Storm The Castle!

It seems unlikely…

That anyone in their right mind would still check this blog for updates but in the astronomical probability that you are reading this, be warned! STC!’s forthcoming EP is nearing completion. There will be five songs (about 30 minutes of music) but I will say that there is a lot of music in thirty minutes. I hope anyone is still interested because it really is going to be a great little record.

git-fiddle

Well…

I’d say about 90% of the Du8 guitars are recorded. I’ve got a few bits to do in the next fews weeks, but for the most part…I’m done with git-fiddle.

I freakin’ love Marshall Amps.

Next is Tommy’s guitars….Probably in two weeks….

Metal..

D&D&STC!

Well, well. As the drum tracks for Storm the Castle!’s upcoming debut ep, tentatively titled, “Making love to your patchouli smelling ass with a broken baseball bat” reach the final editing phase, the ax wielders of STC! are making guitar sounds that will eventually find their way onto our record. I am currently staying in Oregon with my wifey, Laila while she finishes up her first degree. I have been helping her with shit tons of reading and research while she works on her thesis and I can say without a doubt that I now know 100% more about development programs and aid organizations for developing countries than I knew a month ago. And while this newly acquired knowledge may serve no practical or immediate purposes to metal making and other STC! related issues, it certainly makes me feel less worthless in a town where I can’t even find a shitty job at a coffee kiosk. God knows I went to every one in town. Anyway, the upside to me being here reveals itself in strange ways. Foe example, I ran into a guy that I was friends with while I was working on my Master’s degree here and struck up a pretty basic catch up conversation. While talking, I noticed he had some pretty amazing little drawings on under his arm. When I pressed him on the issue, he very shyly said they were some things he was working on for a video game company. Well, with a little bit of research I came to find out that my friend Scott was involved with Steve Jackson games. I figured that he drew some monsters for a few books. Then, while talking to Du8, he went to his bookshelf and pulled out a magic items manual that Scott wrote! Holy crap. Anyway, the good news is that Scott will be doing an illustration for us which will appear on an upcoming t-shirt. You can look at some of his more recent work at this website: scottmaykrantz.com. Serendipity wins.

amped

Last week we brought the guitar amps up to the studio and I’ve been working on getting some sounds.

This is our first recording with the Marshalls and I’m really excited about using them. So, far I can say that the sound is shaping up mean, mean and mean! It’s going to be quite a bit more agressive than our previous recordings. I’ve really got the amps cranked in the studio! It’s so loud i’ve got to BLAST the monitors to hear the track I’m playing along with.

I’ve got quite a bit more work to do before I sign off on the sound but it’s coming along really well!

Metal!

God o’ Thunder

Well…

it been one hell of a brutal/insane/mind shatteringly stressful couple of weeks…..

but…

Drums are done…

Amjad has REALLY brought the goods this time. I don’t know how his body endured the physical punishment involved with the tracking process. but he did it.

I can say without any doubt that this is his finest drum performance to date. The bar has been set very high. I can’t wait to record guitars. The pressure is on to match the drum ”badassitude”, but I know we are up to the challenge.

Excited as hell..

We’ll keep ya posted….

Take Two.

Last weekend, as the members of STC! were preparing the drums for the tracking of our upcoming E.P., the hard drive which was to be the proud recipient of our testament to metally goodness waved goodbye to this cruel world and crashed. Here we are a week later and insh’Allah, the actual tracking begins tomorrow (April 7). The drum sound is killer. Du8 has completely outdone himself and in many respects, kind of let his hair down for this recording. And it’s paid off. The drums are very organic but hitting goddamn hard. I am equal parts ball-shrinkingly terrified and outrageously excited to track my parts for these songs. There is going to be a lot of drumming on this album.

Also, we have recently discovered that packaging options that were previously out of our reach financially are suddenly within our reach. The design and artwork for the album will be pretty amazing. It’s not going to be “10,000 Days” but it’s still going to be a package that is best enjoyed while digesting the music within. My friend Preston and I are going to be conjuring some pretty epic shit. (’Epic Shit’ is a term frequently employed in the lexicon of art history academia). Preston is who did the ‘Spanish knights battling a Plesiosaur’ T-shirt for us.

Anyhow, stay tuned. One day there will be a lot to listen to.

STC! UPDATE!

It’s official.

Recording for our Debut E.P. will begin Friday March the 30th.

we’ve been practicing like crazy and things are sounding great. The performances are really sounding mean as hell. The “ASS KICK” knob has been turned WAY up.

it’s going to melt your face right the heck off….

We’ll let you know..

I love this

STORM THE CASTLE! will open for these kids someday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UP8Z87nAtas

It’s Refuse Resist by Sepultura…..

UPDATE!!!

even better…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_4aGXTHo7w

STC! update 11/10/06

Wow.

A Lot has happened since we last updated.

We played a really fun Halloween show. It was a benefit for a local art collective called Art Amiss. We worked some spooky TV and movie themes into our songs and played songs by Black Sabbath and The Misfits. There was a contest to see who could recognize the most of the “extra” material. Our good friend Brain Abel was the lucky winner. He took home a free T-shirt and a huge pumpkin full of candy. It was a blast.

We also played our first show at The Dart room in Fayetteville. I couldn’t have asked for a better first show at my favorite metal venue in northwest Arkansas. Many of the good folks from nwametal.com were at this show and they made us feel very welcome. Thanks to everyone that has come to see our recent shows.

Rwake has asked us to play their CD release show! This show will be at Downtown music in Little Rock sometime at the end of February. Rwake is great band and it’s really an honor that they asked us to play. Legendary grind band Burned Up Bled Dry will also play this show. It will be good to see our dear friend Evan again.

STORM THE CASTLE! has been nominated for Two Ozark Music Awards. We were nominated for best new band and best metal band. Amjad was nominated for best drummer.

We will be playing another show at the Dart room Dec 2 with The Kill, and The Sacred Have Fallen. I haven’t heard The Sacred Have Fallen yet But The Kill is a really excellent band from Oklahoma City. I’ll have some updates on this show soon.

We are also opening for Epoch of Unlight in February. This should be a killer show.

Just today, Joel bought a brand new Ampeg bass rig. Boy Howdy! It sounds great! We were blown away by how much tighter and aggressive it made the whole band sound. Our live sound is really coming together. I can’t wait to play our next show.

Amjad bought new drumsticks.

Lots of pre production work for the E.P. is being done. We’ve been gathering reference material for the artwork as well as the sonic production. This record will look as unique as it sounds. I’ve seen some sketches that our friend Preston Graves has made for the cover and they are really promising.

Very soon we will be making some pretty exciting announcements about the EP. I don’t want to give anything away but I’ll say it’s going to be really cool.

Things are going really well and we are looking forward to the next few months!

BIG NEWS!!!

Well… kinda.

We have officially decided on the title and track listing for our upcoming EP. This may not really sound like a big deal but it is. This means we have truly entered into the “pre-production” process of the record. Which means that the next few months will totally insane.

For me, the pre-production process is the most intense part of a making a record. I will go through dozens of recording scenarios, generate a huge amount of production ideas and analyze every perceivable nuance of the performances. I will drive myself crazy with this record before we set up a single microphone. Basically, the record will dominate every waking moment of my life until I can listen to the finished product.

I can say that this record will be pretty bad ass. It will be VERY different from the demos that we have done thus far. The demos were very much about representing the songs in as stripped down and unpolished a way as possible. There is very little in the way of real “production” on those recordings. Now we are setting out to make a record that has a powerful sound with genuine performances as well as a record that creates a sonically textured and interesting environment. There will be little sonic details that you won’t notice until you listen to it a few times on headphones. But it will still kick your ass when you blast it in your car.

we will update you as things move forward.