 |
First
step, 6th of January 2005, drums
We
start the sessions of our third album with recording the
drums (a big surprise?). The Studio 57 we use is situated
near Kokkola which is great for the timetables. From the
windows of the studio, which is an old vicarage, you can
see a beautiful landscape with an untamed river (when we
made Mask of Damnation in Helsinki we didn?t even have windows...).
|
| |
 |
Jari
Huttunen starts to set up his drum set at 9.00am. with help
of Pasi Kauppinen, our bass player and engineer of the album.
Jari warms up while Pasi makes some sound checking. Everything
sounds great and Jari is in great shape. He always is.
We
start the day with a song called Shadowhunt (working title).
After a while the whole song is recorded. Soon we pick another
song, then another and another and... With most of the songs,
we raise tempos a little bit from the demo versions.
|
| |
 |
To record Jari is pretty easy. This man just bangs the songs from the beginning to the end mostly with one take. Jari tells us that he´s having a bad day behind his set. We totally disagree. All the songs are being easily recorded. One great example is a song called Nightfall (working title) which tempo is 210 bpm, but Jari plays his doublebass parts with a smile on his face.
Our plan was to record nine songs plus one bonus song for Japan, but Jari hammers down all ten songs before the evening. So we have to find something to do for the second day in the studio...
Later on that evening we drink some bear and watch Slayer´s dvd in Kokkola at Pasi´s place. We start to wonder, which one is better player, Dave Lombardo or Jari Huttunen... |
| |
|
7th
of January 2005, drums
Everyone
is having hangover at 9.00am. when we arrive to the
Studio 57. Firts we give a good listen to everything
we recorded last day. There is no need to re-record
anything so we start to practice the extra bonus
track. This song will be a great surprise to everyone,
that´s why we won´t reveal it´s
title yet.
Jari and Arto Räisälä practise the
extra song before we go to eat some pizza at the local
restaurant.
After we have satisfied our hunger we search the right
tempo for the song and Jari sits down behind his drum
kit. Few takes and that´s it.
We wonder if there is need to record some more songs,
but we end up with the idea that eleven songs is
enough for one album. At least when there is no weak
link in the song list.
The drum recording sessions took place at the best
possible period. Just a day after eleven tracks were
recorded Jari went to military. His service takes six
months, so he will be back before our third album is
out. |
| |
|
 |
Step two, 5th of February 2005, rhythm guitars
For rhythm guitar parts we use The School of Rock Studio in Kokkola, the place where Pasi Kauppinen, our bass player and engineer is working. The sessions don´t get the best possible start when Arto Räisälä gets fever one day before the sessions. Anyway, we head for the studio as planned and Timo Kauppinen from Silent Voices borrows his Mesa/Boogie Triaxis system (thank you man, need to buy you a bottle of finest whiskey). After a couple of hours of searching for the best sounds we start to lay down the guitar parts. |
| |
| |
 |
Arto is still having fever, he is red and hot, but he plays better than ever. The rhythm playing is tight and not too many takes are needed for one song. Arto Räisälä and Teemu Hänninen are using 7-stringed guitars to reach more heavier sounds for the lower register. Everything goes well and after six hours of working we have five songs recorded, each track doubled, of course. |
| |
|
|
6th of January, 2005, rhythm guitars
We saved the most difficult song for the second day. It´s called Possessed by Power (working title) and it has some tricky rhythm lines and nasty parts. Arto´s fever is gone and he plays like a maniac. After all the rhythm parts are recorded it´s time for some clean parts. Again, Mesa/Boogie gives us some fine shit.
After the sessions Pasi smiles and says, "I´ve never recorded this good guitar sounds". We agree. |
| |
|
 |
Step three, bass parts, somewhere during our recording sessions
After some editing and cleaning the guitar and drum tracks it´s time to record some lower register, which means the 5-stringed Warwick bass of Pasi (Apollo, perhaps the best nickname a man can have) Kauppinen.
This time Pasi uses SansAmp preamp with Boss overdrive. After some
searching for the best possible sound, we reach the heaviness we
have always been looking for.
Pasi
starts with Invincible Enemy. He is in great shape and soon his
fingers are at the top speed with Nightfall and Possessed by Power.
Pasi records everything at the Hell´s Kitchen Studio, Kokkola. |
| |
|
 |
Step four, keyboards. 12.-15. & 19. of April
Finally it´s time for our keyboard player Jukka Hänninen to step into the spotlight. Jukka uses Kurzweiler K 2500 XS keyboard. He borrows also Korg´s Karma from Henkka, our previous keyboard player. |
| |
| |
 |
We start the sessions with the song called The Tower. Jukka is in good mood and Arto gives some advices about the sounds and arrangements he has planned for the songs. The brainstorming session of Jukka, Pasi and Arto works great and we come up with some awesome stuff. |
| |
| |
 |
After all the basic tracks are layered down we connect up Karma to Rotosphere´s Leslie simulator. The distorded kick-ass-sounds are used to reach more heavier soundscape for some parts. Jukka comes up with an amazing and completely grazy idea for the opening riff of Possessed by Power. His hurrigane-like playing is something that lifts the whole song up to a new level.
Jukka has an unerreing eye for a style that completes the Requiem sound. Believe me, this man can play everything. |
| |
|
 |
Step five, vocals, choirs and guitar solos, 20.-24. & 27.-30. of April
It´s only 7.40 A.M. on the Wednesday morning when I´m heading for the Studio 57 with our engineer/bass player Pasi, Apollo, Kauppinen. After we arrive to the studio at 8.00 A.M. I start warming up my voice. Pasi locks me in the vocal recording room and I sing some scales for about fifteen minutes.
We start the sessions somewhere around 9.00 A.M. with the song called Possessed by Power. This is musically one of the heaviest songs in our album and we get started nicely. Pasi is a great guy to work with and we come up with some nice takes.
The first day I sing also the aggressive parts of Invincible Enemy, even that my plan was to leave the roaring vocals for the last days in the studio… |
| |
| |
 |
On Thursday morning my voice is a little bit tired ´cause of the roaring from last day. Anyway, after some warming up I start to feel good again. It´s barely 9.00 A.M. when we start to kick in the high pitched vocals for Nightfall. In the end of the first verse (harmony line) I sing the highest note by me this far. It sounds a bit weird but fits perfectly to the dramatic part with an apocalyptic theme... We work the whole day with the vocals. We use more vocal harmonies than ever before. |
| |
| |
 |
We continue with the vocals on Friday morning. Pasi keeps pushing me to the edge to find more roughness and ”äijä” to my sound at some parts.
On Saturday it´s time for guitar solos. Anyway, we use the whole morning by recording more vocals. We get started with the guitars somewhere around 2.00 P.M. Arto and Teemu play the melodies and solos until the evening. |
| |
| |
 |
We start on Sunday before 9.00 A.M. by recording more vocals while waiting for Arto and Teemu to arrive to the studio. The rest of the day we use for the guitar solos and melodies. |
| |
| |
 |
We continue our vocals sessions on Wednesday after two days break. After finishing Vindictive Heart we continue with Shadowhunt. Great songs.
Until Thursday I´ve been singing all the basic tracks for ten songs. So it´s time for the Japanese bonus track. We leave the aggressive vocal parts for the guest vocalist…
We use the Thursday evening by recording the choirs. It´s first time in Requiem´s history to have real choir arrangements in the album. Choir is formed by Sami Heinonen (Rappänä) and Teemu Koskela (Winterborn) and they sing each part at least eight times. In some parts we have four different vocal lines, so the choirs get pretty big. Sami and Teemu are both amazing rock vocalists and their sounds fits perfectly together. We come up with some great choirs and Sami and Teemu sing like eighties rock stars. Great work, dudes!!! |
| |
| |
 |
We use the Friday morning by roaring the rest of the aggressive vocal parts. Arto Räisälä arrives from Haapajärvi in the afternoon to finish his guitar solos. This man is in great shape. Definitely the best solos by Arto this far. His solos are more melodic than before. We find also that Artos´s technique has evolved into more technical level. More notes but less work. In some parts Arto uses one of his guitars with 27 fret custom neck. |
| |
| |
 |
We use the whole Saturday by re-recording some vocal parts. The last thing we do is making some choirs to the end of Sleepless Nights. We are getting more and more excited about the new songs. So it´s time for some beer…
The next step will be mixing and additional solos etc… |
| |
| |
 |
The mastering, 28th of June 2005. |
| |
| |
 |
The mastering of Requiem Forever at Chartmakers studios, Helsinki, Finland. Svante Forsbäck at work. |
| |
