HOW NOT TO RECORD AN ALBUM

Yes, TRANSMIGRATION, the new WHEN BITTER SPRING SLEEPS full length album is going to be a bit weird. I've fully embraced my previous doom metal influences for the included DUNGEON METAL tracks, but also my black metal and even newer synth ideas will be presented there. 
A split release had been in the works but I decided at the last minute not to proceed with it. So, I had about a half an album's worth of new black metal tracks written and recorded, and all that was set to go. 

While I was waiting for the other artist to complete their tracks, I wrote some doom metal tracks and I was going to have SYNTAX A perform vocals, to create a very black doom metal EP.
Then the freaking virus hit, and Syntax A and I weren't able to collaborate locally, so i did my own vocals for the doom songs.
At the time i was listening to lots of LYCIA, and new dungeon synth, so i thought it might be unique to attempt that type of whispered/rasped vocal style. It turned out to be more difficult than i imagined. That type of strong whispering is really hard on the throat, and getting the right recording sound also served a serious challenge for me.

SYNTAX A did drop by once during the quarantine and recorded some great stuff on a new song called TACHYON SPELL that could almost be a new SATAN'S ALMIGHTY PENIS track because of it's weirdness and nastiness.

When the split was cancelled, i decided to write a few new tracks and just release a new full length album, something i really didn't intend to do again for WBSS. Plus, i had sold my previous amplifier, so had no way to get the same guitar sound. I was never smart enough to record a backup direct guitar signal, so i just had to forge ahead with a new recording setup. I had found an old PALMER guitar amp load box/ speaker simulator on ebay and was now recording guitars without a microphone. It was awesome, but i could not get it to sound anything like the previous songs.
oh well.
I have always put the songs before the sound, so whatever. I believe that music has to be spontaneous and passionate and you aren't gonna get passion from a meticulously computer-edited recording. So, NO, i wasn't going to re-record guitar tracks just because they had a different sound. 

I decided instead to use the transformation in sound throughout the album as an artistic statement: the sound evolves just as the music does along the length of the album. To hell with all these perfection-obsessed recording artists. Just make some damn music already!

I've always respected Quorthon's recording methods: Use whatever the hell you have to record your music. Just get that shit on tape no matter what.

Anywho, so TRANSMIGRATION may be a bit varied mix-wise, but i assure you that Jori Apedaile performed an incredible mastering job on the whole thing, making me wonder why I even worried about this issue. 

In conclusion, TRANSMIGRATION consists of the songs from the planned black metal split, some newer songs using lot's of synth elements, a new intro sequence, and the entire DUNGEON METAL EP previously only on cassette tape.

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When Bitter Spring Sleeps "Transmigration" is available now at PaganFlames.com and Bandcamp.

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TRANSMIGRATION - a musical transformation

So, it's been quite some time since I reported anything here about WHEN BITTER SPRING SLEEPS, but I have not been slacking. The time trapped in quarantine meant I could either wallow or improve myself and learn something new. I chose the latter and taught myself basic music theory on the keyboard, something I've put off my whole musical life. Which is probably obvious. That opened some new avenues for me and also made me learn to enjoy keyboards. My wife's gramdmother died years ago and left us with this vintage keyboard that I have been using lately to write new music. 
As you can see, it is an old Technics machine with lots of limitations but it does allow for basic sound shaping and midi inputs and outputs. I found a simple midi converter for my guitar and am able to use the synth's nice organ tones for single note melodies played on the guitar. Put this through a reverb pedal and it sounds huge and organic, pun intended.

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