Lorna Shore’s Wall of Sound: Josh Schroeder on Mixing Brutal Guitars

Lorna Shore’s guitar work, especially on tracks like “To The Hellfire,” is a masterclass in modern metal intensity. It’s dense, it’s atmospheric, and it hits like a freight train. But how do you take that many layers of brutal, intricate guitar work and make it all fit without turning into a muddy mess? We dove into a session with acclaimed producer Josh Schroeder (the man behind the board for Lorna Shore) as he broke down his approach to engineering those monstrous tones and carving out space for every punishing riff.

If you’ve ever stared at a session packed with seemingly endless guitar tracks and wondered where to even begin, Josh’s insights are pure gold. You can check out the full Nail The Mix session here. Let’s unpack some of the key strategies he uses to build that signature Lorna Shore guitar assault.

The Symphony of Destruction: Layering for Impact and Atmosphere

One of the first things you notice about Lorna Shore’s sound is the sheer amount of guitar happening. Josh explains that managing these layers is crucial, not just for heaviness, but for creating atmosphere and momentum.

Felt, Not Just Heard: The Power of Subtle Layers

Early in a track, like an intro, Josh uses guitar layers in a way that you might feel more than distinctly hear. These aren’t necessarily the main focus riffs, but textural elements or subtle lead lines that add an “extra something.” He uses automation to bring these elements in and out, making the progression more interesting as it develops. For instance, a lead line might start subtly, then pop in louder as the song kicks into a verse.

Building Momentum with Octaves

To really drive a part home and give it that epic, almost “symphonic black metal” vibe, Josh stacks octaves of lead melodies. This isn’t about individual note clarity for each layer; it’s about the combined effect that adds serious momentum and a grandeur to the passage. It’s a prime example of his “sum of the parts” philosophy – you might not “taste” every individual ingredient, but remove one, and the whole recipe changes.

Embracing the “Nastiness”: Why Clean Isn’t Always Heavy

In a world obsessed with pristine audio, Josh makes a bold case for strategic “crud.” He argues that making everything super clean and sterile can actually rob heavy music of its power. Sometimes, you need a bit of grit.

The “Crud Layer” with Fortin

To achieve this, Josh employs a fascinating technique: sending rhythm guitars to a dedicated bus with a Fortin amp sim (he mentions “Fortin Rhythms,” likely referring to something like the Fortin Nameless Suite or Cali Suite). The goal here isn’t primary tone, but to add a “cruddy layer” – a nasty, top-end focused distortion that brings an old-school black metal crustiness.

Without this layer, the tone might sound smoother, which some might prefer. But with it? It adds a distinct harshness and aggression that, in the context of extreme metal, is undeniably cool. It’s a deliberate engineering choice to make the guitars sound less “pleasant” and more menacing. This is a fantastic reminder that “heavy” doesn’t always mean “perfectly polished.”

The Heart of the Beast: Crafting the Core Tone with Kemper

While layers and effects add character, the core guitar tone needs to be solid. For Lorna Shore, Josh often relies on the Kemper Profiler.

The Legendary 6505 Profile

He specifically mentions a profile of a Peavey 6505 (combined with a Mesa cab) that he captured years ago from Jason Suecof’s (Audiohammer Studios) amp. This particular profile has become a go-to because it sounds incredibly close to an actual amp in the room.

Beyond the Preset: Tailoring the Tone

But it’s not just plug-and-play. That 6505 profile is a starting point. Josh emphasizes that the tone is heavily tweaked based on the specific guitar being used, the tuning, the player’s style, and the song’s needs. He spends considerable time with the guitarists, asking what they want to hear more or less of, listening on various systems (monitors, headphones, even a wedge) to dial it in perfectly. While he’ll steer the tone to ensure it works in the mix, the guitarist’s vision is paramount. After all, the player and the performance are just as crucial as the gear.

Sculpting the Chaos: Strategic EQ and Bus Processing

With so many guitars, managing frequencies is non-negotiable. Josh employs both track-specific EQ and bus processing to maintain clarity and power.

Rhythm Guitar EQ: Precision and Punch

• Top-End Boost: Adding air and aggression.
• Multi-Band Compression: To control low-end build-up (think 100-200Hz range), especially from chugs, preventing them from muddying the mix or encroaching on other elements. He mentions this is a similar principle to taming snare low-end, often addressed with plugins like FabFilter Pro-MB. This is a key technique you can learn more about in our deep dive on metal compression secrets.
• Mid-Scoop (and Compensation): The classic metal mid-scoop is often present, but he’ll then compensate if the tone loses too much body by adding some of those mids back in a controlled way. For more on this, check out our guide to EQ strategies for mixing modern metal.
• Soothe2 for Finesse: For those pesky resonant frequencies or “extra junk” that can build up, especially with high gain, Soothe2 is used for very fine, almost unnoticeable adjustments that clean things up without fundamentally changing the tone.

The “Six Strings” Bus: Unifying the Guitars

• Global EQ: Primarily to manage any overall low-end build-up that occurs when you stack 20+ guitar tracks. A low-pass filter might also be used, though he notes it wasn’t active on “To The Hellfire.”
• Soothe2 (Again): If there’s still some overall harshness or problematic resonances from the combined tracks, Soothe2 can make another appearance here for a final polish.

Performance and Dynamic Impact: The Human Touch and Brutal Transitions

It’s not all about static tones and plugins. How the parts are played, edited, and automated makes a huge difference.

Looseness vs. Tightness

Josh reveals that not everything is edited to the grid. Some sections, especially lead fills or more atmospheric parts, are left as straight takes to retain a “looser feeling.” However, when it comes to those signature Lorna Shore chugs and intricate, fast riffs, things are tightened up considerably, often broken into smaller sections for precise editing, much like drums.

Volume Automation for Extreme Dynamics

One of the most impactful techniques Josh uses is aggressive volume automation, particularly on lead buses. To create a “sharp turn” from a more melodic or atmospheric verse into a crushingly heavy section, he’ll completely cut off the tails of the leads. No reverb decay, no gentle fade – just an abrupt stop. This creates an extreme, almost jarring transition that forces the listener into the new section with maximum impact. It’s like “cranking the wheel to the left, flying into the ditch kind of move.”

Want to Mix Like Josh Schroeder?

Hearing Josh Schroeder break down his approach to Lorna Shore’s guitars is incredibly insightful. From layering atmospheric textures and adding “crud” with Fortin sims, to dialing in Kemper 6505 tones and surgically EQing a wall of sound, his techniques are born from years of experience in the metal trenches.

These strategies – focusing on the sum of the parts, embracing controlled harshness, and using automation for brutal impact – are things you can start experimenting with in your own productions.

But imagine going even deeper. What if you could watch Josh mix an entire Lorna Shore track from scratch, explaining every plugin, every fader move, every creative decision? That’s exactly what you get with Nail The Mix. Each month, we give you the raw multitracks from a killer metal song and a masterclass from the original producer showing you how they crafted that sound.

If you’re ready to move beyond presets and truly understand how pro metal mixes are made, check out the full Lorna Shore mixing session with Josh Schroeder on Nail The Mix. You’ll see exactly how these concepts, and many more, are applied in real-world sessions to get those devastatingly heavy and clear guitar tones that define bands like Lorna Shore.