Hey kiddies, its your pal Jimmy (try to take a stab at what I'm on right now, you'd be surprised). This is gonna be your one and only place for all your 'Archetype' needs... who came up with that title anyways, Matt? Fuckin' low to be ripping off Fear Factory names, but now that I think about it, he's pretty anti-industrial, likely has no clue anyone else has made such a half-hearted attempt at naming an album 'Archetype', but there you go. Anyways, we got all your shit: general info, lyrics, basic description, detailed description, writing process, even band thoughts and eventually reviews, though I have no clue who'd want to review such a shit album, I mean come on, the guitar tracks for 10 songs were done in two days, so you can't expect Led Zeppelin IV the deuce. But apparently someone must like us, cause we've managed to sell 10 million units in singles and EPs, qualifying BGR as sellout bastards who have yet to actually put out an album, what are the chances? One sec, gotta take a quick hit, just discovered the wonder of Oxycontin. It's like heroin, but no one questions you, which is preferred. Well, back on topic, the date of release will be sometime between Feb. 16th and 20th, but we're not gonna tell you exactly when, cause that would ruin all the fun, now wouldn't it? Hey, is it a good thing I converted the bunk on our newly purchased tour bus into a full on bar? God, tour is getting to me....



General Info:

Title: Archetype
All Music By: Black Gold Reign
Lyrics By: Matt Carver & David Demmel
Arrangements By: Jimmy Sullivan (Who put him in-charge?)
Guitars Engineered By: Jeff Weed
Drums Engineered By: Aaron Caillier
Produced By: Travis Heafy
Mixed & Mastered By: Andy Sneap
Guitars & Drums Recorded At: Power Gen Italia, Rome, Italy (Get it?)
Bass & Vocals Recorded At: The Factory Recording Studio, Vancouver, Canada
Mixed & Mastered At: Backstage Productions, Derbyshire, England
Art By: Paul Romano

Release Date: Somewhere between Feb. 16th & the 20th.
Singles:

-Dead Skin
-Strangers
-Empire Lost
-Flood Gates
-Unwind The Chainsaw
-Blind

---

Basic Song Run-Down (A.K.A., If you had to compare this track to 1 band, who would it be, and why?)

Track 1: Concrete Hell -

Matt: Gonna have to go with Lamb Of God, cause its just got one of those downright vile groove riffs, and I can't get enough of it.
Corey: Machine Head, cause I get to play some real Dave McClain-esque tom rhythms.
Jimmy: Pantera, downright wickedly simple southern influenced riffs, and I get to take an almost bluesy Van Halen meets Chuck Schuldiner solo.
David: Sepultura, cause its got the whole groove/hardcore vibe, but you can't deny its a true to heart thrash song.

Track 2: Unwind The Chainsaw -

Matt: Some sort of Korn, Killswitch, Kreator off-spring, which I will promptly dub the KKK song.
Corey: Hard to pin down, its got this unique new vibe I've never really encountered before.
Jimmy: No comment (Matt: This is him thinking he's funny)
David: Black Gold Reign, obviously.

Track 3: Black Phalanx -

Matt: Maiden, without a doubt.
Corey: Fuck him, it sounds nothing like Maiden. Black Dahlia Murder, maybe, but not fucking Maiden.
Jimmy: Pantera, cause that's what we aim for. (Matt: Once again, not funny)
David: If you trapped Gene Hologan, Dimebag, Flea gone metal and that dip-shit from Korn (OOC: I honestly don't like them, but his voice fits the description well) in a room with nothing but your most basic hard-core equipment and a sheet of 3 Inches Of Blood lyrics, you got Black Phalanx.

Track 4: Strangers -

Matt: Joey of Slipknot and Tom Araya replace the Cavaleras in a Choas A.D. era Sepultura.
Corey: Now this sounds like Maiden.
Jimmy: Iron Maiden my ass, neither of you have a clue about this shit, comparing the NWOBHM to crossover meets prog metal.
David: They never stop, do they? I'm gonna stop explaining, ain't worth my time. Slayer.

Track 5: Dead Skin -

Matt: Some fucking ballistic blackened death metal plus Megadeth
Corey: Ditto
Jimmy: Behemoth
David: Suffocation meets Satyricon

Track 6: Empire Lost -

Matt: Machine Head
Corey: I think he means 'Bite The Bullet', off 'Through the Ashes Of Empires' by Machine Head.
Jimmy: More of a 'Burn My Eyes' piece if you ask me.
David: 'The Blackening' is their best so far. (Jimmy: Go fuck yourself)

Track 7: Moorhouse Murders -

Matt: All Shall Perish, oddly enough.
Corey: Not sure, but its got some cool schweepies and squeelies.
Jimmy: My favorite, cause I get to take a full out shred solo. HELL YES!
David: Shit, too many -core influences.

Track 8: Blind -

Matt: Mastodon
Corey: Some kind of sludge meets Metallica meets Lynyrd Skynrd jam, a.k.a. pretty damn strange.
Jimmy: Definitely Mastodon.
David: Makes up for M. Murders

Track 9: Flood Gates -

Matt: Pantera.
Corey: Really? Pantera never wrote anything this far out there.
Jimmy: Listen to 'The Great Southern Trendkill' dip-shit.
David: *sigh*

Track 10: Leather Lungs -

Matt: 21st century Suicidal Tendencies.
Corey: Uhhhh, Hatebreed plus Exodus?
Jimmy: Thrash/Hardcore crossover beauty. Not punk based thrash, like Slayer, or punk verging on thrash, but real, true crossover.
David:Definitely something you can skate to.

---

Lyric Themes/Lyrics:

Concrete Hell: The lyrics to song explain the life of a mentally ill child. He brutally murders his little brother, and is sent to a mental institute, which to him is a 'Concrete Hell'. The kid doesn't understand why he's there, and why his parents never come to save him, and in the end he commits suicide. Cheery story, eh?

Unwind The Chainsaw: Serial killers and Slasher Films. Hell yeah...

Black Phalanx: The lyrics are rather simple on this one, describing epic medieval warfare, a lot like a 3 Inches Of Blood song without the mythical creatures.

Strangers: 'The Strangers' obviously! Basically, it's a story about some dudes breaking into a fucking house and slowly killing the owners. Pretty.

Dead Skin: Similar to the majority of 'Archetype', the overlying theme is based around monsters and horror stories, in particular a maimed character rightfully named 'Stitch Boy'.

Empire Lost:

I understand your every fear
Your every pain your every tear
With every struggle you conquer
Turn heart to steel
And will to iron

You want more?
You'll get it
Determined, ferocious
Grit down and bite the bullet
Dare to unbind
Smash and redefine

The hate you feel is nothing more
Than love you feel to win this war
The battle that rages inside you
With bloodlust
You must unchain your shackles

You want more?
You'll get it
Determined, ferocious
Grit down and bite the bullet
Dare to unbind
Smash and redefine

Lion heart
Never give in
Unsatisfy every weakness

You want more?
You'll get it
Determined, ferocious
Grit down and bite the bullet
Dare to unbind
Smash and redefine

Moorhouse Murders:

You know!
You hear those cries of anguish
Each time
That you face the mirror
And those deafening voices blames me
But that's more
Than I'm trying to hear
So let the pain revive you
Never let me get inside you
Never... again.
Lets just oppress this
Demon within
The abyss is a friend
You breathe deceit
And I'm surprised I still stand on my feet
You know that
I live
I breathe
Hate
Our days were agony
And therefore so tragically
There was satisfaction
Hate fucking in apathy
So fucking
Tell me
Were there days when things were so much better?
Before
You were such a self loathing hateful bitch.
Recognize the hell that you're spewing forth
What we might have shared is nothing anymore
What you said to me
Was never meant to be
Never... again...

Blind:

No more ifs, no bias, no ambiguity
No wondering whether this is it
Clarity so brightly wrong
The image so painfully absolute

No edges blurred on this awareness
No unknown weight to tip the knowledge scales
Eyes dilated to grasp it all
As every illusion of what we are fails

An unquestionable picture - determined, complete
Its crystalline lines untouched by doubt
So vivid, so deprived of hesitation
Shining in its evil splendor

The burning hatred of man
A million degrees on display
Human voracity delineated
The demons in us all by fumes portrayed

Stare, see, take in, grasp
Comprehend, assimilate, behold your reflection

Its framing - gold plated lies
The canvas - hurting souls caught and weaved
The artist - the human dream
Incinerated, devoured, deceived

Flood Gates:

A dead issue, don't wrestle with it, deaf ears are sleeping
A guilty bliss, so inviting (let me in), nailed to the cross

I feel you, relate to you, accuse you
Wash away us all, take us with the floods
Then throughout the night, they were raped and executed
Cold hearted world
Your language unheard of, the vast sound of tuning out
The rash of negativity is seen one sidedly, burn away the day

The nervous, the drifting, the heaving
Wash away us all, take us with the floods
Then throughout the day mankind played with grenades
Cold hearted world
And at night they might bait the pentagram
Extinguishing the sun
Wash away man, take him with the floods

Leather Lungs: The songs lyrics don't have any particular focus other than being bad ass. Thats as plain and simple as it gets for ya.

---

Writing Process:

Concrete Hell: During the sound check at one of our shows in Dublin, Matt just burst out into to this massive grooving riff, really similar to something Dimebag or one of the dudes from Lamb Of God would do. Corey and David joined him and I laid down these small licks and leads over it. We jammed on that for a while, and came up with a couple other riffs that complemented it well. When we got back to our houses in L.A., I went straight over to Matt's and we finalized the arrangement about 30 minutes later.

Black Phalanx: I've been working on this one for a long time, mainly because I'd written this fantastic 2 part harmony, and I came up with a couple ideas of how to add on to it, but nothing seemed to fit, so I brought it to the guys. David brought in this killer 3 note rythm, and Corey contributed some triplet stuff and a Iron Maiden-esque lead, and from there everything kind of fell into place. Matt and I penned a little dueling guitars thing and slapped it on with the rest of the stuff and called it finished.

Blind: Jimmy wrote this one before the band was together, so sadly, no records of the writing process.

Empire Lost: Once again, Jimmy sucks at remembering shit.

Leather Lungs: On the 2 hour drive to the Hollywood Palladium show (fuck you traffic), us and our 3 man crew were getting shit faced on pot in the back of the van, basically screwing around and occasionally playing guitar or something, and Jimmy wrote this hardcore meets Exodus-esque thrash riff, and Matt just kinda started ad-libbing over it. Corey tapped out a rythm for it, and from there we came up with a couple chord progressions that fit well, and called it a wrap. Fantastic way to waste time.

Flood Gates: This is the spawn of our first, and last, formal songwriting session. As opposed to our usual tactic of jamming and bringing bits and pieces together, we decided to sit down and write a song from scratch, an it was the most stressful point of my past 3 years of life. Needless to say, there were lots of distractions (groupies, pot, Taco Bell, etc.etc.), but in the end, we turned out a pretty sick tune. Matt layed down this wicked clean lick that sounds like a cross between brutal southern sludge/groove metal and Spanish flamenco madness. We added some gnarly riffs to that, and Jimmy topped it off with what I think is his best solo to date.

Moorhouse Murders: This'll probably be the closest we'll ever come to playing metalcore/deathcore, and even then, this mother fuckers a good ways off from that. Jimmy apparently prefers writing little licks and arpeggios to practice with instead of just straight up running through scales, and during our practice session he was warming up with this really killer sounding pattern that is diminished sounding and lets all the notes hang out, and needless to say the rest of us really dug it. It turns out he had most of the song mapped out already, including some not-so average parts such as a very experimental post-chorus and John Petrucci style 'full shred' sweeping arpeggio, which morphed into being the chorus. In total, the song took about 30 minutes to wrap up, after Corey contributed a sick poly-rhythmic verse bit and I taught Jimmy how to play a little solo idea of the top off my head that I had just wrote.

Dead Skin: Written by David and Matt in Nile's Fear, no record.

Strangers: Well, the main idea for this one came about when one day, we managed to set up a DVD player in the van, and sure enough, watched 'The Strangers'. Corey just kinda got up, and basically said out loud, 'That movie was so bad ass, I gotta write something about it'. He proceeded to sit down and, oddly enough, penned a series of drum beats that he thought really captured the feel of the movie. When he demoed it to us at the sound check, I was blown away by how commanding these Danny Carey + Gene Hologan divided by Sepultura tribal beat drum parts were, and got right to business on building onto it. I got a couple real simple uber-groove oriented riffs down, and David brought in a cool Iron Maiden-esque harmony, which really gives it that unique blend of different styles of metal. Jimmy helped me come up with some rather war-chant heavy vocal melodies, after which we finalized the arrangement and called it a wrap.

Unwind The Chainsaw: Wrote this little bastard in the studio, so we didn't bother to record the writing process.

---

Detailed Description:

Concrete Hell: The song starts with an explosive drum rythm, using mainly the toms and a good dose of double bass. The rest of the band plays one quick note, and then are silenced. Once the drum rythm plays out one more time, the band hits the same note, this time holding it. As the guitars fade out, Matt starts to play a heavy yet incredibly catchy riff. After a massive drum fill, the rest of the band joins Matt on the riff, Jimmy also playing the previously mentioned licks whenever he has the chance. This riff melts into the verse, which is just Matt half singing/half growling like Phil of Pantera or Robb of Machine Head over a simplified version of the intro riff. They run through a thrashy pre-chorus, building up into an anthemic chorus, complete with guitar harmonies and rough singing much like Maynard Keenan of Tool. A quick drum fill brings them back to the verse. They complete the whole verse-pre-chorus-chorus cycle again, and then Jimmy takes off into a blistering solo, and at the end of it, the band cuts out minus Jimmy, leaving a single note sounding out. They kick back into a massive chugging bridge/outro, which fades out with Matt and Corey screaming 'Hell' back and forth.

Black Phalanx: The song starts off with a bang, smashing right into some intense guitar riffage and blast beats, quite similar to something of The Black Dahlia Murder's album 'Miasma'. After a quick drum fill, Matt comes in screaming, over a riff that consists mainly of fast and grooving triplets. The chorus stands out in particular because it consists of 2 parts, a slow chugging mosh riff, and a blistering guitar rythm, much like the chorus of 'Drag The Waters' by Pantera. This followed immediately by a uber melodic and catchy guitar harmony. They cycle through these parts again, with the addition of a brutal breakdown in the middle of the verse. In this song Matt uses the more high pitched growling areas of his voice, along with experimenting with a Korn-ish singing voice, while David handles the deeper screams. Another highlight of the song is a shred-tastic duel solo, which is followed by a mammoth drum solo. They re-visit the intro riff, which closes up the song.

Blind: Coming Soon

Empire Lost: Coming Soon

Leather Lungs: Pure hardcore-thrash crossover at its finest. The rythm guitar consists of a simple set of heavy as fuck triplets, backed up by a basic thrash drum beat. If this alone wasn't enough to make you jump out of your chair and begin violently moshing, Jimmy's guitar cuts through the mix, playing a shredding solo much like Marty Friedman at his best. This leads into a Slayer-ish intense riff, accompanied by wild double bass beats from Corey. Matt begins to belt out the lyrics, almost mimicking the voice Robb Flynn of Machine Head uses in 'Aesthetics of Hate'. They run through some galloping riffage and then jam into a smashing hardcore chorus, perfect for headbanging. They follow up with an anthemic post-chorus war chant and another blistering solo, this time played by Matt. The song closes with the same chorus/warcry. 2 and a half minutes of crossover nirvana.
Flood Gates:

Moorhouse Murders: The track starts with a barely audible guitar part in the background, which fades in to reveal itself to be a wicked guitar pattern, which is soon doubled by Matt's guitar and then further joined by one lonely bass note and a half-time feeling drum beat, pounded away on the crash cymbal with short blasts of double bass. BGR cuts out, minus Jimmy, who is left playing the catchy one-note rhythm, 'duh-duh-duh-duh..duh-duh..duh-duh', which then is carried into the verse by scratchy guitar noises and Matt spitting out the words, 'You know!'. The aforementioned verse is characterized by deep guttural vocals and a 2 guitar attack, Matt playing a similar one-note rhythm while Jimmy tackles a much more difficult riff that sounds almost as if its rolling. He is quickly joined by the others on this tricky bit, while Corey switches between an awing tom-tom beat and your most straight forward yet super technical double bass piece. The lyrics to the chorus are spat out, allowing the metronome busting chops of Jimmy to shine as he lays out a possibly record breakingly fast arpeggio, putting to rest any claims that the budding guitarist can't "shred". He holds out one final note, which blends into a out of place yet very unique and inventive post-chorus, featuring Latin percussion, clean guitar passages, sweeping little guitar harmonies and half whispered half growled vocals, adding a fantastic contrast. To further make this bit seem out of place, a strong drum fill leads right into a break-down perfectly suited for headbangers, which might disappoint some due to its cliché deathcore vibe. They rip right back into the huge pre-chorus, although this time, Jimmy still takes off with his lightning guitar work, yet there are no vocals accompanying him. It soon becomes clear that he's taking a solo, which could easily land himself a spot to be recognized as one of the best young shredders around, due to its extreme technical merit with added blues bending licks. They wrap up the song with another run through of the chorus-post-chorus section and another brutal, but more 'legit', breakdown.

Dead Skin: Coming Soon

Strangers: The song starts with a fast and vicious sounding tribal beat, which is overlapped on 7 different drum kits for a massive and flowing feel, while still maintaining that authentic hardcore feel first achieved by namely, of course, Sepultura. As the tom rhythms intensify, incorporating techniques made famous by Joey Jordinson of Slipknot and Danney Carrey of Tool, a flowing groove riff, consisting of no more than 4 different notes, creeps on in. This simple piece is doubled, then tripled, creating a massive and growing vibe, and Corey switches to an insanely fast snare roll, which starts off as a distant buzzing but soon morphs into a dominating fill, sweeping right into the verse. Another simple yet effective riff, played in the vein of the late Dimebag Darrell, takes over, backed by a super infectious war-chant, screamed by Matt and 20 lucky fans. This is all held together by the near perfect synchronization between David's galloping bass lines and Corey's thrashing drum beats. Taking no time at all to dive into any complex musical passages, they race straight to the chorus, who's wicked guitar harmonies, epic double bass drumming and massive warrior vocals can be described as setting off a grenade in the National Library. Going against the grain of the normal verse-chorus-verse-chorus, BGR rips into a poly-rhythmic bridge, characterized by multiple speedy drum solos similar to something Dave Lombardo of Slayer might do, the last of which leads into a average length guitar solo, whose wah use and piercing squeals would make Kirk Hammet and Dimebag proud, respectively. Jimmy coaxes out a few more rip-tide notes, which carry on into a mosh-pit anthem of a bridge, which oddly enough manages to retain its 'legit' hardcore feel even though Matt sings for the first and only time in the song. To further remove themselves from the conventional song structure, they finish with a roaring repeat of the chorus and then lastly, a half-time version of the bridge. How's that for tricky, eh?

Unwind The Chainsaw: Coming Soon

---

Reviews:

-Single Reviews:

-Strangers:

Rolling Stone: Just when all might have been lost to the hordes of deathcore, screamo, and alternative metal bands, Black Gold Reign has breathed a new hope into the music scene, providing a clever mix of many different styles of metal. On the second single from there up-coming debut album, the music very closely resembles that of the string of independently released EPs, although that isn't such a bad thing. BGR sticks to their guns, maintaining the almost staple thrash drumming, bass triplets and neo-Maiden harmonies, while injecting a couple twists, such as the overlapped tribal beats of 'Strangers' or the almost jazz-metal post-chorus of 'Moorhouse Murders'. There is no doubt ex-Nile's Fear frontman Matt Carver will rise to one day be an icon for aspiring metal vocalists, combining a new mix of hard-core shouts, death metal growls, black metal screams and thrashy clean vocals. Props go to Jimmy for his mind blowing shred solos on 'Moorhouse Murders', although sadly, it might be the only credible characteristic of the whole song, which some are calling a cop-out or fall back in case their original tactic doesn't work, since the song is slightly reminiscent of the cliche metalcore genre. Overall, BGR should continue to do what they do best, which isn't trying to reinvent the musical wheel, but rather produce rare gems of metal masterpiece. 9/10.

-Album Reviews:

---

Singles:

-Dead Skin:

-Release Date: January 24th
-Tracklisting:

-Dead Skin
-Sea Cliffs
-Carried On The Wings Of Slavery

-Sales (So Far): 1,533,845
-Peak:

-UK: 70
-South America: 34
-US: 41
-Australia: 59
-Europe: 20
-Asia: 152
-Canada: 86
-World: 56

-Strangers:

-Release Date: February 2nd
-Tracklisting:

-Strangers
-Moorhouse Murders
-Empire Lost

-Sales (So Far): 1,598,550
-Peak:

-UK: 49
-South America: 26
-US: 16
-Australia: 31
-Europe: 3
-Asia: 131
-Canada: 39
-World: 32

-Empire Lost:

-Release Date: February 10th
-Tracklisting:

-Empire Lost
-Empire Lost Demo Version
-Omerta (Lamb Of God Cover)

-Sales (So Far): 1,731,982 (WOW)
-Peak:

-UK: 25
-South America: 8
-US: 6
-Australia: 4
-Europe: 3
-Asia: 92
-Canada: 31
-World: 36

-Flood Gates:

-Release Date: February 21st
-Tracklisting:

- Flood Gates
- Flood Gates (Demo)
- The Body Of Death With The Man With The Body Of Death (Pinkly Smooth Cover)

-Sales (So Far): 1,207,000
-Peak:

-UK: 6
-South America: 3
-US: 15
-Australia: 3
-Europe: 3
-Asia: 23
-Canada: 3
-World: 4



-Unwind The Chainsaw:

-Release Date: February 25th
-Tracklisting:

-Unwind The Chainsaw
-Unwind The Chainsaw (Demo)
-Blacken The Cursed Sun (Lamb Of God Cover)

-Sales (So Far): 479,105
-Peak:

-UK: 17
-South America: 9
-US: 11
-Australia: 21
-Europe: 6
-Asia: 17
-Canada: 8
-World: 13



-Blind:

-Release Date: March 8th
-Tracklisting:

-
-
-

-Sales (So Far):
-Peak:

-UK:
-South America:
-US:
-Australia:
-Europe:
-Asia:
-Canada:
-World:

---

OOC: I'll be adding more every day or so.

Edited by user 28 February 2010 05:21:12(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

OOC: It said this thread (unintentional rhyme) was edited by a mod, but I couldn't find any edits. Any reason why it said this, or am I being slightly paranoid?

Strangers review up, lyrics by tonight.

OOC: So.... what I think I got from that was... no more long lines?

OOC: Gracias

Hey guys, just here to update that after 2 fucking months, 'Archetype has fallen out of the World Top 40, which is huge if I do say so for a metal debut. It's currently at #43, and has sold 1,651,674 copies.

-Matt
BGR

OOC: Updated some, I'll have the rest of the rp's and reviews up in the next week, depending on when I get inspired I guess. Don't expect anyone to read all of that, but ya know, I really think the 3rd times the charm for Birdies 'Best Newcomer'. Eh, if you do though, advice would be fantastic.