13th July 2009: Monday Mosh #10

13th July 2009: Monday Mosh #10
G’day everyone, and welcome to the Monday Mosh. First of all we’d like to thank the people who came out for our album launch on Saturday night. I have to confess, I was disappointed with the turnout for the event, but these things happen sometimes. There was a high profile metal gig just down the road, and that certainly impacted the numbers. The good news is that 52 people came through the door, and this covered all the event costs. The Grave Forsaken set was beset by the dreaded “technical difficulties”, but on review of the video, it was barely noticeable. The biggest problem was me stepping on Simon’s guitar lead and knocking out his sound during a crucial section of “This Day Forth”. Sorry Simon! I will say it was tough day for the band, as we had a rehearsal in the afternoon, and didn’t hit the stage until late. Everyone was quite tired by that stage. Once we had a few difficulties during the set, the mood was down a bit. Still, a gig is a gig, and we are very thankful for the opportunity. We also got a multitrack recording of the gig which will be mixed this week. Look out for some of those tunes to be up on the website at some point in the future.

Onto some really cool info that a few of you have been curious about. As regular readers will know, we recorded a gig last July and have been mixing it on and off ever since. I’m very pleased to announce that this gig will be released online as our first live album “Light The Hall!” on September 28th. The band is 5 years old in September, so we figured what better to way to celebrate than by releasing our live album online. So here’s the deal – the album will be available as a “pay what you think it’s worth” download. This means you can download it for free, or you can donate a sum of money to the band via paypal when you access the download. The download will be initially made available only through the members area, so if you want it first, you need to sign up to the ever growing Mosher Crew through the official website (which is free anyway). Included with the download will be a pdf of the CD booklet and insert, so you can print your own hard copy of the album. If there’s enough interest, we will print a run of the album in physical form, but we’ll wait and see how the downloads go first. We are really looking forward to making this release available in this format, and hope you’ll enjoy the album. The setlist covers our entire 5 year history, including a version of “Wasting Power” from the latest album, which obviously hadn’t been released at the time of the recording. All the favourites are there, such as “The North Wind”, “Death On The Cross” and “Warriors Of Light”, so be sure to download your copy on September 28th!

On the subject of the live album, this week we have a new episode of GFTV that documents the mixing of the recording here at North Wind Studio. Head over to the following URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBm2xc3XRhY to check it out. Alternatively, just type in Grave Forsaken TV into youtube and you’ll find links to all 10 GFTV episodes. While you’re there, check out some of the older episodes as well. It’s a lot of fun putting together these GFTV episodes, and we obviously hope you guys enjoy the insight into the band.

Elias and I are heading out to Fattdog this Wednesday to work on some new arrangements with Daniel. While the reaction to This Day Forth has been mostly positive, there are definitely areas we can improve in on the next Grave Forsaken album. Shreds has come up with some of his best riffs ever, and we are really enjoying putting them into solid song structures. Daniel is so much fun to work with, and all of us just cherish our time at Fattdog. Not to mention that Daniel always has plenty of great advice for me now that I have my own studio at home. He really gives us the confidence and self belief to put together some really cool stuff. You should check out his band Templar if you haven’t already. Very awesome indeed.

That brings me to the end of yet another mosh - what are we up to now, 10? It’s just crazy that it’s been 10 weeks since I started. Well, here’s to many more, and we’ll catch you all again next week.

God Bless and MOSH ON!