That's it! Today I recorded the final vocals for 'Except For The Hatred', deleted the one called 'Years of Art', the weakest track. It may never see the light of day, and now the album is complete in its rough draft. It's taken more time than usual deciding on the order of tracks, and many needed tweaks - though not nearly as many or taking as long as for Burn of God. I am learning. I needed to add more mid-frequencies to 'Norman Bates', tweak some vocal levels etc.
Next I must think about linking. I've always liked the idea of linking tracks one into another so that they smoothly flow. Also, I need to work on the cover art.
This album, originally without a theme, has a theme now, of madness. Two songs are about serial killers, two about fear and retreat to angels, one about hatred... one about a severed limb, yet there's a lot of comedy in there too, of the right, intelligent, sort. I'm surprised but pleased at the unity of it all. Perhaps 'Moments of Terror When Falling Asleep' stands out most because it's so digital and hard-wired, very sequenced, compared to the rest of the album. This track also sounds constantly out of tune, partly because of the atonal subharmonics in the mock-Hammond organ; this itself makes it sound dangerous and makes its finalé that bit better.
One setback is that my CD drive seems to be either broken or struggling. I need this for master burning.
We're halfway through the year. Backup day and digital tidying and housekeeping tomorrow, something I do every three months. The new Spiral Staircase CDs are on their way too. Onward!
