A little update
Things have gone back and forth for some time now, and finally we’re back making the new album with stable productivity. We’ve also got a new drummer, which we’ll present soon.
Some of the tracks are finished, but most of it is still bits and pieces. But creativity is coming, and hopefully this summer will be a productive one. I’ll update you guys soon with some more details, and maybe an album title.
PS: We no longer have short hair.
Studio progress Pt. 2
I know the progress of making new songs have been a bit slow lately. Next week we’re starting to work again. Torstein are currently working on new parts and he will send it to me and I will get behind the drums 24/7 to make the drum tracks. It will be a nonstop progress with blood, swet and tears ’till the pre-productions are complete.
The sound:
We’re going for minimum guitar layers this time and the drum sound will have a natural “garbage” sound. Hammond (Yes, real Hammond) solo or 2. The vocals are leaning over to more clean vocals than screaming. For now these are our ideas for how we want the sound to be. Allthough changes and new ideas will always appear. This time we will use another studio to record the drums and we will find an engineer to mix and record with us. It will be an excited session and new turns in our carreer. And of course an album that will punch you right in the face.
Ready, set, go! (Studio progress) Pt. 1
Once again Ansur have entered Lyst & Glede Studios to make their 3rd album. It will be more heavy, simple, groovy and technical than ever. We’re putting our creative minds together and jamming up the new stuff and if the schedual say so, the recording sessions will begin january 2010. Some jams will be put out every now and then as a little teaser for the upcoming album.
There will also be a live recording at Union Scene, september 3rd supporting Susperia.
5 ideas for the next album
1. Faster, Harder, Ansur
Some people are guessing that we’re turning into an avant-garde jazzrock-band or something, but the fact is that the next album is going to be harder, more intense and energic than the previous two. It’s going to be big and dramatic, with a lot of feel. I hope we can do some rehearsal takes where we jam over the new themes and put it here, so you can hear where we’re going.
2. Complex vs. simple – more balance
Warring Factions was complex in many different ways, but the last year I’ve found myself drifting towards a more simplistic type of musicality. Not THAT simple though, minimalism is not exactly the word the reviews will be using. But rather taking something complex, and presenting it as simple, that is an idea that I like a lot. But all in all I guess there’s not a matter of how complex or how simple things are, it’s how you balance those two ends of the scale.
3. The importance of themes
This is something we decided really early on, that the new album would not be “a bunch of riffs” put together, but instead trying to have musical themes that can be played over and over and over, with variations to it, without it getting boring. Let the themes be one of the most important things to identify the songs, unlike Warring Factions (to some degree) or Axiom, where some of the really good parts weren’t “exploited” to the max. Luckily, we can do some make changes when we play it live.
4. Skipping the clichés
We aren’t the band to use a lot of cliches, but everyone is guilty to a certain extent. We have avoided most metal cliches, even progressive metal cliches. 70’s rock cliches are probably the stuff we need to watch out for most. But I’m not saying that we can’t be inspired by a style or a certain sound. Like I said, everybody does it to a certain extent, and that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing.
5. Improved musicianship
I think that one of the most inspiring things to do is to listen to “Dark Side Of The Moon” in a headset, and really hear how brilliant musicianship can be. The playing styles of Mason, Wright, Gilmour and Waters are really admirable, and together they are at the peak of their sound.
Everybody loves a good sound, and that’s perhaps one of the things that our albums have missed, that real band sound. Espen and Glenn have taken big leaps as musicians, developing their own styles and being creative about everything, and that goes for the band as a whole as well. One of the key ingridients to the third album will be successfully merging our individual styles to a sound that really will shine through the production.