Jose: Nice to have you back, looking forward to hear your new stuff

Moquel: Welcome back! Build your success!

Hey everybody, greetings from David's basement (that doesn't sound quite right). It's me, Jimmy, coming to you with our very first song update. First thing first, our self-titled EP has 88,000 copies so far. Talk about a major 'Holy shit!' moment. Our plan is to announce things as soon as they come along, instead of releasing a bunch of info in one or two posts, and I've gotta say, the new songs are the shit! Check it out:

Title: Concrete Hell

Writing Process: 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.

Music: 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.

Meaning: 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?



Title: Black Phalanx

Writing Process: 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.

Music: 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.

Meaning: 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.

206,000 copies in 3 weeks?!? Not bad for a debut EP. Here's the newest shit from the land of Black Gold Reign:

Title: Leather Lungs

Writing Process: 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.

Music: 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.

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

More tour dates and info on our second EP coming soon!

-David
Black Gold Reign

Hey kids, here's the newest shit to punch your wall to. Introducing, 'Black Gold Reign II' the EP a.k.a. "still not signed, although that'll change soon hopefully" (yep, you heard that right!).

Track 1:

Title: Leather Lungs

Writing Process: 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.

Music: 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.

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

Track 2:

Title: Concrete Hell

Writing Process: 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.

Music: 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.

Meaning: 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?

Track 3:

Title: Black Phalanx

Writing Process: 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.

Music: The song starts off with a bang, smashing right into some intense guitar riffage and blast beats, quite similar to something off 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.

Meaning: 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.

New material, tour dates, check it out:

Title: Six (The Slaughtered)

Writing Process: Jimmy was close with one of the cops that was shot down in Seattle, and upon hearing of his friend's death, decided the only way to cope was to write a song. An instrumental to be exact. He basically created a mechanical and hollow sounding background track with some synths, and overdubbed a solo over it. You can really feel the pain and other emotions in this piece. Definitely the opening track to our debut (although that's still a ways away).

Music: A oddly mournful set of electronic noises fades in, with a sober piano in the background. The faint sounds of numerous guitars giving off feedback can be heard, creating almost a choir of feedback. Haunting clean and distorted melodies and harmonies are layered over each other, some forming arpeggios of strange and dark sounding chords, others harmonizing little licks, while even more strum clean and/or distorted riffs, which are muffled sounding. An almost tribal clicking from the synths emerges, counting in the drums, which play a slow, technically demanding beat on just the snare, much like a military drum beat. More orchestral drums join in, and the layered guitars slowly fade out, being replaced by an incredibly moving and hurt sounding guitar solo. The various backing noises, among other things such as police reports, bullet sounds and, oddly enough gongs, fade in and out, yet the solo remains constant. Out of nowhere, and thrashy and intense drum beat blasts out, totally out of place with the rest of the music. Violins and heavy backing guitars lay down riffs, leads and other rythmic pieces. Finally, Jimmy rips into a shred-tastic and and vengeful solo, which finishes up the song.

Meaning: This song was written for the 6 fallen police from Seattle, killed in 3 separate killings in the past 2 months, mourning the dead and demanding revenge upon the killers.

"Canadian Winter Carnage" Dates:

February 8th - GM Place, Vancouver
February 9th - Civic Center Arena, Ottowa
February 11th - Hailfax Metro Center, Hailfax
February 13th - Pengrowth Saddledome, Calgary
February 14th - Rexall Place, Edmonton
February 16th - Colisee Pepsi, Quebec City
February 17th - Air Canada Center, Toronto

Red = Sold Out
Bold = 80% Sold Out
Italics = 70% Sold Out

Edited by user 15 January 2010 13:59:37(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Congratulations to Spain are in order, for buying the most copies of 'Black Gold Reign III' the EP, an strong 5,300. Surprisingly enough, it's the next stop on our tour, and its a sold out crowd of hopefully 4,000 of the most intense fans we've ever met. In other news, the 1st and 2nd 'Black Gold Reign' EPs, in 11 and 7 weeks respectively, have gone platinum. That's right, you fuckers have bought 1 million copies of both EPs. More tour dates soon, and a long over due album update. Also, this will be our last EP for a while, since we'll be entering the studio to record our debut album soon. The next release is already recorded, and will be the leading single off our debut, entitled 'Dead Skin'. Until then, here;s some more material update, which we've already sampled on some of our West Coast shows.

Title: Flood Gates

Writing Process: 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.

Music: We're trying something new, and for once we're gonna post up the music for you to listen to for yourself.The whole songs pretty killer, but the solo at 3:40 is the stand out piece. Enjoy.

Here's what you've been waiting for! Its the details on what we've been calling our Suicide Note Part. 1 & 2 (a.k.a. 21st century November Rain plus your average Meshugga tune). Some of you have already heard it on our newest EP or live, but for those of you who haven't, here's the lay down on 'Watch You Bleed' Parts 1 & 2:

Title: Watch You Bleed Part 1

Writing Process: This has been Matt's pet project for the past 2 years. He sat down and wrote some real somber guitar parts, and basically has been throwing melodies and different pieces on since then. He took it in to us, and it just continued to build. I (Jimmy) wrote some epic solos, which are so ridiculously uber-melodic that you just want to slap me in the face. Mixing was a nightmare. There is a 24 track completely filled with different vocal ideas, a 48 track of rythm guitar work, a 48 of drums and bass, and another 24 track of lead guitar stuff. In essence, its the metal Bohemian Rhapsody, minus all the silly theatrical bullshit. And no, we didn't go so crazy as to try to add piano or violins or other stuff like that. We let Avenged Sevenfold take care of that shit.

Music: An Opeth like clean guitar piece fades in, with little bass harmonies and cymbal work from Corey. The two guitars inter-weave, creating an intense emotional vibe, much like the intro to 'Infected Nations' by Evile, and Matt's ghost like voice slithers in and out, never landing on one memorable melody, making it more like a solo than an actual intro vocal. The singing tapers off, and is replaced by a slow, thoughtful and over-all complimentary guitar solo. As the song progresses, there are a couple easily definable passages (an anthemic chorus complete with massive distorted guitars and 4/4 straight forward drums, a dissonant post chorus marked by experimental chord changes, relying heavily upon David's near expertise of Egyptian and Church modes, and a diminished sounding bridge) and many other more abstract additions (such as a double bass injected guitar bit, a pre chorus of sorts with slithering vocals and a bass dominated harmony). As the tune reaches its peak, military-esque drums fade in and an epic rythm guitar track begins. The song explodes into a massive solo, backed with little muttering noises from Matt. From here the backing instruments exit one at a time, leaving the guitar hanging on one note, where the song abruptly ends.

Meaning: The over riding theme of this song is being there for someone, but when you need them the most, they stand back and "watch you bleed".



Title: Watch You Bleed Part 2.

Writing Process: David and I (Jimmy) originally had the idea to add a part 2 to the song, cause as cool as it was to write a song about others backstabbing you, it aint complete until you take revenge on them. In essence, the song features a shitload of Meshugga style riffs that are so rhythmically complex that its practically impossible to pull them of, much less get your head around them, unless you were the writer of said riff. We tied in a couple references to the first part, such as repeating a couple lyrics, along with the chorus, which now functions as the bridge.

Music: The track starts instantly, begunning with the same single guitar note as the last track, creating the illusion that it's just one song. The band procedes to blast straight into a churning riff, complete with traditional thrash beats and fills and small parts injected in where the bass takes a short 4 second solo, backed by double bass only. They rip through multiple poly-rhythms and chugging triplet based riffs, over which Matt emits screams that would make even Chuck Schuldiner proud. Matt and Jimmy trade off small solos, after which Corey takes a massive drum solo. This leads right into the anthemic bridge, which is simply a "metaled-up" version of the Part 1 chorus, with a much odder Tool-esque time signature. Matt's vocals are sung over this part, channeling his inner James Hetfield. The song ends in a massive white noise.

Meaning: Getting back at all those dicks who backstabed you of course! Kick their faces in, man!

Oh yes, and in between the 17th of February and the 14th of March, we will be entering Negative Record's studio to record our debut album, which I can tell you right now, will be entitled 'Archetype'. More info soon.

-Jimmy
Black Gold Reign

Updates, updates, updates. Stopping by to let you guys in on a couple things, one of which is that our new studio journal will be up soon, having entered the recording space earlier today. Also, the second single off our new album, which is entitled 'Strangers' was released last week, we'll be gettin' the info for that up soon too. My main point though is that you guys fucking rock, cause in 'Strangers' first week on the charts we sifted 212,000 copies, which was a total 'Holy shit!' moment. Along the same lines, 'Dead Skin' claimed the new record for fastest time any single/EP from us has gone platinum, coming in at 6 weeks, one less than 'Black Gold Reign III'. Finally, expect an update soon on a possible co-headline tour. Until then, here are the charts for 'Strangers'. Stay metal.

First Week:

-UK: 58
-US: 16
-Australia: 48
-Europe: 3
-South America: 26
-Canada: 56
-Asia: 131
-World: 36

Bold= Top 40

Edited by user 30 January 2010 14:55:08(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified