Halfway thru two thousand two!

It's been a while since the last update. Not much has happened since then. The web site has gone through a few changes as you can well notice. It has a refreshing new look, and an easier way around. We've also changed servers, so things were funky for a while. The contact form was inactive for a spell during the change over and I lost a lot of mail as well. The guest book is back up and some of the old ones were saved. The entries that were lost was the servers fault in deleting it. But I think everything is back in order now, and business as usual.

The me/Darren/Chuck project is going under the name Suicide Shift. We're still working on songs for the album. We've talked to a couple of great musicians to play on it with us. There were several that were contacted and are being contemplated, but it looks like right now we're just going with Per from The Haunted on drums, and possibly James Murphy to guest on some guitar solo spots. We'll see how it all shapes up one day...if ever...it gets done.

Control Denied album recording is still idle. The master recordings are in Chuck's mom and sister's possession, and we can't do anything until the legal side of the album is cleared up. We do intend on finishing it...it is what Chuck wanted. Afterall, it is the first time he'll have the same consecutive line up. And to clear it up again: Richard's drums are done, Chuck recorded (I believe) most of his guitar parts (I haven't heard any of the final recordings, just preproduction which is all Chuck's guitar), Shannon hasn't put any solos on there yet, Tim hasn't recorded any vocals yet, and I haven't put one note of bass on there either. Once we get a chance to do all of that - to add to what Chuck and Richard have recorded, then Jim Morris will mix it all down. But there is no projected time frame for this, so as frustrated as you are to hear it, imagine how much more frustrating it is for us to not be able to fulfill his last wish.

Now the good news! I've completed work on an album with a band from Sweden called Vintersorg. The album "Visions From The Spiral Generator" is being released in Europe today, July 1st. I'm not sure when the release is for The States...but I think it's in August some time. www.theendrecords.com has it for mail order, and it's a great cd mail order company...I get stuff from there all the time, free shipping in the US and Canada! I think this is some of my best work of recent times. The music is very progressive in a metal field. I've been told there are elements of Swedish folk, black metal, progressive metal and of the epic variety incorporated in this album. Whatever. It's totally innovative and has all the emotional peaks and valleys a creative piece of music should have. I hear stuff from the old days fused with a modern flavor, it's totally hippie metal! The vocals of Mr.V himself are superb, and his and Mattias' guitar work is great, I had the pleasure of laying my tracks down on the awesome drumming of Asgeir Mickelson (Spiral Architect, Borknagar), the songs are well written and there is definitely a nice offering of fretless slitherings intertwined here and there throughout the whole album. I order you to obtain this and listen to it 100 times! Skål För Helvete!!!