Secret Rites evoked

So what is Secret Rites then? To some extent the concept dates back to 2013. That summer I worked on a project which I labelled Sub-Basement at the time, after the Pentagram album. I pre-produced one tune using Victor Griffin's drop-B tuning. It was a fast paced song, a pretty cool one. And a Vitus ifluenced song which was more rushed. Ultimately it remained unfinished due to practical circumstances, and Blight eventually taking all my focus. 

The idea has come back to me from time to time. The main concept is to play sinister doom metal with influences from black metal, death metal and soundtracks. Here are some main influences: 

- Black Sabbath (self titled track, Electric Funeral, Sabotage album) 

- Bedemon and Death Row era Pentagram 

- Joe Hasselvander (the two Pentagram albums he played guitars on and The Hounds of...) 

- Saint Vitus (debut and Walking Dead EP in particular) 

- Blood Farmers!!! 

- Electric Wizard 1995 - 2010

- Hellhammer and Celtic Frost

- Dream Death and early Penance

- Cathedral (In memoriam, Forest, Soul Sacrifice) 

- Newer doom acts such as Famyne (vocals especially), Serpent Venom, Rote Mare and Solemn Ceremony

- Norwegian black metal 1990 - 95 (Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone, Thorns) 

- Death metal 1989 - 91 (Death, Morbid Angel, Entombed, Soulside Journey/Goatlord) 

- John Carpenter

In march I reinstalled my sound card and started experimented with recording demos at home during quarantine. The first one I did was a doom rock tune inspired by Force (Al Morris III's old band). On this demo I used a bucket as a kick drum and a cake tray as a snare drum. Since I didn't have cymbals, I used a tambourine. The demo turned out surprisingly cool. I was supposed to add vocals and upload it to Soundcloud, but I couldn't come up with a lyric.

After that I recorded two test demos for Elder Ruins using click track and a drum machine. I've never been good at tracking myself to click. I guess I don't have the patience to get it tight enough. I also suspect there is some lag between my sound card and the recording program. Anyway, the bucket and cake tray demo actually turned out more complete than anything I've done with a click track. I also like the concept of recording drums while humming the song and then adding instruments on top of that, like Fenriz did with many of his projects and Varg did with Burzum. A friend of mine also did this with his great Sadhak project. While the drumming of Fenriz and Sadhak is very good, the drums in early Burzum is kind of shaky, yet there is a certain charm to it. And he did get better with each recording session. 

With that in mind I set myself the goal of recording a demo on my own using the drum kit in the rehearsal room once it opened again. I bought my own SM57 mic with money I saved up during the quarantine. At first I wanted to do preprod the new SH tune and played it on drums a few times. I realised however that the song will be straightforward to pass on to the other members without a demo in advance. Then I wanted to record an Elusive Dreams demo with me and Torbjørn as a duo and me performing the drums. I recorded drums for two tracks, but as I added guitars and bass I realised these demos were not tight enough to be released. Still, the drum practice was very useful. Most of the patterns I used were also usable in Secret Rites. 

Sub-basement was resurrected as Secret Rites after a "productive" day at work. The place where I've had my summer job these past years have recently banned any use of music at work. Thus, one often gets lost in thoughts. Sometimes for the worse, but this day I started to hum this John Carpenter style melody. I soon started to think where a song based on this melody would go. I took short breaks to the bathroom to hum ideas into my phone and before I knew it I had an outline for the entire song. 

After working a bit on it at home and at rehearsals, I set up my gear at the rehearsal place the entire last week of my holiday. I recorded a take of drums and actually managed to get through the whole thing without major fuckups on the first take. It's shaky and the BPM is not consistent, but it works. I spent the next days adding guitars, leads, some noises (fake tape hiss and a creaking chair), before adding vocals. I needed to experiment a bit with different layers and effects. I actually found that sitting down and using a setting with delay and slight distortion gave the best vocal results, and I think my performance on this demo track is better or at least cooler than on the SH album so far. With both the guitars and the vocals I went for a more sinister and "crazy" vibe, which was a lot of fun. The track turned out almost 13 minutes long. At the moment I am figuring out the bass which I will record at home right into the sound card. 

One problem I faced is that the recording program I use only allow 8 tracks, so practically speaking I am working with a digital 8 track recorder. Since I rarely tracked vocals before I never faced this problem. While it feels a bit old school to work with an 8 track philosophy, punching overdubs  into channels for leadguitars etc made the whole thing a bit chaotic. So when I continue making this demo, I'll probably buy a licence for a different program. 

I recorded one demo track that is almost complete for now, and one "jam" that I'm going to add some extra stuff to. So far very happy with this and it feels like this is a one man project that is actually doable. The vibe in the song became what I wanted. Going further I am reworking an old SH idea from 2010 and I am working on a new Blood Farmers influenced tune these days. I also want to use the drop-B tune from 2013, but that song will be more difficult to play on drums, so I will need to get better or use a session drummer for that one. It will not be on this release. 

I aim to release a rough version of the first demo track and the jam on bandcamp once the recordings are complete. And when the whole demo is done I'll want to get it properly mixed and mastered for a release on CD and/or tape. Not sure if I'll outsource this part or I will try to learn how to do basic mixing and mastering myself. Maybe mix myself and pay for mastering when the whole thing is done. 

Belief or disbelief rests with you! 

In times of Pandemic

Avé! 

A lot of things happen during a year. These last 365+ days - A LOT - has been going on. Here is an update on the status of my projects and a new "profile" for this blog.

Strange Horizon: 

SH got going again late last summer. After a so-so gig on a private event in early august, we got into regular rehearsals for most of the autumn and started to prepare an album recording in early 2020. We had 7 of 8 songs in rehearsal and the final one - an instrumental - was supposed to be rehearsed this spring. In december/january we focused on the five oldest tracks and went to a studio in late january. We got all five tracks done with some cool overdubs and extra effects. Having listening to early mixes of these tracks I'm pretty happy with how they came out. Some vocal parts I feel might have to be re-done, as well as some minor guitar stuff (some pick scratching aka FJOM). 

The plan forward was to focus on the two newest tracks as well as learning the intstrumental. We were supposed to play these three tracks at a small gig on april 23rd and then head right into the studio to record them. A simple plan, right? Me and the bass player recorded a pre-prod for the instrumental with a drum machine which turned out pretty nice. We got through it a few times at rehearsal, but the drummer didn't seem to be really into it. I think it could have grown with time though. The weeks after the studio we once again ran into a period of several cancelled rehearsals and practical difficulties. Then of course, the corona pandemic happened. Within a few days the rehearsal room was closed. I managed to bring most of my equipment home and thus a new era started. 

We quickly decided to shelve the instrumental for a future release, given that we barely got to play it as a band before things closed.. I also realised that it might make the album too long for one LP, which could be a problem. Me and the bass player have been working on a smaller Planet Caravan esque piece which we might include instead to hopefully create some dynamics and variation. We shall see. 

As it stands, we have had access to a temporary rehearsal room since mid june but have not had a proper rehearsal yet. Might get into it soon, might not. I hope of course to be able to finish this release, but I feel that I am tired of these tunes and kind of worn out on the whole band. It should have been so much simpler to just be effective and get shit done and I feel that these delays are out of my control. Of course, Covid-19 cannot be blamed on any of us. But there was a decline in band activity before covid-19 and even after we were allowed to start up again very little has happened. 

There was some talk about re-releasing the demo on CD and include some studio mixes as well as contacting possible labels. But as long as we're not rehearsing I have no motivation to do any "voluntary" work regarding SH. Again, the future is open ended. I don't know. I'd like to finish what we begun, but if it falls apart it is not the end of the world. As long as my voice and hands work, I'll be doing something, you'll see.  

Elder Ruins: 

"Hvis du skal få noe gjort så må du gjørra det sjæl" is a saying in Norwegian. It means "if you want to get something done, you have to do it yourself" and there is truth to that. So while SH has declined, my side projects have made some nice progress during this time. I started Elder Ruins last summer and have picked up on it every now and then. As it stands I have 3 mini LPs planned. I write for these whenever I feel inspired to do so. During the semi-lockdown I tried out some ideas recording with my sound card and computer. One of these was a piece with only synth. Since I actually played "live" to a programmed beat and copy-pasted different layers, it turned out a bit untight, but I liked the general feel of it. A nice experiment to do. 

I also recorded a drum machine preprod of just the ending part of a song featuring guitars, bass, synth and harmony vocals, which I put up on soundcloud. Although it was messy playing wise, the atmosphere turned out quite nice. Several people gave very positive feedback on this one. Some even liked it more than SH while others were put off by the playing. Still, a nice experience and a confirmation that this project has some potential. 

As it stands, I will keep working on it for as long time as it takes. And then I want to actually pay for proper studio recordings when I feel ready for it. I want someone to help me track the instruments and get the mixing/mastering right. 

Elusive Dreams: 

This project has been mentioned here before. Elusive Dreams is a more US doom and hard rock influenced project which I have shared with a former bandmate from Blight. We have been talking on and off about this project over the years. It never ended, but it has not materialised either. 

As SH activity in febuary declined the idea of starting another band came to be. I made some plans and the more I thought about it, the more I felt like basing a new band on Elusive Dreams. I wrote some new, slightly simpler, doomy rock tunes. One acoustic one, even. This was my main focus during the first weeks of lockdown, and then I returned to Elder Ruins as a focus project in late april/may. In late may/early june I got some renewed faith in SH, so I refreshed some future ideas and wrote a new pretty cool tune. 

In july I felt like trying out more Elusive Dreams. Since I now had access to a rehearsal room again I tried to record drums for a few songs, which I added guitars and bass to. The initial aim was to record as much as I could and then get Torbjørn to add lead guitars. Then getting someone to mix and master the songs and release them. However, the recordings did not turn out as tight as I hoped. I still think about finishing them as something to show to potential bandmembers in the future, but at the moment I do not aim to release these versions. Torbjørn is quite busy with Blight and another project at the moment, so the project is back on hold. But we'll stay in touch. Might pick it up again sooner rather than later! 

So what are these Secret Rites then? 

Like I said I aim to do Elder Ruins as a one man project. But since I want that project to be really good, I feel that I need more experince as a multi instrumentalist, as well as with recording myself playing. Thus, a new project based on both old and new ideas have surfaced. More about this in the next post. 

As it stands, this blog is dedicated to all my projects, but the focal point going forward here will be Secret Rites. This has changed before and will change again, but let's just see. More about Secret Rites soon....

Pounding along

Been working on drums today. The first song is starting to sound like something, and I made a lot of progress on the second one. I tried to record myself with the phone today, which was interesting. Some things sounded better than I feared, but I also noticed parts that I need to tweak. Will continue to record myself drumming from now on.

I even came up with a part where I have to open and close the hihat. Tricky!

Check out this setup from a while back. One of the other bands at the rep place were recording in studio so all the cymbals were gone. All I had was a hihat top, so I played all cymbal hits on that one. Doesn't really matter at this point, the important thing is to practice using my arms and legs correctly so that I am able to play something close to what I have in mind.

Continuations and beginnings

Once again, future readers and stumblers upon...

Since the previous update a LOT has happened. Strange Horizon has been a band for over a year. Two lineups, three live shows and one demo release, digital and on cassette. Overall pretty good response with fans from all over the world. Wow. But alas, everything comes with a price. The band was on hold for more than a month due to member commitments and is still struggling to get back into gear. This has been difficult for me to cope with, following the success of our first year.

I also realised along the way that SH is no longer my band. Other members feel the need to have a say in how things are run and to have creative input. That is something I of course must respect, but as I realised that I had lost SH as my private musical playground, the need for something similiar to what SH had been when it was just my project came into being. Thus, Elder Ruins was formed.

Elder Ruins is similar and different to SH. So far I have composed an EP of material which is more focused on atmosphere and includes a song on keyboards. Think Revelation and Warning with hints of Burzum. Lonely, but soothing music. I aim to perform everything myself and am currently working on learning servicable drumming in order to do a recording. I have shown significant progress behind the kit, but there is still a long way to go. Also, where most of my SH material is close to a decade old, these pieces were composed during the last two months. It's inspiring to work on something so fresh, and I like the idea of having something to work on when SH rehearsals are cancelled or delayed. I also like the thought of making something that is just me and thus very personal.

I meant to update this blog with SH history as it happened, but never did. I might in the future however. For now, you can see most of our big, and some smaller, events documented on instagram here. You can also follow our Facebook page. And please listen to our demo on bandcamp!

Since we never used this blog actively for the band, and have used Instagram for updates instead, this blog will from now on be dedicated to Elder Ruins and the progress towards a recording. 

Death and rebirth

Stumblers upon and people from the future going back to read this, it shall be written that these are adventurous times indeed. Strange Horizon has shifted from being a practically dead studio project to a solo project in planning to an actual working band. Or at least, that's where we're headed and it's been in the works for a while now, just needed to sort out some practical details. We now have a rehearsal place and are working on material for both the first single and the planned first EP. First up should be one or two rough demo tracks so people can get an idea of what we're about and we can feel like we're actually doing something.

Line-up and other details will be announced later. Fingers crossed now. Believe...

Time to reboot

So, maybe not dead yet, huh? Just a bit different than originally planned. "7" single in the planning stages. One bouncy and groovy song and one slow, heavy and slightly mellow. Should provide an idea of what this project was about all along.  Let's see how it turns out then...

Stay strange!

A recap...

Had almost forgotten about this blog/journal. Every now and then I thought about it and thought that I should utdate myself and future readers on what's going on. But always forgot to do so. Well, here's a short recap.

Was in the band mentioned in the last post from early 2013 and intil last week. About three years. Played eight gigs in various formats and venues. Published two songs in late 2013. Recorded an album which is to be finished these days and released hopefully within the year. I already recorded bass for most of the album and might drop by the studio to add some backing vocals if the other guys want me to. Wrote three songs for the album. One which is catchy and cool, but really a throwaway song from before the band started. Another two that was written specifically with this band in mind. None of these really showcase what I think I am really capable of as a songwriter, but they are all right.

As I predicted in may 2013 the band got more serious for some of the people involved and already in late 2014 I was beginning to feel that this wasn't really what I wanted to do. All the same, I would rather start something new than push this band in my direction. After all, the style and sound of the band developed rather naturally (which I think is a cool thing) and the other three seems to really enjoy it. So it was more about finding a natural time to leave and for them to find a proper replacement. Ideally, recording the album and then doing a few gigs to support the release before leaving would have been the preferable option. But recording took (as one could imagine I suppose) longer time than we had planned and the band started gigging again after spending all of 2015 doing rehearsals and studio work. With that, I felt I had to change something and say that enough was enough. I had lots of fun and really developed as a player and even somewhat as a singer. I'll look back at my time in this band with fond memories, but at the same time I feel I have made the right decision.

Thankfully the other guys were very understanding and nice about me leaving. Surprised I think, but so far no drama. Hope we can keep it that way. It might even be that they already have a replacement. Which would be great, since then they kan keep going at the pace they want to without me holding it back. I look forward to hearing the finished album and seeing them live as a fan somewhere down the line.

February last year I also joined another band who really wanted me as a bass player after having seen me performing live with the aforementioned band. Flattering, right? I was sceptical at first, but it has worked out well indeed. I would not say that I chose this band over the other one. After all I was in both for over a year. But I did feel after a while that being in two busy bands where certain members of both really wanted to raise the bar further was psychically exhausting and kept me from doing other things and being creative. So one had to go unfortunately. And I chose to stay in the band I enjoy the most right now, which is this one. It's kind of punked up hard rock sung in Norwegian. Not a joke band, but not taking itself too seriously either. Suits me! It's not really a place where I will get to expose my songwriting a lot, but I get to incorporate all kinds of influences in the bass playing, which is fun. Great way to rehearse regularly, play some live and just have a good time with friends. We have been arranging songs as a group recently and the chemistry within the band is awesome right now. We also did one gig on relatively short notice and the feedback from the audience was great!

Not mentioning any band names at the moment in case they google it, but namedropping will happen when time is due :)

As for Strange Horizon, the project as it was does not exist any more. The sound and concept might live on in the shape of some doom metal solo release from me at one point, but other than that, it's over. And I firmly believe that sometimes it's better to end things and start over than to keep going just for the sake of it. Because, it does look like something similar will happen soon with me and one guy I've been playing with for some time. Studio project at least to begin with. Taking it one step at the time. I suppose you could say that it takes one aspect of what I wanted to do in SH and expands that aspect further. We will probably use some SH tunes as well, but the first two songs were written by me over the course of last year, so it's fresh stuff. More on that the next time. For now, just note the new name of the blog and that the description below the name remains. Cheers!

Update may 2013

After a technical breakdown at the place where we recorded the demo, very little has happened with Strange Horizon. In the meantime I've joined another band on bass guitar. We play a kind of hard rock/guitar rock style. Not pretending to be in the 70s like a lot bands at the moment seems to be, but certainly inspired by classic rock from the last four decades. I'd say we're somewhere between swedens Hellacopters and the heaviest songs by Norway's BigBang.

The band has no name at the moment. We started out playing cover tunes including obvious stuff such as Paranoid, Breaking the Law, Come Together, and less obvious numbers like When the Screams Come (by Pentagram, guess who's idea that was?) and Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd). We have rehearsed three songs at the moment and are working on a fourth one. One our songs are written by yours truly and I even do the vocals on it (as well as the Sabbath and Pentagram covers). I feel that I'm getting better at singing as we go along, but I'm not sure if I'll keep doing the vocals in the future. I really want to sing, but I feel that I shouldn't be doing it if I cannot deliver a steady performance at gigs and such. We'll see. The important thing is; it's fun! And everyone is really easy going about it. We just play and have fun, and I like it. I enjoy it for as long as it will last, because experience tells me that at some point someone in the band is gonna want to get more serious. So I enjoy these days of innocence while they are still here.

Not that I don't wanna take it serious. I really want to go for a gig or two and maybe a recording, but I feel that our current material is not focused enough. But we'll see where it takes us. There's probably gonna be a lot of rehearsing this summer and that will be fun!

I wish for Strange Horizon to be able to enjoy itself in the same manner. Rehearse the songs, play live, record stuff, but not get carried away with arguments about style, sound and other stuff. Just have fun and get along together. Maybe some day...

I organised some of my ideas the other day. At the moment there are ideas enough for one EP (the one that's currently in the works), a debut full length and a second album.They need lyrics, rehearsing and probably some arrangement adjustments on the way, but I think there is potential in this stuff. I also have other ideas for EPs and side projects. The song that we play in my other band was a straight rocker that I initially saw as a SH B-side.

The plan now, that I have discussed with the others, is to go to the drummers studio to record the demo, which is now concidered a self financed EP. I really hope we can find the time to do this. I will be a focused studio session, but also a nice social get together. Let us hope this works out.

A songwriter's perspective II

So I guess the actual songwriting for SH started around early 2010 and onwards. This was a very emotional time for me, but it was also the time when I saw Saint Vitus live which made a huge impact on me. One of those rare life changing concerts. So much happened at this time that I don't really have much memories of sitting in the room I had back then and actually working on these songs but it must have happened since I have recordings from that period. I worked on the songs that currently have the titles "Chains of Society" and "Divine Fear". Earlier this year I found a version of Divine Fear with the middle section from Chains as a verse part. I had completely forgotten that I used to play it that way.

Anyway, I'll skip song details for now since they aren't out yet. This period (winter, spring 2010) is a haze of alcohol, snow, melancholy, skipping school and feelings the way I remember it now. The kinda stuff that produces music I guess. I would often, as I still do sometimes, just pick up my guitar whenever I woke up and have a jam. Often playing my riffs to rehearse the songs and occationally change something here and there. After playing I would go for breakfast or go in the shower. During any of these, especially the shower since I had nothing better to think about, I would often go through the songs in my head and imagine them with drums, bass and vocal lines, playing as an entity. Yes, a lot of Strange Horizons material is arranged in the shower.

A songwriter's perspective

This is something I penned in late may I think, about how I startet writing songs and how I feel I've progressed as a writer.

Until early 2012 this project was really just me writing songs, occationally showing ideas to Andy while trying my best to explain how I envisioned the final result. Not always an easy task, let me tell you that. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if people thought my songwriting was just riffs and lots of talk, which is alI've been able to convey to others before we started pre-producing early this year. And what a huge relief it was to hear the first pre-productions with guitars in time, programmed drums and an arrangement very close to what I envisioned. Before that I didn't really know if my ideas would work practically. I recorded a lot of riffs, sometimes sequenced like in the final songs, just to remember them. But the final arrangements only existed in my head.

Ever since the first band I joined back in 2002, I've wanted to contribute creatively. I realise now that I probably wasn't ready for it back then, but it didn't stop me from having fun with bass lines (yes, I started out as a bassist) that I came up with. Whenever I showed my ideas to the others, the response was usually "cool, maybe we can use that in another song". I don't think it sucked, it just wasn't interesting enough. In the second band I played with we were going to be all democratic, everyone was supposed to bring ideas blah blah blah. Didn't work at all since none of us really knew what we were doing, but at least I got a couple of my riffs into the first song that we did. Except, the guitarist played it nothing like I did and in the end it was changed anyway before we dropped the song.

Still, I kept making stuff, dreaming of someday writing a good song or doing a solo project. The solo thing almost got serious when I, inspired by Bathory, wanted to do a black metal project on my own. I wrote music for two or three songs but nothing became of it. Later on, when both bands I'd been in were history, I started planning a death/thrash metal band and did at least two songs for it, one which I even rehearsed with a drummer, but we didn't keep it up. A major problem was that all the "songs" I wrote were instrumental riff sequences, there was no room for vocals in it. I had no idea how to deal with vocals. Still I kept penning thrash ideas for some time, but rarely finished anything. It was all intro riffs that was builing up to something that never came. Some were quite cool, but the style was just too technically difficult for me, and I could not do a thrash solo at all.

I remember very well the first time I did a riff in the Sabbath style. It was a simple very "War Pigs" inspired intro thing that lead to some more upbeat riffs and then back to that heavy intro. It was in 2006. I had just rediscovered Black Sabbath, which was now my favorite band, and I was getting into Candlemass and Pentagram. I have a recording of those riffs played on my BC Rich Jr-V (that I bought from a friend when I wanted to be a thrasher) with a metal-zone pedal through a cheap mini amp. Sounds like shit, and even worse, I couldn't play my own riffs right! I fucked up all the time. But it was the start of something, and those riffs are in a song that I hope we will record someday.

Still, I was ambitious with my ideas and didn't know how to finish things properly. I started on other ideas in the same vein and got further each time, but at some point I didn't know where the song was going. And I tried things that were too complicated for me at the time. After a while I actually worked out a solo part for the 2006-song so I was constantly progressing. The turning poing came in 2009 after seeing Pagan Altar at the Metal Merchants Festival. I have no idea why that did the trick, but their combination of Sabbath riffs and NWOBHM melodies just got me going. Suddenly I came up with a great ending part for the 2006-song, I started humming vocal lines while playing and I finished other ideas that I had. More and more the ideas seemed to come by themselves and fit together like actual songs.

I had a great time combining and finishing some of my first ideas during that spring of 2009 and it was about that time I joked with Andy that I wanted him so sing in my band. Except, I wasn't joking. After a break in songwriting that summer, don't know why, things happened again in late 2009. I was going through a lot of emotional stuff and so I used the guitar to escape a little from everything. And it brought out the best in me, really. A lot of the stuff on the forthcoming demo/EP was written at this time and arranged later. This was also the time when I discovered Count Raven, one of my favorite bands, and I became really inspired by Dan Fondelius' way of thinking riffs, melodies and arrangements. All my best to him!

I'll continue this story later on. Then I'll write about how SH came to be and the songs and ideas I've been working on the past couple of years.
- S

Did some thinking today

About possible recordings and releases after the demo is done. Depending on interest from labels (if any at all) and who's gonna be in the band.

Anyway, so we have this demo recording all written and arranged, ready to be recorded properly. After that I have a couple of songs that I like but I don't see them ending up on a full length. I originally imagined saving one of these for a possible split release with another band, and then recording the other two for a "7 release. This could still happen depending on the interest the first demo spawns out there. If not, then these three songs are the next demo.

We planned on doing a cover song for the upcoming first demo. At the moment it doesn't look like it's gonna happen so maybe we'll do that on a possible second demo instead (or do two "7s if the split doesn't happen, the possibilities are endless ^^). Of course having a cover on the second demo could give people the impression that I/we are out of ideas, but oh no...

The three songs that I originally saw as the second demo are turning out to be quite complex and really interesting songs. Not technical, but certainly progressive in many ways. So instead of these being the second demo, I'm really hoping that we can save these for a full length! Wow, imagine that. So that's gonna be these three songs, one instrumental, a shorter song and then this long suite like composition as a finale. The way I imagine it sounding in my head as I'm playing the riffs, this could turn out to be very very solid stuff.

But it's gonna require a lot of work. We can still put together pre productions on a computer, but the songs should really be tested in rehearsal with a full band to make sure the dynamics work right. Also, I'll need to practice a lot if I'm gonna do the lead parts myself, which is what I want to do. And the lyrics need to be good. Damn. Well, we'll see what happens. First things first I guess, but I really feel that I have something exciting in the works here.
-S

What's happenin?

Not too much I'm afraid...

Since we tracked the preprod for the final song in april it's been more silent than I hoped it would be. Everyone involved has been busy with different things. I have been through a lot of changes in my personal life including finishing my studies and moving.

Our (session) drummer, who's identity shall remain secret for the time being, has been working though and he has sent me some recordings which sounds really promising! Very thankful for him spending some time with this project.

We're due in studio this friday and hopefully spending some friday evenings recording throughout the autumn and winter. Right now it seems like the songs will be recorded in the opposite order from the ep/demo tracklist, with the closing epic being the first we're doing and then the opening track being the last one. Various reasons for this, but a lot has to do with the vocals.

Can't wait to get going again, hope it'll be good!

Regarding the name

The name Strange Horizon is, as some might guess, taken from the Reverend Bizarre song by the same name. When me and Andy (vocals) started talking about forming a band back in 2009 we threw a couple of name suggestions back and forth. Mostly names confined within the genre code of doom and/or stoner, names involving words such as "doom", "witch", "stone", "iron", "void" etcetera. We probably had some decent suggestions, but nothing that really gave us the "yeah, that's it" feeling. At the same time we were discussing song titles that could make cool band names, and it was actually a friend of ours (cheers, Robert!) who suggested "Strange Horizon". I immidiately liked the sound of that title as a band name, it just clicked for me and to tell you the truth, I sorta settled with the name there and then. And I think Andy felt the same way.

What I like about it is that while it certainly gives us a strong connection with the doom genre, since it's a Reverend Bizarre song, it could really be anything. A prog band, a hard rock band, a pop band, stoner rock, maybe even metal core or dubstep. But thankfully, we play doom metal. It's just that the name doesn't shout it out like some of our early suggestions would. I thought about contacting the RB guys to ask them if they were cool with us using that name, but given the amount of homages and references to other bands found in their works, I would think they were cool about it. Hopefully we will do it justice!

So, why post a lot of things before there's even any music for you to hear? Believe me, I would like nothing more than to be able to show you all our stuff right here and now. We have some really cool pre-productions in the works, but we need to finish the songs properly first. Can't wait! Also, at the moment, I am not promoting this blog actively. I just write this for myself and for the one or two people in the future who might look in the archive to se what we were up to in the early days. Hopefully there is a nerd or two who are interested in such things. I know that if this was another band than my own, I would be the one fan going back to read all this stuff. And if just one person would care enough to do that, that's enough for me.

So, if you are reading this in 2013, 2014 or whatever, leave a comment and tell us! And if you just happended to stumble across the blog now, feel free to leave a comment anyway. Hails out - Stig

Calm before the (shit)storm

So, this is the newly started blog by the band to be known as Strange Horizon. We play classic heavy doom metal in the vein of Black Sabbath and their direct followers. Nothing fancy or revolutionary, at least not from the start, just the ambition to create good riffs, melodies and create exciting atmospheres within a musical expression which reflects who we are and what we're into. More details as we get closer to putting out something you can actually listen to, which should be during the summer and autumn in the year of doom 2012. Stay tuned and keep it doomed!