29th May

Hellos all! The day before yesterday me and Kaisa went back to Janne’s lair to do some add-on vocals that needed to be done. Now the recording of the album is done! Janne is preparing the recorded stuff to be sent to Dan (Swanö that is) for mixing and mastering. I cannot wait to hear the first mixed song!

The album will be called “The Last Alliance” as previously reported. We recorded 11 songs during the sessions. It’s possible that not all of them will appear on the album though. We’ll see. The songs recorded (not in any order):
- The Great Gathering
- Daughter of the Sun
- Awakening
- Epic Dreams
- Voice of the Fallen
- Exile the Daystar
- Moontower
- The Guardians
- The Star of High Hope
- Third Immortal
- Green Dragon

Lyrically we took a step back from Evernight and now the lyrics are a bit more easily pin-pointed to mr. Tolkien’s texts and world as you can probably see already from the titles of the songs. Musically we have taken the whole thing even further in the extremes. There are even more mellow and even poppier parts and then again there are more grim and evil and death metal -oriented parts in the songs. The songs seem to be bigger, more epic and not so dark/bleak as Evernight. Can’t really wait to hear the mixes.

Tomi

30th April

The ‘last’ day in studio for me. Yesterday we finished Kaisa’s vocals and in the evening we listened the songs carefully if there would be any reason for changes, adds or additional arrangements. Jussi and I made a few last guitar lines today morning and then… that was it! The whole session went very fast and when the end came, I was a bit confused and so is the rest of the band. We recorded eleven songs, but we do not know if they all are going to end up on the album and it has been very difficult to make a clear vision about the whole package. We will get a rough mix on Friday and that is actually the first time when we can really hear all the songs together with all of the tracks balanced and shaped.

Well, actually there’s a little more to do: a few more verses for Kaisa and at least one ’shouting’ part for Tomi and after we have heard the rough mix, there might be more some small changes, but it would only take a day or a two and of course there is the mixing still left. Huh! My mind is empty, soul wretched, and body shivering, but one thing is for sure: it is going to be a helluva’ album!
Jyri

28th April

Hola people!

“My work is done!” (<- You’ll get the “joke” when you hear the album)

But really, I was told that I’m done with the vocal recording. I feel quite empty to tell you the truth. I have heard no full songs yet only the parts I’ve done. It’s very hard to know what to expect when I’ll get the raw mix of the songs later this week or early next. I’m actually quite nervous. I do believe that we have excellent songs and the execution is excellent. My vocals are more diverse than before and as promised there are quite a few clean parts from me. I hope you’ll like them when you hear the album. The grunting parts are also more diverse than before, I used quite a lot of my blacker vocal style but then again there are more “death metal” grunting parts aswell. I think that I managed to do a decent job with the vocals…

Kaisa is continuing with her vocals tomorrow. She started recording “The Green Dragon” but after a while Janne needed to leave so they left the song for tomorrow.

Here are a few pics for you to enjoy

- Tomi

27th April

The time is 23.15 and I just arrived to the studio and decided to share a few words for the studio diary. Tomi and Kaisa are coming here tomorrow morning when we’ll continue with the vocal recordings. Tomi has already recorded almost all of his clean and guttural parts, just a few verses left for tomorrow and he is done. Kaisa has also sang over half of her parts and if everything goes as planned, she will finish her job in Tuesday evening. After that we’ll do a few small shapings for some of the songs. Nothing big, just some tiny re-arrangements to fit all the pieces together before we’ll send the files to Sweden where Mr.Swanö will do the mixing. Can’t wait to hear the final result! Few more weeks and the album should be ready…
- Jyri

Kaisa and Tomi at work

23rd April

The recording of the vocals started yesterday and continued today with Tomi’s clean stuff. I entered the studio after him and sang two songs. Grrrreat!

-Kaisa

23rd April

Jyri was too good at emptying the memory card of our “studio camera” and lost all the videos and photos we took from my (Maria’s) stay, but here are a few that Tomi managed to save ;)

Maria’s keys and Janne__Maria, flute and ;) face__The famous pinball

Hard at work___________Maria’s notes_________This is our studio software

Did I say something about the goofy atmosphere?

This post was added by Maria, at home with sparkling wine… hehehe

17th April

Today we finished all the keyboards and flutes for the songs. After getting all the things done I feel satisfied with everything I’ve done, somewhat overwhelmed, completely exhausted and yet happy. Right this minute I can’t remember a thing I’ve played on tape and wonder whether I’ve actually done everything… Or at least something… I guess I’ll realize I’ve finished my part after a few days of normal life again, hehehe, and the memories of hard work will return. (Only those, no memories of the hanging out in the evenings, having pinball tournaments with Jyri – which he always won, of course, drinking a few beers and just enjoying the relaxed and goofy atmosphere that always follows us to the studio…)

Anyways, something about the new songs – they’ll be bigger and better than ever before. We have put a lot of thought into giving the songs what they actually need and what serves the greater good, “the master idea”, behind the songs, not just adding things for the fun of adding things… So it’ll definitely be something to look forward to! We all have a lot of faith in the producer Janne, he has proven his effectiveness and genius mind when it comes to making the songs better. It’s been an absolute pleasure working with him and I hope we’ll be able to do this all over again some day!

Now it’s time for me to have some relaxation beers after the hard working week of musical madness… Next week it’ll be time for Kaisa and Tomi to show what they’ve got… It’ll be good, I promise!!

Maria, with a beer again

14th April

After the broken laptop (with all the previously recorded demos of orchestrations and ideas, luckily then saved by Honkman and his genious idea of just saving the hard disk) and the working night shifts throughout the weekend, I didn’t really know what to expect when I came to the studio on Sunday evening. Besides the bad humour and idiotic things coming out of my mouth, it’s been quite easy to return to the “normal life routine”… And today we started the keyboard endeavours. Everything’s gone really well and working with the producer Janne Saksa is both relaxed and rewarding – he knows which ideas work with the guitars and has a good ear for harmonies, too. Most of the time I’ve felt we’ve just had some laughs and maybe done something, maybe… It’s been easy to get things recorded and the only thing taking time has been looking for good sounds and combinations of instruments. There’ll be some REAL flute added later on also. After the first day of keys, we’ve got three songs done and started the fourth one, so besides the having fun factor, we’ve actually managed to get some work done. But well, after the hard day of work, it’s time for the musician to get some well-earned beers…

Maria at the studio… with a beer

12th April

It’s saturday and studio is at sleep. Masterous recodings will continue on monday, meanwhile you can check out the majestic adventures of the stringdudes.

Battlelore – Outsidestudio 2008 from gncd on Vimeo.

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10th April
Jussi is just finishing his last guitars and then it is time to start the true creation! Bass-artist Honkman will groove our heads off with his violent but still so gentle touch. Ha! Few beers will give a nice little edge to the sound and the rest will be history. We’ll keep you updated about Honkman’s amazing adventures in the land of the five-string.
Jyri
Amps and cabs

Henkka, the groove machine

Studio stuff

Bass’n Honkman

8th April

Yesterday we tuned the guitar sound a bit more and started to beat the strings on tape. Now we have all the guitars recorded for seven new songs. Still few more to go. Well, of course there might pop up some new ideas and changes as the recordings goes further, but now I feel very relaxed and confining. Tomorrow we will continue with the axes and hopefully we can put Timo and his bass in fire on Thursday.
Jyri

4th April

Yesterday we finished all the drummings for eleven songs. Henri’s playing was quite impressive (as always) and we didn’t face any bigger problems than some broken cymbals. All the new drum arrangements that we made worked very well and made the songs more groovy and bombastic.
Today we started to build up one helluva’ killing guitar sound and it took almost the whole day. The foundation for the sound is Peavey 5150 and 6505+ heads with Mesa Boogie and Marshall cabinets. Also a pile of mysterious little stomp boxes and rack effects with more mystical set ups will lead us right to the source of guitar- sound-heaven. At least we hope so :)
Now it is weekend coming so we hard working musicians have to have our well earned rest and drink a few sauna-beers for the succesful first week in studio!

Kippis! Jyri

1st April:

We recorded drums for two songs: Moontower and Green Dragon. Working with Janne Saksa (the producer) was very easy and I believe that he is the most precise and accurate producer we have met so far, at least what comes to the drumming. We have concentrated a lot to the musicality of the drumming and how it could serve best the atmosphere and the general sound of the songs. This first day was a bit shorter than usually, but very rewarding and it is always very nice and thrilling to work with a totally new people with fresh ideas. Now when the first day is over for the drumming it is time for a few well earned beers!

Cheers! Jyri

31st March:

Henkka took his drums and his ass in the Sound Supreme. Probably he got ready for the recordings in the evening and set the drums up. More info to follow.

28th March – 30th March:

Raknarök festival. We are hard at work on the new album. It always needs some artistic boost from German beer and Jagermeister to be able to fully concentrate on the album recordings.