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Week one of guitars

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011

This time around we're recording guitars using my Peavey 5150 amp, as well as a line signal. I think it'll turn out great, but it's hard work! We've been doing evening shifts all week, as well as two full day shifts. We've still got four songs to go, but at least we're making good progress.

Recording really puts your playing skills to the test, and most of time it kicks your self confidence to the gutter. I feel that my playing is at its best when we play live, and adrenaline kicks in. I'm actually not that much of a fan of the recording process.

I use a Jackson WRXT for the recording of this album. Jackson guitars is the way to go, and the fact that I'm not using a USA made Jackson should prove that they're solid.

More to come, some videoclips and additional pictures. I should probably add that I'm stoked to hear the final result, and I think it'll turn out to be a solid record!

/Anders Bertilsson

As Anders mentioned, we've been tracking 10 out of 14 songs this week and following is a list of what songs we managed to complete each day:

Day 1, Monday Jan 3 - "The Walls of Eryx"
Day 2, Tuesday Jan 4 - "Monochrome Existence"
Day 3, Wednesday Jan 5 - "Flesh World"
Day 4, Thursday Jan 6 - "The Phantom Carriage", "Living is Suffering" and "Violent Society".
Day 5, Friday Jan 7 - "Murderous"
Day 6, Saturday Jan 8 - Day off
Day 7, Sunday Jan 9 - "Becoming the Stench", "The Reprobate" and the cover for the Japanese edition.

Tomorrow night we will continue with the four last remaining songs and we hope to have all the rhythm guitars put down by Wednesday.

Up to now I've been using my snowwhite finished, lightweight (How Death Metal is that?) Jackson SLS3 soloist. The plan was to use my Jackson SLS USA Custom Shop soloist, but as I started recording guitars it became obvious that it would not do the trick for me right now and that it is in need of some further adjustments. Apart from that I think everything has been going quite well so far.

I believe that the songs we brought to the studio this time are the best tunes in Coldworker history and I can't wait to get a taste of the first mix.

Anders an I will do a more detailed update with more pics and info as soon as time allow us to do so. Probably when the guitars are all done. There are more to come for sure, so stay tuned.

/Daniel Schröder

First day of tracking guitars. The ever patient Johan Berglund is a true class act, and we're lucky to have him as a helping hand! The first day meant soundcheck, last checkups of our instruments of death, and recording "The Walls of Eryx".

The Takelist in between two different moods in the studio.

Daniel, Anders and Johan in Ülgnor Studios.

Oscar is paying us a visit and doing some filming.

ANDERS B & DANIEL
Posted: Jan 10 2011, 01:18:18

Mixed, mastered and hand-delivered

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 "The Doomsayer's Call" is finally mixed, mastered and finished! Dan Swanö has worked hard during the last couple of weeks dealing with all our opinions and ideas. All of us, including Mr Swanö, obviously wants the album to be as good as possible and it's been worth all the hard work. Today Dan Swanö even came and delivered the master CD's himself. Here's a shot of the historic moment: He has also supplied a little comment or statement: "I was thrilled to be asked to work with the...

Posted: February 23 2011, 21:30:14 Read the whole entry

Baptizing the beast

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 The final mix and track order is yet to be done, but in the mean time we can announce the title of the third Coldworker album... It's "The Doomsayer's Call". The album is soon finished, the mix sounds amazing and we're very anxious to hear the final result, and even more anxious to hear what others think of it. More info is coming soon. In the mean time, enjoy this live clip of "Becoming the Stench" recorded this past Saturday: ...

Posted: February 8 2011, 23:48:44 Read the whole entry

Scratch tactics

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 Since we have a fine tradition in Coldworker to always record the bass guitar twice for almost every release we've done, we figured that why should this time around be any different? I've been scared about small tuning issues along the way on this session, since the tuner we used for the guitars does not really work with the bass guitar. I've also learned that 34" scale necks and the not too thick Elixir strings that I use are not perfect for the drop C tuning. Perhaps I am a bit too paranoid, b...

Posted: January 27 2011, 22:27:46 Read the whole entry

Voice from the dark side

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 We have now completed the vocal recordings for the album. They were done at Coldworker Studios AKA our rehearsal room, with Anders J producing. It's three albums in a row now that we've used this mode of production, so it's a very relaxed and familiar process. The luxury of recording pretty much every instrument at different locations is that we can take our time with the vocals over several shorter sessions, which is very good for my vocal chords. This time it took five three to five hour sessi...

Posted: January 24 2011, 14:58:29 Read the whole entry

Hiatus in the diary

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 The recordings proceed and we have probably about a weeks worth of work left with the remainder of the vocals, the bass and a bunch of guitarsolos to be recorded. In the meantime the last lyrics have been completed and we can announce a complete list of songtitles, in alphabetic order: • Becoming the Stench • Flesh World • The Glass Envelope • Living is Suffering • Monochrome Existence • Murderous • A New Era • Pessimist • The Phantom Ca...

Posted: January 16 2011, 19:11:09 Read the whole entry

Week one of guitars

Posted: January 10 2011, 01:18:18 Read the whole entry

Bass tactics

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 The second day of basstracking is done. We started yesterday at "A Noble Home" which is Anders J's apartment. This time we are using my SansAmp and record both the clean signal as well as a distorted one from the SansAmp. As always I use my Ibanez SR500, the same bass I used for "Rotting Paradise". I got six of fourteen songs tracked so far, and aiming for one more tomorrow morning. The pace of how many and which songs I'm able to track is depending on Anders B and Daniel, who are tracki...

Posted: January 7 2011, 22:48:10 Read the whole entry

Passing the torch

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 The holidays are over and today the recordings of the third album continued at our friend Johan Berglund's place where the guitars will be recorded. After Christmas some final adjustments were made to the drum files and yesterday they were finalized and distributed to Johan. One track has already gotten some temporary guitars and has been sent to a special guest that hopefully will have time to participate in the recording in some way... More info about that another time. As this is the fi...

Posted: January 3 2011, 20:01:51 Read the whole entry

The drums are done (with videoclip!)

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 Four sessions later and the 14 songs are all put on disc. Massive amounts of stress and worry has disappeared now when I'm actually done with this part of the recording. God damn, I am beat! More or less everything is aching but it was totally worth it. I am really, really satisfied with my performance this time. It feels like the best I've ever done behind the kit so far. I know every musician says that when they've recorded their latest stuff, but I really mean it. They other Coldworker ...

Posted: December 20 2010, 21:59:32 Read the whole entry

The Loneliness of the Short-distance Drummer

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 Two sessions done and half the album is recorded. I'm quite satisfied so far. The last couple of weeks solo-rehearsals has definitively paid off. I'm all alone in the studio. I have the songs recorded to clicktracks so I can do it all in my own pace without wasting someone elses time. It's pretty lonely though, but the main thing is the result. I'm running in and out of the control room. I push the record button, go through two doors and sit down and put the headphones on and a few seconds...

Posted: December 19 2010, 17:20:35 Read the whole entry

T minus not so many hours...

The Making of The 3rd Album 2010-2011 The recording of the third album begins today. Sort of. The drums have been transfered to Soundlab Studios and in a few hours they will be tuned and eventually soundchecked. The real start of the recording is tomorrow. We're doing the same sort of recording procedure this time as with "Rotting Paradise", the drums will be tracked in Soundlab, the guitars in Ülgnor Studios with Johan Berglund, the bass at my home studio A Noble Home and the vocals at Coldworker Studios. We have a few days boo...

Posted: December 17 2010, 11:28:00 Read the whole entry

Week one of guitars

Everything about The Doomsayer's Call