[2 Albums!] Rainwound / In Staid Grace

[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 November 23 - Originally made this song as part of what was going to be a collab between me and a friend from Texas.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!

[luhny]

Sounds interesting.

Hm... you do not actually happen to have CDs of those albums as well? I am not against digital purchase, but with cover artworks this nice I think it would be shame to just have it in the music collection on the computer. I would prefer the good old "have it on my shelf" way if possible...

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 don't really know what's going on - it sounds rather dramatic and sad. So yeah - my best wishes that things get better, whatever might be wrong.

cheers,

luhny

[Brandon Strader]

Sounds interesting.

Hm... you do not actually happen to have CDs of those albums as well? I am not against digital purchase, but with cover artworks this nice I think it would be shame to just have it in the music collection on the computer. I would prefer the good old "have it on my shelf" way if possible...

I don't really know what's going on - it sounds rather dramatic and sad. So yeah - my best wishes that things get better, whatever might be wrong.

cheers,

luhny

Well it's not really sad, it's a fact.. I can never replicate what I was going through when I wrote these albums, in 2006 I think. They're some of the greatest songs I've ever made and I probably couldn't top them if I tried. So it's happy in a way that I've turned my life around but yeah, sad... can't make music like that anymore.

About printing them up.. I was considering having some printed through CreateSpace after I set them up in that system. Then it costs $5 per professionally printed album for ME to buy them. Or I could print them myself with stuff I've got here, like paper, a printer, and lightscribe discs. Not nearly as glossy. What do you think?

[Chernabogue]

Downloading, thanks a lot for sharing!

[luhny]

About printing them up.. I was considering having some printed through CreateSpace after I set them up in that system. Then it costs $5 per professionally printed album for ME to buy them. Or I could print them myself with stuff I've got here, like paper, a printer, and lightscribe discs. Not nearly as glossy. What do you think?

No need for extra work, I was just wondering if you have them in pressed form.

For my fetish of putting it on the shelf a high-res version of the artworks would suffice, I guess. I have my ways to get a nice looking printout (thermal sublimation or something like that).

PS: glad to hear it's nothing serious or dramatic... you know I was imagining some horrible stuff for a moment there which I do not want to really share now that I know that it's not like that.

[Brandon Strader]

No need for extra work, I was just wondering if you have them in pressed form.

For my fetish of putting it on the shelf a high-res version of the artworks would suffice, I guess. I have my ways to get a nice looking printout (thermal sublimation or something like that).

PS: glad to hear it's nothing serious or dramatic... you know I was imagining some horrible stuff for a moment there which I do not want to really share now that I know that it's not like that.

Oh.....?

Welp I can send you both artworks to your email or whatnot. I actually just made the other two pages for the Rainwound one specifically for the hopes of printing some up here. Your thermal thing sounds better though. Sure, you could print your own pages and disc.

[luhny]

that's fine with me. thx

[Brandon Strader]

Bumpage for great justice.

I know there's more people at OCR who enjoy metal and prog than this. Has anyone checked them out?

[Brandon Strader]

Not to sound like a douche, but literally not a single person bought one of these albums or even a song... Three full albums for $5 each, that ain't a bad deal! Yes, I added "Life", my acoustic album debut, and I am planning to add more as time goes on to the bandcamp page.. Please check it out, and even if you just preview.. maybe slap a facebook like button hit on that.. Thanks.

[Magnetic Ether]

Wow, I actually downloaded Ivory Chapel about half a year ago, but I never knew it was you Brandon! What a coincidence! (It's great stuff by the way)

[luhny]

Shoot, I somehow totally forgot about those - thx for bumping. I should get my new credit card soon (hopefully tomorrow), so stay tuned just a bit.

[Brandon Strader]

Wow, I actually downloaded Ivory Chapel about half a year ago, but I never knew it was you Brandon! What a coincidence! (It's great stuff by the way)

Wow! Haha.. Small world, isn't it? So what did you think of the album?

I will hopefully be making the... third album... next year? Considering Ivory Chapel took a few years to make, I dunno heh.. I might start next year and finish it in 2014.

@luhny Cool, man! thanks

[Magnetic Ether]

Wow! Haha.. Small world, isn't it? So what did you think of the album?

I will hopefully be making the... third album... next year? Considering Ivory Chapel took a few years to make, I dunno heh.. I might start next year and finish it in 2014.

I really like it! I would never have thought it was a "One man band" if this thread hadn't popped up (I'm kicking myself for not looking up the band sooner :S). Everything just fits together so well!

And that's awesome that you're making a third...I haven't listened to the first yet, but I guess I'll have to do that too!

[Brandon Strader]

I really like it! I would never have thought it was a "One man band" if this thread hadn't popped up (I'm kicking myself for not looking up the band sooner :S). Everything just fits together so well!

And that's awesome that you're making a third...I haven't listened to the first yet, but I guess I'll have to do that too!

Nah, you could skip or just preview the first one. I'm gonna remake it in 2015 for a 10 year anniversary edition with the sequel to the story.

Hopefully more people know about it by then or it'd be a lot of work for just a handful of peeps, like it is now.

[Magnetic Ether]

Nah, you could skip or just preview the first one. I'm gonna remake it in 2015 for a 10 year anniversary edition with the sequel to the story.

Hopefully more people know about it by then or it'd be a lot of work for just a handful of peeps, like it is now.

Lol, but then I'd have to wait 5 years!

[Brandon Strader]

Lol, but then I'd have to wait 5 years!

It may be too early to say, but I'd hope it would be worth the wait.

Time flies. I've been planning to do the anniversary edition double album in 2015 for a couple years already. You think the story ends after part 1 because everyone dies and the world is destroyed, but that's just the beginning.

The way the lyrics are written and arranged in the song (not to mention performed) is really bad, I'd want to revise that, and probably even shorten each song a bit or replace a lot of the lyrics with guitar solos. So yeah.. I made that when I was still in high school and it's pretty embarrassing but apparently some people really like it. I won't blame ye.