Hey Subrick, I checked out Blacksoul Seraphim, and that's really well done stuff. What do you play in there?

Thank you! @ Celtic Frosted Flakes, its experimental folk Black Metal very minimalist.

Cool, I've never hear of experimental AND minimalist music before, let alone black metal. Sounds interesting.

fucking lol^

What? Drone isn't very experimental for example. Just... Monotonous. Experimental to me is like... Jute Gyte, or something.

Well, folk black metal is such an original genre on its own so I can see how that would be confusing for you. Add in some minimalism, and you have a recipe for complete originality.

Minimalism if used interestingly can be cool but I think its a cop out usually.

I play drums, and in the new material we're releasing I'm doing harsh vocals as well. I didn't drum on the first album; Clay Neely from Black Pyramid handled that. He also produced and mixed that album. The first song from the next "album" is being released probably on Christmas or a few days before. The way we're releasing it is instead of putting out every song in bulk, we're releasing one song a month for free digital download, out of order from the track list I wrote up. Once every song is released, every song will be up in the proper order in album form for a free download on Bandcamp.

Style wise the new stuff is much like the old stuff most of the time, but there's a fair amount of Alcest inspired, shoegazy black metal in the sound now. The song coming out on Christmas, "The Squire", has the blackgaze element to it. Two of the songs are full on black metal; one's like Alcest but beefed up, and the other sounds like Wędrujący Wiatr of all bands.

Agreed. Same with how 'progressive' is used to disguise repetitiveness and 'atmospheric' is used to disguise lousy production/execution. Not always, but often enough to make me(andmany others) wary of the terms.

Oh I thought you were being a sarcastic dick. I didn't know you were being serious. Sorry. hahaaha. Im off to bed. I did a bunch of shit in the last few days I'll talk about it later.

That's weird, I always thought "progressive" was supposed to mean anti-repetitive.

So the ESP EC-401 I have and use for most of my metal stuff isn't actually mine, it belongs to my younger brother who lost interest in metal a while ago so hasn't really cared that I've had it this whole time, but he just recently decided to buy a new guitar and figured he'd pay for it by selling off his ESP. Kind of a bummer, heh, but it does give me an excuse to buy a new guitar as all I'll have is my Telecaster and a Castle Rock fake LP that sounds alright but I don't really like that much.

I've been looking at Agile Guitars since I keep hearing a lot of praise for 'em. I've also always wanted an SG so this looks like a pretty good deal: http://www.rondomusic.com/valkhcslim.html. I like that it's got a slim neck as I hate those thickass Gibson necks. I kinda wish it had the classic SG shape rather than that funky SG/Jazzmaster hybrid thing it's got going on, but beggars can't be choosers at that price. However, they've also got this: http://www.rondomusic.com/hadron627.html. I LOVE natural finishes and those sorts of neck-through designs, plus it's got a 27" scale so should work well for tuning down to A like I like to do. Insane price for a guitar like that, assuming it's not a total piece of shit.

Also spent a lot of time fiddling around with the Carvin custom shop and built myself a totally sexy Explorer there....came out to about $1,300 though

I guess it depends on who says it. Whenever I hear a musician around here call their work progressive, it usually just means long and meandering and boring. That's gotten me wary of anyone who labels their music as such though I'm always ready to listen with an open mind.

batman, great news! I love shopping for new guitars, both online and in stores(though in most of the stores around here, the staff are always breathing down your neck every second that you're playtesting. I'm about to drop almost a thousand dollars here, give me some space to try the thing out, geez). What's your budget anyway?

Its my interpretation of black metal, I use those terms as I think they best describe what I am trying to do with music.

Budget at this point is gonna be low: I wanna spend $200 or less. For one, because I'm not oozing money and I'll be needing something to play, and two because I really wanna give some of these budget line guitars a fair shot. I did some more research into the Douglas Hadron and it seems like people are pretty much blown away by the build quality. One guy had kind of a shitty nut with the string sitting at strange heights but that's nothing that can't be fixed. Other people said the guitar came set up out of the box beautifully. Unfortunately that 6-string 27" scale model seems brand new and it has a different style of pickups than the older 727 (7 string, 27" scale) and 625 models, so I don't know if the new pickups are better or worse than the old ones. If the guitar is as nice as people say it is then I'll probably wind up swapping the pickups sometime down the line anyway.

So, my guitar plans are probably to get one of those Douglas Hadron 627's ASAP (could be a nice Christmas present for myself...) and tune it to A, then later on get one of the Agile SG's set up for D tuning for some black metal down the road. One day I'll get a custom Carvin...one day...*sighs wistfully*

Most of what I've heard about Agile is that they're good guitars that usually just need a setup and then they're ready to go. Also keep an eye out on eBay, you can find some excellent deals there. I've seen real gibson SGs go for $400. - I know that's more than you want to spend, but the deals are there.

Had an awesome practice with the blackthrash band today. One of our new songs is almost finished, and we made lots of progress on the other. Lots of UGHs.

And then I got home to find that this gig we're doing on Valentine's Day is sold out:



So that's going to be fun.

Hey, both my guitars aren't exactly top of the line either but I make do. It's in the hands man That Douglas Hadron looks beautiful for the price btw. I'd slap a JB in it, get it setup then rock and roll.

I think I'll go play around the Carvin custom shop for a bit. My dream guitars for some reason are always some famous signature models, like the Marty Friedman Ibanez(a thing of beauty) or Max Cavalera's BC Rich model. Mustaine's Dean and Phil Demmel's Jackson look amazing too.

Meh, like I said I don't really like Gibson necks that much, so why spend $400 on a guitar with a neck I don't like when I could spend ~$200 on a guitar that's just as nice with a way better neck? That's why I wanna give these cheapo guitars a fair shot; from what I keep reading Agile stuff isn't just nice "for the price", it's nice stuff in general. I think you're basically just saving a huge amount of money by not paying the namebrand markup.

Another example: I'm getting my brother a banjo for Christmas from Rondo Music. Their SX banjo is a hell of a lot nicer than similarly-priced stuff from Guitar Center/Musicians Friend (cheap open-back ones that are basically a tambourine with a neck) and looks a lot closer to the ~$300 Dean/Washburn/Epiphone banjo lineup.

Anyway I think I've settled on the Douglas Hadron 627. It's $170 right now but apparently goes on sale for $100 sometimes. Having a properly set-up guitar for A tuning will be nice since that's what I use for both Coma Void and Gloaming.

Jammed with the drummer and we tweaked some older songs. Made them much better and they are way smoother. Trying to cut trim the fat as far as "slow" riffs go which I feel our older stuff had way too many.

Also got a pretty sick tone using my Hyper Fuzz. I didn't like it at first since it was very noise but I turned down the gain on the pedal and on the distortion channel and it sounds great. Just need to do a little more tweaking with it to make it sound more clear so it will cut through when we play live since our bass player uses distortion too but we aren't playing for a while.

I discovered something that scared the shit out of me when I was cleaning the rehearsal space.

Since we played a gig in September, where I had to switch my impendance to 8 ohm to match a Marshall cab, me or someone else had switched it to 16 ohm instead of 4 ohm which I use on my own cab.

So I've been playing and driving that Peavey 6505 with the gain and volume both set on 6 since then....

It's a fucking miracle that nothing blew up, that's for sure! 16 ohm -> 4 ohm that would either had blown the speakers or the amps transformer, but for some reason I got away with it. That explains why my clean sound sounded so distorted...

Peavey = reliable amps that can take a beating!

Perfectly understandable. I don't like Jackson necks, personally. And I agree about paying for the name. I'm a big fan of les pauls but I think they're massively overpriced. The one exception, I have a 1991 les paul studio lite, which was a limited edition model that has a big chunk of basswood in the middle to lighten it (it's still heavy as shit) and the neck has a nice thin profile. I love that guitar and since the "purists" hate it (gasp basswood!) I got it for cheap on eBay. Aside from that, I really want one of those japanese lawsuit les pauls from the 70s/early 80s, actually more than I want a real les paul. You can find those pretty cheaply as well, like $100-$150 if you look around.

I've actually considered picking up an Agile les paul. On the les paul forums they like them and say they're nice guitars, and the price is right. If I played 7 string I'd pick up one from rondo music, they have a neck through 7 string for pennies.

Porman - I totally agree about Peavey amps. I have a 6505+ and a VTM-60 and their build quality is excellent. I accidentally ran my VTM-60 into an 8 ohm speaker cab for a while, when it was plugged into the 16 ohm output, and never had any problems.

Wow! Dodged a bullet there man.

The new Blacksoul Seraphim song's coming out on Christmas Eve. Overall I'm extremely happy with how it came out. The drums are 100% natural and the mastering has *gasp* actual dynamic range to it! It's not a crappy mess of noise for those who prefer their music to be listenable.

Yay for not brickwalling!

Just had a deer slam into my car as I was driving home, so looks like instead of driving down to see my family over the holidays I'll be sitting here waiting to get my car fixed. Dumbass deer.

I'm also tempted to put a guitar together out of inexpensive chinese parts and whatnot, just to see how cheaply I can do it. I've found some good deals, and it's really tempting. Especially since I'm unhappy with the sound of my homemade SG (although that's just the pickup).

Just how badly did the deer damage the car to render it undriveable?

I thought I should share this with you:

"Hello,
It is alright to operate a tube amp into a lower impedance load then the amp is looking for. The amp will produce less power when the impedance load is high or lower then what it is looking for.
That would explain why you set the controls higher.
One should not use an impedance load that is higher then the amps highest impedance rating. For example if an amp is only rated at 8 and 4 ohms then don't use a 16 ohm load.
That will damage the output matching transformer. But it won't damage this transformer when the load is lower then the amps highest rated impedance output load.
Thanks,
Aubrey.

Peavey Customer Service"

It's drivable but fucked up enough that I need to get it fixed. And money's tight right now, so paying the deductible will really eat into my funds.

But he broke off the side rear view mirror and dented both doors on that side. At least the door was okay. It was a big fucking deer also.

Currently saving money on a seven string guitar, will be probably my first mid-range guitar. Looking to buy ESP LTD AW-7 for christmas because of the lovely red flamed maple top, stock passives and ebony fretboard. Used of course. Im thinking of selling my Xbox 360 along with the games (Except the Mass Effect series because I have Collector Editions and the hardrive with my save files), I barely play on it anymore. I even barely play any games now, maybe Starcraft 2 once in a blue moon. Do you think it is a good idea? Otherwise I'd have to wait for my birthday (half a year basically) to get all the money needed.

Good thing that the deer didn't break through the windshield.

Infinite... that's really shitty luck but yea like porman said, good thing it didn't go through the windshield... also you should eat the bastard, I would.

Porman, Very lucky there about your amp.


Eww.
Also good luck at your show you posted a flyer for, have no idea who's playing but the flyer is pretty.

last few days... since friday.. recorded all the rest of the KP vocal tracks for the ep I planned on releasing for the songwriting challenge.
recorded a new Yzordderrex album and did all the vocals this weekend. So I plan on mixing that when I get back in town.

Also 3 of the Vomitwolves vocal tracks were completed last weekend for the album, he is a song from it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEgjeuHmxEM

other than that I'm out of town for the next 2 weeks freezing to death.

infinitenexus, glad you're okay. I knew a guy who died in a deer collision. Sucks about the car and all, but still.

So I've got my own story to add to infinitenexus' and Porman's tales of near-misses. Looks like my hard drive is failing, yesterday my computer would power on but the hard drive wouldn't start spinning. And of course being a total idiot, I hadn't done a back up in almost 6 months. After an hour of re-trying and growing increasingly despaired that I had lost a solo album and most of the tracks my guitarist laid down for our black metal project it magically managed to get going, so I backed up my data immediately. The computer seems to be fine now but I haven't powered it down, just in case.

Moral of the story: don't be a fucking dumbass and always back up your work friends.

I try to back up all my musical work every couple weeks. My computer is so shitty that I should do it weekly.

Yeah I'm fortunate about the deer. It was on a slow road about half a mile from my house, and he was running in the direction I was driving, and i was only going about twenty five. He pretty much shouldered into my car real hard, got up and ran away. No blood or anything, just a bit of hair on my car. Definitely lucky, especially considering it was a very large deer that could have done some serious damage to my car.

Finally got around to working on my SG. I removed the neck and reshaped it, then re set it with a tiny back angle on it, like one degree. It's just enough to help get the action perfect, and the neck is thinner and lot more comfortable now. Now I just need a better pickup, as I have a neck pickup installed in the bridge position, and it sounds pretty mediocre there. With a pine body and mahogany neck, I need a brighter, high output pickup, something with a ceramic magnet. Just gotta find one for cheap.

I just finished writing and demoing for my one man sludge/black project Poor Shade. I'm burnt out as fuck but I completed 11 songs in 4 months alone.

Next step is the studio and then a 20 year break.

Wrote 5 more grind songs for the breaking wheel and messed around with some new guitar tones. I finally got all my stuff in the mail, so now I have an old cassette portastudio right next to my bed, along with a guitar and a pedal amp simulator, so I can record all my ideas super easily. Yaaayyyyyyyyyy.

I made a noise band as a joke but apparently people like it so I'm gonna make an album of that this weekend probably.

Sludge/black? That sounds interesting, care to share the demos?

I'm currently compiling riffs, lyrics and ideas into songs for a crusty sludge demo I'm attempting to make. Have three songs written (one of them is an altered version of the last song I contributed to a challenge). Have riffs and lyrics for lots more, so should be able to get 'er done. Hopefully it won't come out as quite as sloppy this time, been practicing guitar a lot more than usual lately.

So apparently my friend wants to put out some 8-tracks of me and a buddy doing our noise thing. No idea what we want to do but I have some ideas. Don't really want to do HNW/Power Electronics stuff though.

Josh and I decided that I'm gonna mix the straight black metal project he and I are doing. We're recording the music with the same guy we're doing Blacksoul with, but to keep costs down I'm gonna do the actual mixing on my school's Pro Tools machine. It's my first time doing any instrument mixing whatsoever, so learn by practice I guess will be the philosophy here.

Wow every promoter in Rochester sucks.

Them: Hey you guys want to play a show?
Us: Yeah sure what are the details?
Them: OH SORRY ALREADY TAKEN BY A ROCK BAND.

Seriously pissed off with how immature and unprofessional these people are. I understand bands need to get back to people but its like don't ask me unless you are 100% sure you want us to play. UGH.