When the virus comes
Feb. 27th, 2007 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidnI'm off work today with a ghastly cold and am doing quite a good job of heating up the living room with just the glow of my forehead, but that's not what this entry's actually about. It's more just of a "note to self" so that the text below doesn't drop off the face of the Internet.
The only problem with getting the import version of Heavenly's "Virus" was that the entire commentary booklet was in Japanese and I couldn't read it. Fortunately I knew just the place to find a store of Japanophiles, and a blue-haired hermaphroditic wolf came to my rescue by generously providing a complete translation. (I would have just made this a private entry, but I thought the last sentence was too good to waste.)
To Our Fans in Asia
To all our friends
You probably already know, but HEAVENLY is back! We are definitely looking forward to completely saturating the Metalheads of Asia with our newly-made "Virus". There are many changes since our album "Dust to Dust" from February 2004...
Three of the band's musicians left, and at the same time Sanctuary Group's Noise Records dropped their contract. It was hard to analyze the situation at first. It felt kind of like throwing away our previous feelings, you know? But the feeling that we had to continue with HEAVENLY was so strong, it was totally for real!
And so the band grew with a new vision in mind. We found three new members. They were guitarist Olivier Lapauze, drummer Thomas das Neves, and bassist Mathieux Plana. And with them on our team, we came to see the potential for our growth.
Through continuous sleepless nights, a melody arose in my head, and from there a guitar riff grew. What was born there is "Virus".
The hardest part was mixing the deep vocal melody with the loud sound of the rhythm guitar.
After striving to complete it, we had a great hit.
Try thinking about it for yourselves, headbanger dudes! Although there's no reason to forget the old HEAVENLY, we're definitely facing towards the future.
See you in Asia!
Take care! This "Virus" is invincible...
Ben (HEAVENLY)
---
Song commentary
The Dark Memories: This is HEAVENLY's darkest tune. The beginning guitar riff is very strong and powerful. Because of the choir, the chorus sound becomes louder. The lyrics are a nervous breakdown, and express the "low" times of human life*. As such this song has many different expressions. It becomes agressive, then tragic, then finally there's a rise and overflow of future-confronting hope.
* possibly also "The lyrics express a nervous breakdown and the low times in life".
Spill Blood on Fire: This is the band's biggest song. If you've ever been to one of our shows, you've probably asked to hear "Spill Blood on Fire". This song was really popular with 80's-era bands, like EUROPE's "Final Countdown", if you remember them. Even if you only hear the chorus once, take caution. You'll never be able to get it out of your head.
Virus: This is a really awesome song. It's almost like it's resounding to the limits of slash metal. It's pretty aggressive. With this song, I found a sound I had been searching for. This song is definitely the sound I had always dreamed for HEAVENLY to have. We were able to combine heavy riffs with a techno beat. We made a pretty good electronic sound. Truly, this song has my emotions in it. The anti-queen allusion in the center of the song also has my emotions in it*. It's in the place with the piano part and the middle-tempo. You can't escape from hearing this song!
* - I honestly can't make heads or tails of this sentence. I'm not sure if "allusion" is correct, but even so, I'm not sure what the anti-queen/"opposing the queen" is in reference to. Maybe you know. "Anti" in this sense is like... opposing, or possibly facing towards. It's actually phrased as an... adverb? but I couldn't translate it a better way. I don't think it's a reference to the band Queen. They're pretty big in Japan and would probably have their name spelled out, but in the passage it's written in kanji. I'm also not sure if allusion is the correct word, either; it's just the closest I could find.
The Power & Fury: You could call this heavy metal. With the wonderful intro and lyrics, it sounds kind of like the old Helloween. The chorus choir. Sometimes this some makes us think of the first album "Coming From the Sky". Listen to the guitar solo. Because it's awesome. Again, the lyrics have my emotions in it. We're not going to live for eterninty, so we're caused to feel like we have to enjoy our current position*.
* - this sentence is vague and I'm not sure what it has to do with the rest of the passage.
Wasted Time: This is the single most essential tune on the "Virus" album! First, our friend Tony Kakko* sings this with me. As a result, it became a splendid thing. Since the tempo of the chorus is really interesting, and quite melodious, we put all of our emotion into it. The whole thing really started with the string section's performance. Of course there's one part, in the space between the chorus. We think HEAVENLY's fans will enjoy listening to this. Definitely!
* - not sure on the romanized spelling of this name.
Bravery in the Field: This is a song we started writing after "Dust to Dust". You might take caution while listening to this song, how many similarities to past albums can you find? Of course, it's not bad that they're similar. There's also a very interesting solo part. It's a solo that you might think is a little unlike HEAVENLY. Everyone did some great things, it seems like anywhere they go is good!
Liberty: This is a song Charlie* put his emotion into, the sound is excellent. Truthfully, I think Phillip Corodetti* did some great work for us. The same is true of the other songs. We put a lot of emotion into the lyrics. The chorus sound is also really good. The guitar solo is overwhelming. Everyone really did some great work!
* - again, guessing on the spelling of these names.
When The Rain Begins To Fall: This song is a cover. This contains some unbelievable things, so melodious, yet packed with the essence of heavy metal. All of us prefer original things, so we made an effort to "Do it like HEAVENLY" would. The result was perfect. We think the duet section with Tanya of Lullacry makes this cover unique, and our number-one hit!
The Prince Of The World: This is the last song on the album. This is the single most emotional song we've written. There's an extraordinary part with just my voice and the sound of the orchestra. This song was difficult to sing. The vocal range is high, and I had to use my own (natural) voice to do it. So it became good for practice. Also, the solo part is interesting. All of HEAVENLY's members put their emotion into it, it's the most important thing.
Ben (HEAVENLY)
The only problem with getting the import version of Heavenly's "Virus" was that the entire commentary booklet was in Japanese and I couldn't read it. Fortunately I knew just the place to find a store of Japanophiles, and a blue-haired hermaphroditic wolf came to my rescue by generously providing a complete translation. (I would have just made this a private entry, but I thought the last sentence was too good to waste.)
To Our Fans in Asia
To all our friends
You probably already know, but HEAVENLY is back! We are definitely looking forward to completely saturating the Metalheads of Asia with our newly-made "Virus". There are many changes since our album "Dust to Dust" from February 2004...
Three of the band's musicians left, and at the same time Sanctuary Group's Noise Records dropped their contract. It was hard to analyze the situation at first. It felt kind of like throwing away our previous feelings, you know? But the feeling that we had to continue with HEAVENLY was so strong, it was totally for real!
And so the band grew with a new vision in mind. We found three new members. They were guitarist Olivier Lapauze, drummer Thomas das Neves, and bassist Mathieux Plana. And with them on our team, we came to see the potential for our growth.
Through continuous sleepless nights, a melody arose in my head, and from there a guitar riff grew. What was born there is "Virus".
The hardest part was mixing the deep vocal melody with the loud sound of the rhythm guitar.
After striving to complete it, we had a great hit.
Try thinking about it for yourselves, headbanger dudes! Although there's no reason to forget the old HEAVENLY, we're definitely facing towards the future.
See you in Asia!
Take care! This "Virus" is invincible...
Ben (HEAVENLY)
---
Song commentary
The Dark Memories: This is HEAVENLY's darkest tune. The beginning guitar riff is very strong and powerful. Because of the choir, the chorus sound becomes louder. The lyrics are a nervous breakdown, and express the "low" times of human life*. As such this song has many different expressions. It becomes agressive, then tragic, then finally there's a rise and overflow of future-confronting hope.
* possibly also "The lyrics express a nervous breakdown and the low times in life".
Spill Blood on Fire: This is the band's biggest song. If you've ever been to one of our shows, you've probably asked to hear "Spill Blood on Fire". This song was really popular with 80's-era bands, like EUROPE's "Final Countdown", if you remember them. Even if you only hear the chorus once, take caution. You'll never be able to get it out of your head.
Virus: This is a really awesome song. It's almost like it's resounding to the limits of slash metal. It's pretty aggressive. With this song, I found a sound I had been searching for. This song is definitely the sound I had always dreamed for HEAVENLY to have. We were able to combine heavy riffs with a techno beat. We made a pretty good electronic sound. Truly, this song has my emotions in it. The anti-queen allusion in the center of the song also has my emotions in it*. It's in the place with the piano part and the middle-tempo. You can't escape from hearing this song!
* - I honestly can't make heads or tails of this sentence. I'm not sure if "allusion" is correct, but even so, I'm not sure what the anti-queen/"opposing the queen" is in reference to. Maybe you know. "Anti" in this sense is like... opposing, or possibly facing towards. It's actually phrased as an... adverb? but I couldn't translate it a better way. I don't think it's a reference to the band Queen. They're pretty big in Japan and would probably have their name spelled out, but in the passage it's written in kanji. I'm also not sure if allusion is the correct word, either; it's just the closest I could find.
The Power & Fury: You could call this heavy metal. With the wonderful intro and lyrics, it sounds kind of like the old Helloween. The chorus choir. Sometimes this some makes us think of the first album "Coming From the Sky". Listen to the guitar solo. Because it's awesome. Again, the lyrics have my emotions in it. We're not going to live for eterninty, so we're caused to feel like we have to enjoy our current position*.
* - this sentence is vague and I'm not sure what it has to do with the rest of the passage.
Wasted Time: This is the single most essential tune on the "Virus" album! First, our friend Tony Kakko* sings this with me. As a result, it became a splendid thing. Since the tempo of the chorus is really interesting, and quite melodious, we put all of our emotion into it. The whole thing really started with the string section's performance. Of course there's one part, in the space between the chorus. We think HEAVENLY's fans will enjoy listening to this. Definitely!
* - not sure on the romanized spelling of this name.
Bravery in the Field: This is a song we started writing after "Dust to Dust". You might take caution while listening to this song, how many similarities to past albums can you find? Of course, it's not bad that they're similar. There's also a very interesting solo part. It's a solo that you might think is a little unlike HEAVENLY. Everyone did some great things, it seems like anywhere they go is good!
Liberty: This is a song Charlie* put his emotion into, the sound is excellent. Truthfully, I think Phillip Corodetti* did some great work for us. The same is true of the other songs. We put a lot of emotion into the lyrics. The chorus sound is also really good. The guitar solo is overwhelming. Everyone really did some great work!
* - again, guessing on the spelling of these names.
When The Rain Begins To Fall: This song is a cover. This contains some unbelievable things, so melodious, yet packed with the essence of heavy metal. All of us prefer original things, so we made an effort to "Do it like HEAVENLY" would. The result was perfect. We think the duet section with Tanya of Lullacry makes this cover unique, and our number-one hit!
The Prince Of The World: This is the last song on the album. This is the single most emotional song we've written. There's an extraordinary part with just my voice and the sound of the orchestra. This song was difficult to sing. The vocal range is high, and I had to use my own (natural) voice to do it. So it became good for practice. Also, the solo part is interesting. All of HEAVENLY's members put their emotion into it, it's the most important thing.
Ben (HEAVENLY)
