Burn Without Me website deleted

Yes, I decided to delete the Burn Without Me band website.  I'm trying to reduce my "internet footprint" a bit by getting rid of my various unnecessary email accounts, websites, etc. I have a link to the new page here on my blog that has links to the albums, so Burn Without Me hasn't disappeared completely.  Just scroll down to the "Linx to my Allies" and hit the Burn Without Me link, and it'll get you there.

 

I'm probably going to do the same thing for my Moroghor albums soon, just to simplify things.  I might also revise my discography by putting each album on it's own separate page.

BTW, people seem to be listening to my new album, "Plagues of Aegyptus" and liking it so far. And don't forget, you can also stream videos on YouTube!



Time to start thinking of a new project. I have some ideas in mind, similar to the last 5 songs in "Plagues ..." - a bit faster, but also with some "text-to-speech" vocal bits, weird samples, ambient creepy backgrounds, etc.

That's all for now, folks!

Plagues of Aegyptus on YouTube

That's right folks, I've completed my first video project by making some very simple videos to all the songs on my album, "Plagues of Aegyptus" and posted them on YouTube.

Here's the link:
Plagues of Aegyptus on YouTube!!

No, I did not make "music videos" where I'm jumping around with my guitar and lip-syncing and air-guitaring with the music.  I just found a bunch of weird pictures through Google Images that I thought appropriately fit the songs and used Windows Movie Maker to add them to the music. Voila.

Please note that I do not take any credit of ownership to any of the pictures used.  Big disclaimer there. I do not want to cause any copyright infringement issues. I just thought that these pix really represent the music content well.

I think this project translates into video very well, mainly due to the conceptual content. Not all of my music does that. But I might try adding more videos to Dimaension X music. Not I can assault your eyes as well as your ears.

Dimaension X - Plagues of Aegyptus

Click HERE to go to the download page

Imagine a hybrid of Godflesh, Summoning, Morbid Angel and Evoken. Now throw in some Sunn O))), Boris, and Thorr's Hammer. I've also be listening to some experimental drone by Scott Lawlor with narration from Rebekah Hilgraves, and an interesting project called Hibernal, which often features narration and spoken interludes mixed in with the atmospheric music.

Halloween is just around the cornier, kids, and imagine this playing real loud as the kiddies are coming up to the door for candy (insert evil laugh here).

Based on the Ten Plagues of Egypt from the Book of Exodus, we have my musical interpretation of these strange and dark events. Sure, you've probably seen the old movie “The Ten Commandments”, but let's imagine it from the Egyptians' point of view. A traitor to the Royal family becomes a dark and powerful wizard, and comes back to seek revenge upon them and steal their labor-force by placing a series of ten evil curses upon them. Okay, that's probably not very politically correct, but this is doom metal, folks. It's supposed to be a bit controversial. And let's face it, … a lot of the subject matter of the Bible can be downright violent and not very civilized.

So, … on to the technical stuff … I decided to tune a few of my guitars in Drop-A. Yup, Drop-frikkin-A. That's pretty low for a non-baritone guitar, and takes some very thick strings, but it sounds cool, especially through a good amp sim of either a Marshall or Mesa amp.Now the music is not pretty or poppy or catchy at all. It's a bit muddy, thick, messy, but if you like any of the bands listed above, you might like it. And the “vocals” came out pretty cool, too. If you need an online text-to-speech converter with a LOT of vocal options, try Acapela Box (https://acapela-box.com/AcaBox).  I used the voice called “Will (Bad Guy)” that I thought sounded perfect for the narration.

It's free for download at The Internet Archive. Here's the URL link to the page:https://archive.org/details/plagues_of_aegyptus

Or, as usual, you can go to my Discography page for the link, and the links to my other albums.

coming soon - Dimaension X - "Plagues of Aegyptus"

Minimal Ambient Tribal Drone Doom Metal

Inspired by: Sunn O))), Godflesh, The Horn, Scott Lawlor and Rebekhah Hilgraves, Axis of Perdition, Morbid Angel, Attila Csihar, Hibernal, Thorr's Hammer, Evoken

Soon.  Very soon.

New music in the works - REALLY!

Working Title: Plagues of Aegyptus

The new concept album by Dimaension X is based on the Ten Plagues of Eygpt.  Musically, this is a return to the doom-drone of the early Dimaension X albums ( Leprosia Doom, Moroghor's "Darkness", Drone2012, and Sunset Tzunami's "The Blackest Gift"), with spoken word narration taken from The Book of Exodus, and performed using text-to-speech converter software.

Originally this was intended to be a heavy metal interpretation of Handel's "Israel in Egypt (HWV 54)", but various issues deterred this, not to mention some of the source music was just not translating into my own style of music the way I wanted it to.  Finally, after listening to heavy doses of Sunn O))), Earth, Ommadon, Pentemple, and other drone-doom music, I re-strung my Schecter Omen 6 with the lower strings from a 7-string set, tuned waaaaaaaaay down to Drop-A, and proceeded to write in a much heavier drone-doom style.  I also used the Word/phrase chord progressions from another project that's "in progress" but not going anywhere fast.

I'm getting great sustain and feedback from my Yamaha THR-10 amp by placing it on a desk and sitting right in front of it, using the "Modern" Preset #5 pretty much as it is (only very slightly tweaked). The tone is just THICK and "chewy", perfect for this style of music.  No additional pedals used, just straight into the amp. And I don't have it very loud (though my wife would probably disagree).

I'm still working out the kinks with the drum samples - not sure if I'm using my trusty old EZ Drummer samples, my Big Mono Drum Kit samples, or if I'll try the Andy Sneap drum samples that I just downloaded.  I have another 5 songs to record, then I have to adjust the mixes and master it, which will be tricky because with this style of music, you're basically making "everything louder than everything else".  This one will be a good one to scare the kids with at Halloween.  Play it LOUD! With lots of BASS!

Hibernation Hiatus and the IPMA

When it comes to music, I tend to go into severe hibernation during the winter. I get absolutely nothing done. Well, maybe not nothing, but very little actual music.

I've spent a of of my time getting use to my Lenovo All-In-One computer with Windows 8, which was a very drastically different than my old Dell Laptop that is still running Vista. Some of my VST instruments either don't work like they used to, or they don't work at all. For instance, my Orchestral VST, EDIROL Orchestral HQ, does not retain my preset instruments in memory.  In other words, if I choose a bunch of different instruments specific to my project in Reaper, when I close the project and re-open it, the instruments revert back to the Factory Presets. So I have to re-choose all my instruments again. Or I have to render them to audio before saving and closing the project.

And since I'm using 64 bit Reaper DAW now, the 32-bit VSTs and effects "float" on the screen when you don't want them to.  And other weird stuff. So I've been re-learning how to do a lot of things.

I'm also still really learning how to properly use my Yamaha THR-10 amp for recording.  It has a very cool option allowing you to simultaneously record your normal track, with a completely dry D.I. track that you can re-amp later with built in Amp Sims.  This is very cool, since I've accumulated a bunch of very cool FREE Amp Sims (clones of Dual Rectofiers, Marshalls, 6505's, Tube Screamers, etc.).

So a lot of fiddling around and a lot of getting nothing done. Hopefully I'll be able to pull it together and start on some new stuff soon.

To be completely honest, I'm just not in the mood to do anything right now.  During Spring, Summer and Fall, my wife has a part-time weekend job, so my weekends really open up during those seasons and I get A LOT of music done. During the Winter, she's home all weekend, and since I actually like hanging out with my wife (and my son when he gets to visit on Saturdays) I don't do much music stuff, and that's totally okay.  I need a break from music sometimes, and the Winter is a good time to "recharge the batteries", and prepare for the next few seasons. As April 2015 approaches (and the snow is beginning to melt), the ideas will bloom.

Now, next topic - the IPMA, or the International Portuguese Music Awards.  Why would I mention the IPMA?  Well, as it turns out, one of the songs I worked on during the summer of 2014 with singer Jason Paulino is nominated in the Rock category.  The song is called "Don't Give Up", and I played and recorded most of the instruments in my home studio.  The vocals and bass were recorded at my neighbor Clint Mitchell's  home studio (THE Deadside Manor Studio).  Clint played and recorded the bass, and the song was written by Jason Paulino, who did all the vocals, and arranged the song, got it mastered, etc. Jason is the lead vocalist for The Great Escape, a fantastic Journey Tribute band.

Just click on the song name, and it will open up a new window and play the song.  If you're a fan of some of the old 1980's style "hair-metal" ballads, I think you'll like it. Jason is a very talented singer, and a really nice guy, so let's all give him some support, by clicking HERE and voting for him!

That's all for now folks.  Hope to be posting some new music soon.  MELT SNOW, Dang it!

Uuhhhh, … Next Please?

Wow - it's 2015, and I still haven't completed any of my proposed projects I've been working on.  I've got the new computer finally set up and ready to go, but still really haven't dug in and committed to any real new music projects.

I've begun a bunch of things:
  - some spacey synth tracks
  - some "doomy, riffy" sounding tracks
  - some other stuff …

Yeah, not helpful, huh?

One of my project ideas is to do a concept album based on the ten curses of Egypt. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure musically how to proceed?  Will it be "drone-doom" or "black metal"? Or Black-Drone?

I still have one album "in the can", but I'm still not sure about releasing it.  It just doesn't quite sound right yet. Can't quite let it go.  It's similar to my Darkthrone "tribute", but instead of doing symphonic or classical-sounding music, I want to make it sound like Tangerine Dream or Porcupine Tree jamming with Darkthrone. Yeah, that's pretty weird. Still working out the kinks.

I also did a conceptual album based on the various chapters of Dante's "Inferno".  All synth, no guitars. Kinda the same deal.  It just doesn't quite feel complete.

Been listening to a lot of Black Sabbath lately. All of the various phases - the Ozzy years, the Dio Years, Ian Gillan, and even the Tony Martin years.  I like it all.  Tony Iommi rocks all of it.  Maybe I can throw in some kind of Sabbath medley somewhere?

I've also still fiddling with various tunings.  Or do I stick to E Standard?  That's a challenge - making E Standard sound HEAVY.  Then again, listen to Opeth, Marduk, Dillinger Escape Plan, the first two Sabbath albums, … all pretty heavy.

I do like my Yamaha THR-10 amp so far.  Records very well, easy to use, sounds great for both guitar and bass. Highly recommended. So yeah, I'm using that a lot.

Well, I'm running out of breath here, so I'll stop talking, and get musical. Maybe.