Biography
Forrester Savell got his hands dirty at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne during the early 2000s, learning the ropes under heavyweights like producer Tony Cohen. That was the trial by fire. He was not interested in clean, polite indie rock. He wanted to make heavy Australian bands sound massive, wide, and dangerously polished without losing their grit. He did it by treating the mixing desk like an instrument, stacking layers of crushing guitars and pristine drums until the speakers practically groaned under the weight. His signature is that high-gloss, ultra-precise heavy alternative sound that defined Australian radio for a decade. He is the guy who took the raw, progressive chaos of the local touring circuit and packaged it into something that could conquer triple j while still destroying sweat-soaked pub venues. If a band wanted to sound like they could open for Tool on a stadium stage, they booked time with Savell.
The Arc of Forrester Savell
The pivots — what forced Forrester Savell to reinvent.
The Karnivool Breakthrough
In 2005, Savell sat at the board for Karnivool's debut album Themata, a record that completely rewritten the blueprint for modern Australian progressive metal. He dragged the band out of their nu-metal phase by focusing on razor-sharp guitar separation and a massive, punchy drum sound. The secret weapon was the clean, clinical low-end that let the complex rhythmic patterns breathe. You can hear the exact moment the scene shifted on the title track, where the heavy, drop-tuned riffs sound polished enough for commercial radio but brutal enough for the pit.
The Prog-Metal Apex
By 2009, Savell was the undisputed king of the Australian heavy progressive scene, culminating in his work on Karnivool's Sound Awake. He pushed the band into longer, more atmospheric arrangements, moving away from simple verse-chorus structures to capture a massive, cinematic scale. He balanced complex time signatures with lush, ambient delays and multi-tracked vocal harmonies that never felt cluttered. It established a gold standard for production in the genre, proving that complex, brainy metal could sound gorgeous and devastating at the same time.
The Multi-Platinum Expansion
Savell expanded his reach beyond the metal underground by producing Birds of Tokyo's self-titled album in 2010, proving his heavy production style could translate to massive indie-rock hooks. He took the band's alternative rock core and inflated it to stadium scale with dense string arrangements, heavily compressed drums, and soaring vocal production. The gamble paid off with massive radio hits like Plans. It proved his techniques were not just for prog nerds; he could build pop-adjacent walls of sound that dominated the airwaves.
Influences
- Tool — Savell has explicitly cited the production on Ænima and Lateralus as the ultimate benchmarks for how to mix heavy, progressive rhythm sections. You hear this influence in how he mixes bass guitar, treating it as a distorted, grinding lead instrument rather than just low-end filler. He mimics that clean, metallic drum punch that lets complex polyrhythms cut through dense walls of guitar.
- Nine Inch Nails — Trent Reznor's use of industrial textures and digital grit heavily informed Savell's approach to atmospheric electronics in heavy rock. Savell frequently injects subtle synthesizer sub-bass and programmed electronic loops beneath live drums to make the rock tracks hit harder. It is the industrial-meets-human tension that keeps his rock productions from sounding generic.
- The Tea Party — The Canadian trio's heavy use of Middle Eastern instrumentation and massive, cavernous room acoustics showed Savell how to blend world music elements with hard rock. He applied this grand, exotic sense of scale to the atmospheric interludes on early Karnivool records. You can hear it in the wide, stereo-imaged acoustic guitars and drone elements he mixes deep into the tracks.
- Deftones — Terry Date's production on albums like Around the Fur shaped Savell's preference for pristine, aggressive snare sounds and lush, ambient guitar textures. He borrows their signature dynamic contrast, shifting from quiet, delay-drenched verses to explosive, wall-of-sound choruses. He keeps the vocals sitting in a bed of heavy distortion without losing the melodic clarity.
- Pink Floyd — The cinematic pacing and sound-effects-driven transitions of classic 70s space rock are a major blueprint for Savell's album sequencing. He treats albums as continuous pieces of music rather than just collections of singles, using ambient noise and field recordings to bridge tracks. This classic rock ambition is why his modern progressive metal productions feel so theatrical.
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