Severed Fifth

I am delighted to be able to announce that we have just confirmed the very first Severed Fifth show on the 1st October 2010 at 8pm at Pine Street Sports Bar in Livermore, California. We will be opening up the night and playing with One Less Enemy, Something Left Unsaid, Falling to Pieces, and Numic. Right now we have been focusing on getting opening slots so we can ease ourselves into the live scene, so we are delighted to be part of this show, but as we are opening be sure to get there by 8pm.

With this being our first live show I have created a new Live shows section on the website where you can find the latest details about Severed Fifth live shows as we get out and about on the road. There is also a live shows RSS feed you can subscribe to to keep up to date.

Look forward to seeing you folks at the show in Livermore on the 1st October!

Recently I talked about some of the awesome work going on in the community in which Severed Fifth Street Team members are getting out there and putting up Severed Fifth flyers in their local areas; flyers that were created by the community and available here.

Well, I have another awesome story of the community working together to produce cool Severed Fifth content, this time around producing CD labels for people who want to burn Severed Fifth Releases to CD and share it with their friends.

Here are examples of some of this work:

zhuul’s CD design

torontomario’s CDs

More of zhuul’s work

Another zhuul creation

Keep up the fantastic work folks, and if you want to create your own, remember you can get the art from the Street Team Materials Page! Also, be sure to join our community on our rocking forums!

The Severed Fifth community is going from strength to strength and we are seeing more and more folks joining up, getting involved, and getting on the Severed Fifth train as it storms forward. I just wanted to take a few minutes to showcase some awesome spreading of the word by brandon8mom who has been getting out and putting flyers up that spread the word about Severed Fifth.

Here are some photos:

what is particularly awesome here is that these flyers were produced by another community member — the always awesome torontomario — who has been creating a metric shotload of Wallpapers and of course these flyers, which are available on the Street Team Materials page. For more, check out this forums thread about the flyers.

Thanks, guys, and keep up the awesome work. If you want to join the street team, go and read this page!

For much of last week I was locked in the Severed Fifth studio laying down tracks for our new album, Nightmares By Design. While many of you joined me via the live stream, I just wanted to provide a quick update for those who didn’t get a chance to tune in, to get up to speed on where the albums stands today.

From Wednesday to Friday I did the bulk of the recording. I had already completed most of the drums (I just need to get in and tighten them up), so I started with the rhythm guitars. With eleven tracks to record, it took me about a day and half to get the rhythm guitars double tracked, and then I moved on to focus on the bass. With much of the bass completed, I added the acoustic guitars (of which there is a full acoustic song (Forgotten Heroes) and the end of Foretold Revelation), and as I drew into the end of Friday I had completed all the rhythm, acoustic and bass guitars for the full album.

Next up was to proof all the recordings and check that I didn’t need to perform any rhythm, acoustic, or bass overdubs…and everything sounded great. I then moved on to perform a very basic mix, and today I started laying down some vocals for some of the songs. The vocals are going to take a little bit longer as I have an idea in my head of how I want them to sound, and it will take a few takes to get them there, but good progress is being made. The vocals will mix a lot of singing and growling to offer a wide range of tones and textures across the album.

I am absolutely stoked with the progress I made this week and Nightmares By Design is off to a great start, and I can’t wait to continue onwards and get it completed. In addition to recording, the full band squeezed in two rehearsals on Wednesday evening and Saturday morning, as we march towards the stage to present a ripping Severed Fifth live show, and present all this new material. Finally, my pal Sonia Bass in New Zealand has started working on the cover art for the new album (she worked on the cover for my previous band Seraphidian’s Caged album) and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.

So, to wrap up, great progress has been made and the album is sounding rocking! Before I finish up though, I just want to say a huge thank-you to all of you who joined me via the live recording stream – it was awesome to have you folks pumping me full of motivation while I was laying down all those riffs. We really do have an awesome Severed Fifth community, and long may it continue and long may we grow!

Rock and roll, friends, rock and roll.

\m/ \m/

I am pleased to announce that the new Severed Fifth album due for release in Fall 2010 is called Nightmares By Design. It has been about five months in the works, and I am really pleased with it. I think it is a good album, a progression from Denied By Reign, and having jammed it with the new live band, the material is going to absolutely rip live.

We are all hugely excited about getting out there any taking these songs on the road, I can’t wait for you folks to check these songs out live.

The album packs in eleven tracks. They are:

• Drill Down
• Politicold
• Fallout
• Fight Philosophy
• They Prey
• Foretold Revelation
• Machines Of War
• Forgotton Heroes
• End Of Days
• The Blackening
• Repent

There is a real mix of some fast tunes, some mid-paced chunky grooves, some bay area thrash mixed with more British metal, and an acoustic song to provide some more texture.

Don’t forget, this week I am streaming the live recording of the album online:

• WHEN: 11th – 15th August 2010 (first part of Sat 14th no recording as I will be at a band rehearsal)
• TIMES: 10am – 6pm Pacific
• WHERE: Get connected here!

Be sure to check in!

On Saturday when were at our rehearsal room, the awesome Bungee Brent who is well known in the bay area for his stunning photography, came down to meet the band, get a feel for the music and take some shots. He spent some time at the rehearsal and then we headed out after we finished to take some shots at a nearby art installation. Brent sent us a few samples from the shoot, but we could not resist getting them online, so here are some examples:

Thanks for the photos, Brent!

In one week, on Wed 11th Aug I will be heading into the Severed Fifth studio to record the second, as yet untitled, Severed Fifth album. Weighing in at 11 tracks and about 53 minutes long, it is going to be quite an undertaking to record. As with the last record, I will be recording all the guitars, bass, vocals, and drums, and then Jim Adams will come into the studio to lay down his lead parts.

In the same way that Severed Fifth is blazing the trail by releasing our music freely for our fans to enjoy, we will also be taking a step into open territory by streaming the entire five day recording session live on the Internet. Throughout the full five day period you will be able to see the recording process as it unfolds, hearing everything as it is laid down, and no doubt witnessing the frustration as I repeatedly fail to nail a riff.

You will also be able to interact with me throughout the recording session: there is a text chat box next to the video stream, and I will be reading it throughout the session.

Here are the details:

• WHEN: 11th – 15th August 2010 (first part of Sat 14th no recording as I will be at a band rehearsal)
• TIMES: 10am – 6pm Pacific
• WHERE: Get connected here!

I hope to see you there!

I pleased to announce that on Wed 3rd August at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 7pm UTC / 8pm UK / 9pm Europe I will be kicking off another episode of Severed Fifth TV; a live videocast in which I provide Severed Fifth fans with updates on the band and the project.

Importantly, this is the regular weekly time for the show! Put it in your diaries every week at 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 7pm UTC / 8pm UK / 9pm Europe you can get the latest dose of Severed Fifth updates directly from the band.

In the next show I will be talking about:

• Live Band: Latest Updates, Rehearsal Updates, Videos and more!
• Second Album Progress Update and New Songs
• Preparing for the Live Recording Dates and Live Streaming – next week!!
• Severed Fifth Street Team Goings Ons
• Severed Fifth Android App
• New Stickers, Merch Coming Soon!
• Severed Fifth Fair Pay
• Q+A – bring your questions!

Here are the details of when and where the show is:

• DATE – Wednesday 3rd August 2010
• TIME – 12pm Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 7pm UTC / 8pm UK / 9pm Europe
• WHERE – Severed Fifth: Live In The Studio

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Severed Fifth is an ambitious project and one that requires a lot of moving parts to happen. This includes studio equipment, hosting, software, rehearsal space, merchandise, and more. A lot of these moving parts cost money and as such the project needs a certain amount of money to succeed. Some wonderful Severed Fifth fans have used the Severed Fifth Fair Pay system to help support the project, but also some companies who I have asked for support have also been gracious enough to support us. I just wanted to highlight these companies now.

Bytemark Hosting

Bytemark Hosting has supported Severed Fifth from the very beginning by providing free hosting for the website. As Severed Fifth has continued to grow we can thank Bytemark for helping to keep us online, and my friend Adam Sweet performs the administration on the machine.

I have been using Bytemark for years due their pretty affordable hosting and rocking service and they have been incredibly supportive across other projects I have been involved in such as LugRadio too. If you need decent hosting check them out, and let them know we sent you.

ToonTrack

Toontrack produce a range of tools for audio production. Their two flagship products are EZDrummer and Superior Drummer. When I recorded Denied By Reign I played the drums like an acoustic kit but using electronic drums. As such, I used the drum sounds from the kit itself, and the drums sounded really synthetic. The drums were the main criticism I got for the first album.

For the new album I wanted to fix this. I went out and bought a copy of EZDrummer and Drumkit From Hell, and while it sounded good, it lacked the flexibility I needed. Toontrack’s flagship product, Superior Drummer, is much more expensive but it, and the Metal Foundry expansion pack which I also needed, had the features that would make the new album rock. So, I emailed Toontrack and explained what Severed Fifth was and the Free Culture nature of the project and Toontrack kindly donated a copy of both Superior Drummer and The Metal Foundry for the new record. Lo and behold…the drums are sounding awesome! Thanks, Toontrack!

Microsoft

For the live recording of the new album which takes place from 11th – 15th August 2010, I wanted to stream the recording live on the Internet. To set this up I needed a fairly specific recording set-up to take the output of the mixing desk and pump it into ustream.tv. To do this I needed a separate laptop with a USB sound card to output to the net.

While I tried to get this working in Ubuntu, this particular hardware is not well supported so I needed to use Windows. I contacted a friend of mine at Microsoft and explained the project and she kindly hooked me up with a boxed copy of Windows 7 for the laptop. Now we can stream the live album online!

Remember, you will be able to watch the new album streamed live here!

Yesterday we had a rehearsal at our studio in Oakland and took a few videos to see how the tunes sounded. This was our very first full rehearsal with Ron as part of Severed Fifth, and only the third or fourth as a full band.

We figured it would be fun to take a couple of clips from the songs to give you an idea of how the live band is sounding. As ever, the quality of the audio is not great as it is just the microphone on a FlipCam, but it gives you a good idea of how the band is starting to become a tighter and tighter unit. I am absolutely stoked with the progress and each rehearsal is sounding crisper and crisper, and we are now actively sheening the songs to prepare for a ripping live performance.

To keep up to date with the vids, be sure to subscribe to the Severed Fifth YouTube Channel!

Enjoy!