Bolt Thrower has posted a new studio report from Karl Willetts.
OK, well heres my first getting back into the world of Bolt Thrower report. Ill start off by explaining a bit about the lyric writing process, which in itself was somewhat lengthy! My introduction to the new songs came in the form of some demos Baz recorded at home earlier in the year, I spent a good couple of months listening to these to get them into my head and understand the general flow, timings and structures of the songs. The songs werent totally completed, but I could already tell this was going to be some excellent stuff...
To be honest, getting back into writing lyrics again proved a little harder than I had imagined, it had been a few years since my last song writing which had been for the Mercenary album back in 1998. And it being our eighth studio album, wed already used a lot of the good sounding Bolt Thrower song titles, along with a plethora of new bands using titles similar to the ones that we use, so I spent a long time researching on my pc, to make sure that the prospective song titles where somewhat original.
I also found that physically visiting places with military history very inspirational, I visited the Cenotaph in London and checked out Horse Guards parade where the trooping of the colour is performed, I also went to Belgium and saw a lot of war cemeteries and memorials around Flanders. In May I spent the night camping out at a place called Turnaware Point in Cornwall, which was an embarkation point for the US Infantry 5th Corps in the Normandy landings. Visiting these places helped me develop some of the main themes and subject topics to which a few of the lyrics on the new album are based.
When the band finally entered the studio back in May the songs on the demos had changed a little (for the better!) and I started to formulate the lyrics to the songs by at first concentrating on the rhythms and timings. Gav provided me with a pile of useful notebooks containing ideas for song titles and subject matter. These provided a wealth of material from which the first sets of lyrics were drafted.
While the rhythm tracks were being recorded I met with Gav on a regular basis to work through the lyrics and eventually after much debate and discussion with regard to song titles, the final rough draughts of the songs were complete and ready to record.
At the start of August I spent 4 days demoing the new songs in order to make sure that my placement and timings of the vocals worked. The rest of the band came in at this point to make the odd timing, or lyric change, so after a bit of shuffling around they where finally ready to put down for real, 10 songs in total. I took my time concentrating on both delivery of the individual lines and clear annunciation of the words. It was very rewarding that vocally I was still able to continue where I left off on Mercenary, my throat seemed to remember too, and luckily I didnt suffer any strains or voice loss! Just hope it holds out for the tour too!!
The recording went relatively problem-free, I had my speaker-kicking moments (sorry Jo), but overall everyone was chuffed with how it all went. And after 10 days they were all completed, and sounding totally killer. We tried to vary the timings quite a lot, so there are different style verses, a selection of choruses and a mix of old and new vocals to match the style of songs. I cant give any song titles away yet, but maybe when weve finished the mix we might put a clip or two up on the website.
It wont be long; the mixing has already started...
Karl
OK, well heres my first getting back into the world of Bolt Thrower report. Ill start off by explaining a bit about the lyric writing process, which in itself was somewhat lengthy! My introduction to the new songs came in the form of some demos Baz recorded at home earlier in the year, I spent a good couple of months listening to these to get them into my head and understand the general flow, timings and structures of the songs. The songs werent totally completed, but I could already tell this was going to be some excellent stuff...
To be honest, getting back into writing lyrics again proved a little harder than I had imagined, it had been a few years since my last song writing which had been for the Mercenary album back in 1998. And it being our eighth studio album, wed already used a lot of the good sounding Bolt Thrower song titles, along with a plethora of new bands using titles similar to the ones that we use, so I spent a long time researching on my pc, to make sure that the prospective song titles where somewhat original.
I also found that physically visiting places with military history very inspirational, I visited the Cenotaph in London and checked out Horse Guards parade where the trooping of the colour is performed, I also went to Belgium and saw a lot of war cemeteries and memorials around Flanders. In May I spent the night camping out at a place called Turnaware Point in Cornwall, which was an embarkation point for the US Infantry 5th Corps in the Normandy landings. Visiting these places helped me develop some of the main themes and subject topics to which a few of the lyrics on the new album are based.
When the band finally entered the studio back in May the songs on the demos had changed a little (for the better!) and I started to formulate the lyrics to the songs by at first concentrating on the rhythms and timings. Gav provided me with a pile of useful notebooks containing ideas for song titles and subject matter. These provided a wealth of material from which the first sets of lyrics were drafted.
While the rhythm tracks were being recorded I met with Gav on a regular basis to work through the lyrics and eventually after much debate and discussion with regard to song titles, the final rough draughts of the songs were complete and ready to record.
At the start of August I spent 4 days demoing the new songs in order to make sure that my placement and timings of the vocals worked. The rest of the band came in at this point to make the odd timing, or lyric change, so after a bit of shuffling around they where finally ready to put down for real, 10 songs in total. I took my time concentrating on both delivery of the individual lines and clear annunciation of the words. It was very rewarding that vocally I was still able to continue where I left off on Mercenary, my throat seemed to remember too, and luckily I didnt suffer any strains or voice loss! Just hope it holds out for the tour too!!
The recording went relatively problem-free, I had my speaker-kicking moments (sorry Jo), but overall everyone was chuffed with how it all went. And after 10 days they were all completed, and sounding totally killer. We tried to vary the timings quite a lot, so there are different style verses, a selection of choruses and a mix of old and new vocals to match the style of songs. I cant give any song titles away yet, but maybe when weve finished the mix we might put a clip or two up on the website.
It wont be long; the mixing has already started...
Karl
