What exactly happened with the album after we had finished recording still remains unclear. A certain studio engineer had ceased contact with us for quite a while. We were able to eventually track him down in the winter. We requested a sample of the album, which he claimed was “almost done.” He gave us an mp3 of “Into the Primordial.” Without going into detail, it was very clear to us that we needed to take the album to work on it ourselves. After another couple of months without contact, we were eventually able to get our tracks to work on at our new studio, which we have dubbed The Halls of Glory.

In late May 2007, work began anew on the album. I weeded through what was already done and decided what needed to be fixed. (For instance, somehow one of the guitars *coughGreg’scough* was very slightly out of tune with the rest of the instruments. Also, any mention of “Sarnath” being too slow has been laid to rest.) June was spent adding additional guitars to the mix and rerecording all the clean and acoustic guitars. The bass was also in need of a makeover. By the time July came around, we were ready to retrack every vocal on the album. We had planned on bringing back our original singer, Brian, to do the vocals on this album, but apparently, he and our former studio engineer are on the same cell phone plan. Greg once again stepped up. As a result of retracking Greg’s original vocals, we have a far better vocal performance on the album, as well as vastly more choir-type choruses and background vocals than were originally there.

The recording process in The Halls of Glory was somewhat uneventful. No cameras were involved, unfortunately. Dave and I spent many nights contemplating over chalices of ale over the minutiae that goes into an album. Dave performed keyboards, which we hadn’t had a chance to do at the previous studio. “Wings Over Asgård” has mighty choirs and horn sections now. The additional clean guitar tracks were done somewhat quickly. I did them while no one else was here and during the calmest morning of the week so that I could be as focused as possible. Later that day, a thunderstorm rolled in. I dropped what I had been doing so I could record its epic thunderclaps. That’s right. Thor himself has been included on the album. Greg laid down his additional rhythm guitar tracks with very little ado. Aaron, still somewhat new to the band, recorded the songs he knew. In the interests of time, I went ahead and played bass on the two tracks he didn’t. Some of Matt’s original fills were retained. Then came the vocal tracks. We tried several things to get the best sound out of Greg this time around. First he stood in front of the mic as if he had just slain a Persian, like in 300. Then he tried singing while holding a guitar of steel. But then we had figured it out. Greg sang nearly all the vocals with one foot up, as if standing on the prow of a Viking ship, and holding a sword. No joke.

In all, I feel we owe the fans an apology for the continued delays in releasing this album. We have finally now, in late July, arrived at a point where there is little more we can do to make the album more amazing without greatly increasing our budget (which we have already exceeded).

I’m sure you are wondering what we might have been doing in the time we had no album and no shows. Aside from bringing our new bassist, Aaron El-Zeftawy, up to speed, we have completed about 5 of the 9 songs for the follow up album. Provided this first album sells well, we will have a much bigger budget for the next one and the result will be as epic as the songs themselves. For now, the epicness of our songs tends to exceed our means. Worry not, brothers and sisters of steel, for I assure you this album is still face-meltingly glorious, and when the next one comes out, you will barely have recovered!

What remains to be done before we unleash this beast involves the least amount of work from us so far. We are having the album professionally mastered, for I haven’t the skill or software necessary. The art will be drawn up by our Viking Artist of Steel, Andraes Johansson. Then we will have the CD manufactured once we have the art and the master. We have chosen a very specific place to have this done. One final detail is left completely up to us: the title. We will announce it once we declare a title worthy of the honor. The packaging, the art, and the CD will not disappoint! Hail and kill, brothers and sisters of metal!