Progression?

It's been row of days since I last wrote about how things are going. Or has it been, really? Huh ... just checked, can't really say row of days ... well it makes this post even more descriptive for the situation. Does the bit (one day or bit more?) longer silence mean nothing has happened in the meanwhile? Nope. It means actually the exact opposite!

To say a lot has happened since last writing is not exaggeration at all.

It almost feels like I don't even remember all that I've done for this new material since I last wrote as I tend to work in trance'like state with music projects I do. But yeah ... instead of going to work on 6th song's lyrics as I thought I would, I went into recording vocals. For the other songs which have lyrics ready and pre'arranged, too. I thought I'd just try how it feels and goes but instead of just trying, well, the vibes were so good that I was soon recording the "real" vocals instead of just some tests. Layered vocals; currently there are 3 channels for vocals, kind of low growling, very high bit robotic kind of vocals and then quite normal / cleanish vocal channel. And it might be that I'll do some extra layer (4th channel) for some sections. 

As you might guess already from that, I've got quite a lot of vocals recorded. Yeah. I started with track 3 which went great, fully completed and I liked how it sounded - so I went ahead. Next was track 5 and the same results as with track 3 ... so ahead I went. Next into track 2 and the same strong vibes continued there. Tonight I went into track 4 which is one of the long tunes and I got it completed, too. So I have vocals pretty much recorded for four tunes out of six tunes (!) and not much lyrics have been changed / finetuned in the process, either. Pre'arrangements have worked fine.

I have two long tunes left and I already know the order how it will go ... next up will be the 6th tune (I already worked for its' lyrics today, they should be pretty much ready for recording too, now) and the last one will be the 1st tune. The song I call "the main title song" or key song of this pack ... and there is a heavy, deep reason why it will be the last. I will write about that later, as the release is all ready and has been out there for some time.

It feels really crazy how fast this release has progressed. Talk about outlet for personal life, which this release this time truly is. There's been that element in past releases at times, but never in this scale, for sure. It's been just one tune here on one tune there. Now ... well I'll write about this later, like said. But I can say it's stuff that makes heavy doom album feel even more heavy. That's how it feels for me anyway.

More lyrics and some thoughts

 I took a well deserved rest from all of this last weekend, but then went straight back into writing lyrics. I finetuned some parts for tunes 3 and 4, got them pretty much sorted out / ready from lyrics and arrangements' point of view, I think. 

Also wrote base of lyrics for 5th song, and got demo vocal arrangements done for it quite nicely. And late yesterday evening I wrote chunk of text as base for lyrics for the closing song, tune # 6. That one needs a lot of more work still, when it comes to lyrics and of course arranging the vocals. And some decisions as well; it's either extremely slow vocals or rather fast ones - or it could be mixture of both. But we'll see, gotta work on those lyrics way more and then it gets easier to decide.

But progression goes like it has gone past weeks; really good and feels really good to work on this. I think this is turning into quite an exciting package in many ways. It is definitely continuation for previous album, but it's also something more than just that.

Writing more lyrics and stuff

And the work with this album progresses. This time I haven't worked with nothing else by lyrics but I've worked a lot with them, inspired, and as a result I have lyrics let's say 90% completed for songs 3 and 4. Lots of lyrics, some personal events mixed with cosmic viewpoints. Life and death, from small to grand scale. 

And it's not just about writing the lyrics with inspiration, but I've also done quite a lot of vocal arrangements on mind's stage so to speak. Meaning that I listen to the song(s) and shape (as needed) the lyrics so that they'll fit the music. It seems that there will be lots of lyrics, it wasn't just with the 1st song but seems to be sort of element to this album. Well, so be it.

The writing continues.

More ... and more

Again lots of work done for the material tonight.

Most time was spent with space elements which grew a lot and also some finetuning for the elements I already had crafted. Combination of soundscapes and stuff. Rewarding work, feels like the atmosphere got more towards what I want. Some very dark vibes in some places.

Not just space elements, but I also finetuned some keyboard works done earlier, and then I went into finetuning the lyrics for first song - and also did vocals arrangements pretty much for the whole song. It's a long song with lots of lyrics, partially very personal ones, so it will have quite some vocals to be recorded at some point ... but it shouldn't be that hard now that I worked a lot with vocal arrangements. 

I also wrote big chunk of lyrics for 2nd song. Also did some vocal arrangements for that one, but there's still work to be done. Also end section of the song needs finetuning of certain lyric sections and better arrangements.

Progress = good.

Space elements and beginning of lyrics

The work is progressing on a daily basis and with some massive leaps, too. It makes me feel really good. 

I started putting together some space ambience, there will be short cosmic soundscapes as small intros into the tunes and some of the tunes also end with space soundscapes. All goes according to vision and these space elements fit in well, mix also with the keyboards nicely, methinks. I have a feeling it will be just some days to get all the space soundscapes completed.

I also started working with lyrics, too. I actually have full lyrics for first song already. Perhaps some very small tweaking required, but nothing major - and I like how the cosmic tale fits in with real life elements ... I can say this is some personal stuff. Probably the most personal I've ever done musically speaking. Perhaps also lyrically? Could well be. But I won't reveal yet what this is all about. It might be quite evident - or then not - as the material gets out. It's something that everyone has to deal with in one's life. Not everything is happy and doom metal certainly fits for this mood, literally. Oh, yeah ... mood for doom ... how ironic is that? And this is not the only personal song in the package, but there is one other equally big tune emotionally, and actually it has pair for it, connects to the song thematically even that it's completely different sounding song.

In any case, things are progressing great ... feels like lot happens in just day or two, for this musical piece of work. 

Keyboardin' and finetunin' and stuff

Keyboard stuff has progressed big time. I'm quite sure I've got it all pretty much done. Like said, I'm not trying to be some keyboard guru (which I am not) but it's minimalistic, drone'ish and kind of hypnotic approach I'm after. Fitting the doom tunes ... in a beautiful (at times) yet in a doomy way. So that's that, I'm happy about them keys.

I've also done more finetuning for drumworks and I feel also drums are "getting there", not much tweaking required. Soundwise I've got the sounds I want for drums, I tweaked soundscapes in the beginning already, but the tweaking I'm writing right now, means the actual beats.

I've started writing some initial lyrics, more about that as it progresses - but the vibe there, too, is good. 

Remember when I mentioned that one of these new tunes was built on melodies / riffs which I composed while we were visiting wife's parents in Spring 2025? I mentioned composing the riffs using wife's dad's truly ancient and even more truly beaten up acoustic guitar, which only has three strings left and ... it has taken such a beating since it was last time used (late 1950s / early 1960s) that it has a special, twisted dark sound. Fitting for crafting doom melodies, ehh! So, check out below, here's one pic I took some year or two ago about just this acoustic guitar. Picture tells a lot about it, don't you think? :)

rather ancient and nasty tool for crafting doom melodies

Drumsworks (read; fills) and key plans

As a break from keyboard experiments (which continued really nicely, methinks!) I worked massively on the last three songs' drums. Those three had just basic beats unlike first three songs, so I went through these last three tunes and created fitting fills and little things of interest to make it more lively and flowing.

The result is ... fantastic. I've always loved working with drums programming and this was no exception. The songs certainly grew a lot as a result. And I've got some good vibes for the keyboard experiments. I'm like 99% certains there will be these minimalistic keys expanding the tunes. 

I have a good idea for certain way how the tunes go - slow ones differ from the "less slow ones" (I can't really say fast ones, there are no really fast tunes even that there might be some short furious bits in some song - which comes from the tune's background tale / inspiration directly, more about things like this much later). Slow ones have majestic keys, dark & kind of scifi'ish vibes, not so slow have bit different kind of approach. And it all will work together, it already feels like that even that I've not yet put my plans into reality fully. Next update will quite likely tell more about the keyboard stuff.

But yeah, things are progressing really good. I think "good" feels like an understatement. Things are progressing in a great way. I have awesome vibes for this material.