POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: I originally wrote this song when I was really into RPG Maker for PC back in 8th grade. It started out as a video game boss theme, but the instrumentation was very much applicable to Shadow Cast, and eventually I adapted it to a more appropriate instrumentation for our situation. The first Shadow Cast adaption had a slower tempo and there were fewer parts. As we kept playing this song, I eventually started bringing back more and more of the elements from the original version. This whole tune is recorded by myself.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: The idea of this song came from an idea I had for Shadow Cast to make a large concept album about Dante's Divine Comedy. We all decided that this would be very far in the future, but I was so in love with the idea, I went ahead and wrote a song that would be an intro to the Purgatorio album. After it was written, we wanted to play it anyway, and many changes took place. What is now a piano break just continued a few of the riffs and ended, kind of abruptly. The ambient sounds in the beginning (which are very, very long, and I wouldn't be hurt if you fast forwarded a minute to get to the actual music) were originally going to be ocean and wind sounds, to signify landing on the beach in the beginning of the Purgatorio. And, because we wanted to keep playing this song, we still took the idea of insanity that would have been associated with Purgatory and made it it's own. The out of tune music box, eerie sounds and horror strings were added recently for that.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: Nothing really special about the backstory of the writing behind song, but there is a bit about what the song's lyrics and theme were going to be about. Travis Moberg, Shadow Cast's then drummer, was really into the 11:11 concept (if you want to research it, Google it, there's a lot to it), and it turned out the song's MIDI length was 11:11. Naturally, lyrical themes were set at that point. This song is really two seemless songs. The first part is instrumental, and the second part will have lyrics. The transition is the one-measure Bass and Drums fill after the Guitar harmony. Scott and Dale recorded their guitar solos and a few other lead guitar lines. John Wilkins recorded many keyboard parts.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: This is also one of the first songs I ever wrote. It's been reworked numerous times. The electronic sounds you hear at the beginning are related to the original lyrical themes that Travis Ambrose wrote for this song, about a living machine.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: This song was primarily written by Travis Moberg. The structure and most of the riffs were written by him. I did a lot of note and fingering corrections and wrote and embellished the orchestral parts. Epic.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: Again, not a lot behind the writing of this song, but this is one of the first songs where I use a major key in a metal format (only in some spots).

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: A song which was inspired by an Andrew Lloyd Weber song. This song was meant to be the opener to an album and also has a corresponding closer song.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: This was originally written by my Candian friend, Mike Morgado. I took the little bit he wrote and made it METUHL. Unfortunately, Mike dissapeared off of the face of the earth and I haven't talked to him in well over a year. He is missing and presumed dead. This song also features another one of my only vocal performances! This one's for you, you damn Candian. Talk to me when you finally get your MSN working again.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: This song was written for an online forum guitar solo competition. Being that the forum was on a Metal board, I wanted to write a backing track that would force the participants to venture outside their comfort zones a little bit. Almost all of the backing tracks that had been in competitions in the past were the same crappy blues-shred tracks. This one is much, much different. I will be expanding upon this a little more so there will be lead melodies instead of it sounding like just a backing track.

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: This was my first idea for a Senior Recital for my high school. In the process of writing this song, I found the most cartoony, well-known songs that didn't entirely suck and threw them all together in one gigantic medley. The instrumentation was setup for the 6 then-seniors in my high school's drumlne. The songs are as follows:

• Mario (Overworld and Underworld)
• The Enzyte Theme
• Popcorn by Hot Butter (Old 70's hit)
• Intro to a Weird Al polka
• Benny Hill theme
• Country Music by Stu Hamm
• Play That Funky Music
• Country Music again
• Rapper's Delight
• Country Music the third time
• The Dance Of Eternity (Honky Tonk Break) by Dream Theater
• Family Guy Theme
• "Woo Hoo" by the 5 6 7 8's
• The Simpsons' Theme
• McDonald's Jingle

POSTED June 26th, 2008

NOTES: My High School's band director, Kent Jones, isn't exactly known for saying the most appropriate things. During our Marching Band senior awards ceremony, I stuck my mp3 player on top of a piano and recorded every word he said. Then I took every word he said, cut it up, and made a generic techno song out of it. Kent Jones, your creeperness has now been immortalized, and now the whole world will know.