Posts

The Parallel Universe Where Drummers Are Easy to Find

In this weeks entry, I introduce the concept of a parallel universe — one where death metal drummers are not only easy to find, but are actively advertised on the internet. I’ve been searching for this place since I was sixteen. With the recording lineup finally taking shape, all I had to do was go back to the Fiverr drummer I’d already spoken to and tell him he’d be handling drums only. While doing that, Fiverr helpfully suggested several other drummers. Then several more. It turned out there were loads of death metal drummers available online — a sharp contrast to Northern Ireland, where they’re rare, and if you find one, you usually have to share. I don’t believe in sharing. I eventually found a drummer who looked like a Viking, offered full drum stems, and seemed ideal. His price was reasonable, with one condition: no lightning-fast blast beats. He explained this in terms of BPMs and 16th notes, which meant absolutely nothing to me, so I nodded and planned to deal with that later. ...
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There’s a Body in the Tank - Behind The Lyrics

There’s a Body in the Tank is where this whole project began. The song is rooted in the horror surrounding the Cecil Hotel and the stories connected to it. That setting directly influenced the band name, the song titles, the album concept, and the artwork. The lyrics lean into the hotel’s reputation — violence, disappearances, and the sense that something is fundamentally wrong with the place. The recurring image of the water tank acts as the song’s focal point, representing the detail that made the story impossible to ignore. This track wasn’t written to be subtle. It was about atmosphere, shock, and committing fully to horror storytelling. Writing it clarified the direction of the band and set the tone for everything that followed.
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Going Back on Everything I Said (Despite the Evidence)

In this week’s writing, I explain how I managed to go back on several things I’d very confidently said earlier — and then quietly ignore the fact there’s actual evidence of me saying them. One of the big declarations I made early on was that I wouldn’t be asking friends to play on the album. I didn’t want to impose, I didn’t want favours, and I definitely didn’t want to drag anyone else into what was already becoming a mess. That idea lasted longer than most of my good intentions, but not forever. One night, while venting on the phone to my friend Ant about the ongoing struggle of finding people to record with, he offered to record the bass. Technically, I didn’t ask. Technically… I may have steered the conversation in that direction. Either way, I wasn’t turning it down. I’ve known Ant for years. He’s reliable, professional, and a bass player first and foremost. As a bonus, he already worked closely with Adrien in Lost Brethren, meaning file sharing and collaboration were second natur...
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Yet Another Innovative Way to Lose Money You Don’t Have

In todays ramblings, I explain how I managed to complicate the recording process even further once the session musicians were finally sorted. With the guitars recorded, I decided they should be re-amped — largely because the internet told me to. At the same time, it became clear that proper guitar tabs would be useful. My first instinct was to do them myself, which lasted about twenty minutes before I accepted that tabbing is an absolute nightmare. I then tried every AI tool claiming it could transcribe music automatically. None of them worked. Some of them produced riffs that were actually better than mine, which was tempting, but ultimately not helpful. Guitar Pro wanted money, so that idea was quickly abandoned. Naturally, I turned to Fiverr. One person offered transcription for nine pounds a track, which explained exactly why the tabs he sent back were completely unusable. While complaining about all this to my friend Adrien — a genuinely gifted guitarist who actually understands m...
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How to Ride on the Back of Other People’s Skill Sets

In today’s entry, I explain how I’ve been successfully relying on other people’s abilities since I was about sixteen — and how that finally paid off when it came time to record the album properly. With the album written, the next step was dealing with the reality of recording the audio. I still had a vague hope of keeping the whole project under a thousand pounds, but by this point that was looking increasingly optimistic. The obvious solution was session musicians — people who could actually play their instruments and do what I asked. And that definitely wasn’t going to be me. First up was finding a guitarist. While I know plenty of musicians, I didn’t want to dump a huge workload on friends, so I went looking elsewhere. Naturally, that meant Fiverr. I found a guy who could play guitar, bass, drums, sing, and also record, mix, and master. I sent him a demo of There’s a Body in the Tank and offered to tab it out. He learned it by ear before I even finished the message. We agreed he’d r...
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I Demon, I Monster - Behind The Lyrics

I Demon I Monster is a transformation song, built in the tradition of classic death metal tracks about losing humanity and becoming something else entirely. It follows a narrator undergoing a physical and mental change into a supernatural creature — part demon, part monster, driven by instinct, bloodlust, and rage. The song was directly inspired by tracks like Lycanthropy by Six Feet Under, leaning into that same blunt, no-frills approach to horror storytelling. The lyrics focus on the physical changes first — claws, teeth, blackened eyes — and then move into the mindset of the transformation, where control fades and violence takes over. There’s a clear divide between day and night. In daylight, the narrator hides and passes as human. When darkness falls, the monster fully emerges. The repeated refrain reinforces that shift in identity, hammering home what the narrator has become.
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Why Having a Guitar in Tune Is (Apparently) a Myth

At this stage, I’d convinced myself that tuning a guitar regularly was mostly a suggestion. That belief didn’t survive very long. After using the Les Paul for a couple of weeks, it finally dawned on me that “action” isn’t just something guitar players complain about for attention. Compared to the Jackson, it was genuinely hard to play. Around that time, a friend mentioned he was selling a Jackson, and since my buying criteria is extremely strict — it has to be a Jackson and it has to be black — this worked out perfectly. Payment was agreed in the form of a sizeable bag of cans, payable on collection. Even better, the guitar was already set up for B tuning, freshly strung, and I was assured it held its tuning. Fixed bridge, no top locks, nice and simple. I played it for about a month before tuning it, and when I finally did, it was barely out. Absolute madness. I couldn’t tell you what makes a guitar “good,” but this one was comfortable, easy to play, and actually enjoyable. Because of ...
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