Ways, ways, ways

Another day, another practice session. Today, we pretty much finalized 2 of the songs (to avoid spoilers, let’s call ‘em Alpha and Beta) structure-wise. Now it’s just a matter of fine-tuning the guitar and bass lines, throwing in some mad drum licks and writing a couple of missing vocal hooks. Alpha is going to be an all-out, no-questions-asked opening track for the album while Beta is slightly slower and darker, possibly with a glimmer of hope thrown in for good measure.

Along with these two tracks, we practiced Gamma, which nearly wasn’t going to make the album, but after a couple of new ideas it’s now one of the best tracks we’ve ever come up with. It’s modern metal up front, but under the hood there’s a huge chorus full of despair (and not just pretty vocals) and a middle section that’s truly hypnotic.

Last but not least, we’re going to be polishing a true gem: Delta. We haven’t played this one in ages, so it’s going to take some practice to get it flowing again. A pretty epic track all in all, with great melodies to boot and an atmosphere hard to beat.

Tomorrow morning, I’m off to a luthier with 2 electric guitars, 1 acoustic and a bass in the trunk. By the end of this week, we’ll hopefully have all the songs in perfect working order, instruments fine-tuned to perfection and a relaxing and inspirational weekend ahead of us.

Unsurprisingly,
Jari / Embreach

One week to go

After a weekend of mostly chilling out but also writing some missing vocal parts, we’re ready for our final week of rehearsals. We started off today by concentrating on 2 of the tracks: this was actually the first time we practiced these near-final songs together with Sami. Up until now, it’s been mostly us four without a singer putting the songs through their paces. Our spirits soared! We had a blast and everything seemed to flow nicely, and the last-minute vocal additions etc sounded superb. Now for some sleep, as next week’s going to be very hectic.

For great justice,
Jari / Embreach