrics after the fact when the band wants that. I don't think AI is going to replace everything, though.

Zach: We're a long way off from that. We may utilize certain tools to do things that can help us, but there is the human element in creation that is inherently imperfect that I don't think AI can replicate. There's human error inherent in creating art, and that is the art. Your style is built from all the mistakes you make trying to create something, and the art is the unique mistakes that somebody makes, so until computers can do that, we'll see…

Yeah, otherwise art would just be a formula.

Drew: I actually got approached by a company that’s trying to do exactly that in the production and mixing space. They asked me for stems from 50 songs I’ve produced so they could build an algorithm and sell it as a monthly subscription—the “WZRD BLD filter.” The idea was that artists could upload their tracks, and the software would process them based on the median average of all my stems.

Zakk: The average between Lil Wayne and Knocked Loose? [Everyone laughs.]

Drew: Yeah, that's where it gets sticky, but there are companies trying to figure out how to do that right now. They said, “Anytime someone uses the filter, you get paid.” I was like, “Well, yeah, I would hope so.”  

Drew: AI is definitely coming. They haven’t nailed it yet, but I really believe something big is on the horizon. If we see it as an ally instead of an opponent, it could unlock entirely new ways of working and open up possibilities we haven’t even imagined yet. That’s what makes it so exciting.

Dan: I'm always looking for more efficient ways to do things. I'm even trying to look for ways to shave time off our assistant’s time! For example, I wanted to find an AI program good enough to isolate each microphone on a drum performance and get the bleed out of it. I found a plug-in called ReStem, which can do that, and it’s amazing! It can isolate each part of the drum kit and essentially remove the bleed. It's not a gate; it’s actually intelligently identifying which drums are which. It will also place trigger spikes on it for you, which is a huge timesaver.

Zach: This is quite literally what Dan and my assistant do for a good amount of time. So if he can get through that faster, it opens up bandwidth for us to quickly do it in a session, so we can get going on something else.

Where does rock and metal fit in pop culture today?

Zach: I think music is cyclical. Rock was such a huge thing in the late ‘90s into the early 2000s, and then it kind of fell to the side a bit. And now—not that Coachella is the tastemaker or anything—but the perception among people is that it is the mainstream's fest, and I've been seeing lots of heavy music make its way into that festival more and more over the last few years. I'm seeing bands play larger shows to more massive crowds. I also have friends who never listened to rock in high school ask me about rock bands, so it is a pretty clear indication that it's making its way into pop culture pretty heavily.

Zakk: In general, in this decade, people are craving more organic sounds, and rock music is about live instruments, right? It's guitars and drums. Country music is doing really well right now, and even [mainstream pop] artists like Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo have a lot of guitar, piano, and live drums in their music. People like that live feel, and rock music has always had that.

Dan: I think COVID was the little push down the hill that the genre needed to really start picking up speed again. I'm not exactly sure why that was, but I like to think maybe it was a little bit of people feeling like they needed an outlet. They needed a place to express themselves more, and with metal, you had a place to experience something high-energy and different. There’s something about the dreariness that we experienced during those years that maybe opened people up to a more angry, dark-sounding type of song.

Zach: I have a distinct memory from 2011 when I was a freshman in college. I was friendly with a girl who only liked pop music. I walked by her room one day and heard A Day to Remember. I was like, “You're listening to this?!” And she said, “When I'm mad, this is the music I listen to. It helps me get my anger out.” Rock music and heavy music will always provide that outlet, even for people who aren't big fans of it. There will be songs that people need to get their emotions out, and I think that’s cool.

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