Well, my twisted, yet hopefully somewhat creative mind has been coming up with a "history" of Dimaension X - a "mythology", if you will, to have a storyline behind the music, the musician, and the universe. It may be a little convoluted, being a first draft I wrote during lunch at work, so forgive my own discrepancies and plot holes.
Here goes, ...
07/31/08 - The Dimaex Principae
Dimaension X, an alternate universe, or "dimaensional alter-reality quantum anti-phase" ruled by The Supreme Lord Daevel. Leprosia is the main planetary body, the "capital" center of the universe, in which there are 3 suns, each with 3 planets. The other 2 main planets are Necropoli and Thanatos.
The Dimaex Principae is the secret theory developed by the Supreme Magicks Council of Leprosia that Dimaension X is in reality an "alternate" dimension of the "true existing dimension of reality"; a parallel universe of the true plane of existence (called "The 1st Plane" and sometimes "Bryson's Universe") where only one planetary body (mysteriously called "Iirth") in the main solar system of nine planets actually supports life.
Iirth is said the be the original planet where all human life began, and was altered when a series of theories concerning alternate planes of existence were put into practice, causing a "rip in the very fabric of existence, space and time", creating an alternate plane - "Dimaension X".
The residents "created" in this plane were basically "copies" of those from the "1st Plane", snapping immediately into existence with no knowledge of who or what they were - causing immediate and absolute chaos on a planetary scale - war broke out - most of civilization immediately fell and was destroyed - 85% of the population was killed, or died of disease, starvation, or other various reasons.
Only a small group of people retained memory of the 1st Plane, mainly the scientists involved in the Primary Application of the Dimaex Principle - the lead physicist, Dr. Iam Bekum Daevel assuming the role of self-appointed leader, eventually becoming a tyrannical dictator - the rest of the scientists either became his fanatical followers or were hunted down and assassinated. Daevel, being brilliant, but somewhat eccentric and egotistical, also found that by applying further theories of his Dimaex Principae, that reality could in fact be further altered to his whim. He utilized this knowledge to create his new identity; that of a Master of Black Wizardry (which only he and his followers understand that there is no real "magick" - just the application of scientific principles and the laws of physics, which in this plane of existence are very different than that of the universe containing Iirth).
Daevel has strictly enforced rules regarding education and science to a very small segment of the population, who are loyal to him and his ideals. Certain levels of technology above that of the "Bronze Age" equivalent are forbidden. However, Lord Daevel has continued his own forbidden research of The Further Theoretical Analyses of the Dimaex Principae, causing the two alternate dimensions to begin to "bleed" into one another - bringing "copies" of the people into each other's realities, ... becoming extremely confusing when one of these people might already be deceased in the other plane. This phenomena has become known as the Necropolisean Duplex.
A select group of rebels, members of the original Scientific Council of Iirth who were not assassinated, managed to found their own secret society dedicated to the downfall of Lord Daevel, and the Supreme Magicks Council of Leprosia.
More ideas to be added later, ... hopefully this kind of "fleshes out" some of the concepts behind some of my music.
thanX,
Dimaension X (or perhaps I Am Become Daevel, Himself??)
7/28/08
A Preview of the new album cover...
Here is a quickie preview of the working art for the latest project, ...
similar to "Aetherial Art of Decay", this project will be mostly improvised
- some basic chord progressions will be written out, and some drum patterns established, but what we do with them and how they turn out is very much left up to fate.
Who knows what'll happen?
similar to "Aetherial Art of Decay", this project will be mostly improvised
- some basic chord progressions will be written out, and some drum patterns established, but what we do with them and how they turn out is very much left up to fate.
Who knows what'll happen?
7/21/08
More is new, less is better, huh? - and ... Pentemple!!
Well, I got bored with the "1st iZ lazt" project - I'll get back to it very soon, - actually, I just hate playing guitar in hot weather - it's been 90+ and humid.
Started fiddling with programming some more ambient ideas again after listening to Sunn O))) "Presents ... Pentemple Live" - a beast of a live improvised recording from the Sunn O))) boys (Stephen O'Malley Gred Anderson, with Oren Ambarchi) with the insane Attila Csihar on vokillz once again, and this time around, Sin Nanna (of Australian solo lo-fi black metal project Striborg) on drums and vocals.
Similar to "The Black One" and "Altar", we've got incredibly loud sustaining down-tuned guitars, and bass just basically holding one chord and feeding back for about 40 minutes, Attila and Sin doing eerie chants and indecipherable screeches, and Sin providing some improvised blast-beats and other various drumming that may or may not have any particular tempo at any given time. Imagine Darkthrone jamming with Last Exit on LSD wearing Monks robes. But louder. A lot louder.
Actually, if you liked "The Black One", you may like this even better. A real amalgamation of drone-doom, free improvisation and black metal.
Which is why I started working on a new, kind of experimental project. Going back to my Leprosia Doom idea, but slowing it down, make it more repetitive and even darker (sometimes not, though). Simple blast-beats under droning, repetitive synths and sustaining guitars is the theme. Maybe. I got seven songs basically laid out with synths and drums. That's all I want. The rest will be live guitars and bass added afterward. This is really almost a combination of "Leprosia Doom" and "Aetherial Art of Decay". A return to improvisation and experimentation.
I will probably also do some separate orchestral snippets to use as segues between the drones, like "AAOD". Maybe some guitar solos, too.
Who knows. I may go back and make it "noisier". Some of the synth parts might even be too "melodic". We shall see, ...
Started fiddling with programming some more ambient ideas again after listening to Sunn O))) "Presents ... Pentemple Live" - a beast of a live improvised recording from the Sunn O))) boys (Stephen O'Malley Gred Anderson, with Oren Ambarchi) with the insane Attila Csihar on vokillz once again, and this time around, Sin Nanna (of Australian solo lo-fi black metal project Striborg) on drums and vocals.
Similar to "The Black One" and "Altar", we've got incredibly loud sustaining down-tuned guitars, and bass just basically holding one chord and feeding back for about 40 minutes, Attila and Sin doing eerie chants and indecipherable screeches, and Sin providing some improvised blast-beats and other various drumming that may or may not have any particular tempo at any given time. Imagine Darkthrone jamming with Last Exit on LSD wearing Monks robes. But louder. A lot louder.
Actually, if you liked "The Black One", you may like this even better. A real amalgamation of drone-doom, free improvisation and black metal.
Which is why I started working on a new, kind of experimental project. Going back to my Leprosia Doom idea, but slowing it down, make it more repetitive and even darker (sometimes not, though). Simple blast-beats under droning, repetitive synths and sustaining guitars is the theme. Maybe. I got seven songs basically laid out with synths and drums. That's all I want. The rest will be live guitars and bass added afterward. This is really almost a combination of "Leprosia Doom" and "Aetherial Art of Decay". A return to improvisation and experimentation.
I will probably also do some separate orchestral snippets to use as segues between the drones, like "AAOD". Maybe some guitar solos, too.
Who knows. I may go back and make it "noisier". Some of the synth parts might even be too "melodic". We shall see, ...
7/12/08
The Wonders of Embedding
Saluti! (that's Italian for "Howdy Pardner!)
I have now added a flash player to my blog which will play one of my albums directly from the Dimaension X Internet Archive Collection.
Oh, you are so lucky...
I invite you all to go to that page whenever you wish (see the links below, or click on the hyperlink above, you rascally HTML freaks!) and listen, download, burn, rip, whatever you desire. My music is all FREE and protected under Creative Commons license (which means you can download, and distribute/re-post it as you wish, as long as you don't sell it or alter it from its original form). Please help yourselves, burn it to a disk, I-Pod, I-Phone, or whatever other I-Devices you have.
Have fun, enjoy, and be enthralled. (yeah, right.)
But sincerely, I thank all of you who do listen to and appreciate my music. Feel free to leave a comment or message me through Myspace (yes, I do have a page at the Evil Empire of Myspace).
ThanX!
Dimaension X
I have now added a flash player to my blog which will play one of my albums directly from the Dimaension X Internet Archive Collection.
Oh, you are so lucky...
I invite you all to go to that page whenever you wish (see the links below, or click on the hyperlink above, you rascally HTML freaks!) and listen, download, burn, rip, whatever you desire. My music is all FREE and protected under Creative Commons license (which means you can download, and distribute/re-post it as you wish, as long as you don't sell it or alter it from its original form). Please help yourselves, burn it to a disk, I-Pod, I-Phone, or whatever other I-Devices you have.
Have fun, enjoy, and be enthralled. (yeah, right.)
But sincerely, I thank all of you who do listen to and appreciate my music. Feel free to leave a comment or message me through Myspace (yes, I do have a page at the Evil Empire of Myspace).
ThanX!
Dimaension X
7/6/08
Last iZ First - a few steps ahead
I've only taken a few "baby steps" ahead on my latest project. A minor snag has been hit with a few of the later songs - I've programmed a few parts that I simply cannot play on guitar. The earlier songs I began composing with actual guitar playing in mind, but the later ones I just let go and added a bunch of parts that are well beyond my ability. Maybe Steve Vai could play them, but I doubt he'd agree to it.
I am reminded of a scene at the end of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" where Bill insists they'd become famous rock stars if they could only get Eddie Van Halen to join their band, Wylde Stallionz. And Ted, with a touch of maturity showing through, replies, "Maybe we should learn how to play our instruments first?" Or something to that effect, anyway.
Well, I do know how to play guitar, just not quite as good as the notes I've programmed, so maybe I'll do one of two things, ...
1. Just let the synthesizer play the parts - don't even bother trying - if the synth parts sound okay, leave 'em. Just find a good "sound" for the synth that works with the part and leave it.
2. Maybe "halve the time" of the particular parts. Adjust them so that they are at a playable tempo, and adjust the notes so that you could actually reach them on the fretboard - that's most of the problem - I can't "reach" some of those notes.
Or just change those parts to a fast riff that you can play. The whole album was composed on keyboard without my guitar in hand. Maybe I should actually pick up the guitar and have it in my hands while I am re-adjusting these parts so I would know if I could actually play 'em.
Duh? Make sense? Maybe? Eh? Might actually be interesting to play some parts composed on guitar again - I haven't actually done this since the "End of an Era" album.
By the way, here's a link to a really talented guy who CAN play all his own guitar parts - a band called VORTECH. Another one-man band who puts most "pro" bands to shame with his unique combination of Melodic Death Metal and Industrial styles. He has FIVE albums available for FREE Download, along with cover art, tablature (!), lyrics, etc. - PLUS you can order a real copy of the CDs directly if you want to support the artist. You can also find him through the Metal Madness link.
Seriously, go the the link and check out his tunes. His style is somewhere between a more modern Morbid Angel, Zyklon, or even Gojira, with touches of Fear Factory (when they were good). Great heavy guitars, very well programmed drums, and some interesting synth textures that really punctuate and accent the music.
I leave you now, hoping that I might be able to solve my own musical dilemma.
I am reminded of a scene at the end of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" where Bill insists they'd become famous rock stars if they could only get Eddie Van Halen to join their band, Wylde Stallionz. And Ted, with a touch of maturity showing through, replies, "Maybe we should learn how to play our instruments first?" Or something to that effect, anyway.
Well, I do know how to play guitar, just not quite as good as the notes I've programmed, so maybe I'll do one of two things, ...
1. Just let the synthesizer play the parts - don't even bother trying - if the synth parts sound okay, leave 'em. Just find a good "sound" for the synth that works with the part and leave it.
2. Maybe "halve the time" of the particular parts. Adjust them so that they are at a playable tempo, and adjust the notes so that you could actually reach them on the fretboard - that's most of the problem - I can't "reach" some of those notes.
Or just change those parts to a fast riff that you can play. The whole album was composed on keyboard without my guitar in hand. Maybe I should actually pick up the guitar and have it in my hands while I am re-adjusting these parts so I would know if I could actually play 'em.
Duh? Make sense? Maybe? Eh? Might actually be interesting to play some parts composed on guitar again - I haven't actually done this since the "End of an Era" album.
By the way, here's a link to a really talented guy who CAN play all his own guitar parts - a band called VORTECH. Another one-man band who puts most "pro" bands to shame with his unique combination of Melodic Death Metal and Industrial styles. He has FIVE albums available for FREE Download, along with cover art, tablature (!), lyrics, etc. - PLUS you can order a real copy of the CDs directly if you want to support the artist. You can also find him through the Metal Madness link.
Seriously, go the the link and check out his tunes. His style is somewhere between a more modern Morbid Angel, Zyklon, or even Gojira, with touches of Fear Factory (when they were good). Great heavy guitars, very well programmed drums, and some interesting synth textures that really punctuate and accent the music.
I leave you now, hoping that I might be able to solve my own musical dilemma.
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