Blaakyum's Blog upgraded to website

Good day fans and friends. Blaakyum is about to lunch it's Debut album and just like any hard working band, internet has become a major part of a band's life, for other young bands out there, let us give you few tips:

Many young bands today say: "we have facebook, myspace, reverbnation, and all these endless social network sites, a web page is not really important" Well, True that most fans and promoters, talent scouts and business industry representatives, check social networks for new talents, but when a band catch a label's eyes and/or ears, the first thing they do is go to their website, and see how serious the band is, your website reflects a certain amount of dedication and seriousness, the more interesting it looks the more it reflects what the band is. Now this is definitely not a black and white issue, many great bands don't even have websites, and many fancy websites belong to bands who are not really original, talented or interesting, but let us put it this way, a fancy website for a mediocre band might not even be a target and won't receive traffic from talent scouts and label representatives, while a good band would miss a chance of giving a more positive image of itself if those people decided to check their website.
So a better website is always a plus in your band's promotion packages, sometimes it might be the small feather that tip the balance to your band's side.

So since this is the case, and since Blaakyum was way to busy with it's individual members lives and music scene that it had not had enough time to work on a proper site. We kept the minimum required by having a blog as our official website. This is about to change.

Just like a full length album a, "full length" website is due, but because of our album release deadline and so much pressure and so little budget, we will keep a "full length" website for later, but we will upgrade this blog to a blog/site within few days.

Cheers,

Bassem Deaibess,
Blaakyum

Blaakyum's Bassist and Co-reformer Rany Battikh review

I've passed by the studio yesterday to listen to Bassem's takes and he sounds better than ever. I thought he couldn't hit those high pitched screams anymore, I was dead wrong plus he's using new techniques that I've never heard him do before. (I'm a bad influence I know!)

The drums sounds great the way it is right now and it's still raw, nothing has been processed yet. I'm starting to wonder how great will it turn out to be when the mixing is done. For those who haven't heard Jad yet, you will be extremely pleased.

Elias' solos are amazing as usual and the rest of the guitars sound just like "Blaakyum", just like when we were setting our different sounds definitions back in 2007. (You'll know what I mean when you'll listen to the album)

Rany.

The Road is Paved, The Thunder Roars, and the Tracks are Laid

Finally the vocal recording process has kicked off, we have laid the foundation for four songs... All in all we have 11 (out of 13) tracks on our debut that has lyrics, 10 of them are full songs and one is an instrumental with a small vocal section. So now we have 4 out of these 11 recorded... And the results are satisfactory taking into consideration that I wasn't at all happy with my voice lately and it's very slow recovery pace... But we have finally reached the minimum accepted.
The growling parts are particularly great, by being forced to sing in a different way due to the fact that I cannot use my full vocal range yet (under treatment) I was able to mess around with my growling Technic and use a more "angry" approach, maybe because I am so angry of the fact that I cannot use my voice to it's full potential as I use to.
I know that bands usually do not go into delicate details with their fans, but as the frontman of Blaakyum and a person who is rarely satisfied with anything less than 90% perfect, it does make me feel a bit better getting this whole frustration off my chest... The Vocal recording is going very well, finishing 4 songs in less than 24 hours is actually a very positive thing and I cannot wait till we start the mixing process, then the mastering, and the deadline is getting close...

Because of my vocals problem setback, we were debating the possibility of delaying our release deadline. That is something we do not want to do. With the determination of our Co-producer and audio/sound/mix engineer Mr. Karim Noujaim, we will be ready before our deadline, if the gods of the Thunder and the Rain allows it, and they WILL \m/

Thank you all for the support.

Bassem Deaibess

Update on our Recording Process

Since our last recording status update was over a month and a half, you're definitely expecting an explanation, well here it is:

We have been recording the orchestral parts of the album, as some of you might have noticed through the Youtube clip we have uploaded for Am I Black Orchestration in studio... As for the vocals recording, that had to wait because of my vocals recovery problem, I know a lot of you are sick of hearing excuses, this is no excuse. I had a set back, I almost lost my voice completely for few weeks, and I am under heavy treatment, although I am not engaging in my full treatment before I finish recording the album and perform my two dates with Communion who are about to announce their comeback, usually bands do not share so much information with their fans, but who the fuck set the rules?!?! :)

To cut it short, after recording few songs, the band and I were not satisfied of the outcome, so we stopped the vocal recording and I started my vocal treatment, and in the mean time we continued recording the orchestration, which is not done yet due to the complexity of the process, but it is going out well and we will have a different thread on that. On Sunday (today) I will be entering the studio again to lay the vocal tracks finally after my voice has recovered a little bit, I am still not even at half my potential voice, but I am allowed to exhaust my voice a bit for the record, so... here we go...

Keep Metal Alive \m/

Bassem Deaibess

Vocals On The Tracks

Today I have started laying the vocal tracks down... I have just come to realise the amount of damage I have caused to my voice through smoking. I have only smoked during three years and a bit of my life, I started at the age of 30 and quit around three months ago (the not a long time but during these years I reach up to 5 packs a day!), and although the doctor did tell me that I'll recover at least 80% of my voice, I still need around 6 to 9 more months to get there, and I cannot simply delay the album that much, so we are doing our best with what we got. The results…. Well, are for you to judge once the album is out. It is a bliss, though, that I do not have to do high pitched vocals like those I do with The Hourglass, and thus this record will be out smoothly… I hope. Still I am so mad at myself for being so foolish and throwing my voice away like that, no vocalist would probably admit it the way I am doing now, but for all those vocalists out there, please do not take your voices for granted, it's a gem and it is easily destroyed.
Anyway at least I was able to record two main songs today:"Lord Of The Night" and "Am I Black" Though I am not satisfied with my voice (compared to the voice I had few years back) I did actual sound much better than I thought I will.

In the end, we are metalheads, and we are unbreakable, and I will deliver the best I can, so be read for this album when it's out, for we have put our souls into it \m/

We shall for ever...

Keep Metal Alive \m/

Bassem Deaibess

6:13 AM Tuesday 4th of October 2011

Lead Guitar tracks SLAYED \m/

Alright all you shreader addicts... Time to update you on what has been going on with your lead parts.
We just finished laying down all the lead guitar tracks and they sound fucking GOOD. Since we re-recorded our Rhythm guitars and they sound more live and more real, we had to re-record some of the solo tracks to give the same fresh sound, and the result was very outstanding.

So here is the gear sir Elias Njeim used:

Line 6 Vetta II Combo 2x12 amp and it's user settings for Distorsion and effects
For the E turned songs Njeim used a Parker Fly Mojo guitar.
As for the D Tuned songs he used a Schekter Diamond series-Hell raiser.

As well in some of the solos he used his an old but killer Digitech 2101 Studio tube rack.

Enjoy and we will be putting our gear pictures soon.

Shredder on the loose

Sir Elias Njeim is in the studio recording his solo parts, for the second time, only this time we are using live Line 6 Vetta II amp and real micing instead of relaying on Digital processors... More details soon.

KEEP METAL ALIVE \m/

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/

Follow Blaakyum on Facebook

Although as a band we do have a lot of reservations against Facebook, it is evident that it has grown to be the biggest social network channel online... And until that change (maybe when Google+ takes over) this will remain so. Thus, and since Blaakyum almost finished laying down the Tracks for it's first Debut and a lot will start happening from now on, please follow us onBlaakyum's page on Facebook or Click Here and we promise you'll always be updated to what is going on as this fan page has been linked to our MySpace.com page and will soon have more applications to keep you interacting with the band.

Cheers, And Keep metal Alive \m/

Blaakyum's facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/blaakyum

Album Recording status so far

Good day fans and friends,

We have been through a lot the past three years to get this damn debut out... Let us say the circumstances were not on our side. Starting by the fact that Blaakyum has a long history and endless originals that lead to the first idea of having a double debut album consisting in total of 22 songs 11 from the early days of Blaakuym before 2007 and 11 tracks written after the late reformation of the band... Financially this was not possible. It was more practical and more logical to combine the two debuts in one album of 11 tracks that holds the best of both, and this is what happened and Lord Of The Night debut is on it's way to see the light.

Later in 2008 we were faced with a major lineup change: our beloved drummer Georgie Nadjarian (Communion/Blaakyum) whom I personally had been in a very pleasant music relationship for over 6 years had to leave the band because of his work contract in Music Hall. Mr. Elias El Rahbany (Ouchi) our guitarist left because of musical and personal differences... that left us without a drummer and lead guitarist for over a year and a half, many joined the band for some time and helped us keep going, and we would like to thank them, namely Hady Battikh (Guitars), Chris (from Element 26) and Marc Bassila (Drums), Blaakyum finally found it's best drummer Mr. Jad Faitrouni... but it wasn't till summer 2010 till we finally had Mr. Elias Njaim one of the most renown guitar virtuoso in the Lebanese Scene, joined the band. From then the recording process kicked off with speed and perseverance thanks to the patience of our production house New Waves Productions and it's lovely staff and mastermind Mr. Walid Al Massih.

We have already finished recording all drum tracks, guitars, bass and solos, few vocal parts, and we still have to lay the Keyboards and the final vocals and the record will be ready for the mix down, we hope our first debut will see the light by the New Year.

The Album is receiving a high level of production, and it sounds heavy as fuck, and we are so excited to share it with you, after all these years where Blaakyum showed a devastatingly aggressive and divers live shows, this record will be a parallel image of these frenzy live shows taken into the studio. It will be, just like Blaakyum is live, Aggressive Thrashy, and revolve around the term I love the most HEAVIOSITY without neglecting the soft part of Rock and the emotional slow rock tunes.

This record sums up Blaakyum's previous era, filled with diversity from Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Progressive Metal, Hard Rock and Soft Rock.

All of the above happened because of you, our fans... and for that we will be for ever grateful.

Cheers mates, and as ever we will... KEEP METAL ALIVE \m/

Bassem Deaibess from Blaakyum

Blaakyum in Action

Blaakyum will be performing in the following dates:

20th October - Vini Vidi Vomui - Cherry's Pub - Antelias, Beirut Lebanon

2nd November - El Arz Metal Fest - Cherry's Pub - Antelias, Beirut Lebanon

1st December - Warm-up for London - Cherry's Pub - Antelias, Beirut Lebanon

4th December - GBOB World Finals - Camden Underworld - London, United Kingdom

6th December - GBOB World Super Finals - Electric Ball Room - London, United Kingdom

Keep checking here for more events.