Metal From Milan interview with Forgotten Suns

Hello to all,

In between writings and recordings of the upcoming material the Radio Show "Metal From Milan" will do a live-interview with the Portuguese Prog Metallers from Forgotten Suns at Friday, April 16 ! Make sure to listen and tune in. More info about Forgotten Suns at www.myspace.com/fsuns

Worldwide broadcasting - the interview will be in English.

Where : www.rampartradio.com or www.dyhardradio.com
Radio Show : Metal From Milan ( with DJ Nik )
What time : 22.00 CET (09:00 in Portugal)
When : Friday, April 16, you can follow all online through the website of the radio station

Keep your attention on some interesting revelations that the band might announce on the interview...

best regards
7hawk

Mission Accomplished! - (the last post)

Dear friends,

Forgotten Suns wish you a fantastic 2009, that all your dreams may come true - ours are surely close to happen!

This is the last post on this blog, which means we have finally come to the end of this long "making of" and as mentioned on the subject we have our mission accomplished for this one.

Right now Shawn Gordon, President at ProgRock Records has sent us a preview of the fantastic artwork made by Thomas Ewerhard at Design & More. We are receiving previews from the Ultradisc Factory and the artwork prints done by Andrew Householder look great indeed!

Meanwhile and in late after hours schedule, Chris Brown at Murfreesboro, Tennessee USA sent me a message saying that the album is full mastered and that he's only making the final audio tests.

The making of Innergy took many months and several posts. It was a real pleasure bring you the updates, sensations and the images of this complex procedure - making an album is really something fantastic. Hope you felt some of the satisfaction we had while doing it.

Musically speaking I believe we have made something of great value, this is an album made with all our heart and all our passion for progressive music. We really overpassed all our expectations with each other and this is surely a landmark for us as a group.

Technically speaking or should I say in terms of Production, Mike was the corner stone of it. His recording techniques and engineering work was so passioned and so decisive that we should build him a statue! We really make a great production duo and so we build Mediaforce for granting the band all the best in terms of production and studio works.

We surely went up to a new quality level with this one...

I will not reveal anything more, there will be other times and ocassions to make it even properly...

We hope you enjoy all tracks, keep an eye and your ears on our new upcoming album, you surely have many parts to dig out;)

You can make a reserve of your copy at: http://www.progrockrecords.com/shop/view.php?id=186

All the best from guitar land,

7hawk

I N N E R G Y - the new album

Finally!!!

I can announce in our 'making of' blog the name of our new album - hooray!:)

Check the official website frontpage so we can know more about it!
www.forgotten-suns.com

all the best
7hawk

Overdubs

These pics are from last thursday night at the studio doing some overdubs on vocals, we used our new room built from scratch to make it happen!:)

Friday and yesterday's schedule was filled with exploratory sessions on the new software and we have already achieved great testing results...this means even a better sound, yeah!
We are re-shaping the mixing during November and we expect to finish it on the end of this month.

Right now we're very close to announce our new label, mastering enginner/studio, graphic designer for album artwork, album's name, final tracklist and more details of the new upcoming album - stay tuned

best
7hawk

New album update

Hi folks,

it's been a while without news but that's the usual tip that we are heavily drowned in work - so it was and will be during November.

Mixing an album such as this one it's very like living on the edge both of time consumed, mental agility and technical knowledge.
It's funny and quite rewarding for us that this aspect of the production will be quite apart from the future listeners' minds but so close to our perception of how big this album is.

Last thursday on studio with Mike and Sam we spent an hour reviewing the whole album for corrections and overdubs and it was a growing feeling among us song after song - this album it's the best of us ever and something we will be very proud of for many years to come.
We are now introducing new software and some new hardware on the mixing process to increase the quality of our sounds.

I'll kept you updated,

best
7hawk

Mixing

Hello folks,

Got some time in the morning to get you updated to our mixing process, it's been around 8/10 hours per day but things really sound powerful and better than anything we've done.



To get you an idea of what Mike and I are doing here goes the thing:
First step, we've created a frequency chart for all instruments by the way they were recorded and according to their natural EQ rules - we apply those frequencies as a global base to start the mix but all songs are different so after a while we have small different adjustments done.

We set up a very interesting operation to work the drums applying the effects ('Verby') on a perfect dry/wet system, we got great room and definition - Sammy's performance is great as you will notice in the future so, if the drummer is good it's a nice ahead start;)

Bass and guitar world is working with maximizers, peak removers and compressions we have our Cubase 4 working great. There are some delays for solos but this album is 80% crunchy guitars so it's really a fast job to get there for the right sound.
Keyboards sound amazing on the mixings, just some frequencies to work so that the low strings doesn't kill the 7 string guitar riff on 'Phenotype' - anything else is sound great.
Mike have a new Korg M3 and will overdub some sounds soon on 'Flashback' and 'Nanoworld'

Vocals is a work in progress, there are plenty of ways of doing it and at the 3d song we finally get the fastest and efficient way of get it out better - Nio is singing with great passion and it's a perfect debut for him.

I could lay all information for each instrument but I don't want to sound a pain in the a** so, let me cut here and tell you that things are going on the schedule.
Right now we're on the middle of the process.
I'm laying my hands on 'AOBE' today which is the 5th track being mixed - in the pocket already:
'Flashback', 'Doppelgänger', 'News' and 'Phenotype'.

best
7hawk

Live at Bragança

Hello folks,

Just a quick escape from the studio while we're mixing the album to reveal some pics that arrived today to my hands.
It was with immense pleasure that we accepted the invitation from the C.M of Bragança to perform in such historical place and because this is a very well known vacation place were Mike and I have related people and families.
For me it was a long time wish that came true - another one in Forgotten Suns' history.

This was also a very interesting night because it was the debut show of our singer Nio, so this was a night that we all will remember.
It was as cold as if we were in the center of the North Pole but we handle it with ease and we did a great show by debuting live some new tracks and arranjements.

We did a very interesting line-up by performing 'Wartime' and 'Betrayed pt.I' of the Fiction Edge cd; 'Senses' and 'Strange Affair with the Night' from Snooze album, we dived into a cool 'Brigantia Jam' then into 'Flashback',
'Phenotype','Outside In' and we closed the show with 'Racing the Hours' of the new upcoming album.

There will be some new dates to be announced soon for the end of October...

...now back to the studio,

best

7hawk

Summer Date & Mixing

Dear friends,

the band will perform live in Bragança, one of the oldest historical towns in the North of Portugal.
It's with huge pleasure that the band accepted the invitation and will do this special concert interrupting the mixing process and then ending the season for some brief and deserved vacation days off.

The show will be next 14th August, 21.30 at the Praça Camões- see ya there!

The mixing process begun with our choice on Mr.Daniel Flores at Sound vs Science Studios in Stockholm but after we start working together on the first songs became evident that we weren't seeing the same type of production for it - so we decided to bet on our own experience and we're already mixing it from the very beggining - we are absolutly sure and convicted of the sound we desire for this album, so our ears didn't betrayed us with Mr.Flores work, it was a matter of production's taste.

We did a big upgrade to our recording studio and convert it into an amazing production room, we are doing it all with the newest and powerful Cubase 4 among other terabyting stuff:)
First song in the mix desk is Flashback and already sounds f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c!
Has I wrote before, there will be short chances of write in the blog in the following days (we're damn busy as you can see) but keep your eyes open on the new website that will online before 14th August with tons of news.


*****This show will have many appealing motifs attached, be sure that you don't miss this one*****

LBL & Cascais Prog

Dear fans,

it's with some surprise we see 2 of our shows being moved to other dates, next year as it seems.
Our next date is 8th November in Bünde-Westafallen (Germany) at Prock Fest 08.

The mixing process will continue and there will be a longer period without posting here.
For all the fans and friends of the band we are reaching a decisive stage of our new album, the mix and mastering - we will return with a great album!

best
7hawk

Mixing & Listening tracks

Just a quick hello in the blog to let you know that we've been busy working the final editings and the last pack of songs will travel to Stockholm very soon. We have some overdubs to do and some final samples on Mind Over Matter and Outside In to fill in.
After listening the yet unmixed but already edited songs, I have to tell you I'm more than proud of my band mates for what we achieved musically, our best as musicians is tottaly there, I don't see the time to take it live (yeah!!!)

best
7hawk

Final takes

Hello folks,

after some days under a flu attack (Mike, myself, Nuno and by coincidence our swedish mixing engineer Daniel Flores too) we are approaching the final recordings. I closed my guitar recs for this album on Thursday afternoon. My last take was on the melodic and dramatic solo of 'Nanoworld'...I couldn't look for a better way of close the recordings by imagining us on stage performing live while I was recording this section, it will be a killer live moment for sure!
The last hours of guitar recordings also were spent on re-doing tracks for 'Mind Over Matter', 'AOBE' and as mentioned above on 'Nanoworld'. There are solos on these songs with wah and in particular, whammy pedal - which is a debut on albums and a last addition to my rig.

best
7hawk

Flu anyone?

Hello folks,

it seems that there are some virus out there in the last days, Mike and I got sick since yesterday though Mike has already recovered and is on studio right now recording his last parts of 'Outside In' and 'Nanoworld'. I'm still at home with my guitars and some interesting National Geographic and Canal Historia to relax and recover fast. I believe I can close my guitar recordings for this album on Sunday and also some back vocals for 'An Outer Body Experience' and 'Mind Over Matter'.

Here goes 2 pics of Nuno 'Strap' while recording the instrumental section of 'Outside In' and Mike on the same instrumental section...

best

7hawk

Solos & Adrenaline vs Perfection

Hello folks,

The last 2 days at the studio have been of pure adrenaline. Mike and I were 12 hours each day recording the keyboard parts for the instrumental section of 'Outside In', recording guitars for the same track, improvising solos for 'Racing the Hours' and fighting against the adrenaline of soloing at 180 bpm and get it all in perfection. It's amazing how things work when you want to make the most difficult and technical part sound like a bad ass pro player: you got to overcome the adrenaline, went beyond the task and get it done as easy as sweaming the sea of traquility...'Racing' solos are the fastest we ever did in our discography so far.

Today Nuno has already recorded his parts for 'Outside In' and Mike will record some final sections of 'Nanoworld'. Our target is to have all recordings done until this friday and then 1 week more to do final editings before send 5 more tracks to Mr.Daniel Flores in Stockholm.

regards
7hawk

Outside In

23rd May going to 24th...

In the same day that Daniel Flores confirmed that he has received the package with the first group of 4 songs in perfect condition, I'm doing another post on the making of blog! Today I have some pictures of this week at the studio: Thursday and Friday (22nd & 23rd).

We are recording the last track for the album - Outside In - which in fact was the first track to be written for it!:) Yesterday we did some bass incursions on the new instrumental section. For those who were at Aula Magna and Europarque and still keep some memories of this song, I can assure you that it developed into a incredible sick track. It has the longest and powerful musicianship we aimed since we decided to write this album, it's a very complete piece of music: has a huge concept, groovy riffs, great vocals, tremendous bass lines, hot solos from both guitar and keys, a big unisson, full of odd signatures on drums...what else can I say? Yes, it's a lot of work and gives us big headaches at the end of day...

Today Mike and I were at the studio and we finalized the keyboard parts for the unisson then we ended up the day by record all guitars for the instrumental, after that we were deadly tired. While driving home, we look like kids who did they're first cool song ever:)

I found some time to upload some pics (sorry for the low quality) but here goes:

. Myself at the studio and my Amsterdam Cherry 7 string before recording Outside In instrumental
. Mike looking at a music catalogue, cooking some plans for his live setup...
. Nuno and Mike recording the keyboard unisson
. Some scores and tablature of the big unisson
. Mike and his K2661 today on studio
. Panoramic guitar view, my Whammy was on the box today...
. Me while recording the instrumental section of Outside In

Powered by...

Some pics of the last days at the studio, we've been powered by Red Bull as an exciter for the solos, Mike on the 2nd and 3rd pics recording the end section of 'News' (I still can see his forearm popping once in a while) and myself with my new Whammy pedal yet in the box...

Back Vocals

Busy weekend at the studio, yesterday in the afternoon Mike, Sam, Nuno and I did the back vocals for Dopplegänger...it was the funniest moment since we start recording, there's a sound file I will upload in a future post that best describes what happened...(lol)
Later at night we went into Sammy's home studio at we listened the drum tracks which are amaaaazing to our ears. From that point, we're sure that Mr.Flores will have enough quality material to cook a fabulous mix and mastering.

Today Mike and I were in the studio producing the samples for 'Racing the Hours', 'Flashback' and 'An Outer Body Experience' - first tracks will follow from Lisboa to Stockholm during this week and we will continue our recording and production process for the last tracks until the end of the month.

best
7hawk

The News Today

Just a quick post from the studio (I brought my portable to work with Mike), we're recording the instrumental end section of "News"...seems like his forearms are increasing with the resistance and strenght he needs to get that section done...kind of Popeye:)

Yesterday we did another long studio section recording bass tracks, guitar solos, vocals, back vocals and samples. Be prepared for a great surprise...

best
7hawk

Solos, Vocals and Samples

Another long run at the studio during yesterday, we've been very busy recording solos, vocals, bass lines and today we'll make some production for 'News', 'Mind Over Matter' and 'Racing the Hours' with sound samples and Reason 4 loops.... "the fight goes on":)


best
7hawk

58 days

Yep, the title of the post is the actual number of days we took so far to record and produce the new album!
It's been a long and meticulous process. 9 tracks on 65 min of the most progressive and prolific music we did ever!
We've been recording and editing drum tracks, doubling guitar layers, improvising solos, recording bass lines, adding tons of multi-keyboard sounds and recording vocals. It's been a long process but we're quite pleased with the results achieved so far when tracks are so 'naked' yet so beautiful:)

There are many episodes I can't post on time because we're on studio over 12 hours a day sometimes and we felt like a bless when we hit our beds but, I was amazed with the keyboards of 'Racing the Hours' one of my fave tracks - it took me 7 hours with Mike to make it happen though it made me think how genius this guy is with his keyboard sounds - I love this song!

The first tracks will travel to Sweden in mid May while we finish the remaining of the album, we are very proud of work with Mr.Daniel Flores - Sound vs Science Studios in Stockholm to mix and with Mr.Mats Lindfors for the mastering...this will surely turn this album into a huge sounding masterpiece.

I will had more posts soon,

best
7hawk

Recording Guitars

Hi folks,

Today Mike and I arrived at the studio in the morning to record some serious heavy guitars. While I was picking up my 7 string red devil from the case and warming up I got absolutly amazed by the work Mike did on 'Mind Over Matter', 'News' and 'Nanoworld' during this week- what a killers!!!

That was a hell of a tonic for what's coming after:)

Great sounding riffs and I'm pretty pleased with myself today, we got great results and the finest crunch guitars we've ever heard in years. Our recording techniques are improving and so our fingers...

Work goes on Monday with the final part of 'Nanoworld' and for the 2 remaining tracks: 'Outside In' and 'Racing the Hours'.

Have a good weekend;)

7hawk