All acoustic guitars recorded and done !!

Finally all guitars are recorded once and for all... The last duty in this regards were the acoustic guitars (if you exclude the solos that we might need to re-record since we change the distortion guitars sound completely)

So for all you fanatic quality seekers, here is what we used, and let me tell you, the result was really... GOOD:

I used two acoustic guitars, one for our 10 minutes long progressive song (that includes an oriental/flamenco part) and one for the rest of acoustic parts.

for the oriental parts I used a Stagg Handmade Classic Guitar C546TCE-N semi acoustic. Although the guitar sounds very clean and neat if recorded through it's built in balanced and unbalanced inputs, there was a noise that couldn't be silenced, so we micked the little thing and it all went well. Stagg are not the best guitars to use at all, but this one did the job pretty well, especially when combined with the best classical guitar strings I have ever used: the D'addario EJ45LP Pro.Arté Composites. To anyone who wants to record using nylon strings, THIS IS THE set to use for studio recording, not only that it has a perfect balance between the bass and treble strings, and that the strings life is at least twice as long, it has a greatly reduced figure noise... Just try it.

But the main baby was the gorgeous (and very cheap) Fender CD-60... I am not a Fender fan when it comes to electric guitars for obvious reasons: I play Metal! And somehow I can't see Metal and Fender mix although they did endless times (Iron Maiden anyone?) But when it comes to acoustic guitars, I bet very few can top Fender... This guitar has extremely rich resonance, and depth in it's sound. And combined with Earnie Ball Slinky acoustic strings... I could never get enough of playing on it and hearing the gorgeous sound of coated titanium strings...

Definitely these are not the ultimate combinations, specially that if the Stagg was replaced by a bit better guitar it would have given much better results... Still the Fender just made a new fan of me today, after all these years :)

That is about it for today and finally all Rhythm Guitars and acoustic Guitars have been recorded...

Keyboards are next \m/

Keep Metal Alive Cheers,

Bassem Deaibess.

Blaakyum debute release date

Blaakyum's debute album "Lord Of The Night" will be released in Lebanon on

Friday the 13th of January 2012

More information soon

KEEP METAL ALIVE

\m/

Blaakyum Performance TOMORROW (August 13th 2011)

GBOB Lebanese National Finals 2011

Place: Roman Amphitheatre

Date: August 13th 2011

Time: event start at 7pm, first band at 8pm, Blaakyum appearance between 11 and midnight

Blaakyum, winners of GBOB Lebanese National Finals 2007, and positioned 7th in GBOB World Finals, London 2007 will be performing a set form their debut album scheduled to be release before the end of this year.

Finally We got the Sound... We got the Roaring thunder of Crunchy Thrash Metal \m/

After trying, time and time again, after being not satisfied to half satisfied, to "what the fuck is missing? Those damn palm mutes are not roaring enough" To "it sounds very clean but not heavy enough" then "it sounds so heavy but too dirty..." WE FINALLY got as close as possible to the sound we were looking for... As a bit old of a metalhead, I always loved fat bottomed, vintage sounds, the old dirty tube distortion that is so clean that you can hear the crank of every single string, yet it still sounds heavy as fuck and most importantly THRASHY... How can I describe the sound my little Randall RH50T Half Stack gave me today? Maybe if you think of Metallica's first album the Kill 'em All guitar sounds but added to it a bit of edge and modern micking techniques... Well I can finally say we got Blaakyum's rhythm guitar sound... If any of you ever heard of the Band Warrior (Specially the album War of Gods and Men), then our rhythm guitars sound a lot similar... and that is satisfying as their sound struck me the first time I heard it as extremely authentic... So yes if I want to sum it up, it's Kill 'em All sound mixed with Warriors… and definitely added Blaakyum's own flavor… can't wait to hear the final product.

We will post some rhythm samples soon to have your opinion...

CHEERS MATES... and Keep Metal Alive \m/

Guitars: To Roar or not to Roar

I have been spending over 10 hours daily in the studio, working on laying down the guitar tracks (FOR THE 4TH TIME) using my 50 watt Randall RH50T Full Tubes half stack this time. Creating a distortion out of an amp that only have a heavy overdrive, can be tricky... Now don't get me wrong the RH50T is a killer amp with a wide range, from Blues to Thrash Metal sounds, but not when it is as fucked up as mine... Yet, the fact that it is fucked up gave a unique sound... Now the trick is to keep getting a heavy fat bottomed sound out of it, without much gain!!! Probably an expert guitarist would say this is not quite possible, since you need a lot of gain on overdrive to get a good distortion... But and I donno why, with my amp it is possible.

We reached a very satisfying, vintage yet Thrashy sound for the E tuned songs... but now things look less clear with the D turned songs... although the guitar sound is clear, it is not as powerful as we would like it to be.

I do not know why I am sharing these technical details on Blaakyum's website... probably out of frustration, but spending 10 hours everyday pounding your ears on distortion... you'd get a distortion overdose...

CHEERS MATES \m/