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.

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