Crimson frost
posted on 31 Jan 2006 under category News
Crimson Frost is pretty unique in Rampage’s catalog in many ways. It’s been many things to me and to the band at many times: an icon of what I wanted Rampage to be; the focus of writer’s block; an attempt to redefine myself; something doomed to eternal vault residence; a joke; a magnet for bad luck…
As I looked over this blog and noticed what I had written entries for, I realized that I had totally skipped over two main entries - Crimson Frost and New World Blasphemy. Since the former mostly came from the latter, it made sense to combine them into one mega-topic - even more so since the two songs on NWB are wholly contained as parts of CF. But even beyond the way CF grew out of what I started with NWB, it was NWB that grew out of the original ideas I had for Crimson Frost.
Puzzling a lot of this out will involve many more posts than just the traditional ones about songwriting and recording sessions - understandably so, since its evolution is very much my own musical evolution, and in many ways following what happened to CF will tell the entire story of how Rampage changed from just me doing my own thing to being a collaborative project that has now gained far more interest, notoriety, and personal meaning than I ever thought would be possible for anything I set myself to. There won’t be a lot of ‘action’ in this, as most of this was just argument in my own head. Still, maybe this will help you (and me) figure out how writer’s block happens and can be made to un-happen.
And I’ll be sure to include as many funny stories as I can.
(I still haven’t made any progress on that ‘figuring out writer’s block’ thing. Or, rather, it’s just like doing the dishes. To wash dishes, you have to wash the dishes. Fill the sink, add soap, scrape the plates, scrub it all, rinse, and dry or stack to air-dry. In short, there are no shortcuts - you have to put in the work.
Of course, ‘work’ when it comes to creation means not just labor, but a mix of inspiration and motivation, but that mix CAN’T be separate from the work to capture them. I guess I DID figure it out, but only in that there are no mysteries. And, again, no shortcuts.)