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Vague Evolving Patterns (2015)

by Nostril Caverns

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1.
017 H-Natural inclination, material sleep Growing clever nesting snow, draped until it slows 044 H-Blind from birth, never mentioned again Gouging without fingers, plywood sequenced star 106 L-Barren night supposed Calculate no time 120 H-Calculate the body's worth 132 L-Nails into the skin Refracting the signal Increase the distance 214 H-Ahhh 224 H-Desperate times ahead 336 H-Mercy, sometimes unfair 348 HL-Cautious, H-No time to spare HL-Render, H-Roses they aren't giving you HL-Suspect, H-Priority falls upon the shadow HL-Giving, H-When is it time to give in 421 L-Physical, in phase 439 H-Mercy, sometimes unfair 529 L-Divise deception Follow through Escape the beam Gliding down 555 H-The way to keep a secret 651 H-Excess thought disappeared Leaving nothing Who can obtain the pleasures from it 701 H-Sifting 716 H-Nowhere 721 H-Lessening its fear with nondescript hands 746 H-Evolving puzzles from the sky The only skill is time Trapped within the atmosphere's musk 849 H-Was the brain designed to ignore the signal The patterns decrypted with deja-vu A glorious feeling, yet unknown to me Dilated, the skull cracked and dry 941 H-Was the brain designed to ignore the signal The patterns decrypted with deja-vu Vague entity of crystaline traits Destroying the vast unsaid 955 H-Streaking, simple palate Sanitary opening, counting the holes 1006 H-Discussions, what to do next Theorize, the inevitable end Existential extinction 1110 H-Counting down the days until it finally begins Skin losing moisture, hair falling out, acid leaking from inside L-What else is sentient, groupings of flies Follow pointed limbs into the miracle sultry sky 1129 HL-Delusional robot Synthetic to the touch 1139 HL-Piece together wishful desire 1144 H-Sinful place between the breasts, clipping hydro nemesis Quick protusions to the face, faithful distant prelude L-Mask yourself from between the head, elaboration sought Wellness and unhealthy potions, HL-thickly filled intestines 1247 HL-Delusional robot Synthetic to the touch Piece together wishful desire The dream of becoming less than a god 1315 H-Forgetful mind, void of flavour, nevermind the sequential password 1330 HL-Ahhh 1553 H-Regrets on a pedestal Desensitized Control A flash of genius, only for a moment Predator Mirroring the past 1613 H-Glasses obstructing vision Projectiles Impaled by doubt The garden of the soul Climb inside The body burned 1654 H-Place, the heart upon, watch the blood exit Thoughtful, memory, hate the glowing eyes Message me, paper, hopeful cold shoulder Talk to someone else, fixated on the torso's shapely form 1735 H-Evacuate the victim's chest Pelvis Anatomy exposed Grossly underestimated Probable cause Less is more 1756 H-Asking for forgiveness No thought or feeling Fake Closely watching face Meditate Fall from hate Grinding dried up blood Inhale Together now

about

This challenge was quite fun and epic. I've recorded 20 minute songs before, but they were improvised, so it doesn't matter if you screw up there. For this song, the left/right guitar tracks and the drums track were recorded in a full take without punch-ins/overdubs/fixing. I wanted to play the distorted and clean guitars in the same take, with the same amp settings, so I used the "normal channel" on my amp, set the gain to 8, and pushed the "crunch" button to make it "crunchier". With those settings I could play distorted guitars while picking hard and have clean guitars while picking soft (most of the cleans were actually finger picked while hiding the pick with my middle finger). Because of this dual distorted/clean setup, I was worried there wouldn't be enough distortion for the death/thrash section at 11:00, but it turned out ok with me. The distorted and clean leads were played on my "boost" channel with full distortion (for the clean leads, I turned my guitar's volume knob almost all the way down).

The rhythm guitars were written first. I sit with my guitar in front of my computer with powertab open while writing. I'll come up with an arrangement of riffs and memorize it enough so that I can input it into powertab. I use powertab for a couple reasons - one is to create a midi version of the song with exact tempos that I listen to while recording drums - the other is so that I don't forget the riffs on guitar. A few times in the past I've arranged some riffs only to have forgotten the exact timing/fingerings the next day when I woke up.

The drums were written next. I listened to the midi + metronome file I created in powertab when writing and recording the drums. Once the drums were written, I practised until I'm ready to record. Once the drums were recorded, I recorded the rhythm guitars next. Then I wrote/recorded the lead guitar parts at the same time. Then I wrote/recorded the synth parts at the same time. Then I wrote lyrics and recorded those.

I basically cut the song up into sections where each section was written in one sitting. I tried to keep the sections different from each other, while trying to maintain a cohesive whole, but did repeat the occasional riff from a previous section to tie it all together.

Section [1] 0:00 - 3:30
The song starts off with a clean riff I used to play at the end of an older song. The riff didn't exist in that older song, I would just play it when the older song ended while I was practising. One glaring mistake is at 2:51 where the drums come in before the guitar.

Section [2] 3:30 - 6:35
Another mistake is at 3:39 where the drums don't transition properly into the next riff. I screw up that transition again at 4:43, so you never actually get to hear it properly. Later in the section I repeat parts from the first section. At 6:01, the rhythm guitar "pulses" of the left guitar are always on the 1 and 3, but for the right guitar I randomly did them on the 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Section [3] 6:35 - 8:34
A big mistake is at 6:50 where the left guitar starts on the wrong frets. Normally a big enough mistake to stop recording and start over, but for a 20 minute song?

Section [4] 8:34 - 10:58
At 9:02 the right guitar hits two wrong notes, but they're part of the chord so it sort of fits. I screwed up this riff again at 10:45 where the left guitar hits a wrong note. The blast beat at 10:28 never existed until just before I started recording, so at 10:32 I forgot to stop blasting until the second measure (that bar was supposed to be all quiet like the last 3 measures). So when I recorded guitars I just played loudly for that first measure, and I actually prefer it that way.

Section [5] 10:58 - 13:40
This section is basically Exhumed worship (Slaughtercult era), but the opening riff is more inspired from Goatwhore or Signs of Dying. Listen to the Exhumed song Funeral Fuck and you'll understand the verses, and the chorus is similar to Fester Forever.

Section [6] 13:40 - 15:29
This section revolves around power chords on the low strings with open high strings. I like doing that in other songs and I think the second song from Subterranean Birthright on the previous challenge opened with that style (power chord on first fret sixth string, with open high strings).

Section [7] 15:29 - 18:55
For the section at 15:51, the drums are improvised and I'm doing random fills in between the snare+cymbal hits that happen whenever I hit a low string on guitar. For the section at 16:32, my fretting hand was always getting sore at that point in the song, but then it was fine when the section at 17:15 started until the end. I also bring back a part from section 1 and 2 into this section.

Section [8] 18:55 - 20:00
In this section there is a recording of coyotes barking/yipping/howling. I was recording vocals and there was one coyote just outside the house making lots of noise, so I thought I'd open the door and record the sounds on their own to use in the song just for fun. There's at least one more coyote in the recording off in the distance.

credits

released December 1, 2015

Chris Balch - guitars, drums, keyboards, vocals

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tags

about

Nostril Caverns Milton, Ontario

NOSTRIL CAVERNS is Chris Balch since 1997.

CORA CANNING is Dave and Chris since 1999.

death/black/grind/
math/experimental/
tech/prog/improv/
avantgarde/jazz/rock

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