Brandon Strader

Hi. I've taken a short hiatus while I'm not really able to work on music, but I have finally released these two albums on the internet where they can be listened to or purchased, like, digitally. I'm not sure if people typically write about memories of each song but I'd like to. These writings have nothing to do with the concept of the songs (they're both concept albums) but I think the individual pdfs of the stories are on each site. If not I'll try to get them up there, and maybe link them here later. I'm making such a "big deal" out of these postings because I will NEVER BE ABLE TO MAKE MUSIC THIS GOOD EVER AGAIN. So please enjoy. I'm very excited to present to you.... click the pictures / titles Rainwound - The Ivory Chapel Progressive Death Metal with a lot of prog rock influence This CD took like 3 years to finish, finally I just said I'm done tweaking this... if I re-record it again, I'm going to go insane. 1. November 23 - Originally made this song as part of what was going to be a collab between me and a friend from Texas. We had similar interests but he was lazy and didn't really put down ideas like I was dropping them, I think he might even be playing pop rock now. What is the significance of the date you ask? Hmmm... November is a fairly traumatic month, and the number 23 is full of mystery. Just kidding, I don't really know. Seemed like a good random date to celebrate though as an anniversary of sorts. 2. Her Silvery Vision - Like the first Rainwound CD, this is the obligatory second track of dark / atmospheric mood. I thought it'd be funny to do the same thing on the second album. 3. Memories - This one was a ton of fun. All acoustic song, very pretty. Auto-tune is used pretty heavily near the middle of the song for that ridiculous pop sound, but the CD as a whole really doesn't use auto-tune. I was vehemently against it at the time. 4. The Ivory Chapel - The title track.. I was extremely happy with this one! I think the piano break with the layered vocals and guitar solos came out really awesome. Then the heavy section directly after this is, in my opinion, the highlight of the album. Not to toot my own horn but like I said, it HAS been a few years and I make music I like to listen to, so I'm allowed to enjoy it, even now.. :3 5. To Measure One's Worth - Another all acoustic song. This was one of those weird situations where a song just comes together perfectly. I was playing with some non-fitting chords, and then they just fit together and I was like o_o And when something like that happens, it really gets me in a good writing mood.. then the rest of the song was born. 6. A Knight's Vengeance - The all-heavy piece... Oh wait, there's an acoustic ending. This was a ton of fun. I'd re-recorded the vocals for the whole CD a few times when I learned how to growl better. Before they were horrible, grating screams. This song has a bit of a higher range of growl to it mostly because I forgot it was supposed to be lower. But still not as high as previously recorded. 7. Holy Light - This is another song that was going to be a collab but I ended up writing and recording it all myself. It's all instrumental. It's also going to be on Rock Band soon I think made by that inimatible[?] fellow who charts stuff around here. 8. Assault on the Kingdom - I remember when I hit this section of the CD lyrically, that I was severely out of room for how I wanted to end it. I think I even re-wrote the ending as a result of improper planning. I'm super happy with how it ended though. The original idea was pretty cheesy. 9. Spiritual Hallucinations - The second big prog epic outside of the title track, this one is mostly acoustic but has an awesome instrumental heavy break. The prog break around 3:12 is one of my favorite moments. So there was my more-than-you-needed-or-wanted-to-know director's comments on this album. I hope you listen to it and enjoy it, and if you want to buy it.... well that's just great too. Want a physical copy, ask and I'll try to print up a DIY jewel case and bring it to MAGfest. That is, if you're going to MAGfest. Seriously. Go. In Staid Grace - Revelations Sorry about the inconsistent cover sizes. Progressive black metal I recorded this one in the middle of recording for The Ivory Chapel. I had a "version" of that one that I ended up being dissatisfied with and re-recording, but I took that break to work on this, the heavier material. 1. Malevolent Induction - Remade with EWQL SO! Yay! Much more expanded than the simple Cakewalk Studio strings version, but.. not too expanded still. 2. Soulscythe - The first actual song, so I had a lot to prove with this one... especially after the first CD. The goal is to always take it up a notch. This song has MAJOR CHORDS in it, what the....? I was trying to be heavy and intricate but also push the point that I'm my own dude. I'll make black metal with major chords in it... 3. Fall of Civilization - I had a guest vocalist for this song. Amalgamoth from Ophidian Forest. He also wrote the lyrics. Really outstanding performance and words. The song itself, I freaking love the chorus. I always thought it was so heavy. It's just powerchords. The steel slide lead covered in echo is much <3 as well. 4. Dying Visions - This is a big song for a lot of reasons. One, I left some of the original vocals from the first recording in there -- before I learned how to growl. So if you listen around 1:24, you can hear the older, ridiculously high-pitched, scratchy vocals layered on top. The badass part at 3:35 might be the closest thing to ska as I had made at that point, and now I love reggae. It's also the first song I recorded a profanity on. At 4:48. 5. Feast on the Weak - If there had ever been a music video... ... If there had been a second music video, it would have been this song. It's about vampires, and it's epic and mystical in ways I can't even comprehend anymore. The clean vocals are weak though. I can do heavy vocals now. :-\6. In Staid Grace - Yeh... I wanted to make a song I could play all the way through without stopping. This is that song. And I played it a lot live. And I made a ridiculous music video of it. Yeaaah, I recorded all the vocals in 1 take which was a dumb move because there's some pops in there or whatnot, but it was good for the video. 7. Malignant Rising - This song pre-dates this album by a couple years. I had made it for a game project that needed a wilderness battle theme. This is the WILDERNESS BATTLE THEME SONG. Now with growly vocals. I like the totally metal lead guitars and the piano overture or whatnot, hahah... so wacky. 8. Centurion Conflict (Pt. I) - You know it's good cause it has a roman numeral. This was supposed to be the political thrash song. I didn't know how to do thrash vocals though. It opens with a ridiculous falsetto scream which I'm so happy I was finally able to get on a song. The acoustic break at 2:30 is freaking sweet. You rarely get acoustic breaks on this kind of album. Lots of minor chords. 9. Lifestream - The title is not influenced by Final Fantasy VII at all. Just kidding, it totally is. The song itself is inspired by Jesu but I forget which song of theirs. The slow tempo made the recording of this an endurance test. There's a clean vocal part with auto tune well into the song that I love, so on a whim I deleted all of the instruments from behind it except for the acoustic guitar. Then it explodes back in, haha.. get ready for that. 10. Rigor Mortis - Pure insanity starts with a ROAR! And guest guitar solo by Zaragil from Ophidian Forest. It's really chaotic and cool. This is the "radio song" -- it's ideal radio length, and is catchy hehe. Nice melodic harmonies. There's a line in there with possibly my first recorded F-bomb, I think you should all listen and give heed to that line at 1:40. 11. Centurion Conflict (Pt. II) - Eh, it's just an outro. Really. I had the guitar part by itself, and struggled to work it into something I could record, and bla bla here it is. Dripping wet with reverbs. I was told I used 12 images so far and can only use 10... so... you'll have to deal with having ugly emoticons from here out. >=| Luckily, I'm done though. I hope you listen to both of these CDs and enjoy them. Maybe even buy one, or both! That's a loooooot of music! I need to update the websites. I haven't touched them for like a year... If you're going to comment on how muddy the songs are or anything... that ain't cool dawg... Sure my skills in audio production have improved a lot since I worked on those albums, but they're like, set in stone and timeless.. hehe. Plus I consider them to be a lot heavier, for me at least, with all of that low-end kept intact. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this look into these 2 albums and the music. Thanks. edit: P.S. Even if you just listen to it, please hit the "like" button to share it on Facebook. Would really appreciate that!

Wow. Four directors! They say 3's a crowd... But 4 is a party. I'd love to get in on this but I've got to finish a few other things first. All I'm going to say is a 4 Seasons medley would be awesome.

lol What else can I say This is the song that got me downloading mp3s again instead of just doing youtube preview. This song is also cured my burrito boredom.

I actually watched this before going to bed, then googled it and read about how it's not real on Know Your Meme just so I wouldn't have nightmares.

Wow. Incredible.

Or we could simply call it "ProtoDome" Like this.

I have to agree, that title is incredibly self-gratifying. +1 vote for Zelda album: The ProtoDome Tapes

Awww hehe, I'm flattered. I'm not a morning person. I'm the kind of dude who would wake up and come downstairs to continue napping on the couch.

I either exaggerated that number (few hours) or my brain believes i have perpetual barnacle sickness of the throat.

Yes, you make some great points here. Not to go off topic, but really I don't think I am with this story.. but here goes... I remember going to Ozzfest.. I think it was 2005, maybe 2004. It started at 9am and went until about 11:30pm. So my pop and I get ready and go at like 7am and stand in line at the pavilion. I was probably 17 back then, and my dad never liked growling so I thought I'd be all like, I need you to take me wahhh, and he'd get blown away by people. Anyway, We get in there and the first band comes out at like 8:45am and it's 2004-era less gay Trivium. They played like beasts, and the dude would scream and be shreddin' stuff at the same time. I think they're the only band that day that impressed my dad, and all these years I was always amazed by their ability to wake up before noon and scream and play, as if they had been up since like 2am preparing. They put on a great show despite having a tiny audience due to how early it was. I usually have to get up.. drink water or whatever's around.. and wait a few hours for the barnacles to go away in the morning before I can even talk right. :3

Yah I slapped up some binary to catch peoples' attention. I guess it worked. 01001001 is roman numeral I I thought it were a fitting title for this song or whatever. I'm excited to get projects done so I can do more little things like this. Also I forgot to say this, but vocalists I've never heard like Chernabogue and ToN, please hook me up with a clip of your vocals so I even know what type of range I'll be writing for there. o_O

fission mailed

I tried to send one of the songs to a friend and all of the mp3s were empty / corrupted. Damn you and your Mac and its ghost files

Speeeven's a noob. Don't just sign people willy-nilly unless this is a non-OCR project. Having said that, I've never heard Speeeven and he could be awesome. But make sure you get auditions, and ask a judge if they're passable if you aren't sure.

Thanks for the offer man! But you know I play guitar too. And it'd be easier for me to write if I'm sittin' here riffing it out, and mixing the live tone would be easier cause I'm getting used to it... If you got some kind of live thing you can do with a microphone though, let me know. As for the synth portion of the song, just signed on halc for some "chiptune breakdown" -- will definitely be interesting! @IntoTheSky looking for drums that are a lot more in the style of power drums! I'll probably end up programming them with superior 2. Also I like how your "See His Love" had like black metal production.. It sounded like burzum / darkthrone meets Christian rock.

Do you really think anyone's going to have time with all the projects going on? That's the real big question. :3 Next year is like 2 months away. It's not all that unreasonable of a request, bwhahaha

5 discs, holy crap. Which songs are bonus ones?

That explains a lot. He wanted me to get RockBand3.

I...... i...... no moar projects...... NO MORE YOU SON OF Aalright I can probably do an orchestral piece for this, but catch me early next year for it.

That's great duder, I'm going too.. so make sure I ain't got no reasons to slap you upside your cute little head. You can't buy me off with free Qdobas! Just kidding, you totally can.

Cool, guys! If we get too many vocalists, "lead" parts for each person might be a bit short, but we could try to do a cool layered part for the end of the song. I wasn't really planning any growly vocals. I do want the song to be band-oriented and sound legit in that way but I'm afraid to make it too repetitive, but I'll find a way to get lead vocal parts in there for everybody.