Monday, January 30, 2012

"Belmont" featured on Gamefira Article

Christopher Earls over at gamefira.com put together a nice write-up of my latest album Belmont. Check out the article, and while you're at it, check out the awesome content that Gamefira has to offer.  Chris Earls and Brian Williams have developed a pretty sweet community for gamers to write articles, share their game collections, and discuss anything gaming-related, modern or vintage. Keep up the good work, guys!

Site:            gamefira.com
Article Link:  http://www.gamefira.com/article/498/metal-album-based-on-castlevania-yes-please

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Random Update of Everything

Since the release of Belmont, I've been keeping a somewhat low profile on the creative front.  It took 16 months of writing, demoing, re-writing, recording, and editing to get that whole thing together.  So you can understand when I say I have had no interest of being in that type of mindset for the last three months.  Though, I have tried; I have an acoustic E.P. that I would love to get finished.  On the other hand, I've rather enjoyed getting a normal amount of rest, catching up on some much-needed gaming, and spending time with family and friends.  Keep in mind, I am a full-time teacher, and I go to grad school.  Free time has been at a premium.

With that said, here is what I have planned for the coming year (kind of in order of priority):

1.  Recording guest vocals on a new 3-Hole Face track.  If you recall, 3-Hole Face is an industrial metal band for which I played rhythm guitar from 2001-2004.  We disbanded in 2004, but Terry Smith (who mixed and mastered both Mega Beardo albums) wrote a butt-ton of new 3-Hole Face tunes on his own.  He plans to enlist a bunch of his friends to lend guest vocals on the tracks.  It's odd to record guest vocals for a band in which I was just the rhythm guitarist, but I'm also having a lot of fun putting ideas together.  I'm working on this track now, but I'm not sure when (or how) Terry plans to release this album.  It's good stuff, though.  Real good.

2. Finishing my acoustic EP.  This thing is probably 85% written at this point.  I basically just need to write lyrics for one more song.  There will be either 6 or 7 tracks.  If you like the track "Simon" from the Belmont album, this stuff will be up your alley.  This won't be a Mega Beard album since it isn't based on a Nintendo game. However, I will say there is one track that is written about a game, but it would be hard to figure that out unless I told you what it was.  Realistically, I plan to have this on my bandcamp site in March.

3. Recording the new Descension Rate album.  We officially released our album "Creatures of Discordia" on December 10, 2011.  This was the first part of a two-part concept album based on Stephen King's sprawling Dark Tower series.  We have a couple of shows to play this month, so we'll probably get recording finished in February and hopefully get the thing released by the end of the summer.


4. Making another music video for Belmont.  In October 2011, I made a music video for "The Mysterious Works of Dr. Frankenstein," and I had so much fun putting that thing together.  It was my first official "short film," if you will.  I may try to make another music video, I may not.  I would definitely love to, but I would need to come up with another cool idea.  It's kind of hard to beat mad scientists and Nintendo guitars.  


5. More Mega Beardo music, dammit!  I do have plans to do another guitar instrumental tribute for another Nintendo game, but I don't want to dive into that quite yet.  I would like to do a couple of one-off tracks first, much like what I did with the Battletoads theme or "Heart of Fire" from Castlevania.