2010-03-28

11.00 am. Joakim is picking Marcus up before lunch and going to the store to buy food, beverages and other sweet things to stuff our faces with during the day. We’re preparing for a long and intense day at Empire Studio.

12.30 am. We have no idea what we’ve been doing the first 90 minutes but we didn’t record any bass guitar, thats for sure! One thing is for sure and that is Marcus’ guitar really needs to be adjusted by someone with deep ninja skills of the higher form of guitar adjusting art not yet known by mankind. Joakim pull his phone out of the pocket to dial Jon from the music store Hamm & Nilsson. It’s SUNDAY, but Jon arrives within a couple of minutes with his toolbox and make the guitar behave properly! The bass guitar gets a treatment as well and it feels like a new bass! Jon’s daughters are head banging, to the amazing songs wich are impossible to stand still to, in the hallway of the studio!

2.00 pm. Marcus record some takes again with the new adjusted guitar and they are sounding correct now, finally. Joakim grab hold of the bass and we start to track the first take of the day.

4.00 pm. 3 songs are down and we’re feeling the hunger eating it’s way out of our bodies. Food time! Frozen microwave stuff containing Koldolmar and Fårbiffar with Potatismos and it was pretty good for a dish that usually lacks taste and inspiration.

8.00 pm. Holy basses! Joakim just finished his LAST take on the recording. He’s now done with all thirteen songs and it sound so f*in fat we all lost our pants listening to them!

Songs recorded:

– Gate Guard
– “obecity boys” (work title)
– Killed Stuffed, Hung On The Wall
– “conqueror” (work title)
– Alien Terror
– “fighting the fear” (work title)

/ Marcus & Joakim

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2010-03-27
It’s bass time again baby and you know it, and it’s also a Saturday and that means we can work all day long in the studio. You see, we are working evenings in the studio, but maybe you already knew that.

12.00 am. Good morning Empire Studio. Arttu is hung over from the party last night and passes out in the sofa in the control room. He wakes up from time to time and ask us how it’s going and film us with the video cam.

3.00 pm. Marcus is craving for some greasy food and sends out Arttu on a mission to get it. Oh, and the bass tracking is going smooth as usual by the way. We’re getting spoiled here. No problems what so ever, just tracking and smiling.

3.15 pm. Ok, that last one was a 15 minute cliff hanger. Marcus just realized that some riffs was slightly out of tune on the guitar, only the two first frets on the thickest guitar string (Bb 0.62″). Well, the guitar was in tune with it self so to say, but when the bass entered the stage all hell broke loose. And there are 4 tracks of rhythm guitars on each song so bring the eraser tool in Logic and tune that f*in guitar and do it right! This was just for one song, but there may be more songs to come with the same issue. “Maybe I should try some thinner strings” – Marcus says.

For you guitar string nerds. The strings on Marcus guitars gauges 13-17-26-36-46-62, but we’ll see about that in the remaining songs. Maybe the Gibson Explorer need more adjustment.

Hey! This is the BASS report, not the guitar report!

6.00 pm. Joakim finished 3 more songs and we went home.

Songs recorded

– “the quest” (work title)
– The God Delusion
– Goodbye Farewell

/ Marcus & Joakim

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The other day ( # 8 ) was a really short one, Marcus tracked one more song so it’s not much to write about, so let’s skip ahead to day 9.

2010-03-25

7.00 pm. This evening was devoted to bass tracking and we started to dial in the bass amp, an Ampeg SVT Classic all tubes with an 8×10 cabinet. Joakim had a bunch of pedals he wanted to try out to see if it would improve the sound. Compressors and overdrives. The amp was already set up since earlier and we just had to make small adjustments and added one more mic to the cabinet. We ended up with a Sennheiser MD421 and a Yamaha Subkick. The subkick added that extra low end and will be awesome to blend in with the 421. We even tried the bass through a 5150.

8.30 pm. The bass sound is all set and it sound amazing, as usual. Everything with this recording sound just right from the moment we mic our instrument. It’s totally awesome! Joakim ended up with the Ampeg and a Multi Comp pedal from EBS.

11.00 pm. Joakim had a really good flow and managed to track 4 songs tonight.

Songs recorded:

– Fed By Fire
– Dying For Your False Beliefs
– Tools Of Torture
– “low” (work title)

/ Joakim & Marcus

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Day 7

2.00 pm. We slept really long and had a big brunch with fried eggs, pasta, sausages and fresh juice. Took a nice walk in the sunshine across the frozen lake to the island where Empire Studio is. This is a 30 minutes walk from the town. We actually met some other metal heads in the middle of the lake. They were going to the main lands, hung over from a party the day before.

3.00 pm. Inside Empire Studio, listening to the new harmonies on Fed By Fire and we don’t think they were that great so we probably wont keep them in the end. The song is so great any way!

7.00 pm. Marcus tracked three songs today and it all went pretty smooth despite a minor computer issue resulting in a twenty minute session with frustration, cursing and yelling parental content. In the end it was ok.

Songs recorded:

– Dying For You False Believes
– Tools Of Torture
– “the quest” (work title)

/ Arttu & Marcus

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Day 6

6.00 pm. Still some guitars to track on Fed By Fire. There are some harmonies Marcus wanna try out for this song. He has brought his ESP Viper Baritone to see if it works out for the harmonies but the strings were too old and he didn’t have any new string with him. He decides to use his Gibson Explorer with the Engl Powerball for the harmonies. All rhythm guitars are tracked with a Peavy 6505+ in case I forgot to mention it earlier.

8.30 pm. Marcus wants to go home early. He’s feeling pretty beat after a long day at his dayjob. The harmonies on Fed By Fire are ready and we will return to the studio on sunday.

/ Arttu

Day 5

6.00 pm. We started this day pretty late and now we’re working nights and weekends with the remaining instruments. Alot of guitartracks are yet to be recorded. Today the song Fed By Fire is on the table.

10.00 pm. Almost all the guitars on this song are now ready and it’s time to go home and hit the sack.

/ Arttu

Day 4

4.00 pm. After finishing the drum tracks on the 13:th song, it is time to record some guitars. Things are going really smooth without any problems at all!

7.00 pm. Finished the first song for today with guitars. Even thou it’s been a long day we managed to track guitars for one song and we’re far ahead of schedule. We decide to call it a day and go home.

Songs recorded:

– “low” (work title)

/ Arttu

Day 3 2010-03-13

10.00 am. Saturday morning and we are going back to the studio. First we gotta pick up a Marshall cabinet (1960 BX) that we borrowed from a good friend of ours to achieve the perfect guitar tone.

11.00 am. The recording of the first song of the day starts after warming up.

2:00 pm. Three songs are recorded today. We are feeling hungry as hell, so we have to go to the store for some food and we end up at Restaurant Tages on the same island as the studio.

3.30 pm. Once again I grab hold of my drumsticks and record two more songs.

5.00 pm. Feeling kind of tired of pounding drums for now. Have to gain some energy for tomorrow and finish the job then. Marcus is trying out some more guitar tone with the new Marshall Cab. And it sounds like really heavy!!.

Songs recorded:
– Goodbye Farewell
– The God Delusion
– Gate Guard
– “obecity boys” (working title, because it’s so heavy)
– Killed Stuffed Hung On The Wall

/ Arttu

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3.00 pm All the microphones are set and we can begin doing the sound check.

7.00 pm Time to start tracking drums now 🙂

10.00 pm We have successfully recorded 5 songs and it feels pretty fuckin’ good!

Marcus wants to try out some different guitar cabinets and some amp heads the remaining time. He is trying an Engl Powerball and Peavey 6505+ with some different cabs. I think they are Marshall 1960BV, 1960BX and an Engl V30 cab.

00:00 Time to go home and sleep.

Songs recorded:
– Fed By Fire
– Dying For Your False Beliefs
– Tools Of Torture
– “low” (working title)
– “the quest” (working title)

/ Arttu

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