Illusion Suite Trailer

Here is a movie I made just for fun after the band had a pre-listening party. Since the party was filmed it would be fun to make a movie out of it. At the same time I realized that just making a ordinary movie about the pre-listening for the press could be quite boring, so I made a little twist to it.

Illusion Suite - Album sample from "The Iron Cemetery"

Hi guys

Here is the album sample for "The Iron Cemetery" by Illusion Suite. This version is a new video version. Please share your comments. More info: www.illusionsuite.net

Why thinking is bad for you

Human thinking has definitely brought our civilization to greater depths. For most people, however, thinking can often become an albatross around our neck in our day to day life.

It is a good thing to have an education and be able to better understand the things that are going on around us, but what good is that if you are controlled by your thoughts rather than you controlling them?

Have you ever noticed that you are lost in thought, unable to break loose from the same cycle of thoughts repeating itself over and over again? Don't worry, this is quite normal. As long as you become aware of it you will slowly start to break with this pattern.

When your mind is in the future or the past you are not fully connected with the present moment and your body. You are living your life in a projected future or a past that no longer exists. This is when you are beginning to loose touch with yourself. However, this is so normal that most people do it without even realizing it.

What can be done about it? Focusing on your body by either paying full attention to what you are doing at the present moment or focusing on specific body parts and "feel them". 

All you need to know about "The Iron Cemetery", Illusion Suite's second album

This is Illusion Suite’s second album and it is to be released on the 29th of March 2013, by Impulse Music. (http://www.impulsemusic.com/browsecatalog/)

Even before “The Iron Cemetery” has reached the stores it has gotten quite a bit of attention. Here you can experience the full story behind the production of “The Iron Cemetary”.

18^th of January the album was shown to the public for the first time. Illusion Suite had an exclusive party for special invited guests (press and celebrities of the Norwegian metal scene.)

Eternal Terror wrote an article about the event. After one listen-through the magazine had the following conclusion: “If Illusion Suite was not at the very top of Norwegian prog metal elite before they certainly are now”. You can read the article in full here:

http://www.eternal-terror.com/articles/index.php?id=1050&type=A

(The article is in Norwegian)

“The Iron Cemetery” has the following content:

Intro (instrumental):                00:55             

Orpheus Quest:                        05:03 

Uni-Twins:                              05:03             

The Iron Cemetery:                 05:35             

When love fails:                      04:58             

Nero:                                        04:10             

Nostradamus first prophecy:   04:23                       

The Ugly Duckling:                03:35

Premonition:                            05:06

Orpheus Quest: This is a dialog between Orpheus and Hades. Orpheus goes down into the underworld to save his wife that Hades kidnapped.

Uni-Twins: Two different versions of the same person from different parallel universes tries to communicate with each other.

The Iron Cemetery: The concept is explained in more detail later in this article.

 

When love fails: A story about a boy who is neglected by his mother.

Nero: A simple story about a tyrant from ancient Rome? Or does it have a symbolic dimension?

Nostradamus first prophecy: This song is telling the story of the very first prophecy of Nostradamus.

The Ugly Duckling: This is the classic story about somebody who is not “shining” until he finds the right people to appreciate his qualities.

Premonition: Based on the historical battle between Saladin and the French Christian king that took place in the 12^th century.

The album is quite short for a prog metal album. However, the band emphasized quality before quantity and every inch of music on the album has been carefully thought through.

The concept of “The Iron Cemetery”

Nicola Tesla was the scientist that started the building of the Wardenclyffe tower. It was to be used in research, but in reality they never even finished it properly. In Illusion Suite’s alternative reality the tower generates electricity that collides with the atmosphere of the earth. This causes an infectious disease that makes everything into iron to spread.

The cover design on the album is done by Anestis Goudas (http://www.anestisgoudas.com/web/) and the inspiration is taken from the ironized world that tesla’s failed project left behind.

The production of “The Iron Cemetery”

The production of the album was particularly difficult because some of the band’s material was torn apart as two of the members parted from the band in the middle of the recording process.

Luckily Illusion Suite managed to turn a disadvantage into an advantage in the search of a new angle to bring new creativity into the project. Once the new constellation with the current members where formed new creativity came into the project and the members made some of the best work they had done so far.

The first chapter of the project where the drums that was recorded sometime early in the year of 2011 by Roger Bjørge. This was before the band split up.

Illusion Suite was left with drums and some vocal arrangements as the guitar was removed. A new guitar with a different arrangement that still fitted into the musical picture had to be made. This was quite a puzzle, but over the course of four months the band managed to make guitars that would be the new sound for Illusion Suite.

While working on the album the band members would refer to the guitar as “The testosterone guitar”. The former member of “It’s the end”, who had won the progmetal award (http://www.progawards.it/index.php?option=com_muscol&view=artists&letter=I&Itemid=568), had the aggressive guitar style that the band needed. 

You can view a few clips from Kim Jacobsen’s outrages guitar playing here:

Next up were the vocal arrangements. This was a process that the band had worked on from the earliest phases of the songwriting, as it was the most time consuming element of a prog music production.

The vocals took a slightly different direction than on the previous album. The sound generally turned out rougher and with more power in order to fit the “testosterone guitar”. In addition to the main vocalist, Bill Makatowicz, Roger Bjørge also participated on both backup vocals and lead vocal.

Here you can see a movie from the vocal recording. The video also contains a full song from the upcoming album at the end.

The bass recording was being done simultaneously with the vocal recording. The bass has got a central part in the music compared to what is normal with other progmetal recordings. Several places on the album the bass has come to play a major part, where it is leading on the music. Clips from the process, showing Dag Erik Johnsen playing bass, can be viewed here:

Most of the strings were arranged after everything else was in place. The synth arrangements on “The Iron Cemetary” binds everything together, and it does so in a new way.

The strings on the album is probably one of the things that extinguish this album the most from the previous one. There is a whole new quality to the arrangement and the sound is more electrical than before.  There is a synergy between the guitar and the synth, and the synth like the guitar, has a leading role in the music.

The mixing process

The album was mixed and mastered at “Fascination Street studios” in Sweden by Jens Bogren. The studio has done bands/artists like Symphony X, Paradise Lost,  James Labrie, Soilwork, Opeth and Amon Amarth to mention a few. The band was very satisfied with the final master and could not have hoped to get a better sound. Under you can see a movie of some of the mixing process:

Et barn er født

Jeg ler av et barn med hendene i været

fordi han er nyfødt, 

og fordi verden er så morsom for ham

Han strekker sine lubbene fingre mot meg og blunker

Hele trikken glaner og moren ser på meg

men jeg er oppslukt av barnets overveldende glede