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. 

Key(board) experiments and stuff

Yesterday I listened few times all the six songs in a row, the current rough mix versions. The flow feels good to me, and even the song order feels like it's already there. Seems that there's no need to throw some song here and some song there. I did expect this as I had the vision for certain songs in certain order, but it felt almost surprising how good the flow is in this current order, according to the original vision.

I already started next stage which is something I'm going for after a very long break indeed. I'm not really a "keyboard guy" but it feels that I will expand the slow tunes with some background keys. Nothing major, nor complex - this is not music that needs complicated keys, certainly not. Instead it's very minimalistic, simple, adding to the power of the guitars. Or that's what I am aiming for, anyway.

I recorded keys for the 6th tune already late yesterday and it feels pretty good and solid. Not 100% sure if the sound is yet the final one for keys in this track, but it's close already. I also have some ideas for possible key/guitar solo things, short sections, but we'll see if those ideas work or not. If they work, you can be sure you won't hear that kind of experiments in these slow, long tunes though. Somewhere else. :)

After I get the keyboard stuff sorted out, I will go into space samples / sounds / dark ambient elements. Part of them might happen with keys, depends in certain things - but part of them will be sample stuff expanding the (event horizon) songs' atmospheres. That's something I haven't planned / visioned yet, so I won't go deeper there at this point. Same goes with vocals / lyrics, even more so. For them I have ideas already for many of the songs, but anyway. One step at time.

Here we go again (doomier than thou)

I bet you can't guess what the subject line above hints ... or then it's too easy to guess!

 Yeah. :)

Not only did I compose the track#6 already, but I also recorded all the guitars and bassguitars for it, too. Drums are still simple base beats, so there's work to be done for them, but all in all a very proper song base, I'd say. And certainly different to that "faster" track#5 ... 

I thought this track#6 would certainly be the last track, and ... well, it quite certainly is. I have a feeling I'd come up with more suitable material, but on the other hand I don't want to make this album too long. The world is filled with too long albums these days, in any case. Thinking the days from 1980s or early 1990s, when your usual metal albums (pretty much whatever genre) went from bit under 30 minutes into around 45 minutes or let's say bit under 50 minutes. Of course there were exceptions, but you know, in general. 

I have a feeling this pack of 6 song will go quite close to something like 45 minutes and it feels like a perfect length to me. And more importantly, it feels very fitting for the theme of this album and the overall flow, I think.

Speed metal doom

Well, guess what? I just finished putting down all the basic stuff for the track number 5. When inspiration strikes, you gotta act upon it. That's what I do. Late yesterday evening just before going to sleep I laid down simple drumtrack rather fast for the idea I had for this song. And now, saturday morning, I jammed the riff a bit and felt like yeah, this certainly is it and it totally fills the theme / tale of exactly this song perfectly.

After breakfast I played some Hades a bit, then went to record the guitars and bass. And that's what happened and it happened fast, too. Recorded two guitar channels, all guitars and one bassguitar channel, some tweaking - and just 50 minutes later the demobase for song#5 was ready. And it sounds really sweet to me, even better than what I imagined beforehand.

So far I don't have as clear idea for the song#6 which will quite like be the closing track of this album, but I have a feeling that the idea is right behind the corner and soon here. Now I'm off to spend some quality time with our kiddo (who was listening all the time as I was laying down guitar and bass tracks). :)

From smooth basslines forwards

I recorded the bassguitars for that 4th monster already yesterday and it went exactly as smoothly as I thought it would. Really good vibes.

I have also clear ideas for next two tunes already and not just that but it looks like this album might have just 6 tunes overall. That might sound like little, but it's more than enough because two of the tunes are long ones. I think the overall length might turn around 40-50 minutes or something like that? I haven't really looked at what kind of length it would be nor do I care - I'm doing this purely on instinct and how it feels overall. There has to be certain kind of flow and currently it's looking good to me.

More as composing progresses.

Recording bass for the 4th new tune

Warping, Indeed!

In previous blog post, I wrote its' topic about "warping" towards next tune ... well, warping literally happened and I am not exaggerating a bit! 

Think about this: Already late yesterday I had not just composed but also recorded guitars over basic drumbeats (which will require lots of tweaking) for the 4th tune demo which is like I predicted a very heavy, long piece. Goes well past two figures in minutes in its' demo form. It is droneish, dragging, very doomy song and it feels exactly like the vision I had for it - describes something very personal indeed (about which I might wrote much later after the album has been finished). 

And the composing vibes are great. I have to record bass for this 4th monster and I look forward to it. I think bass in this tune's case will make it more lively and perhaps twisted in a way or two.

Bass for #3 and warping towards next tune

I recorded the bassguitars for song #3 yesterday only. So much things have been going on in my personal life, that it just wasn't possible earlier. Recording went smoothly though, as I thought. This thing is going on "inside my head" even that I don't work on it - and as a result I know this "song#3" is going to be sort of short passageway into song#4 which I haven't composed yet, but for which I have main riff idea pretty much ready. And it connects thematically to main title track, too. I think this forthcoming tune#4 will be long and heavy one. 

Just this morning I suddenly knew what the song title for song#3 will be, too. Song#2 is still untitled, but song#1 has had name even before recording anything of it. Sometimes it goes like that, sometimes like song#2 case, that the title forms later.

When things start to flow ...

... it was just day before yesterday as I wrote about having turned the 2nd song into demo base. Well, it's now just some 1-2 days later and I have third new tune in demo format already! That happened yesterday.  It's brand new tune which is not based on any older riff ideas etc. The demo base for this one so far has just guitars, no bassguitars like the first two. But recording bass will be just breeze and it won't take long, I bet.

Shortest song so far, works kind of like interlude of sorts, perhaps. I have a feeling next tune will be slower, heavier and much longer - but we'll see what comes out next. But the vibes are good and doomy.

Next tune into the demo stage

Since last writing I've recorded the second tune into demo shape with drums / guitars / bass. Turned out pretty sweet, and even got a brand new end section for it which was born on the fly while recording the demo. 

Now I don't have any other riffs nor melodies saved from earlier times - so it's now going into full composing mode. It's good, since there will be this certain theme going on in this release. I think I won't touch lyrics before I've composed all the music. Or most of it, anyway. 

I've also continued working with the album coverart and it's turning out very fitting for the album's theme and general mood. Connects with the main title song visually, in cosmic ways.

Advancing nicely via jammin' and demoing

During past few weeks I've been rather cozily jamming especially the song I call "the main theme" or key song of this forthcoming release. Not just jammin' but I've also recorded the song and finetuned some of its' structure - as a result I've got full demoversion with basic elements; drums, guitars, bass. Nothing else. It's a massive song which feels good, and it's very personal since it comes purely from recent life events. Funeral scifi doom with some twists and turns ... and it's a long song, goes well past two figures in minutes so the main theme clearly is main theme also in this way.

I've also been jamming that one other song, not demo base yet though - and also been working on front cover for which I've had a clear idea / vision since I felt this release will start taking its' form. No lyric work yet, but clear visions for them also, especially for the main theme song.

Tuesday's revelation

I have continued jamming with good (= really dark, brooding, gloomy) vibes. There was this funny little event which I'm gonna write a bit. Last weekend as I was watching winter olympic games, the last events - at the same time I was playing with acoustic bass and I came up with riff / melody which instantly felt good to me. I kept playing with it, then told wife about it that check this out, does this remind you of something, some band? She listened, nope, or I can't say right away it would. I was like ... this feels familiar to me myself, but I can't pinpoint it to anything really ... but I like this, this would work as well as fast tune as extremely slow crushing tune. So I kept playing it and thought that I have to save this (so I saved it ... into my head only). Until tuesday, today, came. 

Suddenly I remembered something, let's check email ... didn't I record riff or two sometimes in 2025 when we were visiting wife's parents? Yeah I did, while we were there, I came up with interesting riff with wife's dad's about 70 years old guitar in poor condition (it has only 3 low strings and barely stays in tune, it's really beaten up but I always play with it when we are there). I saved the pair of riffs, melodic line and heavy riff with my phone and sent it to my email for later use.

So now I went to check out the mail. Yeah, there it is ... it's from early May 2025. Let's listen to it. Yeah here goes the first melodic riff ... not familiar. Ok, now comes the heavy hitter ... BOOM! It's the riff I "came up" last weekend! Hilarious but also kind of exciting. I had completely forgotten the riff, then suddenly it comes back to me and it's the same one I saved for later use 9 months ago. I can say for sure that it will certainly make one tune, too.

Doom to you, too

PS: I also updated the M4D logo in top section of this blog, into more lively one (the eye in it) with some scifi/tech elements added.

Here again, after a long break

I have been through some rough times recently. Some very personal ones, sadness, but also something that have started to channel into music ideas ... and especially fitting for Mood:Doom. I will probably tell about these things leading to the inspiration later, perhaps only after the next M4D release is out there. But I can say already, that 

1. I've started composing tunes for full length M4D album
2. The material will be heavy, that's safe to say already
3. It might be theme album naturally, not planned really

I've had melodies ready for one tune for several months already, but only today I started crafting drums for this tune for real. I think this tune will be key tune in the album, so to speak. Even jammed it a bit and it works exactly as I visioned it to work. 

I haven't really planned that I'd be doing M4D album in 2026 especially, but certain recent life events have led me into this point where I have started crafting M4D album and I'm quite certain it will be released in 2026. What makes it twisted is that three previous full lenghts have happened back in 2021, 2016 and 2011 - seems that it's always year ..1 or year ..6 as M4D album happens? So far, anyway. Who knows how long I want to do this project - but I don't plan anything ahead. It seems that new stuff is now flowing from me very naturally which is always the sign for me and it feels like perfect outlet for certain life events ... so be it, then.

I'll write more as things progress.

The vibes are doomy to begin with