Day 4

Recording: Drums for “Part 1”
Warm-up: “Asgard” by Therion, “Journey Through the Dark” by Blind Guardian

Dave

“A Thousand Lies” [Part 1] is proof positive that I need to get back on the bike.  My legs are not up to the challenge presented by the Hierarchy and the massive stairs leading to the Sanctuary.  That’s what everyone should imagine when listening to this song: each bass drum hit is one more stair up to the top of the Temple.

I owe a debt to Herr Jörg Michael from various bands, but specifically for his time with Running Wild.  The transition from the A-section to the B-section of this tune is “inspired” by his introductory fill to a certain song on the album Black Hand Inn.  It’s about a mystical man who’s licensed by the Crown to plunder Spanish ships.  I love the fill that he lays down on that tune, and now its cousin graces our own album.

Tim

After a good slumber and a soul-crushing half-day at work, we have returned to the Halls of Glory to lay down Part 1 once and for all. Things are coming much more easily today. After a mere hour, we had burst through the 9 minute mark of the song, the point at which we stopped yesterday.

We recorded until both Dave and the recording software were exhausted. We came away with a solid drum track that is sure to crush every poser in a thousand-mile radius. (For our non-US fans, this is about a 1600km-radius zone of poserslaughter.)

It’s becoming clear that each “part” of this album presents a unique drumming challenge. Part 3 has a lot of drum fills, as it is the climax of the album. There must be a lot of creativity and passion on Dave’s part to finish off the album, which is tricky to capture in the studio. Part 1 has a lot of precision involved over long periods of time since the song is so fast, intense, and let’s not forget epic. As such, it is nearly impossible to get one perfect take of the song, especially when that song is 13 minutes long. “Part 2”, in Dave’s words, requires “dexterity” throughout, which is challenging in its own right. Nonetheless, our next session could possibly be the last one for drum tracking.