Bellum aeternum - what's new with the songs?
posted on 21 Jul 2007 under category History
When recording Bellum Aeternum, I had more instruments, better gear, and a faster and more advanced PC with much more robust software than I had when I was doing Bellum Infinitum seven years earlier. For the most part, if I just did a straight re-rendering it was going to be an improvement. However, I have always found little parts here and there where I either thought I could have done better or, if I were putting it together now for the first time, would have done differently. These changes, some minor, some quite large, are all nonetheless important, at least in my mind. For me, songs are about capturing and expressing the ideas of the writer, and I think that anything that’s changed in these songs has been done with respect for what I was trying to express, and only changed with both eyes on the goal of clarifying or maximizing that expression. “Rainbow Skies” didn’t change much at all. I used the Vs for the bulk of rhythms as I did the first time around, but I used the SG for the clean intro section and the main solo. The intro solo is rewritten a little bit, but sticks to the same basic idea. The only really major change, and it’s not really that drastic, is the rhythm under the main solo. Instead of the guitars continuing the riff immediately before the solo, they move to open, ringing power chords outlining the basic changes (F-Eb-Db), with the drum part rewritten to give it that heavy quarter-note-ride-bell based rhythmic strut. It opens up the room for the main solo, letting that stand out a bit more than fighting for attention with the previous shifting rhythm lines.
“Sisters of Death” didn’t change at all, except that I opted to use the SG for all of the rhythms. The open, ringing notes of the verse are well suited to that ‘SG rumble’.
The intro harmony to “Storm Over Avalon” was rearranged, mostly by accident. I have the ‘root’ part of that harmony memorized, but I can never remember the harmony. I worked it out again when reprogramming the drums, transcribed it, then recorded it. It wasn’t until afterward, when I was listening to the original again to re-figure something else out, that I heard the harmony part on the original was totally different - it was based on thirds originally, while the newer one is based on fourths. Other than heavily palm-muting that post-chorus riff for a bit more balls, I really didn’t change much in that song.
“The Wakening/Soulsword” was a song I really wanted to rework, and one I think benefitted most from the rerecording. Chiefly, this is because of the limits imposed on it by inadequate recording capacity the first time around, but also partly because I had a couple of new ideas I wanted to put in.
The first time I recorded the intro, I used one acoustic audio track and programmed the same guitar part in MIDI, then mixed them both for the rhythm. The leads are just the same lead guitar tone split onto two tracks and with the calls and responses panned left and right. This time, of course, I had my Strat, and I think one of the best sounds in the world is a Strat strumming chords, so I made the intro one acoustic track and one strat, doubling each other and panned slightly apart. For more of that yummy strat goodness I added a few more bars of the rhythm so that, before the call/response, I could add a little clean Strat solo. One day I WILL get my Mark Knopfler ya-yas out, but until then I’ll have to satisfy myself with these little bits thrown in here and there. Since I had two good guitars this time around, I of course used each of them for the call and response. To further emphasize the differences in sounds, I used different extra effects on each lead part, not only to reinforce the separate tones but also to soften the sounds a bit, make them blend more into the rhythms - one side has a mild flanger effect on it, and on the other I used a leslie-type rotating speaker effect.
For the body of the song, though, I didn’t change much - for the arpeggios during the verses, instead of having one rhythm guitar do them while the other does the power chord rhythms, I used both rhythms for power chords and used a separate, third track for the arpeggios - that way I could add some chorus to it also for a more swirling, atmospheric effect. I also slightly rearranged the harmony bits that follow the choruses.
“Excalibur” isn’t very convoluted in either structure or instrumentation, but I still worked in a bit of variation. I used both the SG and V for rhythms, one for each track. For the keyboard parts I found a better, more piercing keyboard sound than I used the first time around, and to give it more edge I used an amp emulation effect to try to give it that overdriven-marshall type of distorted keyboard sound. While I was aiming for the general Jon-Lord end of things, I’m not sure I quite got there. Still, it gives that part more punch than if I’d left the keys au naturel.
“Nemesis” was one that I think benefited the most compared to the original. I was still new to MIDI programming and had a rather inferior MIDI processor, so the outro could have been rendered a lot better the first time. Also, the solo section always bugged me - I was really happy with my solo, but because of mixing and EQ issues, no matter how hard I tried, the solo was always somewhat buried in the mix the first time around. Thanks to non-destructive EQing I was able to massage the clean guitar rhythm in the middle to stand out a bit more, and a stereo-output chorus made that one track really come alive out of both speakers - and, combined with the general improvement in sound quality thanks to using a real soundcard, all of the middle lead section was opened up with sufficient breathing room. For the outro, instead of using horn and violin patches for the arpeggios I went with my original intent and used a harpsichord patch - that way I could use the backing chord pads (a horn ensemble on one side and a string ensemble on the other play the backing chords under the arpeggios) lower in the mix and more for feel than actual sound. It’s not really different, but if you A/B these (when it’s released) I think you’ll be much happier with the new version.
Also, for that main solo, I switched from the V to the SG, but not quite by design. When the heavy guitars kick in halfway through the solo, as you know, I originally changed the solo from a regular played solo to more of a whammy-bar thing, with some wide vibratoed notes and a couple of dives before winding up with the last lead run. I rehearsed the song for rerecording for about an hour, got set to record, and broke a string halfway through it. Restringing the guitar would have killed that entire night of recording time, and I was really under the time gun then, so it was either put it off one more night that I didn’t really have or use the SG and rewrite that part of the solo. I opted for the SG, and changed the dive parts to what I think is a more mature sounding solo, with a few vibratoed bends and some of those palm-muted lead runs.
“The Vow” didn’t change at all - only taking advantage of having two different axes for the rhythms and the overall improved sound quality. “The Final Day” did have a few reworkings, though. I moved the rhythm from the low open position to the seventh ‘up an octave’ position, which really helped the marching beat sound of the track by emphasizing the strong downbeat notes. For the middle “I fight and fight…” part, instead of having the guitars play the same riff an octave apart through the whole thing, I changed it so that during the singing one plays open chords to leave room for the vocals, then using the octave-up riff to fill between the vocal lines. Finally, I rearranged the harmony part at the end of the song leading to the outro - instead of the main riff and keyboard harmony part on the second guitar, I wrote a new harmony part that was a different counterpoint. I was happy it was different, but it didn’t totally fit well and I didn’t have time to rerecord the whole track to fix just the last minute. So, instead, I used a third guitar track to play the original harmony part on top, and it made the last part just sound HUGE. As for the outro, I chose better patches for the individual parts and added a high, tinkling piano part at the very end of the outro, right as it fades out.
Hopefully these words haven’t spoiled the album for you, but I did want to give you some idea of the extra work I’ve put into it. Besides making it unrecognizable, my greatest fear was in just retreading the same thing again only on different gear. Fortunately, I think I’ve walked that tightrope pretty well, and I hope you’ll agree.
And hope it won’t be too long before you have the occasion to.
(Ah, such a vain hope, there at the end. I still want to release it, but I need to decide whether or not giving it another vocal treatment myself is worth it. I do sing better than I did back then, but I’m not sure if the general increase in musical/instrumental quality wouldn’t mean that I’m actually FARTHER behind, vocally speaking…
There’s really only one way to find out.)