Immortal Soul

Album Update and CD Blowout

admin — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 16:39:34 +0000

Well, it’s been a few weeks since the last update, and we’ve got another song in the can. The name of the song is “Prisoners of the Ice”. The lyrics were inspired by a documentary that I watched a few years ago about the doomed Franklin Expedition, which had set out to discover the Northwest Passage–a sea route through the Arctic Ocean connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific. This song, like several of the other new ones that we’ve written for this album, seek to tell more of a story than many of the lyrics for our older songs, which were more like a loosely-associated collection of thoughts about a particular subject. Anyhow, we’re still plugging along, and schedules permitting, we hope to have the album completed sometime this summer.

In other news, we’re blowing out our remaining inventory of the “Lines in the Sand” CD for only $5 plus $1.99 for domestic U.S. Shipping! So if you don’t own a CD copy of “Lines in the Sand” and would like to, this may be your last chance. So get ‘em while you still can! Go to the Merch Page to place your order now.

Until next time,

Jon

First day of recording on the new album

admin — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:18:42 +0000

Saturday was the first day of recording on the new album! This time, we’re doing things a bit differently than with the last one.

First, we’re recording in the tracking room of my new studio instead of a spare bedroom in my house! So we’ve got about four times as much space as we did before! We’ve also got the guitar and bass amps set up on the opposite side of the room from the drums with baffles in front of them to try and minimize the bleed from the amps into the drum mics and vice versa.

Second, because of the arrangement in the room (and our desire to actually use a click track this time), we’re monitoring over headphones so each of us can have our own mix of what we need to hear clearly. So it took a while to get the headphone mixes set up and troubleshoot some minor technical issues. I had ordered a new headphone amp for the studio a few weeks ago, but the first one had some problems and I had to send it back. Unfortunately, the replacement hadn’t arrived in time, so I had to rig things up to use the headphone output of 3 different devices! Needless to say, that was a little tricky! Anyhow, the new headphone amp should be in this week, so hopefully that will be a non-issue next time.

After getting everything set up, we recorded a couple of takes of “Never See Home Again”. The first take was a bit rough, as we were still warming up, and I had to make a few adjustments to the headphone mixes afterwards to get things dialed in just right. But the second take was really tight! After getting the basic rhythm tracks laid down, we did a rough lead vocal track just to see how it would sound. Then, I did a rough mix so we could all have something to listen to before next time. I think I can say with confidence that we are all REALLY excited, and we’re off to a strong start on this new CD.

- Jon

Back to the “Bass-ics”

admin — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 15:19:18 +0000

Jeff and I got together at the studio last weekend and spent most of the day experimenting with some different recording techniques on the bass. This involved trying different mic placements on the bass rig and recording a combination of the amp sound with the signal from a DI Box that we connected the bass to before going into the amp. The DI signal sounded pretty weak by itself, but when blended together with the amp sound, it definitely added a little something.

We also started combing through the list of new songs that we’ve written to try and narrow it down to the ones that we think will end up on the CD. Of course, that’s always subject to change, because sometimes what you think will be a weaker song may turn out to be one of your favorites by the time you’re finished with it. Anyhow, we hope to start laying down some basic rhythm tracks in the next few weeks, and then we’ll start adding vocals, layered guitar tracks, guitar solos, etc. Thanks for checking in!

- Jon

New Videos Now Online

admin — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 14:41:43 +0000

We’ve just uploaded some live video of songs from Immortal Soul’s upcoming CD. Go to the Video page to check them out.

Powerjam 2010 is tomorrow, Nov. 6th

admin — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 16:58:16 +0000

Just a quick reminder that Powerjam 2010 is tommorrow. Immortal Soul is (tentatively) scheduled to play at 5:25 PM. We’re going to unveiling 5 new songs from our upcoming CD live for the first time, so if you want to hear the new material, be there!

We’re also going to be running some great specials on our merch, so you don’t want to miss out on that.

For complete details, including a complete schedule of bands, go to the Powerjam Website. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Latest News from Immortal Soul

admin — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:53:08 +0000

For those of you who have been wondering–yes, we’re still very much alive and well, and working on a new CD, tentatively titled “Prisoners of the Ice”, after one of the tracks. We’ve written and recorded rough demos of about 12 new songs, will probably try to write 3 or 4 more, and then we’ll choose the best 10 or 12 for the new CD. We’re also going to be playing 5 of these new songs live at Powerjam 2010 (go to the Upcoming Shows page for more details).

The new songs are a little different than the material on Lines in the Sand. Most of them are probably not quite as heavy, but have more of a “classic” metal sound, with some progressive elements to boot. There’s also a few lengthier, epic songs with some extensive instrumental passages and guitar solos. From rehearsing these songs and listening to the demos, we’re really excited to let people hear this new material.

We’ve also been working on this new website design, which we hope you all will like. So come see us at Powerjam 2010, and we’ll post more updates as we make progress on the new CD.