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The Schadenfreude Ecdysiast- Hydrogen & Helium [New album]
And so it's finally here. The third and simply epic new album from The Schadenfreude Ecdysiast - side project of ex-The Lost bass guitarist and singer Liam O'Mally. It's schedualed for release around 13th of October, however the date is subject to change after a mistake with the retailers of the album. The album has been entirely created by Liam, however these musicians also worked on it with him to provide instruments.[Mike Jenkins; Drums][Robert Hanks; Lead Guitar][Ian Knight; Lead Guitar][Thomas Patterson; Drums]Enjoy!1. Hydrogen // 3:15 –
The song begins with a dark, low straight baseline that you can barely hear. The baseline slowly gets louder until the sound begins throbbing. After five seconds, a distorted guitar begins playing a slow repetitive riff on his guitar. Then the drum's kick in. To the beginning it's only a light tapping of the symbols but it soon turns into quite a tribal beat. As the beat and guitar picks up pace, all the while the baseline throbbing, suddenly it stops. Pause. Suddenly with a crash of symbols a violin bursts onto the scene along with the other instruments. The violins playing violently and powerfully are beautiful and quiet eerie over the top of the deep guitar playing. After this Liam begins singing. His voice almost vibrates your headphones and echoes around your skull. The lyrics describe her job and her passion, but how it is simply a façade she puts over what in fact is a depressing and degrading life. There is no definite chorus and the same tempo and melody is played throughout, however changing notes and pitch as it goes. At the end it stops suddenly, leaving only the baseline throbbing until it finally reaches silence.2. Just Cause // 6:15 –
Quite different to Hydrogen, as it is slightly more in your face. The song begins with a loud, simply, quite tribal drum beat, the guitars soon come in with no messing around. Three guitars were used on the track and Liam has merged them into one, distorting them to the skin of their teeth but keeping that raw sound without too much electrical interference. Liam begins singing about halfway through, with the lyrics being a about the moral dilemmas she has to go through with her work. Describing how she knows what she does is wrong but she loves the thrill of it. The drums remain the same throughout, but slowly speeding up in time with the guitars. At about 5:25 there is a distorted guitar riff, with Liam providing a creepy type of howling and screeching through the microphone. 3. Benedict // 5:57 –
This one returns to the dark and deepness of Hydrogen but relying on a bass guitar to keep the rhythm going rather than the drums, which are hardly heard in this. The song starts with the deep bass guitar just strumming a simple one chord riff. A, C, E over and over again, until about .30 where Liam begins playing a keyboard. The keyboard has quite a whiny sound, and lingers long after its been played. The song builds up with these two coming together in an eerie sound until the faint sound of an electric guitar is heard in the background. As the song is quite slow Liam actually crosses over talking with singing in a quiet, almost impossible to hear way. The song continues building up the tension until it is relieved, at which point Liam plays a short keyboard piece and a trumpet is heard being played. After this for about the remaining 2 minutes of the song it’s slightly more light hearted and uplifting, whilst keeping the keyboard and bass guitar it gives off the sense that all is not well, however it seems to everyone around her that it is. 4. Scream and Shout (Up In Arms) // 8:14 –
It begins straight away with a long progressive solo performed by Liam. Once he is finished the solo at about 3 minutes a violin assembly begin to play a soft tune in the background. This song has no distortion and is the closes you’ll get to unplugged. Liam accompanies the violins with piano, playing the bass notes. Liam doesn’t start singing until around 6 minutes, where he simply mutters random words underneath his breath, slowly getting louder and louder until he’s actually shouting them. The words are very philosophical in a way and can be interoperated many different ways. 5. Visual // 4:50 –
The synthesisers return as virtually all the song is edited with. The guitars squeal and drive the song forward with a tribal drum beat in the background. The drum beat was actually played using traditional African instruments. A strange, quite hypnotic song that will defiantly get stuck in your head. The song uses different tempos and guitar effects to keep it fresh and intriguing. It starts with a strange whirling sound made by Liam’s synthesizer, which is quickly followed by a deep bass guitar. Violins, trumpets, the full works all feature in this pick ‘n’ mix of sound and instruments. A piece of art – without sounding too busy it achieves a strange sense of happiness.
(NOTE FROM ARTIST: Will sound good whilst high.)6. The Daring // 6:32 –
Fast paced song, hardly doom metal. In fact slightly more thrash but without the screaming. A fully instrumental song it has no vocals, however relies on the sheer power of it to drive it home. Just one electric guitar, one bass guitar and a synthesiser all mixed together and played with makes this the real powerhouse of the album. Deep, loud, and very bassful it has a hint of drum n bass to it. Fantastic song to play live and to dance to. 7. Harlot Harriet // 7:32 –
Awesome song. Really epic, big, stadium filler this one. Took in influences from people like Coheed and Cambria for this. The song’s lyrics are really something special to. They introduce Harriet – The Schadenfreude Ecdysiasts best friend. She’s a prostitute, too, working in the same bar. However the two couldn’t be more different. Whilst TSE never went out looking to be a prostitute, far from it, Harriet genuinely enjoys her job. However, you do get hints of possibly just being a front to cover up her insecurities, but for now Harriet remains a rather confusing character. Very interesting, though. 8. Opium // 5:43 –
Couldn’t be more different to the song before. Very violent, thrash like song with deep bass and distortion on it. Heavily uses synthesisers and other electrical equipment and a vocoder for the chorus, which is a pretty neat piece of kit. The song’s a very stark contrast to itself in the sense that it’s got quite a cheerful, happy tune to it. Almost lullaby like. Quite sickly, in fact, however the lyrics are violent, evil and menacing. Doom at its finest, very deep and powerful guitar playing in it. No solo’s, unlike HH. You’ll either love this or hate it – but that’s why I wanted to put it on the album, to see what you guys would think of it. But there is yet another facet to this song. The music has been orchestrated by me and a group of drug experts to actually sound like you’re on an opiate. The very abrupt changes of pitch, tempo and lyrics mean it will throw you around like a Barbie on a rollercoaster.9. Aesthetic Betty // 9:18 –
Another new character – Aesthetic Betty. Bit of a piss take of Ugly Betty you may think, and well yes I did get the idea from her but I switched it around. This Betty is in fact a viciously bitchy and nasty piece of work that is quite middle class in fact. She grew up with Harriet and TSE and loathes the pair of them. Believing that they are vermin and of no worth at all. However as the story progresses the three will form a strange, ugly, messy but ultimately loving friendship that will grow in the most unlikely of circumstances. And now onto what the song actually songs like. This one’s very lyrics led, so don’t expect too many fireworks with the instruments and I’ve stuck a pretty simple tribal beat to the background of it which is pretty cool and keeps the song going. The guitars are more the iron bolts that hold together the Eiffel Tower, rather than the guitars being the Eifel Tower themselves.10. Helium // 11:56 –
Very cool way to end the album. The song begins, like Hydrogen, with the same baseline throbbing away. Which also remains throughout, however everything else is completely different. Fast fret work and deafening drums in the background as supplied by Mike (ex – The Lost) mean this is one of my favourite songs I’ve ever recorded. And plus, once the lyrics have finished there’s an absolutely monster four minute solo that will be on Guitar Hero’s for years to come. _______________________ooc: Worked meh arse off on this, criticism/points to improve upon please? Otherwise it's not worthwhile if I keep making the same mistakes because people are too nice to tell me what I'm doing wrong.Edited by user 12 October 2009 07:52:14(UTC)
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