Dormition's Journal

2010-05-11T12:42:00.012-04:00

Dormition's Journal
May 11, 2010

A good friend of mine, who is also a fellow band mate, texted me last week and insisted that I check out a band by the name of The Crinn. Now this is the first I'm ever hearing about this band, but by their name alone, I'm instantly intrigued and eager to check them out. So I do some online investigating about the band, and nowadays it's not hard at all to find info on bands, especially with MySpace and Facebook being the breeding ground for many bands, new and old. I eventually came across their MySpace and after hearing a few of their songs, I was hooked.

The Crinn hails from Saint Paul, MN, and they're a blend of progressive & technical jazz metal. I've also seen them labeled as mathcore (similar to bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Daughters, Behold... The Arctopus, just to name a few...). The first song I heard of theirs was titled "Meat Eating Machines", which is featured on their newest album "Dreaming Saturn". First off, that's one hell of an awesome title for the song and upon hearing it, it does the song justice. This track just grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go, with it's intensity and technical musicianship, it's all out chaos but constructed so well, that it never comes off like just a mesh of sounds. The Crinn are talented musicians and it shows in all of their releases, but most notably on their newest album, which is also their first full length. I didn't hesitate at all to get Dreaming Saturn and give it a spin.

Dreaming Saturn opens with a track titled "Incipience", which now after hearing the entire album, is such a strong opening. From the moment the first tones of the guitar come in, you get an understanding of who The Crinn are, and the mood they have set for the rest of the album. Their guitar playing is hypnotic and draws you in closer, as an errie yet angelic choral combined with an atmospheric backdrop lays the groundwork for not only the track, but the rest of the album as a whole. At about the 2 minute mark, the band comes in full force with double bass and technical riffs, with unrelenting and intense vocals that compliment the music so well. "Incipience" is then followed by the track I first heard from these guys, "Meat Eating Machines", which is still a personal favorite of mine. Other standout songs on this album are "Anaphylactic Shock" and "Voluptuous Eruptions". These being the two longest tracks on the album, they are filled with an array of complex time signatures , melodic/jazzy grooves, and intense drumming. These songs will definitely leave a lasting impression. The album concludes with an amazing instrumental, "Down, In Waves", which closes out the album perfectly.

Dreaming Saturn is sure to please any fan of technical metal, and those who have an ear for musicianship. I'm glad that I can now add The Crinn to the ever growing list of bands that I enjoy listening too, and I hope to witness them live when they come to the NY area.

Until next time...

2010-04-21T15:16:00.009-04:00

Dormition's Journal
April 21, 2010

As of lately a certain album has been gracing my ears with it's array of melodies and symphonic/atmospheric sounds. The album I speak of is The Oceans "Heliocentric". The Ocean, founded in 2000 by guitarist and songwriter Robin Staps, is an experimental metal band from Berlin, Germany. Their sound combines elements of progressive metal with classical music and electronic soundscapes to create their aggressive post-metal sound. The band has a few albums under their belt, each being amazing in their own way, which is a true statement to their talent and maturity as a band. In their early years, the band comprised of over 40 musicians, until a stable line-up was established.

Their recent endeavor into the music world as well as their discography, is an album entitled "Heliocentric", an album which tells the story of the rise of the heliocentric world view - the idea that the earth revolves around the sun, and that the sun is stationary and at the center of the universe. After the intro track, "Firmament" starts the journey with the creation of the firmament in Genesis 1:6-20 (Firmament) and ancient explanations of the movement of celestial bodies in The Book of Enoch 72:2-5 (The 1st Commandment of the Luminaries). It goes into both Copernicus and Galileo (track 3: "The First Commandment of the Luminaries" ), the first propagators of heliocentrism who were not yet in conflict with the Church (track 4: "Ptolemy Was Wrong") and Giordano Bruno, who was burned at the stake of the Spanish Inquisition for being a heretic (track 5: "Catharsis of a Heretic"). Track 7, "Metaphysics of the Hangman" lyrics were inspired by Arthur Rimbaud's's criticism of moral law in his essay Reasons Not to Believe in God and Nietzsche's rejection of fundamental Christian values. The two final tracks of the album conclude with Darwin's theory of evolution (track 9: "The Origin of Species") and ideas inspired by evolution biologist and passionate atheist Richard Dawkins (track 10: "The Origin of God").

The album ranges from many styles, while maintaing a constant flow, which keeps you listening and wanting to hear the next part of the story/track. The Ocean is no stranger to having a symphony accompanying their music, and it's very apparent in this release, and by no means unwanted. The opening instrumental track Shamayim, sets the mood for the rest of the album, which is a blend of crushing heavy tunes and a few calm songs, where piano and vocals take the forefront, most notably on the track "Ptolemy Was Wrong". All and all, Heliocentric is a perfect blend of riffs, wood/brass instruments, pianos, clean/harsh vocals and atmospheric sound that makes this another amazing release from The Ocean.

Until next time...

2010-03-23T15:21:00.002-04:00

Dormition's Journal
March 23, 2010

Haven't been posting as much as I would like, just been busy with work, the band and other nonsense that occupies my everyday schedule. Anyway, March has pretty much come and gone, blink and you might miss it. My band Thracian played a show on the 13th, it was our record release, yup, you heard it right, record release. We officially have our demo/EP "Blight" and it came out amazing. Truth be told, it was finished a few months ago, and only now we have hard copies, printed and plastic wrapped for the public to get their hands on. It's been on iTunes since January, but it's so much more meaningful when you can actually hold a hard copy of the EP in your hand. So now that's it finished and we have printed copies, we're going out and promoting the hell out of it. We got a great response at our release show, plus we unveiled a new tune, which was meet with a lot of praise. We have a show this Saturday, and we're looking forward to it. Only time will tell if our 3 plus years of practicing, looking for band members, and blood, sweat and tears will pay off. Honestly, we're not looking to be the next big thing or whatnot, just want to have a following, play shows here and there and just make some sick music. Oh, and next week I'll be 28. Time just seems to go by at ludicrous speed.

Until next time...

2010-02-06T16:46:00.004-05:00

Dormition's Journal
February 6, 2010

Well, I finally got to witness Between The Buried And Me live for the first time. I'm just blown away by their performance, talent and how they sounded note for note, it was perfect. The tour in itself was a sick tour, unfortunately my friends and I missed Scale The Summit, but got there just in time for Devin Townsend Project. That guy is a maniac, but is always fun to watch and the things he says are priceless. I still maintain he needs to do a spoken word, similar to what Henry Rollins does. I would pay to see that. BTBAM played a selection of tracks from all their albums, such as "Obfuscation", "Alaska", "Ants of the Sky", "Disease, Injury, Madness", "More of Myself to Kill", "Swim to the Moon", "Prequel to the Sequel" and their encore was "Viridian" into "White Walls". All and all, a sick show and def one of the top shows I've been to in a long while.

Until next time...

Holidaze

2009-12-28T10:45:00.003-05:00

Dormition's Journal
December 28, 2009

Once again the holidays have come and gone, and all that's left is to countdown the last remaining days of 2009. This Christmas was alright, spent time with the family, both Melissa's and mine. Ventured into Jersey on Saturday durning the atrocious rain storm to visit Melissa's mom. All and all, it was a weekend full of food, family, gifts and more food.

But with every new year comes the age old question of what the resolution will be for that year. For 2010, I plan on getting back to the gym, since I've been slacking on it the past months. I'm going to continue looking for a better job, focus more time on the band, playing more shows and getting our demo out to as many people as we can. But the main focus for 2010 is to release a book of all new artwork and some old favorites of mine. I've had this idea for a little while, but now it's time to get the ball rolling with it. I have so many ideas that need to get expressed and what better way than to present them all in one complete book. Not sure how many pieces of artwork will be designed for the book, but it will be a substantial number. I will also include lyrics to songs I've written and artwork that was inspired by them, and other writings that will go along with certain designs.

I don't have a title yet, but this first book will be part of an ongoing series of books. As I create new designs, I will post some of them here and on my site as well. 2010 is the year I make my visions become reality. See you in the new year!

Until next time...

2009-11-23T15:06:00.015-05:00

Dormition's Journal
November 23, 2009

This past Friday, my girlfriend Melissa and I ventured into the city that never sleeps to catch a show, and not just any show, but a Baroness show. For those of you unfamiliar with Baroness, they formed in Savannah, GA in 2003 with all members, past and present, hailing from Lexington, VA in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Their music can best be described as progressive sludge metal, with a majestic/southern melody to their sound. Hard hitting and aggressive in both their sound and lyrics, they are a band not to be missed. When we arrived in the city and made our way to the Bowery Ballroom, we missed the opening band US Christmas, but arrived just as Earthless was hitting the stage. This was the first time not only hearing about these guys, but also seeing them. They are a 3 piece instrumental band from San Diego, California and their sound is just devastating. Similar to Baroness with their progressive sound, they are also very out there in their sound and performance. The guitarist is in his own world just whaling on riff after riff, while the drummer is just unleashing rage upon his drums. The highlight of their set was just how many endings they had in one song, it just kept going. I thought it was great, Melissa however, was getting anxiety.

Now that Earthless was finished, all that was left, was for Baroness to take the stage. And they did, at around 11:45pm... They opened with their first track "Bullhead’s Psalm" off their new album "Blue Record", which is an instrumental and from there on, it was pure bliss. They went from one song to the next with no breaks, which doesn't bother me at all. Their whole performance was just amazing, and the fact that we were very close to the stage made it all the more better. They have such an intensity about them, that it has to be seen in person and not heard about (go figure). At around 1am, we were pretty exhausted and it was time to make our way back home, and nothing finishes up a night like getting a parking ticket. All in all, it was a fun night and I look forward to the next show on my calendar.


Red Album	Blue Record

Until next time...

Demo(lition) Derby

2009-11-10T15:20:00.009-05:00

Dormition's Journal
November 10, 2009

The following are excerpts from older entries that were accidently deleted. They recall the events that took place from when our band Thracian started to record our demo. From it's inevitable demise to it's glorious rise from ruin, it's all here...

Dormition's Journal. January 14, 2009.

Well it's official, our band Thracian has finally started recording a demo. It took us a while to get the time to record, we tried doing it ourselves, but it ended up not working out as well as we planned. So we looked around the Long Island/NY area to see what was available and affordable. We were lucky enough to meet a guy by the name of Justin Donavan, who records music and does a damn good job of it. After hearing how awesome one of our songs came out, and the fact it wasn't even mastered yet, we have great expectations for our demo and can't wait to get it out to the public and the fans.

Seems like we're going to have a demo worthy of the name Thracian... so we all thought. A few months went by before I made another journal entry, but this explains pretty much what went on for those months.

Dormition's Journal. June 12, 2009.

Nothing but constant stand stills when it comes to our demo being completed. Back and forth disputes between band members and audio engineers on what the best move to make is... we still don't know. We meet with the audio engineer to discuss what the fate of our demo is. After hearing a rough mix of one of our songs, we weren't going to take any more chances. So we meet up with the engineer and proceeded to go over the songs with a fine toothed comb to make sure everything sounded on point and lined up correctly. We now wait for the results. According to the engineer, we should have our demo by the end of June... but I'll go with an early July release. You can't imagine the stress, aggravation and how disheartened we have gotten over the months not only recording this demo, but waiting to hear it.

Dormition's Journal. May 13, 2009.

I mentioned in my last post, that our band Thracian started recording our demo. Recording is finished and we're just waiting for it to be mixed/mastered. We've been waiting for this demo to get finished, but it seems the more we get amped for it to be released, the longer it takes to actually get finished. The recording process alone took over 3 months, which seems to be a bit long for a 6 song demo, I could be wrong though. We finished recording near the end of April and hoped to have heard at least a few songs fully mixed by the middle of May. As of now, it's the middle of May and all that we have heard, has been one song and it sounded very lackluster.

I'm no audio engineer or recording specialist, but I would think someone who is, would showcase something of better quality than what we were subjected to. At this point, it seems that our demo is no way near completion, and we're begining to lose our patience.

Dormition's Journal. July 16, 2009.

Demo is still not finished. After getting our hopes of actually hearing the final mix, we get a call from our audio engineer that his computer's power supply is no longer functioning. Figures... a few mere hours before we were supposed to go there. The funny thing is, he still asked to be paid in full. I guess I should mention that he handed our rough tracks to another guy to finish the mixing, so he isn't even handling our music anymore. It never ends. As of now, we are scheduled to go in next Wednesday to hear what is hopefully the final mix. We shall see.

Dormition's Journal. September 9, 2009.

Stagnant. After all the annoyances and cancelled sessions that our band has endured over the past 9 months (I know, seems a tad ridiculous to record a demo for this long) we have finally come to a resolution... well sort of. Our demo is not finished, and to be blunt, it never will be. The audio engineer (if he even deserves that title), has once again thrown us to the wolves. What should have only taken a few months to record, mix & master, has taken entirely to long and with no results, other than constant let downs and excuses that seem to outdo each other as they happen. I don't know what we did to deserve this kind of treatment, but no band should have to put up with what we did. Now I know that we as a band, take some blame, as this was our first time recording, and we didn't fully realize all that could come of it. But our first impression was one of hope, now that hope has withered and decayed. We haven't let this go without a fight, so expect some more info on this as it progresses.

I guess the calm of this storm, is the fact that we will be changing venues and recording at Full Force Studios in late October. Our demo, which is entitled "Blight", should finally see the light of day in early November. The demo will now only be 4 songs, consisting of "The Sullen Heart", "Conflagration", "Ghost of Her" and "Blight". This demo promises to be epic.

So after almost a year of bullshit, we will have our demo finalized in the upcoming week or so. Full Force has been nothing but amazing. We had three full days to record, which compared to that other shit hole of a studio, was great. We took the wrong path when we started this process, I'm sure we're not the only band to fall victim to shit like this, but it still hurts to know how much time and money we wasted. And speaking of money, we will be heading to small claims court in February in hopes of getting our money back from that studio after they fucked us over. It never ends. But on the bright side, we're heading to the studio tonight to make any last changes to our tracks and then it's time for the demo to get mixed and mastered. So expect a release soon... very soon.

Until next time...

Explosion For The Ears

2009-11-05T12:55:00.011-05:00

Dormition's Journal
November 5, 2009

I recently came across Russian Circles newest album "Geneva", and all I can say is... amazing! This is the first time I'm listening to the band, but I've known about them, just never got the chance to actually hear any of their songs, don't know why either, because I've been missing out. But after listening to their new album, I now know that what I'm hearing is pure perfection to my ears.

Russian Circles is a three piece instrumental post-metal band from Chicago, US. Their sound can best be described as crushing... heavy riffs collaborating with harmonic undertones to create a masterpiece of sound. I'm a sucker for instrumental albums, so whenever I come across a band or score that is purely instrumental, I have to listen to it. This will be on constant rotation for quite some time, along with other choice albums that have recently come out (Converge, BTBAM, Baroness, Muse, Immortal...).

So do yourself a favor and listen to "Geneva", your ears will thank you. For fans of Pelican, Isis, Explosions In The Sky

Until next time...

Trick or Treated?

2009-11-02T09:23:00.007-05:00

Dormition's Journal.
November 2, 2009:

Well, another Halloween has come and gone, and this years can best be described as interesting. The day started off as any other day. Woke up, did the usual morning ritual, then headed off to the mall with the lady. I'm not much of a mall person, so going there was on the bottom of my list of things to do. But alas, we ventured off in search of a new phone for the apartment. After roaming the mall for about a half hour looking for Radio Shack in the elusive concourse level, which is in itself a bitch to get to, we eventually found Radio Shack. Not a second goes by when we enter that one of the employees asks us if we need any help. We tell him that we're in need of a phone, so he guides us to the area of the store that has all the phones we could possibly ask for. While searching for a phone, he notices my hoodie and begins a conversation about it, referencing the band that is labeled on it. The said band is Between The Buried And Me, so he begins to talk about how he has a tattoo on his back that is from one of their designs, which just happened to be the design on my hoodie (hence, how the convo started in the first place).

To cut the story short, we find a phone to our liking and proceed to the checkout and he is still going on about music and the hardcore/metal scene, mentioning bands like Code Seven and whatnot. I knew the bands he was talking about, so we went back and forth for a few minutes after the initial purchase was made discussing bands and shit like that. Mentioned to him I was in a band and he was just going on about stories from the past. I'm still surprised that they play BTBAM in their Radio Shack from time to time, def not the kind of music I would expect to hear walking into that store. I always find it hard to disengage in a conversation without being an asshole, especially when we're on a deadline with time and need to get a move on. But we parted ways with the Radio Shack guy and from there, we proceeded to Urban Outfitters to pick up a few nick nacks and then we were off to Whole Foods to do some grocery shopping and a quick Ikea run to pick up this.

After our outing, we returned home, I put together the locker and afterwards relaxed a bit before I headed off to play a Halloween show with the band. Now this is where it's gets interesting. We were asked to play a Halloween show at The Broadway (formally VPS) in Amityville. It was our first show since July and we were excited to play live again. As we arrive at the venue, we discover that we entered some kind of cruel joke, the kind of joke where the punch line is not as funny as you would hope it would be. The band before us could not have been any older then 12 or 13, and all they seemed to play was cover songs (Pantera, Metallica, Michael Jackson), it was a little ridiculous, funny, but ridiculous. Parents everywhere, kids everywhere and us stuck in the middle of it all. Why were we asked to play a show like this? Did Broadway think it was a show suitable for us, playing for minors and their parents? So we just put on our game faces and got on stage to set up. My brother showed up, a buddy of mine I used to work with back in the day came to the show, a fellow co-worker surprised me at the show. They couldn't have picked a better day to come and watch us play.

Other than the initial vibe we were getting from the start of this show, we did our sound test and all seemed to be fine, until we got to our lead guitarists amp/head. Somehow one of his tubes blown in his head and the whole damn thing wouldn't work. So after about a 15-20 minute delay, we got a replacement head, but it was to late, we we're doomed from the start. We sounded like shit, we got off track and just went downhill from there. Our lead guitarist was pissed his amp sounded like shit with the replacement head, it threw us off and just killed any hope of playing a decent show. But the troopers we are, we continued on, barreling through our short set, taking no breaks and just giving it our all to a crowd that had no idea what the hell was going on. Candy being thrown about from our drummer, pelted in the back of the head, my girlfriend hit in the face and chest by a plastic pumpkin. It was chaos, a blur of moments that we all wanted to forget. This was not the show we expected to play after a few month hiatus. Oh well, at least our demo is close to being finished... finally. I will get into that very soon.

Another Halloween, come and gone. I think it's best to say I was tricked this time around. We'll see what happens next year.

Until next time...

2009-10-30T16:11:00.002-04:00

Dormition's Journal.
October 30, 2009:

A buddy at work sent this video to me. I found it quite humorous, and felt like sharing it:

So... Hitler was a PC user. It's all starting to make sense now.

2009-10-29T16:33:00.006-04:00

Dormition's Journal.
October 29, 2009:

My job sucks... wait, let me be more specific. This job is like a succubus, sucking the very essence of my life and soul, but at a very slow rate. I think I can actually feel it happening, everyday I just become more morose and less enthralled with what I have to do at this place. I'm the only Graphic/Web Designer at this place. You would think I would have all the cool things to do and be constantly swamped with design work... wrong!

It's nothing but mind numbing data entry work with some design work thrown in. This is not the environment I envisioned I would be in, but alas, here I am. I've been at the same job for a little over a year now (I know, it's not that long compared to other people stuck at their shitty jobs), but that's not what bothers me. It's the fact that I'm not really going anywhere with this job, especially in the creative field. And as an artist, I crave that, I need to learn more and be around others who share the same attitude.

So why don't you look for a new job? Believe me, I've been looking for a new job. It's tough, especially now with the whole economical downfall. I apply and hear nothing back, over and over again, rinse and repeat. Also, I don't know what some places are thinking, but offering $10/hr or at most $12, is fucking ridiculous, especially for a graphic designer. They want an artist with all the "know how" but for half or even 3 times less the price of what we should be getting paid. Fucking pirates.

As I type this, I'm sitting in my little office, from which I dwell alone. Used to have another guy (programmer) in here working with me. He was a cool guy, a geek like me, into a lot of the same things I'm into. We both went to Full Sail, so that was a cool suprise. Time went by fast when we shared the office, cracking jokes and just random conversations about crazy shit. But now that he has moved onto a better job, I just stare at the clock on my Mac and wait till it hits 6. I guess I can add this to the list of things that are making me less human and more of a drone.

"Workin' in a coal mine
Goin' down down down
Workin' in a coal mine
Whop! about to slip down"

This job is my coal mine and I'm going down, down, down...

Until next time...

Incipience

2009-10-29T11:30:00.008-04:00

Dormition's Journal.
October 29, 2009:

Welcome to my journal. I know it's not much right now, but in time it will be filled with rampant thoughts and feelings that I encounter on a daily basis. Just so you can get an idea of who I am, I have degrees in both graphic design and computer animation, my art blends between 2D and 3D. I express myself through my art, music, writing and hobbies. I'm covered in tattoos and plan on getting more in the (not so distant) future. I was born and raised on Long Island. My interests lie in history, mythology, metal music, vintage/pulp art, tattoos, sci-fi/fantasy, inkblots/rorshach tests and the unknown. I provide vocals for the metal band Thracian, and currently work as a professional graphic/web designer, while also doing freelance work on the side.

Well, that's good enough for now, you will find out more about me as this journal progresses. And if at any point you want to share your thoughts as well, feel free to comment and engage or post a link to your blog. So be sure to keep your eyes peeled, as I will be adding new posts frequently.

Until next time...