Mike
Michaelian
Vocals
Southern California · Death Metal
01
Out Now
Recorded 2007 at Selah Studios · Digital release 2017 · Metal Archives
Vocals Mike Michaelian
Guitars & Bass Robert Michaelian & Alex Obradovic
Studio Session · Drums Kevin Talley Suffocation · Dying Fetus · Misery Index · Chimaira Slayer audition
Recorded at Selah Recording Orange County, California Engineer · Dave Gehlihar
Selah is a live-band room built around a tuned control room and a deliberately hybrid signal path. Drums went down on 2″ 24-track analogue tape before transfer to Pro Tools HD, with an Alesis HD24 and ADAT alongside it, and a mic locker running to Neumann, Sennheiser, AKG, Audio-Technica and Shure. That tape-first approach is audible on the record — the drum sound has a weight that a straight-to-disk session rarely gets.
Artwork JR Illustration jaiar.com
Mastering Bob Katz Digital Domain Three Grammy-winning albums · AES Fellow
Mixes were sent to Bob Katz at Digital Domain in Florida — one of the most respected mastering engineers in the business. He has mastered three Grammy-winning albums, wrote Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science — the standard textbook on the subject — devised the K-System metering standard, and was technical supervisor at Chesky Records.
Very fast technical riffs cut against infectious slow and medium-speed crunching parts. Double-kick-littered drums fuelling the assault from guitars and bass. Rapid vocals over the technical passages, heavy and thick through the slower sections.
Stream
CD · Physical
Screaming in Horror
$10free shipping
Secure checkout via PayPal · Also available at shows
02
Decimate — Drums Only
Kevin Talley · Isolated drum track · 4:28
Download MP3 Kevin Talley drum samples →Raw takes from the Selah sessions — the isolated drum track is Kevin Talley’s performance with the guitars muted.
03
Live Lineup · Since 1993
Vocals
Lead Guitar
Guitar
Bass · Live
Drums
Dark Days was formed in 1993 by two brothers out of Seal Beach — Mike on vocals, Robert on lead guitar. The years since have gone into building a blend of cutting-edge death metal, and into finding the players who can carry it.
The lineup filled out with Haywood Payne on drums, Alex Obradovic on guitar and Steve Thomas on bass. We've shared stages with Deicide, Immolation, Malevolent Creation, Broken Hope and Dying Fetus, and played the Milwaukee Metal Fest and the Los Angeles Metal Fest.
04
05
Bass on this run played by Daryl Parvin
In memory · d. 16 February 2003
06
Tabs · Lyrics · Guitar tones · All free
Tabs & Lyrics
Hand-written · Per song · PDF
The band’s own hand-written tablature and lyric sheets. Not fully exact — these were working pages, transcribed by ear and revised on the fly, so treat them as a guide rather than a definitive transcription. Greyed-out entries haven’t been scanned yet.
Guitar Tones — Ampeg VH-140C
Neural Amp Modeler · Impulse responses · Kemper
Captured from Alex Obradovic’s Ampeg VH-140C — the amp behind Screaming in Horror — through a Mesa 2×12 loaded with V30s, mic’d at several positions.
Quick start: install the free Neural Amp Modeler plugin (VST3/AU, any DAW), put it on a guitar track, load the -DI.nam model, then load cap_1in.wav in the IR slot. No IR slot? Use the -Rig model instead — the mic’d cab is already baked in. Feed it pickup-level signal, boost with a clean/tight boost rather than a distortion, and gate it for palm mutes. Setup guide for Reaper, Ableton, Logic, Cubase and Pro Tools, or the short version.
Released under CC BY 4.0 — free for anything, including commercial releases. The one condition is credit: name Dark Days and link back to darkdays.net. Licence & credit line. Also on TONE3000: VH-140C captures and Mesa 2×12 V30 IRs.
07
Interviews · Reviews · Flyers
