selta
Power User
(Beware, long post ahead!)
Often on here, I'll reference my "Heavy Metal Opera" project, Ara'Kus (aka Flaming Sword Productions). What I haven't done, and have been meaning to do, is go over what this really is. I think it's pretty cool, and something I'm proud of. Right now, we're in a lull while we write up our new album / show / story, so I thought it'd be a good time to sit back and write about it here a bit more.
(yours truly, ripping it up on my 6 string Bongo)
Musically, we are "just" a metal band. When I came into this band ~6 years ago, everything musically was already in place. I just had to pick up and go. Everything is written out well in advance of anyone picking up their instrument - think of it more like how classical pieces would be composed. Everything is a puzzle piece, and they all fit together, picking up and dropping harmonies, leads, rhythms, changes and so on. But, we were entering a new phase of the production - walking away from the typical band venues, and renting theatres to put on our full production.
That production include:
1) Medieval Combat Re-enactment (with very real swords and armor, not stage props)
2) Fire dancing (hurray burny things)
3) Classically trained musicians (cello, violinist, vocalists)
4) Full set, designed and built by us
5) Actors, some formally trained, others just have an interest in theatre
and more.
(I did say burny bits, didn't I?)
We took our album, which was always a "concept" album (telling a story end to end), and flushed out the entire production from there. We stumbled, and had a lot of learning and growing pains. We're now at the point where we do 2 shows a week, for 3 or 4 weeks out of a month once or twice a year (normally - as I said, in a lull to write all the new stuff - debuting in early 2017). Each show has anywhere from 550 to 825 people in attendance.
(lead guitarist & composer, JJ)
Aeterno Elementum, our first album/production, is an age old tale; a well-intentioned spiritual leader is deceived by a demon, causing a cataclysmic sequence of events, eventually ending the whole of mankind. The spiritual leader (for simplicity sake only, will be refereed to as a priest) does this over time by assembling 4 Generals via trickery, magik/alchemy, torture, and subversion. These Generals amass armies, which overtime are used to destory, well, everything.
The Axe-Fx II that I use has been nothing but absolutely perfect for this gig. In the next few months, I'm hoping to get the rest of the band on board Fractal products - right now they use Line6 stuff. Being able to change everything with a simple tap of a button, and also not having to have any kind of amplification on or off stage (we used to have cabs in iso cabs with mics... that was difficult!) just makes things so nice and easy for us. I can't wait to get both guitarists on either AX8s (most likely due to price) or Axe-Fx II's. Hopefully we can do that in time for the new production.
(lead violinist + lead soprano - her violin also runs through FAS products!)
We basically have nothing on stage - two side fill monitors, primarily so the actors and other theatre types can hear what is happening to time their stuff. I bounce between IEMs and a tiny 2x10 cab on stage, as the side fills just don't have the low end to let me hear myself well enough.
Here is the song that we cruise through right at the end of Act I., from "my" perspective.
(you can hear how quiet it is on stage, as you can hear the "clank" against the fingerboard [fretless] - most of the audio is bounce back from FOH or from the sidefills)
That is it in a nutshell. I know I've had a few people ask me about it here, though I quite honestly forget who all have asked. This production keeps me fairly busy, and when it's not in full swing, I have my other hard rock / prog rock band that plays 2 - 3 times a month as well, called Convergence (that band has 3 members using Fractal gear!)
(stabby bits and anti-stabby bits)
Anyway, I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse into part of what I do with my music career and gear. Feel free to check out our website:
http://heavymetalopera.com
You can download our album (for free), check out the lore of the first album (a lot of the story is up there - a full book is being written, along with some short comic type stuff), and also check out some more photos and videos.
Thanks to those that stuck through the whole post