You may have seen through facebook or twitter that I'll be recording vocals for a project called 3-Hole Face. Well, 3-Hole Face was an industrial metal band that lasted from 2000-2004, during which I was the lead guitarist. Terry Smith, the mastermind behind 3-Hole Face and the dude the masters all the Mega Beardo stuff, has stockpiled a bunch of new tunes that he wants me to sing on. So that's happening this year.
BUT check this out! I was doing some spring cleaning and happened upon a pile of VHS and cassette tapes that I squirreled away for some reason or another. On one of those VHS tapes was a 3-Hole Face show from 2002 that had no audio. And on one of those audio cassettes was the soundboard audio from that very show! So through the wonders of cheap modern technology, I was able to sync them up and post a couple of the tracks on Youtube for your viewing pleasure. This is a good chance to get a good idea where I got my start. In case you don't recognize me, I'm the dude with the long hair, the black SG, and the Dimebag Darrell beard.
"Synthetic Skin"
"Dollars For Blood"
As far as I know, we were pretty much the only industrial metal band in West Virginia at the time aside from another awesome band called Screw-Worm (and I haven't heard of any since). Needless to say, coming to a show and seeing some small-town boys all painted up with highlighters and playing crazy industrial metal was something quite different for the Morgantown scene. Unfortunately, we had to call it quits after 2004, although we played a one-off reunion show in 2010 to help raise money for cancer research. But you'll get new 3-Hole Face tunes hopefully by the end of the year! So there's that.
Ladies and gentlemen, the time has come. My new E.P. Ledjent of Zelda is finally available! Along with the usual bandcamp download options, I also have CD copies available for pre-order. I hope to start shipping those out by the end of April.
Four tracks, clocking in at 25 minutes. 25 minutes of condensed Zelda zaniness.
"Ledjent of Zelda" will (finally) be released on Tuesday, March 19. It
will be available for download (pay what you want!) at beardomusic.bandcamp.com
The 25-minute E.P. consists of four tracks with these goofy titles:
1. Triforsphere 2. Labyrinths of Fragmented Wisdom 3. Ganon Lives! 4. The obzEnd
Pre-orders for the CD version of the E.P. will be available on the same
date. They come with an instant download of the album, per usual.
Album cover art coming soon! Keep dem eyeballs peeled!
Judging by how infrequently I have updated my own website, you can sense that things have been quite busy here in Mega Beardo Land. Not only have I been working on my soon-to-be-released Ledjent of Zelda (a modern, proggy metal take on the original LoZ OST), but I am working on contributions to some really awesome compilations coming out this year. PLUS, I am getting a couple of new projects off the ground.
With that said, let us get a quick rundown of the status of Ledjent of Zelda, shall we?
The writing part is completely finished. That was the hard part, of course. Now it's just a matter of re-recording most of the guitar parts to make them sound better than the demos, pretty much.
Rhythm guitars are completely finished. The only thing left is to do lead guitars, clean guitars, and bass. Lead stuff is next on the list!
There will be 4 tracks all adding up to be 25 minutes in length (this is an EP).
The EP is still projected to be out to you, at least in downloadable form at beardomusic.bandcamp.com, by March. Physical copies in the form of those archaic music depositories known as compact discs are also in the works.
The artwork will be handled by the ever-incredible Brian Pickens, who did the artwork for all of my albums up to this point.
Last, but certainly not least, there will be REAL drums on this album! I've programmed drums for everything in the past, so this is a real treat. Drums are being handled by fellow VGM remixer Angel Hernandez (Another Black Day). You can check out his amazing remix work at masikus.bandcamp.com!
So I think that brings us up to speed. Of course, always check back for more updates. I'm also on Twitter (@megabeardo) quite a bit, tweeting updates on music and just talking video games/music/movies/randomness in general. That's a good way to keep up with what's going on in my little world. With that, I shall leave you with the final two video updates for Ledjent of Zelda. Enjoy!
It's not every day that the most widely-circulated newspaper in West Virginia features an article on some goofy Nintendo nerd metal dude, but it happened! I will be in tomorrow's edition. The article mainly focuses on my upcoming Ledjent of Zelda album, and what I think of the whole "djent" movement in general (spoilers: I think it's mostly derivative crap).
Special thanks goes to Nick Harrah at WVRockScene for putting this together and supporting what I do. West Virginia has a solid, awesome rock scene, believe it or not, and Nick does what he can to get the word out.
First off, sorry for the lack of updates from Mega Beardo Land lately. Things have been quite hectic around here, and it has shifted my production plans around a little bit. But in a good way!
You see, I'm playing Mountain Stage this Sunday, October 21, and that's a pretty damn cool thing to have on my plate. I will be playing lead guitar for my good friend Logan Venderlic, the "folk wave" mastermind, as he opens up for the great Brandie Carlile. For those of you not from the West Virginia area, Mountain Stage is a diverse live show (typically bluegrass, folk, and acoustic acts) put together and distributed by West Virginia Public Radio and broadcast via NPR. That means that if you can't make it to the show but still want to hear me play awesome/catchy-as-hell folk music, you can listen to the radio broadcast as well. When I find out when that broadcast will be, I will let you guys know!
Also, check out Logan Venderlic's bandcamp page for all of his awesome Folk Wave goodness. He's a stand-up dude, and I'm honored to be a part of this. I hope to have images, videos, etc. of the show to share with you soon. Stay tuned!
Ready for another update on my next album Ledjent of Zelda? Sure you are!
I'll let the video below do the talking, but I would like to make it clear that the tongue-in-cheek nature of the title of this album is meant to be sort of a parody. A lot of people look down on the whole djent movement, and for good reason. It has become absolutely diluted and generic now. My point with this album is to not sound like all the current djent bands that are writing weird, off-time riffs for the sake of being weird and being technical for the sake of being technical. I have no interest in sounding like those bands, so the album won't sound like that. It will sound like Mega Beardo.
The title of the album came first. It popped in my head one day while in the car, and I thought, "Man, it would be a stupid, fun experiment to make Zelda music sound like djent." So I went for it.
To me, djent simply means "ripping off what Meshuggah started doing back in 1994." Seriously, Meshuggah were so ahead of everyone else that it took 10 years for other bands to catch up. When I first heard Meshuggah's Chaosphere in 1999, it literally changed the way I thought about metal. I never really incorporated that style into my own writing. This album gives me the chance to give it a shot. And I do enjoy bands like Periphery, so I incorporate more of those melodic sensibilities that you don't really find in Meshuggah's music.
To put it simply: Ledjent of Zelda is the original Legend of Zelda soundtrack played by Mega Beardo through a 1990s Meshuggah filter.
To celebrate, I have put together a 15-minute review of Cybernoid for the NES. The video also includes a new remix from the Cybernoid NES soundtrack. This is my very first video game review, so I hope you guys enjoy it. It was tons of fun to do, so perhaps I may do some more in the future.
I'm gonna stop typing so you can get to watching. Have fun!
Next Wednesday, August 8, I will be participating in Review a Bad Game Day for which a bunch of us retro gamers will -- you guessed it -- pick a bad game and review it. We can do any game, any system, any format.
And I'm choosing Cybernoid for the NES.
So check back right here at MegaBeardo.com on August 8th to see my video review of Cybernoid. It's my first video game review ever, so it should be interesting to see how it turns out. You can also check out the official Review a Bad Game Day site for a list of all participants. Looking at the list of people involved, it is sure to be an entertaining day! There's certainly not a shortage of crappy games, so I'm glad to see that many systems from just about every era of gaming are being represented.
I also have to give a round of applause to Eric Bailey (@Nintendo_Legend) and the rest of the crew at 1morecastle.com for getting Review a Bad Game Day together. If you are a retro gamer and you haven't been to 1morecastle.com yet, then what are you waiting for? It's overflowing with retro goodness.
Here is my first official update for the writing sessions of my new album "Ledjent of Zelda." I'm still very much in the writing/demo stages. I explain everything in the video, so I'll stop typing so you can start watching!
