Death Angel studio blog, Part III

Posted May 20 by Chris D.

By Rob Cavestany (Death Angel)

May 20, 2010.

6:55 a.m. – En route from Austria to Switzerland

Sitting on the bus watching the sunrise through the pouring rain can make for an inspirational moment so I thought it would be a good time to vibe out and throw down with a blog.

We are on the second day of our “Killing Europe 2010” tour doing a bunch of festivals with bands like Testament, Lamb of God, Behemoth, Deicide, 6 Feet Under, Parkway Drive and Sepultura (who we spent a good part of the night drinking and catching up with) to name a few.  We are also gonna do a few club shows in between with Nevermore.  Feels good to be back on the road and performing live!

Actually, “feels good” is an understatement.  Just one week ago, Mark and I were in Sanford, Florida laying down the final tracks for our new album.  It seems like just yesterday when I played the last note on the last solo of the last song on the record.  In fact we finished at approx 7am on May 4, right on schedule.  8 hours later we were on a flight back to Oakland and less than a week later on a flight to Frankfurt.  What a way to make a living…

Last time I checked in, we were in Stockholm bound for home for less than a day before heading to Atlanta then Hollywood for a pair of Scion sponsored free shows.  The shows rocked!  The Roxy gig was a standout…  the crowd was insane, best L.A. crowd ever!  Unforgettable night!

The next morning saw Mark and I on a flight to Florida and in the blink of an eye we are at AudioHammer Studios to complete the record.  We attacked vocals first.  Mark and Jason hit it off instantly as I knew they would and had a blast tracking!  The goal was to bring out the most passionate, intense and vicious delivery that Mark had in him and I would say the demons have been exorcized!  The most aggressive, brutal and angry vox we’ve had yet!  He slayed it!  Not to mention the lyrics…  beware…

Some of my favorite material was actually written there in Florida while we were tracking.  We like to leave space to write in the studio while we are recording to capture the fire of spontaneity, and that we did.  While Mark was in there tracking vocals, I was back at our Sanford house writing lyrics / melodies / harmonies.  When I was at the studio tracking solos, Mark was at the house writing.  Team work!  Some really amazing things happen when we attack that way.

After a solid week of recording, Mark was ready for a break and I jumped in to do some vox.  It’s a treat putting down the guitar for a minute and having the chance to track vox with a pro like Jason.  Such a smooth flow and we got my tracks down fast.  Then it was on to finish all of Marks lead vocal parts which he nailed like the consistent freak that he is!  After that we did background vox then wrapped up the crooning with the customary gang vocals which feature Jason and Ted as well as Mark and I.  We yelled like maniacs until all but Mark (shocker) lost their voices.  Good times indeed!

Finally it was down to me to bring it across the finish line with all the solo sections.  I was very much looking forward to it as Jason is an AMAZING guitar player and I knew we were gonna have a blast going crazy with lead action.  All I can say is wait until you hear this shit…  his goal was to push me to go off as hard as I could and that’s exactly what happened. The result is an explosion of notes with all the angst and love and hate and joy that is me.  On one song we have Jason and I “dueling” solos, trading back and forth and finally joining together for a harmony section at the end…  first time we ever had someone “not in the band” on any of our albums and we couldn’t have had a better person to pop our guest musician cherry!  It’s one of my favorite solo sections in any of our songs…  love it!

Finally I recorded the acoustic solo for the song “Volcanic”… this one takes you deep… and the album was done.  Well, tracking at least.  As I write this, Jason is mixing the first song.  Soon I shall have the first one hot off the grill sitting in my inbox, ready to download and have a listen.  I know it’s gonna sound SICK!

Next time I check in, I will unveil the title of the album, along with the track listing.  Until then, I better get some sleep.  Gotta big show tonight in Pratteln.  G’nite Decibelheads.

Prost!

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