Kingdom of Lies

Kingdom of Lies was a big first for me in a lot of ways. It was my first writing credit on an Osiah release, my first time taking on the full mixing role by myself, and the first Osiah release built around real drums rather than programmed ones. It was also our first release through Unique Leader Records and featured our newest drummer at the time, Robbie Dinnen, who left the band shortly before the release and was replaced by Noah Plant. The album ended up taking us to some incredible places and helped secure a tour with one of the band’s long-time influences, Cattle Decapitation.

Writing began shortly after Terror Firma was released. We moved almost immediately back into writing mode while still supporting that record, and the response to Terror Firma gave us a lot of creative momentum. I ended up writing four tracks on Kingdom of Lies, with the rest split between Roper and Keepin. This was also the first time we committed to recording real drums for an Osiah release. Because I had never recorded a full acoustic drum kit before, I brought Ronnie Young in to co-record the sessions and, importantly for me, to learn the process properly while we worked.

Recording started around October 2018, beginning with drums at In Heart Studios in Blaydon, Newcastle. Robbie recorded the full album across roughly four or five days. We would track as many songs as possible each day, and during breaks and in the mornings before tracking started I would work on editing the previous takes. Once I got home from each session, I would tidy those edits and finalise the tracks ready for the next stage. Guitar tracking started the following week at Keepin’s house using a similar setup to Terror Firma. We monitored through a Kemper Profiling Amp while also capturing clean DI signals for later reamping. The main guitar was Keepin’s Mayones Regius 7-string fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB 7-string pickup, with pitch shifting used for the Drop F and Double Drop D material. We tracked the full album’s guitars in around three days. Bass tracking started immediately afterwards using a Spector Euro 5, but was briefly paused while we went on a short run with Distant and Bound In Fear leading up to Fall In The Brawl Festival. Tracking resumed after the tour and was completed in November 2018. As with previous Osiah releases, Roper handled his own vocal tracking using an SM7B into a Focusrite Scarlett interface.

The mix came together fairly quickly because we were working towards a deadline, and I definitely wish I’d had more time with it. This was the first Osiah release where I took full responsibility for the mix, so much of the process involved experimenting with new techniques and figuring things out as I went. The drums stayed mostly natural, with around 30% sample reinforcement added for consistency and impact. The aim was to preserve the feel of Robbie’s performance while giving the kick and snare enough weight to hold their own against the guitars. I reamped the guitars using Brian Hood’s “27 Bogner Unprocessed” profile from his Kemper pack, with a Horizon Precision Drive running into the Kemper. For the bass, I split the signal into three separate paths: grit, clean and sub. This gave me greater control over its character while keeping the low end solid and consistent. I also began mixing into a mix-bus compressor on this record, which was another new part of the process for me at the time. There are certainly things I would approach differently now, but that’s part of why this record remains important to me. It pushed me into new territory technically, forced me to make decisions quickly and gave me a much clearer sense of how I wanted to approach future Osiah mixes.

Kingdom of Lies was a huge learning curve for me because several parts of the process were completely new at the same time. It was my first full Osiah release with real drums, my first time learning how to properly record an acoustic kit, and my first time taking complete responsibility for the mix. On top of that, I was introducing techniques I hadn’t used before, including multi-band bass processing, mix-bus compression and more detailed sample reinforcement. The biggest challenge was balancing all of that while working to a fairly tight deadline, which meant I didn’t have as much time to experiment and refine the mix as I would have liked.

Kingdom of Lies ended up being one of the most important releases in my development as an engineer. Even though I can look back now and hear things I would approach differently, it forced me to learn quickly and gave me my first real experience of handling a full live-drum production and mix from beginning to end. The record also marked a major step forward for Osiah, becoming our first release through Unique Leader Records and opening the door to bigger opportunities, including touring with bands we had looked up to for years.