Pulling It Together

At this point, there’s quite a bit of material that has been recorded for the first Static Light album. So yesterday, instead of recording a lot of stuff, Charlie and I spent most of the time polishing up the recordings we already have. Specifically, we worked on the drum tracks and added textures to songs that felt a little too simple. That’s not to say we didn’t do any recording though, we spent a fair bit of time on a guitar/bass jam that makes up the first half of one of the songs.

Today I started planning and recording a suite of songs that I believe will end the album. I’m not sure exactly long it will be, but it will likely push the album past the 45 minute mark.. Once I’m done with the piece, I will begin the long process of perfecting the material. And I’m not exaggerating when I say there’s a lot of work to be done. Some of the songs are mere sketches of what they could be, and it will be a long process to make them what they can and should sound like.

Taylor couldn’t make practice on Sunday do to circumstances out of her control, so we’ll get together next weekend. I’m dying to start working through the material, so hopefully the snow storm scheduled for next weekend won’t cause an unfortunate delaying of this practice.

That’s it for now. End of year posts tomorrow!

Review: “Albino Slug” (Buckethead)

Although there has been three Buckethead releases in the last couple months, this is the only completely solo album. It definitely has a similar feel to some of Bucket’s more recent releases like “Decoding the Tomb of Bansheebot” and “Pepper’s Ghost”. The songs are fairly structured with a good balance of shredding, melody, and quieter songs.

Albino Slug comes out of the gate strong, with the first two tracks (“The Redeem Team” and “Siege Engine”) being the highlights of the album. Buckethead is very tight on these two songs and they contain some excellent solos. These two songs alone make this a worthy purchase for any Buckethead fan.

Unfortunately, the album cools off considerably after the strong start. “Pink Eye” feels like a by the numbers song and “Dawn at the Deuce” is a standard Buckethead calm song. After that, the last nine tracks completely speed by with none being over three minutes long. There is a lot of shredding and it’s a bit more experimental than the first songs. Some of it is impressive technically but nothing much really stood out. This album starts with a bang, but tapers off and ends with a whimper.

Albino Slug feels like Buckethead playing it safe, the songs feel very similar to other material he has put out over the last couple years. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but at the speed Bucket puts out albums it’s starting to become a tad bland. If he wants to keep his work exciting, he should try and mix things up for his next release. That being said, any fan will certainly at least enjoy this album and find its worth buying. However if you’re looking to get into this prolific artist, I would recommend starting with “Crime Slunk Scene” instead.

Rating: 3.5/5

1. The Redeem Team   (5:01)
2. Siege Engine   (8:12)
3. Pink Eye   (3:24)
4. Dawn at the Deuce   (4:17)
5. Flee Flicker   (2:34)
6. Symmetrical Slug   (2:50)
7. The Bight of Benin   (1:36)
8. Fear of Salt   (2:56)
9. Spooner Arks   (2:43)
10. Electric Bell Blanket   (0:54)
11. Tide Pools   (2:44)
12. Shell Substitutions  (1:51)
13. Forgotten Trail   (1:07)

Weekend Plans

Taylor is coming over tomorrow for Lifting Shadows practice, and Charlie’s coming over Monday for Static Light recording. Pretty busy, but it’s all good. I’ve got everything planned out for the next few days, so it should all go smoothly. In my plans I included a lot of time to chill, because at heart every musician is lazy

I got tons of awesome music stuff for Christmas! New speakers for my computer, Radiohead’s “OK Computer” on vinyl and a couple CDs. With money I received I also bought three Darkthrone albums and a rare Nine Inch Nails single (“Down In It”) for my NIN collection which is just a few releases away from being complete. 

The Static Light website seems to be down, I’ll talk to Charlie later and see what’s up. Also, I’ve already started drafting my album of the year post. Expect for it to be online right around midnight on New Years Eve.

I hope everyones Christmas was just as awesome as mine, and that you got to spend it with your family!

Happy Holidays :)

The last couple of days have been relatively quiet. I’ve added a bit of polish to some Static Light songs as well as work on a few revisions for Lifting Shadows. But for the most part, I’m relaxing and enjoying break. I’m listening to tons of music, rediscovering old favorites and enjoying new releases. The next few days I will be revisiting a lot of 2008 releases leading up to my #1 album of  the year, which I plan to be the first album I listen to in 2009, right as the clock strikes twelve.

As for what my #1 album of 2008 is, you’ll have to wait a few days for that post. However, it shouldn’t come to much surprise for those of you who have read most of the reviews

And lastly…happy holidays!

New Songs and Website

Who would have guessed? I’m actually being productive over break. Instead of grabbing some snacks and laying in front of a TV or computer, I’ve actually gotten quite a bit of stuff done for both Lifting Shadows and Static Light. 

First off, I wrote the music for a Lifting Shadows song titled “Dissonance”. Consistent with my style of writing, it goes through a lot of twists and rarely stays with one sound for long. It might actually be a little too crazy, I’m probably going to rewrite sections of it so that the whole piece flows better. That being said, it’s a solid start. A couple riffs in particular are pretty damn awesome.

I’ve gotten much more done for Static Light, though. I finished recording two songs (!) today for the album. One of them is a new song tentatively titled “Frost at Dusk”. It has a piano lead with some strings and keyboards backing it. It’s a reflective, atmospheric piece that I like quite a bit. The second song I recorded is a re-recording of the piano parts in “Departure Forever” and “Fading Light” from the demo. They are the only two parts of the demo I am fond of, so I’m polishing them up and combining them.

Oh, and Static Light has a website now too. It’s rough and I don’t have my own domain name yet but it’s a start. You can view it here:

http://9bb.ath.cx/sl/

I designed it, but Charlie is the one that actually coded it. More will be added, so check back from time to time. I’m also considering adding a donate link, which I will use to fund buying a real domain name and if there’s any left over, promoting the album and/or investing in new  equipment.

It’s nice to be on break

Review: “Volatile” (A Hero a Fake)

Like many other people, I first heard of this band when I found their promo stuck inside Between the Buried and Me’s “Colors_LIVE”. I went ahead and played it and was mildly interested. It was a far cry from BTBAM, and the comparison Victory makes between A Hero A Fake and Opeth is completely absurd. Nevertheless, it sparked my interest enough to check out the whole album when it came out. Unfortunately I must say the final product is an utter disappointment and the only reason I’m giving it a second listen is because there are virtually no reviews of this album.

One of the album’s main problems is highlighted on the first track, “Superwoman”. The screaming is absolutely terrible and sometimes painful to listen to. This makes one of the album’s stronger tracks annoying to listen to. The music behind the vocals, though fairly standard, is occasionally entertaining. “El Gigante” has essentially the same flaws as the first track. The music never really stands out and the vocals wanted me to stop listening.

After a very short interlude, the album plods along with generic metalcore after generic metalcore. Occasionally, a riff or soft section will stand out and grasp the listener’s attention, but before the album is half over I already had the urge to turn it off.

Don’t buy into the marketing hype Victory is using to trick people into this album. This doesn’t even touch Between the Buried and Me in quality. This is a bland metalcore album with the occasional interesting riff but with an absolutely terrible singer. As much as I like to support small bands, “Volatile” is a bad album that is best avoided

Rating: 1.5/5

1. Superwoman   [5:47]
2. El Gigante   [3:09]
3. Un Bienvenido Descanso (Interlude 1)   [0:49]
4. Just Another Number   [3:22]
5. Altered Beast   [5:00]
6. F16   [3:31]
7. Medieval   [4:03]
8. I Know I   [4:32]
9. Sinfonia (Interlude 2)   [0:53]
10. Terminal   [5:33]
11. Burden   [3:38]

Break!

Well winter vacation started a day early today. Traditionally, my school has a half day on the last day before break in which there is a concert where all musical groups at the school perform. However, in anticipation of the winter storm that blasted the northeast, the concert was moved to Thursday afternoon and there was a snow day today, adding an extra day to break.

I’m in two musical groups at the school, the Rock Ensemble and the Handbell Choir (don’t laugh, it’s pretty awesome). The Rock Ensemble performed the Trans-Siberian Orchestra song “This Christmas Day” with the choir joining us at the end. By far, it received the most applause and was the highlight of the show. I was one of the guitarists and Charlie (great friend and a collaborator of Static Light) was on bass.

Now I’ve got two weeks ahead of me in which I hope to accomplish a lot musically. Sunday will my first practice with Taylor since she rejoined Lifting Shadows, and I can’t wait to start going through all the material that has been written since we parted ways in September. I’m glad to have her back! Unfortunately Patrick is in France, so I won’t be able to work on the vocals and bass but the drums should keep me more than occupied.

Charlie is planning on living at my house for a couple days in the second week of break. The whole time we will be doing nothing except music, and I hope to get a lot of material for the first Static Light album during this time (definitely a lot of jamming). We will also probably discuss the artwork for the album, listen to some Opeth and Radiohead on vinyl, be on a permanent caffeine buzz, headbang until our heads fall off, and sleep with our instruments. It will certainly be a memorable two days.

It’s been a stressful first half of the school year and this should be the first time since summer that I will be able to fully indulge myself in music and laziness. ll be making many posts about progress I make, reviews of albums, and some end of year lists. And finally, if you’re traveling over the next few days, be safe!

Review: Høst (Hennes Siste Høst)

One thing I’ve noticed during my recent investigation into the genre of black metal is that the United States is severely lacking when it comes to notable bands. Indeed, the United States Black Metal (USBM) scene is treated almost with scorn by some fans of the genre. When I read positive reviews of “Høst” by the practically unknown band Hennes Siste Høst I decided to give it a listen to see if I could find another USBM band I liked besides Nachtmystium. Though while Høst is in no way a bad listen, it also probably isn’t good enough to turn many heads either.

The album opens with a nice atmospheric, minimalist introduction that leads into the cacophony of the fist real track, Høsten. The sound throughout the album is fairly consistent. It features a fairly standard black metal sound that incorporates some slower, more punk influenced sections as well as some softer, more atmospheric work. There’s quite a few really kick ass riffs spread across the album. The shrieking on the album is also of notice, it’s definitely better than average. The album works pretty well as a whole and every minute is well spent, despite being almost an hour long it never drags. If I had to pick and choose, I would say that the last half of the album is superior, but not by much..

The only real problem I had with this album is that it lacks excitement. The music has some bland moments and the truly awesome headbanging sections are spread a little thin. As a result, even though I thoroughly enjoy the album I don’t listen to it frequently, as I  could easily see it becoming a chore to get through. Also, some have noted that the lyrics to this album are terrible and I must admit I agree. This doesn’t detract from the listening experience however, because it’s not like you can ever understand the screaming anyway.

Høst is a consistent black metal album with a few surprisingly great moments, and is certainly a debut to be proud of. Though this is in no way a great or essential album, I still would recommend it to any black metal fan, if only to restore a bit of faith in the USBM scene. Unfortunately, it seems this band is virtually unknown, so if you like it spread the word!

As a side note…it might be the coolest fucking band logo I have ever seen!

Rating: 3.5/5

Tracklisting:

1. Jevndøgnet   [3:37]
2. Høsten   [8:31]
3. Jera   [10:10]
4. Oktober   [6:58]
5. November   [8:18]
6. Desember   [7:18]
7. Solhvervet   [9:38]

Moving Forward

Lifting Shadows has been in limbo for the last couple of weeks due to the untimely departure of our great drummer. However we have found someone to fill the vacancy and we’re moving forward. 

This time around we actually had a few options and I had to give a lot of thought but yesterday I finally offered the position to our first drummer, Taylor. Although we both agreed to part ways earlier this year, since then she has become much more dedicated to music and I feel she’s ready for a commitment to this band. We’re also great friends, which will eliminate one problem we had with Michael, which was that the ice never really broke between us.

We have a practice scheduled for Sunday, and hopefully we can start nailing the material. We had only done one song with her previously, and I’ve completely scrapped it, so it’s basically a new beginning. I’m optimistic and think this lineup wil be stable for quite some time.

I hope everyone’s December is going well

Odds & Ends

Well it looks like we (Lifting Shadows) have found a new drummer. This weekend is shaping up to be insanely busy but hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll be able to practice. Unlike the last couple times we’ve been looking for a drummer, we actually had a few options which was a  nice change of pace. If this new guy ends up not working out, it seems our first drummer is now up to the challenge of our songs and we would be willing to give her another shot.

I am absolutely wiped. Tired as hell. Not just physically, but I’ve been depressed for a long time too. For some reason though, I feel that I actually write music better when under a shit load of stress so I’ve come up with some interesting stuff lately that I’m going to be applying to both Lifting Shadows and Static Light songs. I’ll be working on that this weekend, when I can find time.

I’m in talks with my good friend and Static Light member, Charlie, about perhaps starting a Lifting Shadows website. We are also in early talks about the artwork for the first Static Light album.

On a final note, I’m thinking about bumping the rating I gave “Traced in Air” by Cynic from a 4.5/5 to a 5/5. I’ve listened to it well over a dozen times now and it still completely enthralls me every time I listen to it. I can not find any flaws with it. Any progressive metal fan needs this in their collection. It is an incredible album.