Well, again I'm late to this thing. In fact it's now 2012 and I said I would be kicking these things out weekly didn't I? That goal was a bit too ambitious. I'm not really a person who likes to set a routine. I mix shit up and if I realize I've looped myself into a routine, I break it up. That and I'm REALLY fucking lazy.
So let's get this sucker started...
RotP was recorded in or around February of 2009 at Trench Studios in Corona, CA with John Haddad as the recording engineer and producer as well. Not that anything has changed, but Gravehill in 2009 was pretty fucking broke. Recording and creating the final mix at Trench Studios was the only financially viable thing to do at the time. Haddad did a great job of keeping the sound we wanted. Gritty with just a little shine.
The recording itself was spent mostly in a drunken stupor. Barring Thorgrimm and Zyklon who recorded their parts relatively sober, Abominator, Bodybag, and myself showed no professionalism whatsoever. That's not to say Thorgrimm and Zyklon didn't partake in the alcoholic festivities, just not while recording.
Thorgrimm attempts to drum. ATTEMPTS!! He only has one stick!
Bodybag pleased with his one-take performance. That's a wrap!
Zyklon practiced solos before recording. Who does that??
We had all sorts of visitors come over and you could tell that, after finishing tracks on certain nights, Haddad was getting annoyed that we hadn't left and continued to fill his recycle bin with empty beer cans. Gravehill really knows how to wear out their welcome! But we somehow stayed on target and finished the recording on time.
Me with short hair, listening to how shitty I've played.
We put the microphone in the bathroom so Abominator could shit and sing at the same time.
And now with his own retrospective, here is Abominator with his thoughts on the recording of Rites...
In Russia, blogs stare at you!
Holy fucking shit. Trying to go back to the “Rites....” sessions is a hard thing at this point. I don't think it is possible to drink as many beers as we did during this time. And since the brain cells were killed at a historic rate, trying to piece this story together is a tough thing. It was an interesting time with the band. It was to be our debut album. We had done the “Metal of Death” EP and started to make some noise in the underground. That release was recorded by our old guitarist at the time in our own Hellheim Studio jam space. We wanted to get a better production, but we were racking our brains trying to figure out who to go with. We didn't have a lot of money to work with, so it was hard to find someone that was good and also cheap. I think at one point, Thorgrimm and I remembered our old friend John Haddad. John had a home studio out in Corona, California. So once we met up with John and explained our situation, he was on board and we scheduled our sessions. Since time and money were of the essence, he agreed to our crazy schedule of attack and we got set to record this beast. I remember we practiced the SHIT out of these songs to make sure we were tight for the studio. Then as the first day approached, we were all set to start the madness. Once all of the gear was loaded up and ready to go, the caravan of death made its way to John's Trench Studios.
Now, the 91 freeway east is a fucking nightmare. Just imagine a million cars trying to get through a freeway that only fits a few thousand. The traffic situation there gets REALLY BAD. I wanted to make sure I got out there before it got too crazy. So I would end up getting to John's house around 11am. Of course this would be after I got the 36 pack of beer from the local AM/PM market, hahaha. To John's absolute horror, I would be banging on his door, ready to rock, bright and early. Most of the time, the front door would be open, so I could then go into his room and yell at him to get in the booth and get going! Hahaha. John hated me by this time I'm sure. But it was a good time. The drum tracks were banged out pretty quickly. The guitar tracks took a bit, but once the guys were done with them, the bass was done quickly. It was my turn to do the vocals. To be honest, I'm disappointed with my performance on “Rites....” I was smoking way too many cigarettes and I tried to go for a Cronos/Venom type vibe to where you could hear each and every word and line that I was saying. I tried my best to get the phlegm down and get the growls done. But I think everyone has negative opinions about past performances when they go back and listen to them.
At this same time we were at John's recording, we were also getting ready for the big California Metal Fest that would be going on the next month. We had to sell presale tickets and many times had friends and other people show up to John's house to get those tickets. And they pretty much became part of the party! More beer was consumed during these sessions than an Oktoberfest in fucking Germany. Going back and listening to the songs in John's booth was killer. Just listening to this album come together was quite an experience. John would burn us copies of the recording and we would play those copies in our vehicles and other various players that we had around to get the feel of how it would sound in different players for people. But we were proud of what we had accomplished. And believe it or not, in the beer infused haze that we were in, we sure did some good stuff and worked pretty quickly and efficiently to get this album done. In all of our drinking madness during that time, we actually were also “working” in a sense. This was early 2009. And we got the debut full length under our beer bellied belts. The death metal was raging and the trash bags were full and ready to be recycled. John was happy about that aspect since he got the cans! Hahaha. But it was an awesome time and I had a total blast. And as I say when we play the title track live: “RITES OF THE FUCKING PENTAGRAM!”
And with that, enjoy more sexy recording pics!
Del Taco almost everyday. I classed the place up with Chick Fil A.
I think it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that I missed a week of updating this thing. It was bound to happen, but I have a legitimate excuse: I was busy working! I did find some time to see Saxon play TWICE in one week which was very fucking cool. I also had a little time to make party with some good friends. Unfortunately some of my good friends are friends with some people that really hate my guts. I wound up bugging out early lest I find myself beaten to a pulp by a drunken mob of knuckleheads. I can't help it if I'm rich, good-looking, and have a rapist's wit!
I'll just stand here and put out the vibe.
After the Watain show, I had more time to really sit down and learn the newer Gravehill songs. I may have mentioned it, but I'll mention it again, 95 percent of Rites of the Pentagram was written (the song A Celebration of Wounds was still being heavily tweaked) and the guys gave me some rough demo tracks to practice to. On top of those tracks and practicing almost four times a week, needless to say things were much tighter.
The next set of gigs would place us in Chicago for a mini-tour with our good friends in Cardiac Arrest. I had first poo pooed the idea of me going because I didn't think my familiarity with the songs was all that top notch yet. Plus, since I'd just got back from England a month prior, my finances were still in recovery mode (aka I was fuckin' broke). But I caved in soon enough and Abominator bought my plane ticket for me. We had shipped all of our stage gear via FedEx to Grindhead Jim's (Cardiac drummer) house so most everyone packed lightly for our 3-day stay. Except for me! I brought an inflatable mattress, several changes of clothes, a portable DVD player, DVDs, iPod, Nintendo DS, books, magazines...yeah, you get the picture. I'm an idiot. What can I say? I love my luxury.
I arrived at Midway around 11:30 PM Thursday night to a freezing Chicago. Granted, it was probably only in the mid-40s but still... Out of all the items I packed away, I neglected to bring a fucking jacket. Southern California Falls and Winters are somewhat mild and that one day, at the end of October, it was beautiful. So stepping off the plane in Midway felt like stepping into a freezer. Me not packing a jacket was a fairly regular thing. Luckily Bodybag had an extra one available. Bodybag lending me a jacket would start to become another regular thing as well.
Tom from Cardiac and Abominator picked me up and we headed back to Tom's house. From there, we took off for Grindhead Jim's house which turned out to be about an hour away. All of us pretty tired from the trip, we arrived at Jim's house, bullshitted for a few minutes and began finding places to sleep on the floor, couches and chairs. I took the floor because I had my wonderful air mattress with me. It wasn't until after the air mattress was fully inflated that I noticed the carpet wasn't a natural shag but layers on layers of dog and cat hair! Bad news for a guy with shitty allergies but also bad news for a group of guys who like to dress in black! The full effect of it didn't hit me until the next morning when I started sneezing my ass off and my eyes started to itch. Plus Zyklon and Bodybag had slept directly on the floor and they were just covered in hair the next morning.
It was Halloween weekend in Chicago and our first show was slightly on the outskirts in a city called Dekalb. Small and unassuming, I immediately became biased about the show that night. Who's coming to Dekalb to see anything? The venue is a literal rehearsal space with no stage whatsoever! This was going to be a disaster! I couldn't have been more wrong. The place quickly started filling up with millions (give or take a million) of people. Some dressed up in costumes, others just the curious passerby wondering what all the hub-bub was all about. The first couple of bands raged through their sets and the reaction was pretty good. While we got ready outside in the cold of the parking lot, people started coming by wondering why we were dressing in costumes outside. We told them we were playing the show in a few minutes so they hung out and took a few pictures.
I was horny. HA! I saw the cheap joke and I went for it! Don't judge me.
We were ready to go and had to struggle to get through the crowd with all of the spikes and shit we had on (not to mention my very pointy helmet) without seriously injuring anyone. Soon enough we plugged in and we barely had enough room to stand and play. Thorgrimm started us out with Murder and this little rehearsal space in the middle of unassuming Dekalb, Illinois erupted into chaos. People were slamming into us, the equipment and at one point I found myself holding my bass almost over my head because of the fury of human violence that was swirling around us. Fueling the chaos was our frequent spitting of blood into the crowd which inspired chants of "MORE BLOOD! MORE BLOOD" as our set continued. One girl screamed that she wanted us to spit blood specifically on her so we obliged.
My type of girl! Well almost. This one's still alive.
Needless to say the crowd wasn't into the wholeblood thing right away...
...but they warmed up to it soon enough!
The Dekalb show will go down in the books as one of the best shows Gravehill has ever played and is something the guys and I will bring up and reminisce about every so often. That's not to say we haven't played stupendously awesome shows since then, but this one always has a little place in our hearts.
The drive back to Jim's house was just as chaotic as everyone seemed a bit tired and anxious all at once. Thinking that the party was probably going to wind down, I dragged my deflating mattress down into the basement and set up shop there to sleep. It wasn't long until I was awakened by loud music, laughter, and drunken debauchery. Apparently a lot more people had arrived to rage a bit more. At that point I was already suffering from an awesome beer-fueled headache from earlier in the night so I attempted to go back to sleep. Only to be awakened later by two people fucking in the basement right near me! Ignoring it, I drifted off again just to be woken up in the early morning by Bodybag leaping on top of me and trying to wrestle while everyone made fun of my desperate cries.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin was our next stop and the drive there was about 2 and a half hours. I rode up with Tom in the van with the gear while everyone else piled in various vehicles. We arrived at the venue which happened to be nestled in what looked like the party district of Milwaukee. Lots of clubs, bars, and hot chicks in slutty Halloween costumes prancing up and down the street in freezing temperatures (again, probably only in the 40s or high 50s but freezing to me). The bar we were playing in was on the 2nd floor so we had to lug the gear up a couple of flights of steep stairs which sucked. I caught some of the openers and scarfed down some free food and free beer which the promoter was awesome enough to set us up with. Abominator met up with friends from MySpace (when that was still the "thing") and Thorgrimm took care of a lot of the merch. Zyklon, Bodybag, and I wandered around the club district ogling the local flesh parade of college girls.
Our set in Milwaukee wasn't that spectacular. There wasn't a large crowd and those that were there were there to see the local acts (not everyone, but most). The owner of the place thought we were using real blood and was freaking out that we couldn't use it because his establishment served food. Abominator finally convinced him that it was fake. The owner was relieved but he didn't want us to use the bathroom so we could douse ourselves in it. But at that point, I had already poured mine in a stall and it looked like a bloody foul creation had pooped out of someones ass and made a dastardly get away down the pipe and into the sewer. Oh well.
So yeah, the set was okay given the crowd and we refrained from any real blood spitting since no one was up front. At one point some dude yelled out "YOU SUCK" which enraged Abominator. Abominator saw him and he made sure the guy knew because he was going to be looking for him later. After we played, Abominator made a bee-line straight for this guy. But it turns out that the dude was mentally-disabled and that was obvious after seeing him and hearing him talk. Abominator's an asshole but he's not THAT big of an asshole. He let the whole thing go and the dude's "chaperones" apologized and bought us beer (even though we were getting them free).
The drive back from Milwaukee was brutal. Tom from Cardiac had taken off early with the van so I caught a ride back with the rest of the nitwits. Falling asleep at the wheel was a real concern so at times we had to stop and change drivers out. Zyklon wound up behind the wheel at one point and there was still some debate on if he actually had a driver's license. But up to that point, no one cared and the guy drove like a maniac which kept us all up and on our toes. Except for Thorgrimm who was laughing manically at Jim who had a look on his face that screamed, "We're all gonna die!"
That night was a bit more subdued and everyone drifted off to sleep pretty quick. I slunk down to my temporary basement home and crashed.
The last show on Sunday would take place at Ye Olde Town Inn (YOTI) in Mt. Prospect which was about an hour north. The YOTI is known for its metal shows and the heads showed up to support. Not quite the numbers of Dekalb but significantly more than Milwaukee. The set went off well and much headbanging was had. Jim came up and sang Ravager with us and a few random people sang along as well.
Purifier of Flesh at the YOTI
Killer crowd at the YOTI. Spot Bodybag and you win!
Obviously by this time my memory is shot of every little detail from the last show but I remember lots of White Castle being purchased afterward and many a groan of despair hours later.
My time in the midwest was done though. I had an early flight out of Midway around 6:00 AM while the rest of the guys didn't have to leave until later that evening. I was exhausted. As soon as I sat down on the plane, I didn't wake up until it landed several hours later.
Sorry about this long write up. I wasn't terribly witty either which probably made for a dry read. I'll make it up to you in the future. Remember, we still have to talk about all the hookers!!!
Coming up next on Me, Hookers, and Gravehill: Part 5-
A slight hiatus as we record Rites of the Pentagram. It might be a short one, but I should have some good pictures.
