State of the (dis)Union, Sept. 2011
We’re rolling into October very soon. This is the time of the year when VJ becomes more prolific it seems. We’re pretty far into the tracking & overdubbing process for “Unholy Mountain”. We spent some time last week making mixes of where all the songs stand at this point in time. Overall, the tunes are coming together into a cohesive album.
We made the difficult decision to leave one of the tracks off of the album that had been a candidate for the last year. The song is an instrumental jam, recorded sometime in 2008. While going through other sessions, we came across this musical segment and immediately knew that it needed to see some kind of release. As we’ve been going through and working on all the tracks, shaping them for the record, this jam track has become the elephant in the room. The more we placed it in sequence with the rest of the album, the more we realized it just doesn’t fit. It will be released someday soon, most likely as a download or some type of bonus track.
So, that decision brought us down to 7 tracks for the album. We then decided to write an acoustic reprise to one of the other songs to become the traditional eighth. It’s a good trade, because both versions will showcase the best pieces of the original song, and will tie nicely into the instrumental passages we’re putting between a few of the tracks.
Work continues this week until we begin sessions for the new Destructor album, “Decibel Casualties”.
Tentative tracklist for “Unholy Mountain” (not final order):
- Unholy Mountain
- Seven Years
- Godspeed
- Chaos Disciples
- I Am Infidel
- Black Horizon
- The Gospel of Judas
Seven Years RepriseFeed the Flames (Live 2009)Abu Ghraib (Live 2009)The Gospel of Judas (Live 2009)I Am Infidel (Live 2009)El Brujo (Live 2009)
A Small set of Wacken photos on Flickr
Photographer Thomas Schlein posted a few shots of our Wacken set at this location: http://www.flickr.com/photos/headbangerphotography/sets/72157627411112036/with/6032882755/
So, here’s this…
An Italian metalhead who traveled to Wacken happened to catch our set. This is what he had to say…clearly he was next to someone that ended up with one of the smashed guitars.
English: “Say you are going to end up here to escape the rain and by yet another concert Children of Bodom. I do the usual round and by magic I find myself attached to the fence in the front row to witness the spectacle of those who turned out to be the VENOMIN JAMES.Their music is Southern-style, very muscular in the literal sense, as the singer looks like a woodsman who just crashed to punch a giant sequoia. Strengthened by their physicalissues will not be to throw himself into the crowd and come back alive and intact. Also during the concert happily throws their CDs to the public as well as posters and T-shirts:good promotional move! In the end, and smash all guitar players delight in destroying their guitars and ends in the hands of a guy right next to me, all I’m happy to bring homescrap guitar split in two.”
Italian: “Diciamo che sono andato a finire qua per scappare dalla pioggia e dall’ennesimo concerto dei Children of Bodom. Faccio il solito giro e per magia mi ritrovo in prima fila attaccato alla transenna ad assistere allo spettacolo di quelli che poi scoprirò essere i VENOMIN JAMES. La loro musica è in pieno stile sudista, molto muscolare anche in senso letterale, visto che il cantante sembra un boscaiolo che appena schiantato a pugni una sequoia gigante. Forte del proprio fisico non si farà problemi a gettarsi in mezzo alla folla e a tornare indietro vivo ed integro. Inoltre durante il concerto lancia allegramente i loro cd al pubblico oltre a poster e magliette: valida mossa promozionale!! Alla fine sfasciano tutto e i chitarristi si dilettano a distruggere le loro chitarre elettriche e una finisce tra le mani di un tizio giusto accanto a me, tutto felice di portarsi a casa sto rottame di chitarra spaccato in due.”
Got a better translation? Send it along.
Original is here: http://ozzyd.giovani.it/diari/3185491/six_six_six_the_number_of_the_wacken_parte_v.html
Hello, Cleveland!
Greetings, conscripts.
We’re 7 days back from Wacken, and the shock of being home is setting in. The whole trip was a momentous thing for all of us. None of us except Eric had ever even been to Europe, let alone played shows over there. Eric’s been over so many times that he actually coached us through some things to make it easier for us. Wacken was a gigantic party, and we were all invited with open arms. We were treated like a respected, professional band – not like the unknowns that we are. That was reassuring, and it made us feel like we belonged up on that stage, even though we knew in our hearts that the tunes were good enough to get us there. We rode the luck and networking to get there this time. Next time, we’ll be invited on our own merits and talent.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be posting video and photos of the trip…after a few more days of decompression and dealing with all of the bullshit of our personal lives. We’re sorta drifting through wreckage now, looking forward to next high point in the band’s journey.
Prost!
Fortunato
Wacken approaches!
Alright. As of today, we are 7 days from touchdown in Germany, and 12 days from our performance on the W.E.T. Stage.
We’re all super amped to be going. We are living a lifelong dream as musicians – sharing the bill with several rock & metal legends, and being able to take our music overseas to an arguably more enthusiastic crowd.
Our timeslot begins as the last blast of Motorhead is fading from the main stage, and immediately after us on the W.E.T. Stage is Ghost – whom we are all excited to check out live. To us, we’ve won the lottery, even though we’ve worked very hard to get to this place.
Which leads us to the Wacken specifics:
- We have a Meet-And-Greet scheduled for 19:00 – 19:45 PM on Aug. 06. Relentless Energy Drinks is sponsoring the meet & greet tent. Link to the BWBK post: http://www.bravewords.com/news/166062. Drop in and hang with us.
- We go on at 00:15, playing until 00:45 on Aug. 06 on the W.E.T. Stage. Don’t miss us!
![Venomin James "Make No Mistake" [Official Music Video]](http://i2.ytimg.com/vi/snCgTSPAZKI/0.jpg)
