Appalachian Fog definitely sounds cooler IMO.

makes me think of Appalachian Terror Unit. the crust/punk band.


Went and wrote and recorded another Mountain of Beard song. I might do 2 more and that'll be that album.

I'm curious SLK, when writing and recording do you just pick up your guitar and see what comes out or do you go into it with an idea of what you're going to do?

Most of the time it's just going in and see what comes out. With this MoB stuff i've been kinda more actively thinking about doing it so that's all I've been really focused on completing. Just started writing Eats Aids material for the split with Clogged.. just jamming riffs mainly. This whole month kinda been busy with another project that I've kinda been keeping under wraps. I'll unveil it once I've worked out all the kinks and make sure it's post worthy. It's not music though.

A really cool idea just came to me right now for the Blacksoul Seraphim song we're releasing in April. I give a drumless track of the song to three different drummers who haven't heard the final version of it and see what they come up with for drums. They'd record themselves playing their parts to the song, then I'd compare the three with a studio video I took of me tracking the actual drums back in February. I already have two drummers in mind for this (Clay Neely who drummed on the first Blacksoul album and Wes Bourque who drummed on most of the first Sorrowseed album), just gotta think of a third one.

I'm curious on why that seems like a cool idea?

I have to say I've never been happier with my guitar equipment than I am currently. Yesterday I tweaked my trusty 4-7-5 EQ a little bit and raised the trebles and dropped presence, and I got even better tones than I used to have.

The open-backed Engl Screamer 1x12 combo sounds excellent combined with the front-loaded 2x12 cabinet (all three speakers are Celesion V30). I run my basswood Ibanez RG equipped with SD SH-8 pick-ups through a tube screamer into that, and I've never heard better upper mid bark in any setup I've played. It's bright, brutal and very tight. At higher volumes, I can keep the presence down to 9 o'clock and gain at 12 o'clock, and I can get great death metal tones.

Though many complain that the Seymour Duncan Invaders sound scooped* and have annoying fizz and excessive bass, the tube screamer tightens it up excellently, and the Engl combo + cab has enormous mids, and not ridiculous bass like the recto cab that further accentuate the flubbiness of the Invader. Tightened up by the boost, the tone from the Invaders is fucking fiery. The only problem with my setup is that I need to step on two pedals for cleans, and for real, actual cleans, I have to use the pickup switch as well.

* The Invaders actually have loads and loads of mids - most of them seem to be low mids though, which make it a bassy-sounding pick-up rather than giving that imposing mid-hump sound. I could probably find a pick-up more suited for my needs at this point though - I bought them because my tone at the time was far too icy and I wanted that very pronounced lower mid warmth. Little did I know how much high mids and even trebles contributed to warmth.

I don't think SD Invaders sound fizzy or scooped. Maybe a little too hot if you want a lot of clarity but you can usually make do with it, just back off on the gain or play a little harder/more pronounced.

Listening to the original recording of this band's album with the old vocalist...He sounded like a great thrash singer - a lot like Tom Warrior, actually, and had a really imposing speaking voice for these brief narrative parts on one or two songs. The problem was that it sounded slightly out-of-place on a grindy death metal album, but by the same token it was also very memorable as I've never heard anything quite like that before. Hope that wherever he moved he can find another band to make use of his skill.

I'm with somefella about SD. I have them in my Jackson Warrior and for awhile I didn't like them cause they sounded a bit fuzzy I actually adjusted them on the guitar, lowering them and it was perfect.


Form a new band for him to record to.

Wrote another Mountain of Beard song. Recorded it today. tmwr I might write another. I'm def working on some new Zombie Raiders material...oh yea I'm back in that not that anyone knew either way.

The tapping lead and the monster riff are a whole new thing to tackle

www.newzealandtraveltours.net

Got about half of the last song for the Thy Ancient Crypt EP written with Eric. The song overall's gonna be at or a little over 10 minutes, and it's not gonna be in the Vital Remains tradition of just playing the song twice to get that length. The drums on it are very double bass heavy, so my legs should be just overjoyed when I track it. All three originals on this EP are double bass heavy, really.

Wrote another Mountain of Beard song.

recorded a Zombie Raiders song.


messed with my stuff.

Been practicing drums everyday, finally got that spark to play that I had lost long ago. Revisiting None So Vile as my practice regimen and trying to finally get the stamina to do Everything is Fire without stopping. The only song I can say I have down is the title track and the last times I've attempted it I start to lose momentum. Also trying a hand at my take on jazz, I don't know much about it beyond listening to some stuff on the radio but I really like the chaotic salvia improv variety, very interesting.

Also SLK, do you realize you're typing tmwr? Shouldn't it be tmrw

all my life I've typed tmwr. It's what I like seeing and I'm not going to correct it now.

Playing a full live set for the first time in 12 years tonight. Luckily, it's with Field of Spears so I just have to remember my strumming patterns and just use it for practice for playing with Auspicium for the ten year anniversary later this year.

Nice. Any nerves getting back into it after so long?

wrote and recorded 13 Zombie Raider songs. Going to start mixing them here in a bit.

Here's a decent pic of the Bassman that I bought last week. It turned out that the cabinet wasn't the original (which I was led to believe) so I talked the guy down from $150 to $100 for it. Still, an okay cabinet for $100 and a Bassman head in great condition for $450 is pretty sick.

Well it's a rough demo, but I finished it. Excuse the vocals, first time trying to record clean ones for a song and didn't have a mic.
https://soundcloud.com/dystopia4/narcotic-skyline

A new black metal track
https://soundcloud.com/alasunder/palissia
Obviously I would do well to make that intro a bit less disjointed.

Llama, sucks the cab wasn't original but still a great haul for what you got it for. Also everything about that kitchen is awful.

It's my friend's kitchen so it doesn't matter to me, ahaha!

Played a death metal gig yesterday. Without a drummer and on acoustic guitars with clean singing.

I'd say it was great success!

That sounds pretty horrible porman.

Llama, please tell your friend how awful his shit is.


Just been mixing some Zombie Raiders this afternoon. just about to wrap it up.

I finally recorded a song with my black metal band Oakmoon. I recorded two guitar tracks, the bass track, and I did about 95% of the vocals. Give it a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fILuvZvkvwA

If you like it, we have a Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/OfficialOakmoon

It was actually quite ok. We're the only band in town who got the balls to pull it off!

I don't really it's anything to do with you or having balls to do it. I just know if I go to a show expecting death metal and you broke that out I'm walking outside till your set is done and if you are closing I'm just going on home. Sorry. I didn't come to coffee shop singalong hour.


Basically I'd have more respect for a band who just went on and cancelled instead of subject me to their version of the show must go on.

It's not that anyone was there anyway. They all went to the Tribulation/Vampire/Antichrist show. Also, Corrosion of Conformity played that same night, for free as well.

It was fun, nobody got hurt and people enjoyed it.

Well with that in mind, cool deal.

My Faustian Orbs tape is officially released. I even did a whole bunch of photography and stuff for the cassette insert!

March's Blacksoul song should be ready by week's end. Got some viola recorded for it, so this is turning out to be the most gothic doom sounding song of the ones released so far. The vocals make it more first album-esq as well.

Got one of only two (so far) Sorrowseed shows this year on the 12th. It's in Pennsylvania, so I know that's gonna be such a fun drive.

EDIT: The song will actually be ready tonight. I'll post it here either tonight or tomorrow.

K subrick

cool deal iambatman

Recorded a Uzumaki song today. I think I'll do another longer one and release it as an ep.

First Ditheist shows with me on vox coming up soon. April 26th in Naperville, which is apparently also a costume party of some variety...Trying to think of something that's interesting without being black metal levels of over-the-top.

Then we're opening for Jungle Rot in June, which should be awesome.

Appalachian Fog sounds dope.

Fuck it, I'll post here. I've got a black metal demo that I'm planning to release sometime in the next month or so. I think I succeeded in making it a relatively unique production - I mostly aimed for extremely melodic and bouncy (but not necessarily fruity or saccharine) and I think it paid off. I uploaded a song sans real drums (that's being worked out) and finalized mixing here: https://soundcloud.com/evisceratorium/pyrrhic-bliss

Here's a clip from our acoustic gig. This song was played the first time here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W4-gvP ... VMkGpwPYIg

Went and knocked out Corpse Arise's side of the possible 7in split with Zombie Raiders. that was 7 songs
Also recorded 2 Uzumaki songs to round out an ep.
Recorded drum tracks for 2 Breaking Wheel songs.

liquor helped, haha. It was pretty nerve wracking at first realizing that I was the odd man out at a show with two hardcore bands and a doom band, but after getting into it I was alright. Might even do another one here soon!