Annihilator's "Imperiled Eyes" by Timo Ahlström

Timo Ahlström

Wow it is hard to believe that its been almost a full year since I last posted anything on here. I apologize to those of you that check this space for my absence. I have a few videos ready to go and that should catapult me back into posting regularly.

This post is all about my friend Timo from Finland. I first found out about Timo back in 2010 when I auditioned for the bass part in Annihilator. I was checking out some of the videos that people were posting on YouTube for Jeff Waters to see and consider, and that's when I found Timo's video. He was flawless, and making it look extremely easy, so much so that I was sure he was going to get the part. We were able to meet later that year in Frankfurt at an open rehearsal. That's when I found out that Timo is actually a guitar player, and a wicked one at that! Jeff even let him play a song with us at rehearsal and he played that perfectly as well. Check out his rendition of Imperiled Eyes, one of the hardest Annihilator songs out there (I'm still trying to find my jaw after watching his video). Oh and don't forget to listen to Timo in his two bands:

www.freedominationband.net/

www.facebook.com/Horrorfeast




Here's Timo's blurb about Imperiled Eyes:

"Hello people! I’m Timo Ahlström from Finland. I’m a BIG Annihilator fan and I know Al because we both auditioned for Annihilator's bass player spot back in 2010. Al got the job and he deserves it because he’s an incredibly talented bass player. Also we both love Rush!!!

Anyways I love Jeff Waters’ work with Annihilator and I’ve been a big fan ever since I first heard their music. I’m very happy to say that I’ve gotten to know him and he also plays a guitar solo on my band's (Freedomination) song 'Hide Your Self'!!

The first record that I bought from Annihilator was 'Never, Neverland'. This song is from that album and it’s called 'Imperiled Eyes'. The song is F****** HARD TO PLAY! I did quite many takes before I 'nailed' it. Still I couldn’t do the pre-solo and solo part 100 % accurate. What amazes me most is that these guys have actually played the song live!!!

So I play in two bands myself: Freedomination (a metal band which is heavily influenced by Annihilator, Megadeth etc) and also a horror punk band called Horrorfeast (Misfits anyone?!). I hope you enjoy the video!!!
Timo"

Timo jamming with Jeff Waters

Rainbow - Run With The Wolf

Rainbow with Dio

On this day, back in 1942, one of my favourite Rock singers was born. Ronnie James Dio would have been seventy years old today, and somehow I can imagine that, if he had not left us two years ago, he would have celebrated his big "seven-oh" on a stage somewhere rocking out like only he knew how to. So today I have decided to send off this little tribute into cyberspace in the hopes that somewhere out there Dio will get a chuckle out of it. Make sure to keep your horns up in the air while you watch this video of myself playing "Run With The Wolf" from Rainbow's album "Rising"


Rainbow - Run with the Wolf (BASS Guitar Cover) from Alberto Campuzano on Vimeo.

This whole album was a favourite of mine right from the beginning. It's a perfect mixture of Ritchie Blackmore's neo-classical heavy metal and Dio's fantasy filled lyrics and themes. Run With The Wolf is edgy, with lots of attitude from all the musicians. Dio is amazing as always, delivering his powerful voice with emotion and intensity. His parts are laid back but still driving, and his creativity is evident in how he makes slight changes to his phrasing and even uses different melodies for each chorus. The last one being my favorite: I get chills every time I hear that line "when the siren calls you goooo". I love the vocal harmonies during the choruses and how they are panned all the way to the left. It makes it feel like he's whispering secrets in your ear when you listen with headphones. Also present is his patented ad-lib vocal lines at the end of the song. Oh Ronnie you are dearly missed!

Ritchie Blackmore is great on this one too. His tone for the rhythm parts is very crunchy and almost sounds like a distorted organ. His main solo is played with a slide and is much more melodic than what I'm used to hearing from him. I guess he tried to get a bluesy sound to go with the heavy shuffle groove of the song. At about 2:37 in the video his harmonized thirds are reminiscent of The Alman Brothers. Ritchie rips another much more typical solo in the end, although there is no harmonic minor scale in there like he would use normally. Maybe it's because the song is not in B minor, which seems to be his favorite key to solo over.

Jimmy Bain on bass is solid, he doesn't do anything too fancy, but just lays down a heavy pocket with drummer Cozy Powell. The whole groove is interesting to me, and hard for me to really nail, because it has the feeling that everything is on the back end of the beat, almost as if they might slow down, but they never do. Its brilliant. And that shuffle feel works so well with the main guitar riff. I love it!

My first introduction to Dio was from listening to this Rainbow album, and I still feel there's a special magic captured in those recordings. I know quite a few Dio fans that are not too familiar with his Rainbow stuff. Do yourself a favour, and in honour of his birthday go run check it out!

Click HERE for the bass transcription of this song in standard notation and tab.

\m/

Rush - Cold Fire

Geddy Rocks!

It was only a matter of time before I had to do a post about Rush, seeing as how they're my favorite band and all, so this post may be a long one.

You may be wondering why I chose this particular Rush song when there are so many others that are more popular or with more interesting bass parts, but don't be fooled, even though Cold Fire is the second last song from the Counterparts album (which is not as well known as Moving Pictures for example) this song has all the qualities that I love about Rush: great song writing, amazing musical performances by all members, thoughtful lyrics, beautiful singing, all of it in a package that still breaks the mold of what a typical radio rock song should be like. I guess this is why we consider Rush to be a Progressive Rock band.

From 1993, Counterparts is my favourite modern-era Rush album (from the 90s to now) because it is a very rocking album. The keyboards that dominated their 80s sound are pretty much all gone on this one, there are some phenomenal bass songs, in fact, this is the album where Geddy went back to using his old '72 Fender jazz bass that he used on Moving Pictures; and also this album has a lot of darker sounding songs, it has a bit of a heavy emotional mood to me. 
If you've never heard Cold Fire before I recommend you listen to it once before reading my notes on it, and see how many of the little things I will mention you heard on your own. 


 


The first thing I noticed when I heard this song is how Geddy strums that riff at the beginning of the song. I have seen him do it live and he basically uses one or two fingers on his right hand to strum the strings of his bass, much like a flamenco guitarist would. The way I did it at first try was making a lot of noise, because I kept hitting the open A and sometimes E strings. So I realized I had to rest my thumb on the A string and touch the E string with the side of my thumb so I could mute both strings.
Next I had to figure out the structure of the song. I wonder if you noticed that the song is not based on the typical groups of 4-bar groupings that dominates western music. Instead this song has sections of 10, 22, 14, and 18 bars.
Here's a list of the sections of the song and the number of bars in each. 


Intro: 10 bars
Verse One: 22 bars
Chorus One: 6 bars
Break One: 4 bars
Verse Two: 20 bars
Pre-chorus One: 16 bars
Chorus Two: 14 bars
Guitar Solo: 12 bars
Break Two: 4 bars
Pre-chorus Two: 16 bars
Chorus Three: 18 bars

Geddy is so creative in his playing that he is always changing how he plays each section. He starts by playing very sparsely, leaving a lot of room between notes, and gradually increases the intensity of his bass line by adding more notes and different rhythmic figures. He uses just about every trick in the bass-playing book: lots of slides, muted or "ghost" notes, hammer ons and pull offs, strumming, and oh did I mention a lot of sliding?. The only thing Geddy doesn't do, and i've never seen him do it, is slap the bass (ironic if you've watched "I Love You, Man"). 
It wasn't until I actually sat down to learn the song note-for-note, that i realized Geddy doesn't repeat a single bass fill. Yes, some of them are similar, but he never plays two of them the same way. Sometimes he plays a scalar line that connected two chords, as in the pre-chorus (at 3:27 in the video), and other times he just plays one note and changes the rhythms to make it interesting (3:59). Also notice that Neil Peart often joins him with the drums at the tail end of the fill, making it sound so tight and composed (2:03 and 3:39).


Speaking of the drums, Neil is also in top shape here, not so much in terms of his technical ability, but his creativity and writing skills are on full display. Since he writes the lyrics to every song, Neil is very aware of the vocal lines and the words, and he writes his drums parts in a way that complements them. This song is about a conversation between a man a woman, talking about relationships. Listen to the verses and notice that, in both of them, when the man speaks Neil changes his drum beat and goes from playing the high-hat to a tambourine, and then goes right back to the high-hat when the woman responds. Neil is essentially creating a specific "voice" for his male character; a way of distinguishing between the two people in his story.
He also changes to the tambourine from bar 5-12 of the guitar solo, playing the high-hat on the first and last 4 bars of the solo. Typically most drummers would make the change on bar 9 and just split a section right in the middle, but then again Pear is not your typical drummer. Neither is he your typical lyricist. Who else would use the word "phosphorescent" in the pre-chorus of a song, and still make it so easy to sing? 


Other highlights of the song for me are: Alex Lifeson's choice of guitar sounds, from that very edgy and harsh tone of the beginning, to the echoey and spacey sound in the verses that makes it reminiscent of the 1950s; the guitar part in the chorus of this song reminds me of his part in the chorus of "Subdivisions" or maybe the main line of Blue Oyster Club's "Don't Fear the Reaper"; another little detail of this song that i love is the keyboards that come in half way through the pre-chorus, its very faint, but its there and it adds that little touch that completes the section and builds into the chorus.


Well, I did warn you this might be a long one, but I have a hard time stopping once I start talking about all the little things that make me love Rush. I can never get enough of them and how much attention to detail they pay to every bar of every song. I will have to do another Rush post eventually, maybe something from Caress of Steel?


Until next time!

Nocturnal Rites - Still Alive

I'm back!

It has been a really long time since I added anything to my blog, and I apologize for that; I just have not been too inspired to write. I have had no problems learning new material on the bass, and in fact I have a few videos already made, but when I sit and try to do this written part I just stare at the white screen, the vertical cursor line blinking on and off.

Well that all changed after this weekend. I just came back from playing the Loud Festival in Sofia Bulgaria with Slayer, WASP, Symphony X, and other awesome metal bands. I had an amazing time, both on and off the stage, I can't wait to get back to Bulgaria (hopefully it won't be too long). The great experience from the trip totally inspired me to get back into writing great things about the music that drives me, and to re-start my blogs what better song than Nocturnal Rites' "Still Alive" from their 2005 album Grand Illusion.

I heard this band for the first time in 2008 when a fan of Warmachine's posted a message on our GarageBand.com site saying that our music reminded him of Nocturnal Rites. Having never heard of them I proceeded to find their website and listen to a couple of their songs. I was hooked instantly. Their modern era with vocalist Jonny Lindqvist is full of very catchy songs, killer guitar riffs, and phenomenal vocal performances, as well as solos by Nils Norberg who soon became one of my favorite lead guitar players. "Still Alive" has all of these typical Nocturnal Rites elements.

Nils Eriksson's plays a bass part that is not intrusive, and yet it complements the guitars while accenting certain riffs such as in the verse at 0:50.  I played the song on my 5-string bass, tuned down a half step (Bb-Eb-Ab-Db-Gb) The solo section I had to play up an octave at 2:47 because my low B string is too floppy in this tuning for it to sound like its supposed to.

Jonny's vocals remind me so much of Dio at times, very powerful and with a lot of grit. The guitar solo is great also, Nils builds it up with his different scalar runs but contrasts them by playing slower melodies with bends as well. And he manages to incorporate a little bit of wah effect and some whammy bar at the end. Really tasty.

For me this is a great example of what makes Power Metal so appealing, it pumps me up, it makes me want to raise my fist in the air and sing, and if the situation presented itself this would be a perfect soundtrack to go into battle with. It sounds cheesy, but I know a lot of you know what I'm talking about. Even though Nils Norberg is not in the band anymore, I am still very much looking forward to the next Nocturnal Rites album, and I've heard rumors that it will be coming sometime this year.  

It's good to be back writing for this. Stay tuned for more real soon!

Metallica's "Blackened" by Jonny Barker

  After a good month's break from posting on the blog I finally found some inspiration to get back into it thanks to my friend Jonny Barker who sent me this awesome version of Metallica's Blackened. Jonny is the lead guitar player in Sworn Amongst, an amazing thrash metal band from England that I had a pleasure of getting to know last year on the Total Annihilation tour of Europe. Jonny really impressed us all with his chops and his ability to put on a very energetic show while playing mind-blowing solos. Well see for yourself, and don't forget to check out Sworn Amongst new EP Evolution



  This is what Jonny had to say about the song:

  "Hey! My name is Jonny Barker and I am the lead guitarist in the UK band 'Sworn Amongst'. We were fortunate enough to go on a 2 month European tour with Alberto and the other guys in Annihilator last year and we had a blast! I've decided to cover a Metallica track for Al's blog site. As a teenager I was obsessed....

'...And Justice For All' is hands-down my favourite Metallica record, I remember hearing it for the first time when I was a teenager and being totally blown away. I think that this period was the band's greatest, musically and in terms of image. 'Blackened' has always been my favourite Metallica track, I think it's the perfect metal song, it has everything...speed, an awesome mid-section, guitar harmonies, shredding solos...and Hetfield's voice! It's just a bad-ass track. 

This album introduced me to metal, and I've never looked back!

Anyway, enjoy!" 

Top 5 - Annihilator

  For this post I decided to do an Annihilator song, seeing as how we just played in Quebec at the Trois-Riviere Metalfest, but I had a hard time deciding which song to play. So it occurred to me to pick my favourite five sections to play live with the band. These all are all short, maybe one or two minutes long each, but they capture the parts that are the most fun for me to play. Check out the video and then I will talk a little about each section.

#5 - The Trend

  This song is a real challenge to play live for me, because its very fast and tiring, by the end of the song both of my hands are screaming for some rest. This part comes right after the guitar solo, and its an instrumental section where I just plant my feet down and rock out. Its difficult to headbang while playing this, but I always try. The drum part here is very cool, it starts in half time and builds in intensity all the way to the climactic fill that brings back the last verse.

#4 - Set The World On Fire

  From the album of the same name, this part took me a long time to learn and get clean when I joined the band. Its a trademark Jeff Waters type of crazy riffing, which happens right after a nice and mellow bridge. Another section where I have to concentrate hard to play it perfectly live. The original had Mike Mangini playing the drums, but this is a live version with Randy Black.

#3 - Like Father, Like Gun

  Schizo Deluxe is one of my favourite Annihilator albums ever, its so angry, so aggressive, and yet very melodic and technical. The album really showcases Dave Padden's versatility as a singer, and this song he does it all: sing clean or gritty. What I'm playing is from the bridge into the guitar solo and the last chorus. There's a little bass "break" in there, and that last chorus is the best one for me, the drums go into that half-time Pantera-like beat. I cannot help but rock out to this song. Live we play this song in "Drop D" as opposed to the original which is in "Drop C".

#2 - The Fun Palace

  I remember when I bought this album ten years ago listening to this song and loving the solo section. Its very different from the rest of the song, and even from the rest of the album: its funky! It really stands out from stuff like "Imperiled Eyes" or "Sixes and Sevens". And for its syncopated groove I love playing this part. I keep challenging myself to play the whole thing live without looking at my fretboard, I just look up and have a huge grin on.

#1 - Welcome To Your Death (W.T.Y.D.)

  This is THE song that got me into Annihilator, and into Thrash Metal really. I heard it the first time on a bus in London, England, and immediately something in my brain clicked into place and I "got" it. I understood what was the appeal my friends had for this type of music. What I'm playing here is the end of the live version found on the "Bag of Tricks" album. It has Coburn Pharr singing, instead of Randy Rampage who did the original. This version is faster and meaner; it has a new section that wasn't in the studio version (right after the solo guitar part with no drums); and Coburn is amazing here, very raw and full of energy, and he has this scream, kind of like David Lee Roth's, where it sounds as if he sings two notes at the same time!

  There you have it, my five favourite parts to perform with Annihilator live. Maybe I will play one of these in full for a later post. Any requests? 

  A very special "Thank You" goes to Fred Laroche from Capitale Du Metal for letting me use his pictures. He does amazing work, so check out the rest of the galleries from Quebec City, Montreal, and Trois-Riviere. 

Van Halen's "Little Guitars" by Andrew Roudny

Andy and I in "Black Hour"

  This post will feature another great friend of mine, the second best guitar player I have ever played with, Andrew Roudny (and he is only second because I am incredibly lucky to play with Jeff Waters, who is one of the best in the world). Andy and I met way back when I was in college; I will never forget it, I answered my phone one day and I heard "hey, you don't know me, but I'm looking for a bass player, and I hear you're pretty good". That was the beginning of a friendship that has been one of the most gratifying of my life. With Andy I played in a band that had TWO bass players playing at the same time! we recorded an instrumental album that has some of the best bass parts I've come up with to date; we then performed as an acoustic instrumental duo for some time before finally splitting into separate musical paths. My admiration for Andrew continues, and here I am again blown away by his ability to make really hard things seem easy as pie. Watch him rip through Van Halen's "Little Guitars":

This is what Andy had to say about the song:

  "Alberto Campuzano, wizard of the bass guitar and the best musician I know has invited me to cover a song on his blog. I am well and truly grateful to perform for his one thousand plus readers. So let’s start with the excuses! I haven’t played any serious electric guitar (by which I mean I haven’t played on stage for grumpy music execs) in nearly 3 years (wow), so I hope I’m up to the task.

  The song I’ve chosen to play is Little Guitars from Van Halen’s 5^th album, 1982’s Diver Down. It’s not my favorite VH song (that’s Girl Gone Bad). It’s not the one everybody else likes the most (that’s probably Jump or Panama) and it’s certainly not the one the radio plays the most (I guess when you’re playing Born to Be Wild every 14 minutes, you don’t really have time to diversify). So why have I chosen this tune? Well, it’s been a pet project of mine for a number of years. When I was in a classic VH tribute band, we played the song but it was never part of our regular set. I once spent 4 hours at a rehearsal studio playing only the verse riff, but I never really got into all the corners of the tune and finished it off. So here’s my chance.

  There are lots of reasons I like this song. Here are three.

1. From a guitarist’s point of view, it’s a truly odd work of genius. Only a musician with strong classical training and thousands of hours spent practicing and performing hard rock guitar could ever conceive a song like this and make it work so that regular folks can actually listen to it. Don’t even get me started on how far ahead Eddie is compared to today’s crop of rock guitarists. Even bands than “can play” these days couldn’t hope to write something like this. The ultimate genius of Eddie Van Halen may be this very thing: He made music that’s so goddam brilliant that it was at the same time completely progressive but totally accessible to the masses. So accessible that he doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves for his blazing musical intellect. As far as I’m concerned, he’s in the same league as Mozart and Beethoven. Little Guitars shows all this, despite not even having a proper guitar solo section.

2. Any other rock singer would hear this song and run screaming. Or at least say something weak like, “I can’t sing over that…. Ughhh….write something simpler”. But our hero, Diamond David Lee Roth, a wild west cowboy with his massive ego in tow behind him like two saddle-bags full of gunpowder, took it on and did a wonderful job. Painting a compelling picture of a shady L.A. dude seeking solace from the law in the arms of a Mexican waitress (stripper, dancer, biker slut, choose your own adventure). Despite not having any formidable instrumental training, Dave is indeed a musical and lyrical genius.

3. Like almost all Van Halen songs, it’s better live than on the original recording. As I write this, I’m listening to a YouTube playlist of live versions of Little Guitars. I implore you to stop reading this right now and go listen to the US Festival version of this song. It is positively transcendent. This is probably the thing I like most about Van Halen: They are fantasy land. They are the place where the sun shines, the parties are epic, the strippers are sympathetic tan gals with hot legs and hearts of gold. Everything glistens in Van Halen land, and this song is one really good example of their skill in bringing you not just a set of notes but a time and a place and an experience. As good as they’ve been over the years in the studio, in their prime they were even better on stage, drunk or sober.

So, down to the technical particulars.

The Guitar For The Practicing Musician Magazine transcription that I used initially to learn this song is written for a miniature Les Paul tuned to one half step above standard tuning. I tried this on a full sized guitar and I found that either it was impossible or I didn’t have the skill to pull it off. What’s the difference? Other people?? Malarkey! It became clear that I had to modify things to my situation. First, I do not own a ¾ sized Les Paul (and I can probably make a list of 100 ways I’d rather spend that money). Second, I needed to be able to play this song on a guitar in standard tuning because I only have 2 decent guitars and by the third set I’m too drunk to switch competently from one guitar to another anyhow. So I re-jigged the riff a little and played it mostly around the 7^th fret E barred chord area. You’ll see this in the video. This allowed me to get the basic idea of the riff but not have to switch guitars. The only tradeoff was that I had to play the tune a half step lower than recorded in order to accommodate the open high E string. I’ve remedied this in the video version you’re seeing here because I’ve tuned the guitar up a half step. That’s F Bb Eb G# C F for those of you keeping score at home.

HOWEVER….

  I’ve seen a lot of transcriptions on line calling for a drop D tuning with a capo on the 3^rd fret. I even saw one guy try it that way on YouTube, and it sounds terrible. I hope my version does more justice to the song than his does. But in the end, playing a cover is all about capturing the original feeling and mood of the song. Even though I still haven’t learned every last note of Little Guitars (and I probably never will), I hope I’m in the ballpark enough that it makes you ponder how great the original really is.

  So, I hope you enjoyed my version of Van Halen’s excellent song, Little Guitars. Though it might be harder to do in 2011 than it was in 1982, I say to you all, ROCK ON!!!!"

  Andrew Roudny began playing classical guitar at age 9. Soon after discovering hard rock, Andrew started his first cover band, No Cash Value, at age 16. After scoring the independent film Held Secular, Andrew was a finalist in the North American Rock Guitar competition in 2003. He appeared in the nationally televised documentary Driven To Play, as well as in the May 2005 issue of Guitar Player Magazine. He has released several CDs and opened for such classic artists as Kim Mitchell, Honeymoon Suite and Loverboy. Andrew is currently working on a rock version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own symphonic/rock instrumentals.

http://andrewroudny.bandcamp.com/

Chickenfoot's "Up Next" and on Steve Jobs' influence

Michael Anthony rocks!

 
  I have to admit that when Chickenfoot first got together I had no interest whatsoever in even hearing the band. I'm not a fan of either Joe Satriani or Sammy Hagar, and so I never checked them out. However, there has been so much hype surrounding their second album (strangely entitled "Chickenfoot III") that I caved in and listened to it. I was pleasantly surprised and found a couple of songs that I liked. In particular "Up Next". Check it out:



  This song jumped out at me and got stuck in my head from the very first time I heard it. It has so much more energy than the rest of the songs on the album, Satriani's playing is meaner and more aggressive, Michael Anthony's backup vocals are so amazing, and, most importantly for me, its so damn catchy! The whole song is covered with hooks that just make you want to bob your head and sing along.

"I'll show respect, the best I can"

  The main guitar riff at the beginning is awesome because all of those "off-beat" notes contrast so well with the basic quater-note pulse of the bass. Satriani uses a lot of little licks and fills (and a lot of them using harmonics) throughout the song. And the guitar solo is brilliant, very different than the rest of the song in that its moody and dark, and Joe uses his delay effect perfectly to make it sound very space-y. Although when I first heard the solo I was totally expecting it to break out into a ripping shred-fest before going back to the verse. I'm looking forward to seeing if they extend that section live. Also I really like how Satch changes the lick before the chorus and plays it in three different places on the guitar neck.

  Michael Anthony is fantastic in this song, there is so much attitude in his playing here, sliding all over the place, adding fills everywhere, and just generally laying it down with his mean round tone. I'm a big fan of how he takes the spotlight during the choruses, while the guitar lays back and just strums the chords Michael is showcasing himself and adding fills at the end of every 2-bar figure. Oh and did I mention his backing vocals are phenomenal? yeah he rocks!

At the Pearly Gates

  While doing a little research for this post I watched the short videos that Chickenfoot posted previewing the different tracks on the album. It was there that I realized what this song is really about, because even though its very upbeat and energetic, the subject of the lyrics is rather grim. The topic here is death, and how it will come to all of us at some point, and for a lot of people when they least expect it. Unfortunately the one that was "Up Next" was Steve Jobs and I personally owe a ton to him and his team at Apple because I use their products for everything.

  We have all been touched by his influence. In fact, Joe Satriani was commenting on the preview video that he had recorded the demo for this song on his iPhone while sitting in a hotel room. I recorded the audio and video for this on my iMac, using Garageband and iMovie, and I used Safari to put it all on the web. So thank you Steve and everyone that worked with him at Apple for making my life better and easier. And if there is a lesson to be learned here is that life is short, make the best of it and enjoy good music!

  Oh and by the way, is it just me or does Sammy say "I'll PEE myself"?? check out the video at 1:21.

A Tribute to Cliff Burton - Metallica "No Remorse"

Rocking Out came easy to Cliff  

  A week ago today marked the 25th anniversary of Cliff Burton's tragic death on a tour bus accident. His name was mentioned everywhere on the internet, and places like Facebook were covered with profile pictures of Cliff on stage rocking out. As it turns out the friday prior I had played a show with a Metallica tribute here in Toronto (Sandman, check em out here!) and so there was a lot going on to remind me of the greatness of Cliff's playing. But what really made me want to do this next post about him was the video that surfaced on YouTube where his father was speaking about what a great person Cliff was, not just an amazing musician and entertainer. If you have not seen the video I invite you to please check it out here. It's very touching. So I pulled out my old '76 Rickenbacker and did one of my favourite songs that Cliff Burton played on with Metallica: "No Remorse"

Metallica - No Remorse - Bass Guitar Cover from Alberto Campuzano on Vimeo.

Click HERE if you can't see the video.

 This song was track number 8 on Metallica's 1983 debut album Kill 'Em All, and as such I find it may get lost for some people, as many late tracks do on a lot of albums. But to me it really showcases the band's and Cliff's abilities and creativity in writing and performing. The song has a lot of different sections, which is normal for Metallica, but what i find is not that typical of them is that this song does not repeat as much as some of their other songs on the album. What I mean is that the song changes a lot: by my count there are 9 different riffs or sections in the song, with the Verse, Pre-Chorus, and Chorus being the only ones that repeat.  All these different sections, with their changing tempos, keep the song interesting, and at 6 minutes and 26 seconds it never gets boring for me.

  As for Cliff's playing, it is not the most impressive demonstration of his skills, but to me it is a great example of why he is regarded so highly, he is creative with his part. He does not merely follow the guitar parts all the time, he plays different notes, adding harmonies that "thicken" the sound. Every Chorus is like that, he is mostly playing the fifths below the chords that the guitars are playing, so when the guitars are playing an "E" power chord, he plays a "B" note. Cliff also adds harmonies at the end of the big solo in the middle of the song. At around the 4 minute mark he plays an "F#" while the guitars play a "D" power chord, turning it into a D major chord. And then he plays a "G" note while the guitars play a "C" power chord, so he is playing the fifth of the chord. It may seem insignificant, but it adds a lot of colour to that section.

  I count myself as one of the many people out there that wished Cliff was still with us. I can only imagine what he would be doing to blow our minds. Rock on brother, we'll meet up some day \m/

Meshuggah's "Straws Pulled at Random" by Maurizio Villeato

  
Ok so here we go with another guest post. This time its my good friend Maurizio Villeato, all the way from Italy!

  I met Maurizio last fall when I was out on tour with Annihilator. He is the bass player of Adimiron, a progressive metal band from Italy, and they were opening for us for the first couple of weeks of the tour. We all became friends very quickly since they are all very nice people; they are very funny and light-hearted guys, although you can't tell when they're onstage, at that point they're all business and they kick some serious ass. Maurizio impressed me very quickly because he is very versatile in his playing, he can use his fingers, pick, and slap, and he does it all very well and in great context within the band and whatever song he's playing. Here he is playing a song by what I'm sure is one of his favorite bands. This is Messhugah's "Straws Pulled at Random":

 
  Maurizio had this to say about this song:

  "Why did I choose Meshuggah? Very simple, at the moment it is my favorite band. I really love their sound, their way to conceive music, the melodic and rhythmic structures of the songs. Specially this song I think contains the most important Meshuggah elements: catchy intro and verses, powerful chorus and bridge, a beautiful solo, and a simple but circular outro. Don’t forget the tuning! I tuned the bass half a tone up, in F, and I have to say that this little change, if added to a good distortion, gives a unique and violent sound to the bass, which makes it the leading instrument of the song, and of the band. Whoever has seen Meshuggah live in concert knows what I mean; I understood it when we played with them in Turin, Italy.

  "This is the live version, which is the same as the studio record, but just a bit faster, and more violent. This band gives no space for improvisation during live shows, so I tried to be the most faithful as possible, Hope you like the performance!

  "I just wanna thank you guys for watching my video, and my friend Al who gave me the opportunity to play for you from the other side of the ocean, thank you very much brother!

  "Bye guys, see you on the road. Respect!"

  Maurizio Villeato was born in Rome, Italy in 1989. At the age of 14 he started to play bass after watching Steve Harris on TV. He has always listened metal and rock music in his life, and has played all metal genres, from death to power, from classic to thrash. But when he joined ADIMIRON in 2007 he found his real dimension. He recorded “When Reality Wakes Up” in 2008 and “ K 2 “ in 2011 , having the honor to tour around Europe with some metal legends such as Annihilator and Death Angel, and open for  Sepultura and Meshuggah in Italy. Since 2009 he has also been studying Double Bass in The Academy of Classical Music, to play and understand music in all its forms.

Don’t forget to check out ADIMIRON on the net

http://www.adimiron.org/

http://www.facebook.com/adimironofficial

http://www.youtube.com/user/adimironcrew

  Thanks again for checking this out! Don't forget to leave your comments. 




Brought to you by the code 3RJUAHHFG2KH

Edguy - Pandora's Box

  My last post was a big hit, and I thank you all for that. It seems a little variety is appreciated, and believe me I also like variety. So I will be having more guests on here, in fact I already have the next one lined up (who could it be??) Please feel free to leave comments and don't forget that you can sign up to receive notices of whenever I have a new post up. Ok on to our new topic.

  For the past two weeks I have not been able to stop listening to the latest Edguy album, Age Of The Joker. It's full of great, catchy and epic tunes. I knew right away that I wanted to use one of them for this blog, the hard part was figuring out which one. I opted for Pandora's Box because it is probably the most different in style on the record. It has that very bluesy sound right from the beginning that makes it stand out right away from the rest of their songs. Here it is:






  I love the whole this song all the way through. Tobias Sammet vocals are raw and soulful. Interestingly they use the word Badlands in the lyrics, and that is precisely the band that came to mind when I first heard this song (check some Badlands here) I wish that riff around the 01:14 mark would come back later, but at the same time it's made even more special since it only happens the one time. It's great to hear the slide guitar and harmonica on the acoustic bridge, and by contrast it makes the solo section so much more powerful. I had to keep reminding myself  not to kill my strings during that guitar solo, but its SO much fun to play hahaha. 


  This actually was a tricky song to play for me. Its not that complicated, but I had a bit of a hard time locking in with the feel of the drums. They are very laid back, and a little hard to hear at times, so I had to concentrate to keep from rushing the eight-notes. I think it turned out ok though. 


  I am really looking forward to seeing Edguy live again. I have to say they put on one of the most entertaining shows I have ever seen. In fact, when i saw them it was the first time that I have seen a Toronto crowd get into a show so much. Everyone was clapping, jumping, singing along, and even laughing, because the band is really quite funny. Check out their music videos and you'll see what I mean. Big thanks to AvaloN-TLW for the picture I used on my video \m/

Annihilator's "Betrayed" by Mike Harshaw

  Well this time I'm changing things up a little bit, I'm having a special guest do this post. I'm hoping this turns out to be a sort of regular thing where I can showcase some of the great musicians I have been fortunate enough to work with at one point or another. This week is Mike Harshaw

Mike Harshaw

Mike with Warmachine

  I remember the first time I saw Mike, it was June 6, 2006. I know that because he was playing a show at a metal club celebrating the date: 6.6.6. I was immediately blown away by his skills. He looked so young and yet he played as if he had been doing it forever, lots of confidence and power even back then. Being in the same scene meant that I obviously saw and heard a lot from Mike and his band at the time, Nexus. We did a bunch of shows together (including both the filming and the release of Warmachine's DVD) and eventually Mike got hired by Mastery, a band in which he can display his full abilities. Most recently I had the pleasure of playing a show with Mike as we opened for Accept here in Toronto. I am very happy to have him as my first guest on the blog, I guarantee he will blow your socks off with his rendition of Annihilator's "Betrayed" from their latest, self-titled album. Enjoy! 








  Here's what Mike had to say about the song:

  "Annihilator is one of those bands that I've always known and liked, but not untill recently did I really start to seriously get into the band. Being Canadian myself, I am pretty proud to call Annihilator a Canadian act. I really respect that after such a long career they have managed to put out such a variety of albums while staying true to their sound. That is why I decided to "Betrayed" off of their latest self-titled release "Annihilator". I was really impressed with how awesome this record was being such a recent album. I sometimes have trouble getting into some of the newer cd's and find myself constantly listening to classics like Megadeth's "Rust in Peace" or Metallica's "Master of Puppets" and other greats from the past. 

  "I chose Betrayed because I can't listen to this song without getting really pumped up. A really catchy and driving song like a lot of Annihilator's material. I liked the drums a lot in this song. One of the first things that caught my ear was the cymbal grab fills that happen in the middle of all the choruses, such a tight fill and works so nicely with the guitar riff. I also dig the fills that appear at the end of each verse before the chorus: building off the snare, going down a couple toms and then making the fills more complex, incorporating different snare/tom fill combos as the song goes on. I really love how the drummer builds the fills progressively as the song goes on. You can tell the attention to detail in how the fills are placed and created. As the song progresses, so do the fills.

  "When I was coming up with how I would play the song I tried to sort of take that idea a little further, changing/extending a couple fills. Especially the fill at the end of the last verse before the last chorus. Another cool part is the intro when the actual beat starts. I've always been a fan of those type of slow double bass/low tom grooves. With flams being played on the snare drum and toms to give it that extra fat sound. Of course the end is totally killer, all out double bass with the snare on the downbeat for a fast heavy finish. Can't deny that haha. The guitar, like any Annihilator tune, was really catchy and driving while also being melodic. The one part that especially caught my ear was at 3:12 to 3:30 in the video. This melodic lead section totally reminded me of the Amott brothers and Arch Enemy. Just a supper cool harmony part that really did it for me. Back to the drums for this song, I tried to stay true to what the drums do on the record but I can never help putting my own little twist on things. Hope you enjoy! \m/"

  Mike Harshaw (Michael Arthur Andrew Harshaw) was born in 1988 and has been playing drums for about 8 or 9 years. He enjoys playing anything from classic rock to heavy metal, specializing in progressive speed metal. He has played in many different groups along the way, currently with Mastery: A Toronto/Austin TX speed thrash metal band fronted by Billy Milano, (S.O.D/M.O.D). Hailing from Grimsby, Ontario, Canada Mike plans to have a future playing drums and music.

  See you guys next time. Don't forget to add your comments and follow me if you want to be informed when the next post is up \m/

Megadeth's Public Enemy Number One

Megadeth - "Public Enemy No. 1"

David and I

  Some of you know of my connection with Megadeth because of David Ellefson's involvement with the first Warmachine album, which he co-produced and played on a few tracks. Since then David left and returned to Megadeth, and now is putting out a new album called TH1RT3EN. This first single is pretty kick-ass so here it goes: this is Megadeth's "Public Enemy Number One".



  This one is one of the best songs I've heard from Megadeth in quite a while. It's got a good groove, cool guitar riff, and more importantly (for me at least) it's catchy. Before I do these videos I listen to the songs constantly for a couple of days just to really get all the parts and the arrangement in my head. But for this one I didn't need to use my iPod because the song kept playing over and over in my head. For me that is always the sign that I really like a song.

  It's a pretty straight forward tune, nothing too special or particularly impressive when it comes to the performance of it. However, there are a few highlights for me: I really like how the second half of every verse has a totally different sound because of the change in the bass line. While on the first half Ellefson just rides on the "A", during the second half he changes it and goes to the F-F#-G. I also really like that David uses the whole range of the bass, he often plays parts an octave higher than normal, and on the second half of the guitar solo he goes to the B string and rattles your head. After listening some more to my video I realized that I made a mistake during the last chorus at 04:05 and 04:17 I played a "F#" when it should have been a "D".

  I think I will have to do a video of one of those Warmachine tracks that David played on. Any suggestions as to which one?

Blog #3 - Coheed and Cambria - "When Skeletons Live"

It's been a long time since my last blog, I know. I got quite busy getting ready for and then playing some shows with Annihilator. They were great shows. Specially since it was the first time the band had played a show in North America in about 17 years!

This time I decided to play a Coheed and Cambria song in honour of their great bass player Mic Todd. No he is not dead, thankfully, but it seems that he has been going through some difficult times. I wish him all the best. Here is me playing Coheed and Cambria's "When Skeletons Live" from their last album "Year of the Black Rainbow"


Coheed and Cambria - When Skeletons Live (BASS guitar cover) from Alberto Campuzano on Vimeo.

This is one of my favourite songs from this album, and I think this album is one of the best Coheed has put out (but they're all awesome). It's very characteristic of their material: lots of catchy melodies, harmonized vocal parts, busy guitars, and a wicked team of Mic Todd and Chris Pennie on bass and drums that grooves very hard; they make it difficult not to listen to just them throughout the whole tune. The whole song is full of great interactions between the rhythm section. Mic plays every pass of each verse differently, getting busier and busier, but always locked in with the drums. It is very refreshing to hear that they have opted to not just copy and paste sections like too many bands do nowadays. It's no wonder they are categorized as Prog Rockers.

There is so much more syncopated rhythms in here than in most average rock tunes. I had to pull a trick I wouldn't normally use: plucking ghost notes. Which is when i use my right hand finger(s) to pluck a string while I dampen that string with my left hand, creating a thumping muted sound. Its more percussive than anything, and its not very noticeable at first, but when you listen carefully it helps to connect the bass and drum parts together, and makes the groove tighter, or more in sync. The most obvious place to catch the ghost notes is during the chorus (first time at 1:14) where I play a set of eight-notes grouped in threes, with the first one being played and the other two being muted. However, there are a lot of other little spots where you can hear the "thud" of a note, but without a pitch. Its a technique used mostly for Funk or R&B bass parts, but its used very well here.

Another favourite part of mine in this song is the end of the pre-choruses (1:02 and 2:08) because each one is slightly different. The difference is so minute that before i started learning how to play the song I did not even notice it. Both of them have a two-eight-note shot that both Mic and Chris play together, but it happens from the "and" of beat 1 to beat 2 the first time (and Chris plays it with the floor toms), and then from the "and" of beat 3 to beat 4 the second time (and Chris plays it on the snare). So the whole thing is displaced by two beats the second time around. Its the little subtle things like that that keep me really excited about a song haha. Last but not least, even though the song is mostly pretty upbeat and energetic, the band really balances the vibe with that half-time groove at the end that just makes you wanna headbang. Great stuff!

Ok that's it from me for now. I will try to get another entry going for next week. Any suggestions for what i should tackle next? See ya next time. Thanks for checking this out \m/

First Post!! - Children of Bodom's "Was It Worth It?"

Welcome to my new Blog! This is my first time blogging so I am still getting to know how this whole thing works. Please feel free to send me any tips and comments.

The purpose of this blog is to explore songs I really enjoy; whether because of the lyrics, the production, the technical ability of the musicians involved, or maybe for no particular reason at all. In the process maybe we can discuss other things about the song, band, or genre. I'm open to anything! Since I'm always learning tunes at home on the bass or the guitar I figured I would video tape myself playing some of those songs and post it up here.

For my first post I picked Children of Bodom's "Was It Worth It?" A new single from their upcoming album Relentless Reckless Forever due out March 8th, 2011. I chose this one because since this is a brand new ordeal for me (blogging that is) I thought it appropriate to use a new song to start.


Children of Bodom - Was it Worth it? - Bass Cover from Alberto Campuzano on Vimeo.

This song is great! lots of energy, catchy melodies, cool riffs, harmonized guitar parts... Basically everything I've come to expect from COB. The intro of the song sets up a very haunting mood with the choir sounds in the background, but as soon as the beat kicks in it is obvious this is not gonna be a slow song like Angels Don't Kill.

The thing that really caught my attention with this song is the feel of it; the beat can be felt as a regular 4/4 meter, but it has an underlying triplet feel, which makes it more of a 12/8 groove, and the rhythm section sure plays around with that dual sense of time. At first when the whole band kicks in the feel of the song is almost of a shuffle, with that "limping" or swinging eight notes, but by the time the guitar and keyboard solos come by you can hear the bass and drums playing around with the triplets to make for an interesting effect: at around the 3:00 minute mark you hear the bass pattern is to play the first and third triplet for two bars, and then change to play the second and third triplet for the next two bars, and they keep alternating for the duration of the solos. Very cool indeed. I am really looking forward to hearing this one live, because i have the feeling that the solo section will be stretched out and Alexi Laiho and Janne Wirman will be melting everyone's face off.

The bass sound on the song is the trademark sound of Henkka Blacksmith, crunchy! its got tons of attitude and its up front in the mix, so it was not very difficult to hear what he was playing. However, at times i had difficulties making out exactly the rhythms he was playing when chugging on those low Cs, so i mostly followed with the bass drum patterns.  I'm a big fan of bass parts that stand apart from the guitar parts but occasionally jump in and join with the guitar to give a section more power and energy, and that is what happens during the intro: the first time through Henkka plays a very subdued part, but the second time through he joins in at the end of the guitar riff. You can hear that at around 0:32.


The highlight of the song for me is the chorus. Plenty of melody coming from the harmonized guitars, over a simple but cool chord progression, and topped with the angry lead and gang vocals \m/


Ok thats it for this post, I will try to have another one up next week. Thanks for reading!


Al