Last week The Acolyts played live at La Miroiterie, a famous Parisian punk squat which unfortunately will be closed down by the authorities in about 3 days. So long free speech, money comes first.
We shared the stage with Fräulein, Keira Mount Keira and Jack & the Bearded Fisherman, they rocked!
Anyway, we had a tremendous blast and I wanted to share with you a couple of moments if you haven't been spammed by me on another medium:
We had the best audience a band can think of, so thanks again guys, it was an honor to play for you!
Unfortunately grooveshark doesn't include bands like Borknagar, so I cannot make a complete playlist. Maybe I'll switch to youtube if I can embed a playlist
Hi! I thought that I do listen to so much music all week long from a lot of awesome metal bands, so why not share a summary of my week's playlist every friday?
In the heart of the universe
Shines the mighty trantor
The metal covered planet
Homeland of the Emperor
Everlasting has been it's reign
Twelve thousand years power
The greatest achivement ever
Mankind administrator...
Forty billion lives there
Feeded by surrounding planets
Never shall stop the shipments
Its glorious army stays vigilent
Imperial cuisers rides in the dark
The titanic fleet keeps the control
All over the galaxy, one symbol
Spaceship and Sun…
Limitless boundaries
Neverending history
An Empire like none
Its story shall go on
Corruption, rots the core
Collusion, plots futhermore
Subversion, tamed in gore
From the caves of steel
To the imperial sector
Echoes our psychosis
Agoraphobic lore
Every district's upper class
Prepare there own scheme
To Feed on Trantor's carcass
Limitless boundaries
Neverending history
An Empire like none
Its story shall go on
My dear crazy readers/audience,
I hereby humbly present this new number from The Acolyts. It's story is also based on the Foundations novels as it is an addition to the Foundations album I am currently working on. This "Mighty Trantor" shall be the opening song, of course as an opening song it has to set the tone. It has to do it clearly. And you know what the tone is, it's quite punchy. So here it is, I think that _once more_ I did wrote the most intricate and violent piece I have ever written. Yet it still has pretty straight forward melodies to catch so you don't feel at loss when you'll listen to it for the first time (this I hope), so like every other songs you could listen to it several times and maybe enjoy a few discoveries. Anyway this is how I like songs, I like not getting all of it at once. It has to reveal its wonders piece by piece.
I hope you'll enjoy this one, I've been quite thrilled writing it. It has some very new drum tracks, heavy riffs, gloomy vocals, well it's yet another The Acolyts song. Please listen and comment!!
Mighty Trantor -
EDIT: Sep 16th, I just updated the OGG file for firefox users, with a much better quality one. EDIT: Sep 24th, added mp3 for IE9.
Clem Out.
Lines of fire in the sky A pulse of anger bursting Voices unite in one outcry Blasphemy will be punished
Crimson light glows around the king's palace Rage at last flows unbreakable Mutiny and anarchy is a the doors of nobility
Priests of technology Revealed his foolishness
Now it's time for rebellion on Anacreon Our masters will not dictate our religion United we stand as sons of Anacreon We'll battle to save the Foundation
A call to arms, the mob surrounds the building Sirens screaming, gruards preparing
What's wrong with the citizens we face I, king of Anacreon will tame this farce
Terminus will taste the extent of my wrath The imperial cruiser they repared for me Is the very tool of their demise, fake preists will die by my hands
Now it's time for rebellion on Anacreon Our masters will not dictate our religion United we stand as sons of Anacreon We'll battle to save the Foundation
The mob will realize the scam and bow again I, king of Anacreaon, will reign.
Mutiny, the crew could not accept damnation Fury, the mob enters the palace The mayor, he stands, in front of me Imbecile, now you die!
Another song set in the Foundations universe. You may have already listened to it on our myspace. This time it's about the rebellion of the kingdom of Anacreon which was preying on the foundation but failed to realize that the population of the kingdom actually thought of the Foundation as some kind of holy planet part of a technological cult. Very wrong move.
It's the title of a new The Acolyts song based on the Foundations novels. Arcadia is a young women that lives on terminus and who believes she has found where the mentalists of the Second Foundation are based. She embarks on a long journey to escape from the second foundation and attempts to destroy it. For he/she who has new technologies installed on his/her computer, he/she shall discover the wonders of a new song:
The lyrics haven't been written yet, so I'm singing some random stuff more or less related to the subject.
We're going to play for the Fete de la Musique nationwide music fest in Paris at this address 96 Rue Monge (yes we'll play in the street) So prepare for a street Armageddon cause we'll set Paris on fire! Heavy Metal madness.our flyer
EDIT: pictures of the event available here =>skydrive or facebook
Now I know I have no choice Thousands of computations Gives the same deadly results The Empire is gonna fall My duty commands me To prevent this cataclysm
But no one hears my voice Forbidden words, blasphemy Trantor's reign isn't doubted I'm putting a bullet in my head Suicide, unwanted revelations
Exile, My friends I must leave Exile, Tomorrow I'll be gone Exile, our future has begun Exile, I wont let it happen
This science of Hari Seldon Psychohistory, I do believe in We must let the empire fall To lay the foundations for a new era Millions of lives will be spared The terrible erratum won't be I am willing to give my life For this heroic accomplishment No regrets, no remorse Even if my sacrifice will go unnoticed
Exile, My friends I must leave Exile, Tomorrow I'll be gone Exile, our future has begun Exile, I wont let it happen
As I see my world fading in the dark I my heart is torn I have left all that I loved my family, my home
Trantor is becoming so small, I remember those good moments As each thoughts makes it harder it's raining tears in my head I feel my body horribly twisted wandering across to terminus
Please save me, can't be real Taken with thousands of men In giant imperial cargo-ships To build the so called Foundation They really don't want us back We shall never return home
Trantor has disappeared, So far in hyperspace Old dreams ends for me, My fate is only writing The Encyclopedia Galactica
I'm loosing it all... So far from home...
Exile, forced by awful lies Exile, mourning my life away
A new song! The Exile is the second song based on the Foundation novels joining The Mule in what will be a Foundation concept album (It's nuts I know). The whole idea is to describe what happens in the books through the eyes of a regular citizen, not the book's heroes. This song is about one of the scientists embarked on the foundation project at it's very beginning. The scientist realizes what's going to be in the menu for him. He's destined to get on a spaceship and never return home. Only to establish a outpost on the surface of the most distant planet of the Galactic Empire, Terminus. There he will be keeping humanity's knowledges safe so that after the Empire's looming fall there will be a chance to get back to civilization as he knows it. Following the forecasts of Hari Seldon, the great scientist who designed psychohistory, predicting the Empire's fall and an era of 30 thousand years of chaos in the galaxy. Music
Let's speak about the music itself, well it's very The Acolyt's like. It has ups and downs, heavy riffing, clean bits (acoustic!), power chords moments, some solos. It's 8 minutes something long. The theme is dark and depressive. I sing mostly in a low range. If I had to compare The Exile with the other Acolyts songs, I'd say it's Funerals on the moon meets half way One-eyed crone and The Mule. Anyhow, I hope you'll enjoy it and please give some comments :) The song is still in works, for instance I have to redo most of the singing because the flow isn't correct.
Some might prefer this version as it isn't metal anymore, but still, it sounds weird, plus I didn't put much effort in trying to get the riffs right. Probably not worth it anyways?...
Those who already followed this unregular blog in early 2009 (very early, January 2nd to be precise) might remember The Mule a song I wrote back then. Well it's back as a The Acolyts song, I've been working on it for quite a while and it completely changed, now it's heavy, thrashy, speedy and catchy ( yey a true chorus! ). For those who said I sold out because I post crap about work, well this really ain't. I think it's already a quite solid metal piece, although It could use a more proper intro/outro, maybe a couple of riffs... who knows. Anyway, I felt like sharing the song so you guys can tell me if it's a dig or ditch. Keep in mind it's not a 100% complete ;)
Oh by the way, I have worked a lot into having a better guitar sound/mix and a little "scoop", the band has a new drummer :) I'll talk about this more another time.
Some of you guys asked if I could transfer some songs in better quality than streaming, of course I can! I cannot export in FLAC using Garage Band so here is the best quality available for now: AAC 44.1khz 360kbpm stereo.
I though about some extra so voilà:
Two songs I had not published yet on this blog:
One-eyed crone, based on a story and lyrics written by Quentin (Acolyt #2) inspired by a twisted dream he had where if he closed his eyes and went to sleep, death would take him... scary! Musically it's probably the most melodic piece I've written maybe a little too much ;)
Insanity Darkness Metal: I wanted an introduction to our future EP that would be kind of like an essay intro. The song introduces all the themes that will be developed in the other songs. In my opinion this song is the most violent I've done, very efficient. Quentin wrote the lyrics based on the specs I gave him :)
One old song remastered!
A strange library for Dr. Brisby, good old Brisby started to sound a bit dusty compared to what happened after. This song is very dear to me because it's where I think I carved what is The Acolyts sound. However the song started to sound weak so I've redone all the voice tracks, remixed the instruments and even cut a tiny piece of it, you'll probably won't notice it, but it's 20 seconds shorter because one riff is played one time less. Result? better in my opinion!!
Listen to this one and you'll have a blast! (box laughs). This song I wrote the first half of the lyrics a while back. Maybe it was before the '09 summer. Anyway, it all started when Quentin (aka Acolyt #2 aka Ernie Balls of Steel), just popped a chat window at me face saying "how about Castle Bravo?".
This is the story of when a strike of genius becomes the path of doom lurking amongst us
This story is entitled Castle Bravo!
In the ages of chaos, infamy was born because any peace attempt was forlorn
A promess of peace made to nations of the rich To annihilate all they need is to flip a switch
Our incompetent leaders rule the world with fear Now only thing left to us is our bloodied tears
Those who can purchase peace will be feared forever Those who can't build their own will leave in fear forever
Diplomatic failures, Surrogates of ambition Conflicts of interests, Intersecting wills for power
The doomsday clock ticks at an increasing rate Midnight is coming, time to say your last prayer
For our leaders have finally gone nuts Warheads ready for lift off, Silos openning all around the civilized world, Red Alert - termination initiated!
(alarms set off)
Missile ballet, a dance of death Nuclear blasts, mighty fireworks Sterilization, of the earth's crust Life vaporized, and will never come back
Those who could purchase peace didn't leave forever Those who didn't build their own shared the doom of the others.
- It was something like 9am, just got logged in at work. What a hell was he talking about? -
It started making sense, Quentin, in his own way was trying to suggest we write a song about an out of control nuclear experiment. Very Thrash Metallish, Dave Mustaine would be proud!
Then I taught about some lyrics, and I didn't feel like writing about a single nuclear blast but about -because I like doom- the whole earth being repaint by atomic fire.
Because I like writing lyrics as short stories that have a intro, development and conclusion I had to explain why oh why would the earth undergo such an horrible fate (or a healthy cure from life infestation).
The story is obvious: our leaders, who are kind of a whole bunch of psychos (you must have strong ego issues to want to be the US president, I'm just saying...) well they go nuts up another notch and start attacking each other with nukes and well we all die, the poor, the rich, the famous, the lonely, all of us, united and equal for the first and the last time.
Musically, I tried to render a growing sense of oppression, of danger until an alarm rings and all hell breaks loose.
I know the title is weird. The lyrics of this song are weird and even the music itself is put together in a weird way, but if you're here you don't want normal, you want some Clem weirdness!
They reached the outer limits of knowledge, Producing the unbelievable For the parlor Humankind spread its breed through the emptiness Spores of culture colonizing the infertile universe Robots of artificial intelligence brought to Life The realm of the living isn't only organic anymore
Update your mind database, there is Still one limit out there But you CAN make it the best scene of your dream-life
Your funerals on the moon, buy your funerals on the moon.
A wire to connect you to everyone A chip to make you think twice as fast A friend-list that is never empty A fridge to cook all of your favorite meals
Update your mind database, there is Still one limit out there But you CAN make it the best scene of your dream-life
Your funerals on the moon, buy your funerals on the moon.
Yes we got pretty much all you ever need and we even got what you'll want for your closure. For everything is to sell, your soul, your body, and your funerals on the moon. Buy your funerals on the moon.
A ship to put you into orbit To your last route we commit Your children in the passenger seat the last minutes of your rotting meat
We know how to reach the sun But this ain't your destination We're bringing you to the moon You bought your funerals on the moon
Then I started thinking about the future, how all of this will evolve, the airports, transportations, people. It seemed to me that the 2010 guy is much more different compared to the 1990 guy than the 2010 plane compared to the 1990 one. I mean, nowadays lots of people are obsessed with twitting their boring lives (which are getting longer thanks to science, what's the goal? longer boredom?) and hunting for crispy nasty secrets in their friend's facebook pictures. You gotta have 900 friends on Myspace or you are a looser, but hey you already are a looser because you are on MySpace and that website is so old (more that 5 years!). Of course you can build real friendships while facing life and death situations in the depths of a dungeon in World of Warcraft, the kind of friendship that if you die in front of your computer someone will eventually notice that "GonzoTheGreat" level 56 orc (what a noob!) didn't login for the last 5 days.
I'm not being original here, what I think is that we are getting physically disconnected to our fellow human beings and dependent to pieces of hardware that are closer and closer to our bodies and will at last be directly integrated in ourselves so we can be continually conscious of the updates of our followed RSS feeds and stuff.
Humanity will eventually evolve to a cyborg race just to be virtually connected with friends & work, which both will be virtual. That was my conclusion.
Then being a cyborg means being technology enhanced. It will probably mean having tons of nanorobots in our body, reorganizing our cells, optimizing our neuronal paths making us cunningly fast thinkers, and more or less immortal. What would be the effects of virtual friendships to a mind after 4 centuries of real loneliness, trapped in perfect bodies and in a society where you got it all without an effort?
As I keep exploring the world wide web hoping to find some Über crazy metal bands that somehow didn't make it to my blessed ears yet (breathe), I came across this total craziness: The Diablo Swing Orchestra! Oh my, that swings heavily!
If you are open to musical experiments, you should enjoy this one. It definitely made me smile, but in a good way. One last word: Refreshing!
It's a win for Dr Brisby! with an astonishing number of votes (4) it surpassed all of its opponents which stalled at 1 point each.
Of course the poll left only 4 choices and maybe your true favorite (if any) wasn't in the list. But it's cool that you guys like the Brisby song! I got some more coming for you in a more or less near future :)
One the things I like most about writing music is finding a title for a song. You should always start with a good title. I think « A strange library for Dr. Brisby » is quite a good one. It's quite verbose, a mouthful of a title it is. When you read that you expect a song that would be quite peculiar, rich in mysteries. I like that! Who's Brisby? why is he receiving a library? who gives away a library anyway? finally why the heck is this library strange? ... Or you could just give a damn and think, oh no... here it comes again, Clem is trying to be a grandiloquent as he can be.
Grandiloquent it is! I wrote as much music as I could, and that's why I didn't write anything for the blog for a while.
One day at the beginning of this summer, I was chatting with Quentin (The Acolyts's bassist) and I got this idea for a story. It's set about a century back in time, in a western capital city, say London. A man, Doctor, named Bribsy receives a letter from his old friend from medical university. He hasn't seen him for decades. The letter urges Brisby to come because of a tragedy. The friend is dying, and seems to have aged extremely, much more than he should have. He offers Brisby the rich library he's got because he knows the Doctor has always been into books. The gift comes with a warning, that he shall not open the Red book.
For years Brisby reads all of the contents of the library, each book contains vast amounts of incredible knowledge, superb writings and poems. They are a delight to read (the contrary of my prose).
One day he finishes the last book except the Red one. Only the Red one remains, and becomes an obsession, why shouldn't he read a book, how dangerous a book can be?
You will know if you read the lyrics!! Quentin was quite excited by the idea and wrote the lyrics for the song. I like 'em, they sound mysterious, gloomy...
After Quentin sent me the lyrics I started writing the music. It took me about a month and a half! Of course I've been quite buzy so I actually just spent ... I don't know, about 6 to 10 hours on it.
The result I'm quite proud of, I know many of you guys won't like it. It's long 10 minutes and 34 seconds!! Definitely not a radio song. It has many changes of mood, some of the most aggressive riffs I ever wrote. It's still a demo and it could evolve a bit, the solos, transitions and the voice track are still perfectible. I bet rehearsing this song with the band will be quite a challenge and will bring other touches of influences from Martial (guitarist) and Anto (Drummer). I can't wait to punch that thing in the face of a public live!
I hope you guys enjoy it. Leave me some thoughts about it! Paris Clem: You know you like it.
Lyrics Doctor Brisby please come to me My life's ending, soon I won't be Anymore
In my library you'll find wonders Knowledge and Wisdom you'll discover But
Don't ever under no circumstance Open the red book and read its contents For it is doom!
The book ruined many a man's life throughout the ages It cannot be destroyed nor can it be harmed It shall bring you riches should you keep it shut tight Don't you open it, see my face and behold The power of the book is not worth getting old
For a few years the book stayed under A big pile of books still to be read But one day he glanced at the red cover And couldn't get it out of his head
His friend's warning came back to him But that didn't make him yield Brisby rashly took the book in his hands And soon his fate would be sealed
Reading the first words he got in a frenzy Filling his mind with so much knowledge His head felt like bursting
Turning the pages at a frantic pace By the power of the book Brisby was possessed His hands he didn't see
For if he took even a second to stop The poor cursed man would have seen The skin of his hands was beginning to rot As his hair whitened and became thin
While he was turning yet another page The horror clenched a fist around his soul He glanced at his reflection in a mirror And saw how he was getting old
The book fell off his hands as he fell into despair Shrieking “What has become of me ?”
“This book for sure is a wretched sorcery what a bitter lesson lies in it For the knowledge it gave me I'd have found out anyway If I had taken the time to live In my greed for sapience I got carried away And now on myself I can only grieve”
Mr Brisby was in bed, feeling his last hour has come With his last strength he took his favorite pen And on a paper he wrote…
–back to part 1– Sir Flaherty please come to me My life's ending, soon I won't be Anymore
In my library you'll find wonders Knowledge and Wisdom you'll discover
Kids are going back to school pretty soon after some long and hopefully sunny summer holidays. The Acolyts are back too, we have reheasaled yesterday. It's been a difficult one, we didn't get together for about two months, so we were a bit rusty plus we introduced for the first time the songs The Nameless and Bring me back to the sanitarium to our reheasing plan. For those who are totally nuts there is a 24 minutes long rehearsing video outtake:
The week-end was a blast! I'm currently collecting pictures from the huge party we were. It's gonna take a bit of time to filter and build you a "best of". I've updated The Acolyts' myspace page, so if you want to listen to some Heavy/Doom Metal demos, it's there : http://www.myspace.com/theacolyts
This week gets the 60th post! Wowzer, I never thought I would keep that blog alive that far, well ok I'm quite far from the initial goal of "a new song each week" but eh, I got a life too and it pretty god damn buzy right now! Anyway, this week I give you a very personal interpretation of Black Sabbath's most popular tune: Paranoid.
Careful little fellow, it's much heavier than the original song.
Castle Bravo! hurray fireworks!! - Dr. Zoidberg
Dr Brisby?
our flyer