Gather, Darkness! Studio Diary Part 9

Day 13

Recording: Lead Guitars

Greg

We had initially attempted to start recording leads and solos a week earlier with the same equipment used for the rhythm tracks, albeit with some minor adjustments to amp settings and the addition of an EQ pedal. When the results proved unsatisfactory, I decided to spend the week rooting through various amps, effects and guitars until we nailed down the right tone. Ultimately, I managed to achieve this rather simply by swapping the ESP Viper for my neck-thru Mockingbird. And so we were now able to resume our magical journey of…um, going on a journey that, like, involved magical things. I mean, I guess it could have also been an incredible journey, except that most cats and dogs don’t really know how to play metal. So perhaps not.

We spent about six hours completing all lead melodies and solos for the first two tracks and the cover. To get a better idea of how things were coming along, we played the tracks for a random sampling of people to get their opinions. I’d like to clarify that these interviews were in no way staged or edited for content:

Tom Davy: Awesome!

Dave Spencer: Breathtaking!

Greg’s mom: Turn that down and take out the trash.

Grocery store clerk: Sir, will you be paying by cash or credit?

Some poser: Mmmm hmmph mmphm hhmphm mmhmhp!

Sorry about that last guy. He couldn’t speak very clearly because we’d just melted his face with our awesomeness. But he seemed pretty happy for a guy who’d just been rushed to the ICU.

Day 14