Buster Odeholm’s Ultimate Guide to Modern Metal Production

Nail The Mix Staff

If you’ve spent any time in the modern metal scene, you’ve heard Buster Odeholm’s work. He’s the Swedish producer, mixer, and multi-instrumentalist who has shaped the sound of contemporary heavy music. His signature sound is a “blend of hyperreal clarity and heaviness” that has effectively “set the benchmark for cutting-edge production” in the genre.

Buster is a core creative force in hugely influential bands like Humanity’s Last Breath, Vildhjarta, and Thrown.  Beyond that, he’s the go-to producer for a massive list of clients, including bands such as Silent Planet, Born Of Osiris, Currents, and Oceano to showcase his widespread influence.  He is also the founder of Odeholm Audio, his company that sells his drum samples, bass libraries, custom IRs and more.

So, how does he do it? How does he get that sound? We’re about to pull back the curtain on the core philosophies, unconventional techniques, and specific gear that define one of modern metal’s most important architects.

The “No Rules” Philosophy: A New Era of Production

The single most important thing to understand about Buster’s approach is his core philosophy: There are no rules in music production. This isn’t just a cool slogan; it’s a powerful methodology that unlocks new sonic possibilities and pushes the entire genre forward.  It’s the key to his creative and often unorthodox techniques. 

What does that look like in practice?

  • Stacking multiple whammy pedals to create wild and unique guitar textures.
  • Getting creative by time-stretching and pitch-shifting DI signals. He’s even known to use tools like Melodyne on individual notes within DI guitar chords to achieve specific, otherwise impossible effects. 
  • Starting compositions with experimental synth loops and writing guitar parts against them.
  • Integrating editing seamlessly during tracking to maintain creative momentum, rather than leaving it all for a separate, tedious phase. 

This “no rules” mindset is your permission slip to experiment, break things, and find your own unique sound.

Weapon of Choice: The “In The Box” Workflow

Buster strongly prefers an “in the box” production setup, where physical outboard gear plays a minimal role. This digital-first workflow, bolstered by endorsements from companies like Avid and Neural DSP, allows for unparalleled precision and consistency.

The Importance of Monitoring

To achieve his signature clarity, Buster relies heavily on calibrated headphones. He believes it’s nearly impossible to get a truly flat frequency response in a typical studio room, so headphones are the key to bypassing acoustic issues and making accurate mix decisions. His trust in this method is backed by endorsements from top-tier brands like Audeze and 64 Audio. 

In a perfect example of his “no rules” approach, he even finds mixing on AirPod Pros to be “surprisingly effective” for gaining a fresh perspective on his mixes. 

The Pillars of the Odeholm Sound

Buster’s sound is built on several key pillars. If you want to get close to his level of power and clarity, you need to master his approach to guitars, bass, drums, and vocals.

Guitars: Next-Level Low Tunings & Clarity

Getting a tight and defined guitar tone when you’re tuned more than an octave below E-standard is one of the biggest challenges in modern metal. Buster is a master of it.

  • The Gear: It starts with the right instrument. His signature Hapas ASHEN 628 guitar was meticulously designed for this exact purpose. It features a 28″ baritone scale, his custom ÆSHEN pickup, and an Evertune bridge—all working together to handle tunings “over an octave below E-std while still sounding defined and tight”. He’s also endorsed by Fortin Amplification and uses Jim Dunlop picks. 
  • The Software: For his tones, Buster uses amp sims from brands like Neural DSP and offers his own sounds through Odeholm Audio Kemper Packs and the TSE & IR Pack 1. 
  • The Technique: A huge part of his sound comes from what happens during tracking. He’s known for chaining two whammy pedals together—one for detuning, the other for his “trademark high-pitched, screechy sounds”. He also utilizes parallel distortion and EQ for sick guitar tones and automates processing directly on the DI signals to ensure a perfect tone throughout the entire song. For a closer look, you can explore his specific low-tuned guitar techniques for Vildhjarta and his detailed low tone recipe for Humanity’s Last Breath.

More info:

Bass: More Than a Foundation, It’s an “EVENT”

This is one of the biggest secrets to the “thall” sound. For Buster, bass is not just a low-end filler that doubles the guitars. He treats it as an “event”—a distinct, impactful element within the mix.

His technique involves a multi-stage approach with meticulous pre-distortion EQ, multi-stage distortion using various plugins for saturation, crucial cab simulation, and surgical post-distortion EQ. He also has an unconventional trick: tuning the bass to the specific note you want to play, because an open string “always sounds better than fretted”.

For a masterclass in how he crafts his monstrous bass tones, check out this breakdown of his Allt bass saturation, EQ, and layering techniques. For producers looking for a shortcut to this sound, his Odeholm Audio libraries like The Nuclear Bass, The Avalanche Bass, and The Inferno Bass provide his expertly crafted, mix-ready tones.

Drums: Engineered for Maximum Impact

Buster’s drum sound is aggressive, precise, and massive. He’s endorsed by LB Drums, Paiste Cymbals, and Wincent Sticks. His approach to Drum Sound Design involves meticulously selecting and shaping sounds, often utilizing samples to enhance the impact of a live performance while always respecting the authenticity of the original drummer’s playing. You can see this in action through his detailed tutorials on snare distortion for Vildhjarta and how he uses samples for the kick drum in the band Allt.

He has so perfected his drum sounds that he’s packaged them into his own signature product, Odeholm Drums. He describes this library as containing “exactly what I want,” making it a go-to, “mix-ready solution” for getting his signature aggression and precision. 

More info:

Vocals: Creative FX and Insane Textures

Buster’s production extends to crafting unique and memorable vocal sounds. He employs a range of techniques to make vocals stand out, from designing creepy, atmospheric vocal FX chains to mixing insane vocals for Humanity’s Last Breath. He even has specific methods for achieving powerful demon-like vocals without using reverb for Allt.

More info:

Odeholm Audio: Production Tools for the Next Generation of Heavy Music

Beyond his production work, Buster has productized his unique sonic fingerprint through his company, Odeholm Audio. The goal of the company is to provide producers and artists with high-impact, real-world usable sounds that hold up in dense mixes, particularly in extreme genres where clarity and weight are constantly at war.

Notable products include:

  • Odeholm Drums – A Kontakt drum library built from Buster’s actual Humanity’s Last Breath kit, designed for modern metal production. Mix-ready straight out of the box, and fully compatible with Kontakt Player.
  • Specialized drum libraries for adding “ear candy”: Fatal Snares and Impact Drums
  • The Nuclear, Avalanche, and Inferno Bass Libraries – Three unique bass instruments capturing Buster’s signature distorted bass tone, crafted from different Dingwall models and prepped for ultra-low tunings. These are the same tones used in mixes for Allt, Oceano, and HLB.
  • Guitar Tones: Producers can access his guitar sounds through products like the Kemper Pack 1 & 2 and the TSE & IR Pack 1, which includes custom impulse responses.

Check out the full library

Deconstructing the Mix: Learn From the Source

Understanding these concepts is one thing. Seeing them applied in a real-world mix is another. There are two incredible ways to learn Buster’s entire process directly from the man himself.

The Ultimate Deep Dive: How It’s Done w/ Buster Odeholm

For those who want the complete, unfiltered process, Buster created the ultimate educational resource: How It’s Done w/ Buster Odeholm. In this 13+ hour course, you can watch him write, record, produce, mix, and master a Humanity’s Last Breath song (“Anthracite”) entirely from scratch, with no steps skipped. You get the raw multitracks to follow along, plus his custom, pre-routed writing and production templates for Cubase, Reaper, Logic, Studio One, and Pro Tools. And yes, he covers his trademark whammy pedal setup in extreme detail!

Check out a 15-minute free preview of Buster’s course

Real-World Sessions on Nail The Mix

Nail The Mix is the premier educational platform where you can learn from a host of world-class producers. Buster is a prolific contributor, with almost 10 sessions. In his sessions, you get the raw multitracks from iconic bands and get to watch as he builds a mix from scratch, explaining every decision along the way. 

You can see him apply these exact techniques on tracks like:

The first step is understanding the pillars of the Buster sound. The next step is seeing them in action. If you’re ready to take your productions to the next level, check out his course or any of his Nail The Mix sessions and get ready to learn!

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