14 December 2007

Album is done. It’s such a great feeling to finally be able to hold your new “baby” in your hands (weird at the same time… looking at this tiny CD, knowing how much time and money went into its creation). And a bit sad at the same time – we had such a blast making it, there’s been tons and tons of great moments in the process: countless barbeques and other assorted “nights out”, a bunch of dear friends/guests who joined us along the way and even the fact that all of us – for almost 6 months period – had this album as a cornerstone of our lives, the goal which we were working so hard to achieve – as a unit. I know, I know it sounds sentimental but there’s always that bittersweet feeling than the job is done and you’re looking back at the process…But now it’s all history – for us, at least. For you there’s another album to discover and – hopefully – to enjoy, and we all wish you the latter… in spades! Cheers.

Andrè Andersen


04 December 2007

Oh, we almost forgot – the mysterious process of mastering: the final tweaking, twisting and trimming, making sure that the album sounds clear, crispy and loud… on any kind of speakers (never mind poor bastards who’re listening to mp3´s - they won’t notice it anyway. Embrace the new castrated technology :- ).


And Jan Eliasson (mastering engineer at Audio Planet Mastering) is no stranger to RH (yes, he’s the one who – after a couple of hours into the session, as a reaction to countless “make it sharper, wider, fuller, bigger”  – shakes his head and goes “Forget it, it’s impossible” but quickly changes his mind just to keep HIM (yes, you’ve already guessed whom – our very own Russian Dragon) from reaching out and twisting some knobs to “demonstrate how it could/should be done” (somebody cuff this guy!).
26 November 2007
Let the fun begin – Mix Time! Finally, after almost half a year of recording we can actually hear the whole thing coming together and starting to make sense (under the keen supervision of our long time sparring partner Lars Overgaard at EMI/Medley Studio). From now on there’s no going back, no redoing any parts or just “changing our mind in the last second” (got that, André?) – it’s all over, finito, done.
Each audio track – and there’s tons of them – is carefully picked up, analyzed-polished-reinforced-embellished (with those very important and very expensive “blah blah 13X56 Turbo”, “blah blah Y66THR5 GTI” and a dozen of other units… whatever they call those gizmos that make everything sound good) and methodically put down aside the others, one at the time.

Once the “basic sound” is achieved the process should speed up considerably, but - having Lars and André there, twisting knobs and pushing faders – it still comes out as a “two days pr song” scenario (what do they do all this time?! Probably nothing, just trying to look important…pretending to be scientists… or pouring down drinks… or wasting everybody’s time by trying to achieve “that perfect ride cymbal sound”. Wake up, guys, it’s just a piece of metal which has been repeatedly hit by a wooden stick!!! Whatever you do to this poor thing, it won’t sound any different).
Anyway – the whole thing sounds… weighty?... sizable?... what’s the word?... aha, big!... no, HUGE… that’s it. Drums are crushing, bass is pumping, guitars are screeching (sorry, screaming), keyboards dominating (yeah, right) and singers… well, they do that most of them usually do – vocalizing this madness (God bless their souls and their brave little hearts). All in all – this album is on its way to become an indispensable contribution to the cultural treasure fond of our civilisation… any minute now :-)

Heard in the mixing studio:

 “I can hear all of the instruments clearly, but not my bass”
 “You call it an instrument… we call it “the thing that makes guitar sound ugly”

 “I’m really enjoying this piece of music, but I can hardly hear any guitars”
 “Maybe that’s the reason why you’re enjoying it”

“How do you know if you’re mixing drums too loud?”
 “Just wait for the drummer to start drooling”

“I plunged 10 tracks of keys into this piece and it still sounds like crap”
 “And you’re wondering why?”

“Those backing tracks are way too loud, I can’t hear a single word I’m singing”
 “Well, you’re listening to the drum solo”.
11 November 2007  

It’s a well documented fact that Marcus loves toying with assorted deformed objects with strings on them, but nobody could predict that this obsession will lead him to such a degrading state. This manic idea drove him completely off course as he strongly implied that this particular album actually needs something as obscure as guitar solos… and just to make matters worse he officially announced that his multitalented nature demands new challenges (we all know by now that it’s just a bunch of voices inside his weary head) and brought a cello with him. To play on. On this album.

We’ve been advised by his doctor to play along and let him think that his contribution is somehow valuable to our current project (in order to calm him down and try not to bring his fragile mental state off balance), but the sole fact that a person can become so severely deranged so quickly is downright devastating. Once again –our deepest condolences to whoever might be exposed to his “psycho - musical adventures” on this album and - on behalf of everybody in the band - would like to (humbly) ask you to give our new release a chance despise this horrendous accident.

27 October 2007

No comments… and none needed. Just by looking at this arsenal (and knowing its enthusiastic owner) one can easily figure out what this album is about to get hit by.



07 October 2007

We had that privilege to accommodate the one and only Henrik Brockmann for a couple of hours (in the studio, obviously, as we’re not mentioning the rest of the day which he spend emptying our bar and harassing André’s cats) but boy, is this individual capable of moving some air or what…We’re not talking any finesse here with all those right vibratos, correct breathing etc – no, it’s just sheer power and a good old fashion rock´n roll feeling. 
After his successful attempt to scare the living daylights out of the microphone (poor thing will never be the same again) by spitting at least 130db of blood freezing screams at it he left the premises (did we mentioned the empty bar and tortured cats?), threatening everybody by implying that “he’ll be back tomorrow”…well, you’re always welcome, brother.
27 September 2007  
Ian Parry… The Ultimate Soldier of Metal, the creature that never sleeps on his relentless quest to metalize the world made his way to Copenhagen to slay, conquer and reign… and to put his stamp all over this album – dramatic, emotional and, off course, metal!

This lads pipes were made for killing, not singing, we’ll tell you that much; his vibrant, ridiculously powerful voice sends shivers down your spine instantly, each and every note demands (and gets) your full attention while precision of his delivering puts a scalpel to shame… the entire city of Liverpool has definitely something to be proud of (besides The Beatles and a rather mediocre soccer team). In short – our “epic-in-the-works” received another adrenaline shot.

09 September 2007  

I must admit that – as being privileged to work with a lot of great musicians over the years - I’m getting harder and harder to impress... however – this guy blew my socks off! Even considering the high quality of some of the other discs we were receiving from singers, Mark’s versions of some of our older songs were simply superb, so we decided to invite him to Copenhagen for a “test drive” of our new material and at least one thing became absolutely clear after that very first day of work: this guy has tons of great stuff to offer! From husky, bluesy “up close and personal” lines to metal charged supersonic screams... he nailed it all with remarkable ease, adding his personal touch to every single word ; his understanding (and delivering) of this albums concept/lyrics/musical mood changes is down right astonishing. Sure, there are a couple of aspects which can use some improvement (the main one: Mark prefers cognac over Jack Daniels?!!) but we’ll work on it… intensively, we promise. The verdict: we couldn’t have picked a better singer for this album – welcome aboard, Mark, I promise I won’t be such a “slave driver” next time around (fingers crossed behind my back :-).

05 September 2007  
Here he goes polluting our beautiful, light and airy musical landscapes with his ridiculously distorted and unbearably disgraceful contribution! Yes, we’re sorry as much as you are, but for some unexplainable reason we’re obligated to have a guitar player in our rock band – go figure...probably some kind of corporate conspiracy it is.

Marcus Jidell´s appalling guitar antics made it to each and every corner of every single song, chocking the elegant, ambient sounding masterpieces with his rude and tasteless “playing” (his own description of the process consisting of repetitive and relentless banging on a few randomly  selected guitar strings, occasionally interrupted by “pulling” or “pinching” some of them) and - while a few disoriented individuals might find his escapades  appealing, we – with our impeccable taste and understanding of art - consider  this act of “sonic terrorism” as being quite offensive and, most of all, unquestionably redundant. As a result Marcus will be excluded from our “Christmas card list” this year and his “catering requirements” will be immediately reduced to cat food exclusively while eventual non alcoholic beverages will be allowed towards sincere and – most importantly - frequent apologies to the entire band and their associates for his despicable actions.
18 August 2007  
She´s back!
Now even reinforcing her oestrogen attack by inviting another “iron maiden” to the feast – Soma Allpas - to join her on a few tracks (probably because of a constant growl from the control room : “Make it sound bigger!” she realised the impossibility of singing a couple of voices simultaneously?).
Anyway, now there’s more of them and they are all over the place (we’re starting to suspect those girls in a attempt to turn this album into another girl-fronted-pop-metal-thing) while the (male) rest of the band’s just going “NO WAY!!!” and trying to look mean (metal style).
 
2 August 2007  
Unfortunately, there’s absolutely nothing exciting to write about Per Schelander´s bass recording sessions except for : great sound, impeccable timing/phrasing, knowing/understanding of the given material, creativity and – last but not least - incredible self control (despise André’s countless last-second-changes of some of the most finger breaking runs up and down the fret board).
Armed with his old trusty Fender and a custom made 5 - string bass (www.mattissonbass.com) he wasn’t up drinking all night, trashing cars, throwing TV sets out the window or picking up chicks at assorted bars around Copenhagen (but only as far as we know, because he looked suspiciously happy even BEFORE his first cup of coffee in the morning)

– instead he left the studio as quiet as he entered it, leaving his stellar performance on tape for the rest of the slobs to match.

13 July 2007  

Kenny Lubcke has been a part of our studio (and sometimes “live”) sound since “Paradox” (all the way back in 1997… scary how fast time flies!) and as we all know - this guy can do no wrong. In fact, nobody has EVER heard him sing off key or off time – EVER! (we did our own little investigation through out the entire metal community). BUT – our evil genius (sure, who else but our very own “Evil Russian Dragon”?) made an effort to make this poor guy suffer…
This time, after a “one take” run of a double chorus in the end of one of the songs (which required a high “E” most of the time) we had to carry poor Kenny out of the studio (correct, he was unable to go through his usual little step dance and “it’s been the easiest million euros I’ve ever made” routine this time).
To whom it may concern – after an extensive use of the oxygen mask and installation of a “Jack Daniels drop” he’s been fine (generally speaking) and, actually, was able to mumble something about “any more of those-sick-unmusical-pieces-containing notes that-only-dogs-can hear”. Now that’s the spirit!
11 June 2007
Drum-days… Nothing is more refreshing than a crisp, ridiculously loud snare hit at 10 (ok ok, actually 12) o’clock in the morning while you’re having a bit of a hangover on top of a massive headache from recording drums the day before… Gotta love this business!

The wonder boy, the triumph of the 21st century’s medical science (he´s a result of the very first successful attempt to create a gene manipulated half man / half drum machine) – Allan Sørensen, armed with his brand new shiny drum kit – is a very, very “happy camper” at the moment… He´s allowed and encouraged to “hit things” (which is, in fact, his job description) at any time, any volume and any speed… while he´s been taken great care of (we´re feeding him with corn flakes with JD, letting him walk outside a couple of hours a day – on a leash, of course, to prevent him from biting anybody or chasing their cats up the trees – and making sure that he´s sleeping at least 6 hours every night, curled inside his beloved drum kit (he sleeps better when his snoring generates a “soothing sizzle” from the crashes and a “calming hum” from the kick).

Drummer jokes aside: we can reassure you that Allan´s playing on this album surpasses anything he´s ever done before – no comparison, really - building a solid but adventurous foundation for our most elaborate release to date.



 


17 May 2007  

It’s time for a healthy dose of Maria McTurk… Have we ever made an album without her? Highly unlikely : from classical soprano imitations to a sexy whisper, she brings to a testosterone driven “boot stomping – Jack Daniels drinking – chain smoking - Marshall screaming – drums pounding” macho inferno a touch of elegance that became kind of a trademark to “that RH sound”.

29 April 2007  

Dougie White –while being quite busy rehearsing with Cornerstone for their upcoming tour – still was able to find a spare minute to come by the studio to put down a few vocal tracks… with passion and “evilness” which only this mad Scotsman can provide (we’re all bowing in awe).
He was punishing the microphone so hard that – after he left, unfortunately – we found a piece of human flesh (looks remarkably like a lung) on the floor in the vocal booth. Dougie, next time you’re in Copenhagen, please come by to collect: one (1) human lung, red (a few nicotine spots), generally in mint condition (spontaneously whistling a couple of Rainbow classics, but only at night).

 
15 April 2007  
André has spent the last year on writing lyrics/music for the new album which now will become a continuation of the “Paradox” story: “When I first started gathering some musical ideas for this new release” – he says - “I noticed that the general atmosphere of the whole thing reminded me of "Paradox" – soundscapes appeared to be larger than those on our later albums… it’s hard to describe music in words but there was something “conceptual” over this thing from day one and it harked back strongly to that “Paradox vibe”. Lyrically I went back to the very beginning of the story, but back then (on the first album) the main theme was a description of “what did actually happen”: on the new one it will be “why did it all happen and why is it all happening”.

You see, when that very first rock - which was put down to create a physical frame to our concept of religion - it gave birth to a very first conflict which can – simply put – be described as “my God is bigger than your God, ergo – I/we and our way of living are superior compared to yours”. And while this problem seems to be rapidly declining in the West, it became almost “the main issue” in some parts of the East… resulting in a row of horrific conflict situations which we’ve been - and still do - witness today and get affected by”.

Therefore, on this “studio report page” we’d like to invite you (as much as it’s possible in this limited virtual world) to a musical (well, mostly visual) journey of creating our new album from that “very first rock” to the “chaos A.C”.