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!
