It has begun!
The first project
in the halls of Studio-MT
has begun! August 28th was all about drumchecking. The choice for the drumkit
ended up with this pornish pinkish looking drumset that simply sounded great!
The kit is wayy beyond glam. Even Vince Neil would go "DAMN"!! Extremely
scary!! But as I mentioned, it sounded really good. A Yamaha Maple Customs something
with a heavy DW snare. (Pics on the way, you got to see this kit). Thanx to
Marko Kallunki for providing this monsterkit for me!!
Some friends were in the studio pounding the skins so I could check the sounds.
Janne (my old partner in crime)
and Micke (Lord Belial)
did the sweating part while I took care of the complaining and the bitching
part. Me and Micke called it a night around midnight high on coffee and melancholic
metal...
And today, the
29th, I started tracking drumtracks!!!
4 songs in the can, and 6 to go. (the 11th is an instrumental piano song called
"Autumnal", already recorded about 1 year ago, in a pretty unorthodox
way I might add, more details to follow...). What can I say, It was a while
ago I played the drums, so the blisters are there, so are the aching muscles
(and the classic bruise on the left thigh from hitting the snare). But who said
it was all fun and games right? At this moment all I can say about the drumsound
is that it´s very natural and pretty "dirty" sounding. It reminds
a bit of Paradise Lost´s latest album "Paradise Lost". Real
sounds hitting it hard ya know...
I´m pretty fed up with the "sound replaced/heavy triggered"
sounds.... I mean, the drums are an ACOUSTIC instrument....Let´s at least
TRY the sounds before we start replacing ém ya know...
OK, don´t wanna start a debate here.... I`m off to bed.
C-ya!
The score,
drums done for:
- StillExtremelyUntitledSong
- Thousand Storms
- Lycanthrope
- Solitude, my friend
I think I´ll start the day tomorrow with the heavy thrashy song "Retaliate". Let´s get the old ticker working!!!! More coffee....more coffeee....
´til next
time....
/Marko
PS. The artwork-work
for the album started a few weeks ago. The cover is done, and many booklet ideas
are being tested as I type. The mighty Locust
Constructions takes care of that area... Cool shit as usual I must say...
September 1
The drums are done!!
Enough
of the running between the recording-room and the control-room. To record the
drums by my self was to say the least, interesting.
Next thing I need to buy is a remote system for the recordingsoftware...hehe.
Actually right this moment I realized that I could have used a simple
wireless keyboard and put the PC monitor close to the window between the two
rooms.... Aaahh....*doh*.
But I must say it was FUN to play the drums. It was a while ago I pounded some
skins, I actually used to play the drums everyday a few years ago. And to be
totally honest, I can´t answer which is more fun to play, the drums or
the guitar......
OK, this evening I´ll go to the studio to check that everything is done
for sure. And maybe mess with the sounds a bit...
And then, it´s time hook up some low-end distorted pounding bassguitar
sounds!!!!!!
September 7
The bass is done!
Yep,
the 5:th I recorded the bass tracks and yesterday I listened through everything
just to double check. HEAVY I must say!! Fender isn´t exactly my favorite
brand of guitar, but the Fender bass sounded awesome I must say... I
went for a distorted sound.... I love it!
Yesterday it was also time to check out the guitarsounds. Is there a better
amp than the Peavey 5150??? This monster never seems to fail me. It sounded
like it always has: clear, heavy, crunchy = excellent. Today I´ll continue
messing with the guitarsounds a bit more. I`ll experiment with how many overdubs
I should do.... 4? 8? 16? 164?....... well, let´s see...
September 12
After a nice weekend...
It´s
time to get busy again! About half of the rhythm guitars are done. And this
evening I´ll continue tracking down some more.
So far the whole recording session has went really smooth, I´m enjoying
it as hell.
And yeah, there´s some excellent rock ´n roll on the way to Studio-MT.
Stolen Policecar
will record their debut album here starting November 14:th, I´m really
looking forward to this!!
Ok, live long and prosper folks!
/M
September 13
Metal in the night!!
I
got home about 00:15. Mission accomplished - The rhythm guitars are done!!!
Today I´ll start working on the melodies, clean stuff, solos, some acoustic
stuff, keyboards (mostly strings and choir sounds!)..
I´m sure I´ll be busy a few days now...
It´s time to start planning some vocal days as well....
September 14
Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah!!
Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah-Wah
My brain hurts!!!!
I
tried out so many different wah-wah pedal sounds that I kept hearing those fkin´
frequencies when I drove home last night from the studio....
BUT, in the end I did found the right sound!!! I managed to record several melodies
and extra thingymebobwobs as well.
Today Round II.
October 6
Vocals
delayed!!
As you may or not have heard, Tony is nowadays the singer of the Danish thrash
band Mnemic. They are right now touring the US with Meshuggah and I just heard
that the tour has been extended. They will open for Arch Enemy from late Nov
´til early December. This doesn´t mean that he´s out of Angel
Blake. Hell no! But this means that Tony won´t be able to deliver the
vocals until 10th of December.
However, I will prepare everything to the max before he starts recording the
vocals. And when his job is done, it´s basically just about mixing in
the vocals and BANG, that´s it!! Then basically UPS the master to the
hands of the Metal Blade crew... And at that point all the graphic stuff will
be 100% done. And usually Metal Blade needs about 3 months of preparing everything
(ads, interviews etc) before the release. So, do the math... :-)
Right now I`m messing around with different "add on" stuff in the
studio. There´s still some acoustic guitars left to do and some keyboard
stuff.
And yeah, a friend of mine recorded some über heavy contrabass to this song
called "...´til the end". It´s the last song on the album
and it´s a pretty different sounding one. Almost a doom song sounding
somewhere around slow Type-O style blended with very early My Dying Bride sounds.....
Melancholic, somber and dooooomy, actually one of my favorites...
OK,
some new pics coming
up soon...!
Take care folks!
/M
December 9
Back on track!!
Yes,
let´s get this album DONE!!!
Tony will enter the studio 2.00PM tomorrow and we´ll spend the next couple
of days working on the voKILLS.
I have so looked forward to this!!!
I was in the studio today recalling the mix and preparing everything for tomorrow.
It was actually pretty cool to listen to the album again, I haven´t done
it since October.
Damn, how time flies...During this "break" I have produced a demo
for Masugn and produced
the debut album
for Stolen Policecar.
If you´re interested hearing how they turned out, follow this
link. Look under the "Projects" page.
But but.... no sleep íl the album is done!!! The plan is to do the vocals,
mix the album, master the cd and send it to
Metal Blade Rec before
we go 2006.
If the gods of fortune will smile at me for the rest of the year, I promise
you a very good album in the stores during early 2006!!! Diverse, heavy, catchy,
melancholic, rockish sounds ....and a few surprises.... muahahaha...!
Ok, ´til next time.
Take care folks!
Pics of Tony´s ugl...face coming up soon!!!
;-)
PS.
By the way, I have been talking with some future potential Angel Blake members
lately.... Did someone think Angel Blake wouldn´t play live???
More info coming up...
/M
December 15
The vocals are DONE!
Today - the mixing starts!!!!!
Everything should be done ´til Sunday...
December 29
THE ALBUM IS DONE!
Oh yeah!! And I must say I´m very happy with it!
Expect the unexpected boyz and girls.
I will enter Studio Bohus
the 5:th of January for the mastering.
Metal Blade has set a european release date as well, 10:th of March!!!
I
guess this is it folks, the Studio Diary ends here. Thank you all for following
the
whole process. All news will be posted on the NEWS
page from now on.
Over & out!!