We always change the way that we are working on productiona little bit. It’s not gigantic steps in comparisonwith Beyond the Red Mirror or At the Edge of Time, but the way we are approaching an album with regard to song writingand pre productionis always different.For this album we decidedto after finishingthe song writing to pre-produce a lot of stuff before we finally would go in the studio. We have started to work on pre-productionduringFebruary and March of this year. We always focus on two or three songs and then we use 5-6 weeks when we are using time in improving the songs on whichwe are working for. I believe in June-Julywe have started with the first block of regularalbum production. But we were interfered withby many things like Corona, but what we did for Wacken this year did a lot of delay since we needed to prepare for this show.
Finally in August when we have finished Wacken Frederick has started to play drums on the first song. And we decidedto skip album productionso we decided to focus only on five songs and these are the five songs that we are working on at the moment. We also started to rehearse these songs with the band which is something that we have not done for at least 20 years and we were expectingto enrich the song. And that went very well, we improved the songs, we changed the songs and it was done in the benefit of the songs. So, after that, we continue with our regular way of production: we recorded drums, then bass, then Andre his guitars and just recently I started the singing so we are almost through the first block which means that we have finished our first five songs, more or less, completely.
These songs are quite heavy, very fast and I would say this is the direction we have taken. Very early during the song-writing we decidednot to go into more orchestral direction and it turned outvery obvious for us that we do not want to go into a more progressive direction and that it would not do any good for us at the moment. So, we kept ourselves focused on intense song-writing, very melodic as well and still its new song-writing. Which is nothing that could be compared with Somewhere Far Beyond or any of the albums that we have done in the past.
The songs that we have so far are called:
Violent Shadows: that’s the one that we have played at the Wacken festival. The lyrics have changed already, but it will be as intense as it was at Wacken show. There will be some vocal layers but not a lot, the chorus has some harmonies, there is a little change in guitar playing, but all in all, the version that we have played on Wacken show is pretty much of what people could hear on the album.
This one is about Stormlight Archives from Brandon Sanderson. It is a fantasy series with a new approach. It’s mainlyabout the battle becausemain characters belong to tribes which are in constant warfare.We are focusing on one particular character in the song Violent Shadows.
We also have the song called ”American Gods” which is a more epic song. It contains a bit of orchestral arrangements, but not a lot. It’s in the up tempo section which has a lot of parts, it’s not the slow song, but in comparisonwith others it’s slower. But I am almost convinced that people will love that song a lot.
Storyline is about American Gods by Neil Gaiman. The song is about the approachingof the gods on a new continent so whenever people are approachingthe new world they are bringing with them their myths, fate and their gods. I think it’squite impressive and intense lyrics as well.
Then there is a speed metal song called ‘‘DemonHunter” but this is just a working title. I have not yet decidedhow this song is going to be called and that would be about Arthur Millers’ The Crucible and it’s basically the song about witch hunting and about a trial of a female which is considered to be a witch. It’s quite a popular story and it takes place in Salem.
There is another song which I have not yet sang and it has the working title Trial by Fire, becauseI sing in the refrain trial by fire. And this I am most convicided that would be a historical story about the guy who wrote down Don Cichot: Serwantess. It is a very intense song but it has strong 70s vibes and we are not quite sure if it is going to be on the album. It really sounds like 70s rock with a little bit of organs out there. So, it’s hard rock-like songs, but then it changes the mood completely and goes into a Who-inspired direction before it turns into a typical late 80s, early 90s power metal song. I thinkit’s a very interesting song but depending on how we finally decide to design the album it could be preserved for another album because we are looking for more intense stuff for this album.
And the last one is the most brutal song and sometimes it has these growling vocal lines into the direction of Diabolic of the last of Demons and Wizards albums. It’s called Architects of Doom. It is a fictive story about society that is manipulated by its leaders
We have something like 10-11 songs in the making process, but I believe that we will end up with an album with 9 songs. So, of what I could judge now 70 percent of the songs will be quite fast and they will contain typical Blind Guardian surprises. But, Violent Shadows is a good example of how the album will sound. I think there are two more songs in the way of Violent Shadows, and there are few songs a tiny little bit slower and little bit of epicness. There is one more song that we are working on the second block which is called ”Destiny” and this is the most epic song and it contains some Rush like elements.
Interview by Marko Miranovic 22.10.2020.
