Welcome one and all to the brand new Severed Fifth website and the beginning of the second phase of the project. Today is an important day: we have a new website, a new forum, new social networking tools, and most importantly a new album that is almost complete in the writing stages. These are exciting times and I want to keep you all up date with where we stand today.

When I founded Severed Fifth in 2008 the goal was simple: (1) produce a thumpingly heavy metal album, (2) provide it freely for fans under a Creative Commons license, and (3) explore how far I could take the success of the project as an unknown artist giving his music away.

I achieved two of the above three goals. I wrote, performed and recorded Denied By Reign (which you can always listen to and download on the Releases page), and I released this under a Creative Commons license that lets you download it freely,share it, remix it, and even sell it. The final part…the promotional element…was less of a success.

The reason was simple…

…time.

Around the time I released Denied By Reign I was moving to California from England, getting married, and I had just signed a six-month book deal with O’Reilly to write The Art Of Community. With the best will in the world I tried to make time for Severed Fifth, but these other elements in my life ran away with my time.

Well, now I am married, the book is complete, things have settled down somewhat and it is time to return to Severed Fifth. The first phase of the project was a real learning experience both musically and in terms of running the project itself. With Part II beginning today, I am raring to go… :-)

The New Website

First and foremost you have probably noticed the brand new website. This is going to be our home on this journey. Up there in the main navigation you can read about the project, download and listen to the first album, find out some of the cool things you can do with the music (such as selling it, remixing it, and giving it away), and also find out about our Street Team; a community of contributors focused on getting out there and spreading the word about Severed Fifth and free music.

The website is new, but it is itself just the beginning of the story. I am going to be adding more and more content to the site as the project continues. As our community grows I look forward to the content on the website growing too.

Two Awesome New Resources: Twitter and Forum

In addition to the website, on the front page you can see some social networking links. These are great for keeping up to date with Severed Fifth. A new one is Twitter – I will be announcing all the juicy Severed Fifth news there, so go to Twitter and follow us! Let’s see how many folks we can get signed up. :-)

Secondly, we have a brand spanking new forum to build out community with. This is going to be a hub for fans of the music, fans of free culture, our wonderful street team and more. It is free to join and there are loads of fun features (such as avatars, polls, and multiple forums) to play with, so go and register!

The New Album

As I mentioned earlier, a new album is in the works. The majority of the content is written, and much of the drums is already tracked.

The new album is different. Denied By Reign was brutally heavy, and while the new album retains its heavyness and rhythm, it is more refined, and more musical. The music combines many different styles of metal from heavy metal to thrash to punk and death and layers it together in melodic and rhythmic songs.

I have a separate post lined up to discuss the new album, so stay tuned for more details soon!