Day 2 of vocals.

David, Mikael and Viktor started out early once again (10 am) while Stefan slept in and took some time off to go and see his video/audio installation being exhibited at Sandviken's local art gallery. After soking up as much semi-warm spring sun as possible, it was time to listen to some death growls from hell. Drove out to the studio and arrived around 1 pm. The rest of the guys had been busy and had already recorded the clean chorus parts on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS - after buying Viktor breakfast so he at least could get his vocal chords started. Quickly after that, Viktor nailed the song REMOTE VIEWS which is the oldest song on this records - written back in 1999, I think.

Videoclip: Viktor doing some clean singing on the DSF chorus (4,7 MB)

Videoclip: Mikael singing the chorus on REMOTE VIEWS while filming himself (5 MB)

With no particular problems for Viktor on REMOTE VIEWS and with no further ado - we all proceeded to a well needed lunch break and David took off to have an easter dinner with his family. After lunch hour, the ones remaining in studio headed for THE BRAINSHAPED MIND.

We are a normal tech-metal band

Notice Stefan's (far left) spider fingers, holding the cup of beer

THE BRAINSHAPED MIND also got a face lift on the clean chorus parts - instead of three dubs of Viktor and two Stefan, we went nuts and recorded five of Viktor's and Stefan's voices, each. The result was a fine sounding clean chorus which will swell like fine wine through your speakers in a near future. Hehe.

Viktor in action

Anyhow, after nailing TBM, we went for another of those MODERN CLASSICS - CLONING ASSEMBLY. Also originally available on THE BRAINSHAPED MIND demo 2004. The greatest change on CLONING is that it has increased significantly in tempo, all for the better, we think. The song now has more drive and energy than before. Hope you'll like it too! On the total death growl chorus on CLONING, Mikael and Stefan joined in as well.

Videoclip: David is doing some serious retro gaming. (13 MB)

The clock was running late and we seemed to squeeze the last of Viktor's juices (hmmm) while recording the verses on DISSOLVING SOUL FRAGMENTS. Rumour has it that we had to record phrase by phrase, and sometimes word by word, sometimes even syllableby syllable. Haha. Mikael sure knows how to write tough vocal parts. Rhythmic as hell.

Videoclip: Viktor doing some rhythmic singing on DSF (13 MB)

Around 10 pm, the clock hit Beer o' clock and we rewarded ourselves with a couple of beers at a local pub, where Erik Larsson - a mutual friend of ours - were playing with his Irish folk music band. After taking farewell to David and Viktor, I (Stefan) took the bus back to Sandviken and enjoyed a good 4-5 hours of sleep.

Day 1 of vocals.

Finally we found a weekend suitable for everyone in the band to gather and record the only thing left on the record: vocals. I (Stefan) picked up Dave around ten:ish and drove out to the studio to find Mikael and Viktor already out there, with newly made coffee and cheerful attitudes. Sat a while and discussed the agenda of the day, while drinking some coffee and such.

Coffee & cookies - important!

Back in the control room we, of course, encountered computer problems. It took us about one hour to get started with those darn sound drivers that seem to f**k up once in a while. Also, bringing out the ultimate vocal sound from both Viktor and the microphone/pre-amp/compressor took us some time. For this recording, we're using a ADK Hamburg mic ---> TL Audio 5001 pre-amp ---> Samson S-com compressor ---> Behringer MX8000 mixing desk ---> DAW.

Started out with some growl verses on the song ROOM 101 ony to find out that Viktor needed more time to warm up those particular abilities before really nailing any growl parts. Instead we tried out the clean chorus parts, with harmonies. Ten vocal tracks later, the first chorus, with harmonies and all, was nailed. A real hit-song potential in that song!

Video: Viktor and Stefan discussing harmony parts (20 MB)

Video: The band enjoying the vocal harmonies on ROOM 101 (6,6 MB)

After that, Viktor felt warmed up enough to nail the remaining growl parts of the song, and so he did. Six or seven hours later, we finally declared the vocal parts to be completed and we quickly (i.e. after another coffee break) moved on to the song SPAWN which Viktor seemed to nail in just a matter of an hour.

Video: Viktor doing some "blargh"-noises (8,9 MB)

More will follow later this day, or perhaps tomorrow. But one thing's for sure: Terminal Function is back in business!