Archive for October 1st, 2007

Posted on October 1, 2007 - by jono

Memory Lane…the metal version

Back in May 2002, my band Seraphidian went into the studio for the first time. We went to Magic Garden Studios in Wolverhampton and worked with Gavin Monahan, our producer to record our first EP. It was called Silent Aggression, had three tracks plus a bonus radio interview and it was recorded and mixed within the space of a (very, very long) weekend. We subsequently went in and recorded two follow up records over the next few years – Relentless and Caged, but unfortunately I lost my copy of Silent Aggression.

Well, while tidying this weekend, I found a framed copy of Silent Aggression, and lo and behold, the disc inside it actually had music on it. This is how it looks:

large version – Front cover and disc.

large version – Lyrics and band photos, how metal we all look.

When I found it I rushed downstairs, put the CD in my CD player and the memories came flooding back. The CD has a nice warm feel to it, with a rustic thick drum sound and a bite to it. Very Overkill sounding in nature. At the time it was notably better in production quality than most bands on the scene, and this was because we worked to get in at Magic Garden; a studio that only recorded bands that Gavin, the producer (a) liked and (b) felt would reflect his studio well enough.

Anyway, I have ripped a bunch of songs and put them online for the curious and the bored. The songs I am most proud of are Act Of War and The Curse. Give Act Of War a listen for sure.

• Skull – One of the first songs we ever wrote, called Skull because we thought it was similar to Skull Crusher by Overkill, one of our main influences.
• The Curse – I watched a documentary about the curse of Tutankhamun, and this was the inspiration for this song, utilising a few unusual scales to give it a slightly exotic feel.
• Act Of War – On 9/11, that evening I had one of my regular jams with Steve in the band. We were shocked and disgusted by the events of that day that we wanted to write a song to reflect the many different emotions going on – shock, sadness, anger, hatred, loss etc. As I mentioned on another post recently, we actually re-mixed this song to censor it slightly. On the original version in the studio we included some audio clips from the news reports on the day, but when playing the song to friends and family before we released the EP, a number of people found it quite upsetting. With 9/11 so devastatingly new and fresh in peoples minds, we felt it best to remove the clips, and this is the version without the clips. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of the version with the original clips in it. I am really proud of this song. It is a long song, but is diverse and I feel was one of our most creative songs at the time. It is also notably slow and lethargic to get across the right mood. See what you think.

Slight trivia fact – the face on the front is my friend Lee Jordan, photographed by Soraya Nasrat and subsequently poked with in photo editing application.

Posted on October 1, 2007 - by jono

All Good

I bloody love the Open Source community. Thats all.