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1 hour ago, True Belief said: Hope she will be ok, have had a few operations (to fix sporting injuries) etc myself and I know how daunting it can be for anything or any procedure like that.

Yep surgery is not fun for anyone. Nor are the prescription painkillers they dope you up on afterwards. Don't see how people get addicted to that crap personally.

No joke, they make me nauseous.

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BAN, FA, how do you guys do it? I've just spent 2 hours trying to translate the idea in my head to a riff. Not even a bloody song just a riff. I've got nowhere and now I'm beyond frustrated. I'll admit to not yet possessing all the tools required to get the job done yet though. Still couldn't even come up with a framework I could use later.

 

All the ideas in my head seem to be heavily influenced by a blend of old-school death metal, melodic black metal, a touch of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, traditional doom and doom/death. It makes sense in my head and I can probably make it work once I have a better understanding of the songwriting processes each sub-genre employs but that's no help right now. AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

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So, last night I had the stitches removed from my stomach, that was fun. If your wondering what happens when you get in the way of a drunk guy with a knife... yeah don't try it. But on a more positive note, they have renewed my contract again at work, this time it isn't for a set period of time either, so we don't have to go through this whole fiasco again in another 3 months.

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5 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

BAN, FA, how do you guys do it? I've just spent 2 hours trying to translate the idea in my head to a riff. Not even a bloody song just a riff. I've got nowhere and now I'm beyond frustrated. I'll admit to not yet possessing all the tools required to get the job done yet though. Still couldn't even come up with a framework I could use later.

 

All the ideas in my head seem to be heavily influenced by a blend of old-school death metal, melodic black metal, a touch of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, traditional doom and doom/death. It makes sense in my head and I can probably make it work once I have a better understanding of the songwriting processes each sub-genre employs but that's no help right now. AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Forget about subgenres and just play the guitar for a while. Let your fingers go and sort of listen with one ear, and if you hear anything that sounds cool, repeat it until you've got it. I don't really know how far along you are, but it sounds like you're overthinking, and you need to learn to relax and form your own vocabulary. Enjoy yourself, improvise, and make mistakes. Plenty of my riffs come from mistakes that took me to cool places. 

Songwriting is as simple or complicated as you make it. Once you have some riffs that sound like they might fit together, try stringing them into a basic verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus structure to get a feel for how they work together. It's easier to elaborate on things once you have a basic song that works. You're under no obligation to keep it that simple, but it's good practice. I spent years writing dozens of songs that way, and the more exploratory stuff grew out of that naturally. Can you record yourself at all? 

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BAN, FA, how do you guys do it? I've just spent 2 hours trying to translate the idea in my head to a riff. Not even a bloody song just a riff. I've got nowhere and now I'm beyond frustrated. I'll admit to not yet possessing all the tools required to get the job done yet though. Still couldn't even come up with a framework I could use later.

 

All the ideas in my head seem to be heavily influenced by a blend of old-school death metal, melodic black metal, a touch of De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, traditional doom and doom/death. It makes sense in my head and I can probably make it work once I have a better understanding of the songwriting processes each sub-genre employs but that's no help right now. AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with FA, I think you're overthinking this, and that is your problem. I have certainly been guilty of this plenty, and it's the quickest way to get writers block IMO. What I try to do is put myself into the mood that I want to create, and then just play until it feels right. Sometimes I have specific ideas that I have to find the right notes and cadence for, which can be frustrating, but it does get easier as I play more in that style. Other times, I will just have an intuition about what the next section should do, i.e. speed up, slow down, sound more epic or more morose, etc..., and then just start down that path until you find what fits. When I started playing black metal, it felt like I was starting over, having to develop a new "vocabulary" as FA put it. Different patterns and note choices will sound better to you, and you'll find that what you write will start to take on an identity. You can't force what that identity is, so while you may end up playing something in the style that you had intended, it will likely sound different than you would imagine. Let it happen, find your sound, and run with it.

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2 hours ago, GorboGorboze said:

I don't know of too many people who have been cut in a knife fight, that is pretty dramatic. heal well.

Not so much a knife fight as it was me simply misjudging the distance between us before snapping his forearm. That ladies and gentlemen is why, when you are about to mug a lass, you should always check to see if the boyfriend is behind you.

15 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Yep surgery is not fun for anyone. Nor are the prescription painkillers they dope you up on afterwards. Don't see how people get addicted to that crap personally.

You may not realise you're getting addicted while taking them as prescribed, I certainly didn't. I only realised when I started getting withdrawal symptoms.

On 29/01/2016 at 0:05 AM, deathstorm said:

My mom is going for her procedure soon

I hope it all goes alright for her.

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Cheers FA & BAN. I probably was overthinking things/trying too hard to make it fit into my preconceived idea. I've got a very limited capacity to record myself playing at present - basically recording on my phone so there's not much to be gained as it's tough to make anything out. I think I'm going to buy a digital recorder in the near future though. Higher end recording equipment will have to wait as I've nowhere to put it and no real need for it right now.

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For all my efforts I've crafted only crude mockeries, insulting caricatures, of the forlorn fancies conjured by Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. I would dearly like to simply use that poem as lyrics - the complex range of emotions and images it evokes is exactly what I'm going for. I think with that in mind I might actually make some headway in the riff writing department. 

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Cheers FA & BAN. I probably was overthinking things/trying too hard to make it fit into my preconceived idea. I've got a very limited capacity to record myself playing at present - basically recording on my phone so there's not much to be gained as it's tough to make anything out. I think I'm going to buy a digital recorder in the near future though. Higher end recording equipment will have to wait as I've nowhere to put it and no real need for it right now.

It doesn't need to be fancy,just so long as you can hear what you were doing well enough to remember how to play it, that should be plenty for now. I've used my phone to record riffs. It was never meant to be released, just useful for keeping track of ideas.

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8 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

I think a digital recorder is a pretty good option. Just something with the option to play, pause, record, and rewind/fast forward. I'd use a tape recorder but am pretty sre no one makes them anymore.

Play, pause, record, rewind, and fast forward? Don't set your sights too high. :D  I definitely recommend a multitrack unit. It's great to be able to record harmonies, or a rhythm and lead track, that's a really good learning tool as well as making it easier to show your ideas to other people once you start collaborating. There are some relatively inexpensive basic digital multitrack recorders from Zoom and Tascam that operate just like the multitrack tape recorders did. Pretty easy to figure out, and probably somewhat ok to navigate by touch. Oddly, because of your vision, a tape four-track makes sense, and you could probably get your hands on one, but then you have to deal with cassette tapes, which gets annoying. 

On my mind - another fucking amazing set from Krallice last night. The string trio opening act was very cool - somewhat experimental and energetic compsitions from Mick Barr, really set the mood for the rest of the evening. Yellow Eyes sounded much better at this venue than they did at Acheron. They need to up their stage presence though, the vocals seem like an afterthought and the guys just stand there looking at their fretboards for the most part. They've got some great tone going on, the drummer is hugely energetic and entertaining, and the music is interesting, so they're mostly winning. 

Krallice is just so skilled and precise - watching them play is a treat, and hearing music that fragmentary and chaotic performed with that level of musicianship is almost a meditational experience. They're unique. See them live if you can. 

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Sorry I haven't been active the last few weeks... Had a shit storm thrown at me which unfortunately has not come to an end yet... I've been hiding away at home refusing to see or talk to anyone any more than absolutely neccesary... Combination of after xmas depression, bad health and people doing my head in... Plus had a load of orders to finish, finally got my guitars back too so I haven't been bored. I'll won't stay away this long again cause I kinda missed it here...

What did I miss????

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6 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said:

I'm certain that Lucifer himself would officiate the ceremony.

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It would have to be a destination wedding. My initial thought was a romantic location roughly equidistant from Maine and Northern England - the deck of a decrepit fishing vessel in the mid-Atlantic, say, or a barren stretch of Greenland coast. But since Gorbo is already married, we'd have to go to a place where bigamy is hunky dory, and the Middle East is too volatile, so at this point it's looking like Utah is our best bet. Start calling all your local florists. 

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6 minutes ago, BlutAusNerd said: I'm certain that Lucifer himself would officiate the ceremony.

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It would have to be a destination wedding. My initial thought was a romantic location roughly equidistant from Maine and Northern England - the deck of a decrepit fishing vessel in the mid-Atlantic, say, or a barren stretch of Greenland coast. But since Gorbo is already married, we'd have to go to a place where bigamy is hunky dory, and the Middle East is too volatile, so at this point it's looking like Utah is our best bet. Start calling all your local florists. 

With gay marriage now being legal in the US, the lack of social stigma regarding bigamy, and the fact that Mormons are secretly Satanists, this really would be the ideal locale for such an unholy union. Add to that just how many beautiful wedding venues there are here in the mountains, and it will surely be an event to put all of the guests in tears (of acid, that is).

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