Art is a perpetual quest to step outside one's comfort zone and explore new things. However, many artists are unwilling to do this, being unsure of their skills or simply not having a starting point with which to explore some new things. Enter the Metal Archives songwriting challenge, where musicians put their reputations on the line to try something new!

THE RULES:

1. You will declare your intent to compete by posting your desire to compete in this thread. Other discussion is welcome, so be sure to make it clear that you want to be a part of the challenge!

2. Upon declaring your desire to compete, you will provide a list of instruments and recording equipment you own or have available, as well as your relative level of skill with each.

3. I will provide you with a detailed template of a song (subgenre, specific style, musical/lyrical themes, etc.) that you must compose ENTIRELY ON YOUR OWN. If you have a band or know musicians who would like to contribute to recording, that is acceptable, but you must compose all music and lyrics BY YOURSELF! The song style will be reasonable to your instrumental skills. The song idea will be metal or very significantly metallic in nature. Provide what genres or styles you like at your own risk, because I will simply have you do something completely different: this is about trying something new! Recording quality should be as good as possible or at the very least fit the style of music.

4. All challengers will have one week after the close of entries to write and record their song. The length of the track is up to the contestant, but must embody the characteristics I've laid out in the song template. After the entries are closed, I will post everyone's song templates in this post, edited as needed.

5. At the end of one week, I'll critique and rank all the songs. The tracks must be posted PUBLICLY ON THE FORUM for all to listen to! No hiding your shame!

THE PRIZE:

The winner of the contest gets to make a song template for me which I will submit in the next iteration of the contest. Additionally, the winner will get a three-pack of CDs from Nokturnal Transmissions Records:

Ancestral/Wedard - Split
Forests Of Old - Voices From Oblivion
Pagan Hammer - Pagan Hammer I

IF YOU BITCH OUT:

You're a pussy. There's no punishment in mind but I'm sure everyone will heap scorn on you as appropriate.

_________________________

With that said, if you want to try something new and fun, enter the contest! There's nothing to worry about; you'll be working outside of your normal style, so expectations aren't going to be super high. All the musicians on the forum come out and give it a go!

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED!

Here's the tasks set forth for our competitors:

Krafty - Hi Krafty, it seems you like thrash so I want to see if you can combine the ultra-brutal style of thrash made by a band like Demolition Hammer with oldschool crust/grind like on Napalm Death's 'Scum'. I want both influences to be pronounced; don't just alternate between d-beats and e-string chugging! You're more creative than that!

Bezerko - Bezerko, you get the privilege of crafting a song of equal parts early Ulver and Dead Raven Choir! You will compose a three-part song; parts one and three will be extremely distorted and raw (BUT MELODIC) black metal, while the extended middle section will be pure clean guitar black/folk. I expect AT LEAST two guitar lines in that section, and not mirroring each other through the whole thing! All of your lyrics will be taken from Thomas Hardy's "Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?". You can find it here: http://www.online-literature.com/hardy/909/

mattp - Hi Matt! I really like your music, so I'm here to ruin your day! You get to make the world's first symphonic slam song! Your track will be heavily influenced by 'Demigod'-era Behemoth and extremely guttural slam ala Waking The Cadaver or Digested Flesh. The symphonic element must be pronounced (I highly recommend choir effects). See if you can take the most thuggish style of metal and turn it into an amazing experience! By the way, the lyrics will detail an Aztec-style ritual involving you raping and murdering your last ex-girlfriend to sacrifice to the sun god. Happy slamming!

PedigreeButchery - I don't know anything about you, but how about you try something in the vein of Suffocation's 'Pierced From Within', but with just a hint of Winter-style doom to it. Hell, take 'Thrones Of Blood' and cut it into half time if you like! Have fun contrasting some more convoluted power chord passages with more epic sections for a good time!

invoked - Let's try something odd for you: I want something in the vein of Celtic Frost's 'Monotheist' album, but one of the more uptempo tracks such as 'Progeny'. Make it as simple or complex as you want, but I want you to keep the archaic and dismal atmosphere as intact as possible. You get bonus points for the insertion or arbitrary grunts and "Hey"s.

Traver - Since you suck at things, I want you to make a slow, depressive black metal song with a prominently featured bass including a solo. Something like Make A Change... Kill Yourself, perhaps? I don't know, you figure it out! You're an artist! Also bonus points if the tin whistle is incorporated, even if really poked at in post-production.

alexaons - Listen to Mortician's 'House By The Cemetery'. You hear what they're doing there? Do that. Bonus points for no tremolo picking at all, just massive grooves. I know nothing about you so it's hard to think something up!

blood8815 - Guess what, you didn't provide me with any information on what you have! Due to this, you now have to make a minimal but still atmospheric drone soundscape ala Trollmann Av Ildtoppberg! I want to picture desolate, windblown hills and dead trees reaching towards the sky! This is what you get for not paying attention to the first post!

death_headj - Let's stretch out those clean vocals with a traditional doom song in the vein of St. Vitus. Keep it slow and low, and the word 'tombstone' must be used at least once in the lyrics. If you want something trickier, add a hint of folk ala unknown band Kin Of Ettins. I'm interested to hear this one!

AppleQueso - Make a barely-metal power metal song in the vein of Axenstar! Take where guitars and keyboards are normally positioned and reverse them: guitars mostly harmonize with the keyboard, which is essentially the leading instrument. Doesn't have to be anything complex, and I'm sure you'll come up with something listenable. Dragons must be featured in the lyrics, and they have to be written completely seriously!

caspian - Do you like South American black/thrash? Well unfortunately now you do. It's up to you to create something that would fit beautifully on Sarcofago's 'INRI': raw and filthy black/thrash with no regard for human life. Alcohol had BETTER be a major lyrical theme and source of inspiration. I want you to have had at least four drinks (but NO WEED DAMNIT) at all times while writing and recording this track.

Prominence - I'll make something set up to echo your skillset. Create something in the vein of Godflesh's 'Hymns': sludgy yet richly melodic guitar lines that churn over a dynamic and highly syncopated drum performance. Use few riffs, but make each one a massive one and establish variation through drums and subtle rhythmic variations on guitar. Vocals are up to you; I could see it working with cleans or with Isis-style post-metal roars. A sample track from 'Hymns' if you're not familiar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRJLPu0yq5U

crusthead - It's tragic, truly tragic, that you want to do low-fi black metal, because now you have to make a grooving death metal/porngrind song in the vein of Cock And Ball Torture! You don't have to have the intricate chord structures they've turned into a staple, but you have to have a track which could appear on 'Egoleech' without a great deal of trouble. Thorry!

FirebathDan - Let's see if you can make something ala Skepticism's 'Lead And Aether'. I want murky and dark funeral doom, but I want the main feature of the music to be a classically influenced and generally non-repeating lead guitar line that pops up during instrumental passages and departs during vocals. Bonus points for subtle and relevant sample usage (no speeches, just field recordings).

Have fun!

I would like to declare intent to compete. Should be interesting. I have an acoustic/electric guitar, bass, keyboard, drum machine, and microphone for use. I'm skilled at guitar and bass and a beginner keyboardist. I'm also quite handy with a drum machine.

Noktorn appears to be under the illusion that people should be bothered what he thinks of their work. The man(or is that 'boy'?) is very wrong.

That anybody behind a project as abysmal as Rainfall and a label as drab as NTR wants to judge the skills of others is quite ludicrous, really. A prize of three CDs from this awful setup should be enough to stop any of you entering this bizarre contest.

Boycott NTR and ignore it's leader. Stick to your bedroom music and leave Metal to the rest of us.

Cool idea, hope some people are up for this. I'd love to but I have literally no musical ability whatsoever.

Firstly: Musician's forum.

Secondly: School holidays, so sure, why not?

Instruments and Equipment: Guitar, bass, amps (duh) and the very grim combination of a computer mic and Audacity (Reaper if mattp badgers me enough ). Oh, and vocals, I guess? Possible keyboard/keyboard MIDI drums played and owned by friend.

Skills:Poor, poor and poor, though capable of playing basic stuff.

Shut up.

What about like runner ups or anything? We will hear any work that's not by the winner?

I'm hoping we'll be able to hear every contestant's song^

Nigga you queerer than a three dollar bill.



Every track submitted will be posted publicly. Every one.

Count me in.

I've got guitars, vocals, drums, as well as a suite of symphonic and choral samples.

I'm definitely interested in this, so count me in.

Equipment: Two guitars, an E standard tuned Fender Big Apple Strat and an Ibanez I only use when downtuning. I've also got a bass, a Peavey Studio Pro 112 amp, a mic, Acoustica Mixcraft, a recorder and a ukulele.

My guitar skills are quite good, and I am capable of playing almost everything I compose. My bass skills are good enough too, but I'm not really good at the recorder and the ukulele.

Can't wait!

Does Mixcraft come with any drum sequencing?

Oh, forgot to mention, I've got Beatcraft too. And yes, it has, but the drums in Mixcraft are shitty anyways.

I'm in, of co'se.

Gear: Multiple guitars, amp, Laptop w/ Reaper recording software, midi sequencing, drum programming, cheap keyboard

Skill: Low to Mid on all of them, I am somewhat experienced with home recording and noodling on keyboard, and a bit more skilled at guitar. I also have three years of music theory education, so that helps a bit for the keys and midi sequencing.

I will state my genre/style of choice later when I think of something I'd like to try.

Guess I could give this a go, could be pretty fun since I'm pretty shit at coming up with metal stuff.

Gear: A shitty guitar, a decent bass, a shitty keyboard, Cubase with assorted plugins, and a C tin whistle.

I suck at playing anything but bass, which I'm decent at.

Feel free since I'm going to completely disregard what anyone in this thread typically makes.

Not that I like to bitch, but one week is a very short time to compose a song with all the instruments+vocals and lyrics, and record it, and have a decent mix to boot. If the time allotted would be at least two weeks, perhaps even up to a month, you might end up with more quality entries.

Well, it's not like we are going to release a single or anything. I think a week is more than enough.

I don't think I'll participate in this, but if you do this again in the future, maybe then. I just can't right now as I'm still fresh on bass and vocals and can't play anything else, although I am doing a lot of lyrics.

Everyone is being limited by the same constraints, so I think it's fine.

What is the deadline for posting that you wish to participate? I ask because I won't have a bass guitar until next week.

I have another question. When does this thing actually start?

I agree with this guy, with a mount to complete an entire song I think that all the good musician there will put out some great quality songs.

Im really interested in this contest but I cant do vocals
However, I have a crappy guitar, a good bass and beatcraft. Also, I have cubase and amplitube metal.

Skills: I am a fair bass player and a beginner guitar player.

Honestly, it's a challenge. If everyone could do something, it wouldn't be a challenge I've written several great songs over a weekend, that turn out a lot better than some of the songs I spend months fine tuning ( and vice versa of course ).

I'm pretty curious about what Noktorn's gonna make me do... he's pretty familiar with my versatile abilities.

With more established musicians that I'm familiar with like you, I'm going with stuff that in a roundabout way makes sense with what I know you can do, but definitely in an unusual direction.

This is a pretty interesting idea and I'd enjoy trying it, but I don't know how to play any instruments and I don't own any. It'll be fun to hear what people come up with, though.

I want to compete, seems like a pretty good idea.

If you upgrade that prize, count me in

Damn man, good to see you're alive. Haven't seen you around at all. Hit me up on PM sometime, been meaning to contact you about something for a while.

Sure, what the hell, I'll give it a go.

I have two guitars (one for downtuning), a drum program, and a mic built into the computer I have. As for recording software, I have Reaper.

I'm relatively new to guitar, thus not amazing yet. Vocally, I can do some passable lower-range cleans and some harsh vocals.

I'll leave it open for a day or two longer for more people to enter, after which I'll set the week's time and post everyone's assignments. Have a lot of cool stuff planned!

As an outsider, I'm interested to hear some of these creations.

Noktorn, you should up the stakes...the winner of this contest will get to cover a song for inclusion on the upcoming "Tribute to Rainfall" VA release by NTR.

well might as well jump in then.

I have a guitar, a microphone, and some drum software. Guitar wise, I'm fairly intermediate, maybe a bit above that, and vocals wise I can do mid-high harsh vocals and can do somewhat competent low-mid cleans (at least I think I can...). I also have a cheap Casio keyboard that I can barely play.

My comfort zone genre-wise is death metal.

count me in.

Competent guitarist and vocalist, ok at bass and drum programming.

I'll give it a shot, as shitty as i am at everything except for drums. I have a piano/keyboard, skill about 1/10, drumset - pretty decent 7/10 bass - 2/10 guitar - 3/10 but unconventional -... so this probably isnt for me. but i don't give a fuck. I have a homestudio setup with multiple mics so recording is no issue.

Interesting.

Id like to participate...

My gear - Guitar + amp, freeware drum program.
I can record in my bedroom using my mp3 player...and mix stuff using audacity.

I am more confident when it comes to drum programing...as I consider myself a n00b at guitars.

Given this set up, Id try some lo-fi black metal.

So, when does this contest start?

I'd love to join if I weren't lazy as fuck, sounds pretty fun.

This sounds like a fucking blast, and I'd love to participate...but I'm smack-dab in the middle of working on my upcoming Cold Blank Stare record, in which I'm suffering through a severe, severe case of lyrical writer's block (music is tracked). Couple that with my rock band recording and my 9 to 5, and I don't I can whole heartedly contribute a worthy peice with only a week's time. If we had two weeks, then maybe I can get something going.

Oh well; sounds like fun. I'm looking forward to hearing some of the results. Maybe I'll be able to do the next one, if there is one.

EDIT: Fuck it. I'm in. The CBS stuff will have to be put on hold. And if worst case is pussing out and being ridiculed, I think I can live with that.

Here's my gear with numerical skill assessment (1=shit, 10=godly)

Instruments:2 OLP Axis copy guitars and an Ovation acoustic set to standard tuning (5.5), 1 Music Man SUB bass set to standard tuning (7), drums programmed via iDrum with samples of my Tama Artstar ES/Zildjian Cymbal acoustic kit (8), and vocals harsh only-no melodic singing capabitites (5).

Recording: A Logic Express DAW (7) with a Presonus FP10 preamped interface, a MXL90 vocal condenser mic w/Nady pop screen, among other items.

Probably going to close submissions within the next couple hours, get ready!

Submissions are CLOSED! Songs will be assigned tomorrow morning/afternoon, probably between 10AM-12PM Eastern time, and the week's time will begin when posted.