Gig Five - Dead Sharks and Lost Limbs, Pravitas, Suborbital Lobotomy, Engraved In Blood, Shades of Avalon, Back to the Sea

Sunday 27th April, 2014, South Sea Live.

This definitely wasn't my favourite gig.

Demo Single Release

We were all quite nervous but excited for this gig. We hadn't played a gig in about a month, and since we'd had a single (demo) released on YouTube for Days of Terror, which got mainly positive reviews, but some quite negative ones too.

"This is some piss poor music," - someone who's opinion is fact.

We had a party at Dave's house to celebrate the release. We were featured on big metal news sites such as "Metal Underground" which was then re-posted by 29 other news pages. It reached 560 views, and we were of course buzzing! However, the music was criticised quite badly on the Metal Underground page.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, of course. However, these guys from America were slating the music so much it hurt. They mainly focused on the drums been out of time, but they also called the riffs "unimaginative". It was a free recording we did at our college. As good as I personally think it is, (especially the currently unreleased version our producer has been working on to boost the production of it,) it's obviously not going to be Metallica quality. We did record to a metronome but listening back our drummer didn't stick to it much. He was tired that day due to working nights so it's forgivable.

The negative reviews dragged us down a bit, but then me and Dave had a two-hour long phonecall to discuss the future of the band. We decided a music video was a bad idea, and arranged a two-day writing session at his house to come up with some metal masterpieces. We admit that Days of Terror (found here: http://youtu.be/Ue6pH_EHP2M ) isn't our best song, at all. We recorded it because it was the shortest of our songs, and a good one for us to start with. However, the song is fantastic live, it has great energy, and is overall a good metal song.

The negative reviews therefore gave us a push in the right direction.

The Gig

We practised on the week of the gig to of course warm up, and to try and make sure our "new" song "Walk Alone" was ready for playing for the first time in this line up live. It was a song in the original Blackened Eyes line up. The only thing we've changed in it is the introduction, and I also changed the solo. The song is fantastic, one of my favourites, and so I couldn't wait to finally show it to everyone at the gig that week.

However, practice that day was awful. We were all messing up at little parts, and Nidge was forgetting parts of our first ever song Forgiven in Death. This is what made us nervous for the gig, will he mess up onstage too? 

I arrived in time for the second band, Pravitas, who were the best band there that night. They were a lot like The Faceless (who coincidentally I'm listening to right now), technical death metal. It's one of the most demanding genres (in terms of skill) in the music industry, and they did a fantastic job! They were tight and talented.

Dave and Nidge showed up.

Nidge made it quite clear he didn't want to play Walk Alone. I was really looking forward to playing this, and I'd said on Facebook that we were to play it, to give our "regulars" something new to listen to. We'd practised it for at least three-four months, so the fact he wasn't prepared to play it pissed me off.

I of course kept nagging him to, saying that he gets it right at practice so why not do it onstage, but unfortunately he refused, and apparently I pissed him off by asking him to do, y'know, his role.

We played, and from what I remember, it was pretty embarrassing. Our drummer messed up at least four times. Once or twice is bad enough, and knocks all our confidence, but any more than that is terrible. At the end, when we packed away, we'd usually shake each other's hand and tell each other "well done" etc. This time, we all seemed to pack away quietly and not make eye contact. We were very embarrassed.

The other bands said they enjoyed us, saying we were "like thrash but heavier", but we told them our performance was unnacceptable, and that they were just being polite.

The Drummer Problem

Afterwards, we went to a takeaway, without the drummer, but with Matt Wootton, a friend of mine.

We had all calmed down by this point, and the thought of food certainly cheered us all up. Dave jokingly said to Matt: "Are you a drummer?"

Matt nodded, but I was shaking my head to Dave, remembering that Matt, last year, wasn't a metal drummer.

However, when we got back inside, Nidge and Dave disappeared for a while to Dave's car, so I went to scout out the situation.

I got in the car, and Nidge turned to me and said: "Adam, I'm quitting Blackened Eyes."

It was definitely for the best, for all of us. Nidge is a fantastic guy, and we loved him. He always made us laugh, and he was a good drummer. However, we did need someone our age, and someone who could practice a lot to keep up with the length and complexity of our tracks. Therefore, while I was sad, we all knew it was for the best.

He was kind enough to agree to play our two upcoming shows the week after, which I was grateful for.

The next day, Nidge obviously didn't come to practice because he'd quit, but we didn't want to cancel practice. So, Matt Wootton bought a double bass pedal for £270 and turned up to practice. He knew Days of Terror already due to our single release, and by the end of the 3 hour practice, he'd learned two more of our songs, and so he could perfectly play 3 songs with us in the space of one practice.

Dave and I turned to each other a lot that practice, laughing at how good Matt actually was. His skill was incredible, and the songs were flawless with him. Being young, he can obviously practice a lot, and so Matt was exactly what we needed.

We didn't announce Matt as a member for a few weeks, however, until he played a gig with us. We wanted to be 100% sure, and we also didn't want to hurt our previous drummer's feelings, obviously.

It's not that Nidge was easily replaceable, because he isn't, it was just that we were extremely lucky that a friend of the band was such a good drummer. Despite some negative comments Nidge received about the single, in terms of live performances, he was often complimented.

The Rest of the Evening

Dave and Nidge left soon after Nidge quit the band, and so I stayed to watch the last band, "Back To The Sea".

I know I said I'd not review bands negatively on these blogs due to getting into trouble for it, but their attitude that evening was pretty disgusting. For grown men, which they were, I'd expect better than their attitude that resembled a group of 15 year old's in a 'hardcore' band trying to be cool and rebellious.

They turned up just before their set, set up and started to play without a soundcheck. To me it sounded like a mess, but they refused to soundcheck, claiming to the sound engineer:

"We can't be professional if you try to be professional with us."

They cockily asked the crowd: "Can you hear us alright? Apparently we need a soundcheck, ha ha!" Before continuing with their set.

I said, jokingly, to the sound engineer that I'd just turn all the volume controls down. He did just that, and the same noise was coming from the stage.

Who refuses to soundcheck? Every band in the world soundchecks, and that's what really angered me.

So I left South Sea that night very annoyed. We'd lost our drummer, and the last band's attitude was the cherry atop the Cherry Bakewell of Death and Misery. 

Thanks for reading,

Take care,

ARK Walton

Gig Four - Screaming Ace, Suborbital Lobotomy, Devilator, Blackened Eyes and Infected Legacy.

Sunday 2nd March, 2014 - South Sea Live.

This gig is one of my all-time favourites. 

It was the birthday of James Walsh, rhythm guitarist of Screaming Ace, and he put together this gig. 

I looked forward to it as I knew there'd be a good audience. However, from the moment I arrived I was stressed. 

Dave, our frontman, had been working in London all week and was to drive up from London straight to the gig. At about 5 I got a text from him saying he was stuck in traffic in Cambridge. We were due on in 3 hours and he was 4-5 hours away. 

The stress kept building. What could I do? Switch slots with a later band perhaps? 

Then I got Nidge texting me to ask what bus to catch because Dave wasn't there, or if I could buy him a taxi from Doncaster to Sheffield because he had no money. I can barely afford a pint, never mind a taxi that'll come to at least £30!

An hour before we were due on, Dave texted me saying that he was now home (in Retford, 30 mins from Sheffield), but was running a bath and had the oven on because he was hungry.

I nearly stabbed about 4 and a half people - until Dave and Nidge walked through the doors 2 minutes after. 

Pricks. 

We had a beer then took to the stage. 

I love to have circle pits, and I'd not had many in my life. I've been in loads, but causing them was a bit harder. It's a metalheads way of showing appreciation for music - a lot like hardcore/metalcore people like to flail their limbs about in a strange, retarded mating ritual to show their 'appreciation' for 'music' by hurting others - except we don't intend to hurt others, and we don't look like kids having fits.

So when our full thirty minute set had the whole room circle pitting for the majority of our time on stage, you can imagine how amazing we felt. Me and Dave kept looking at each other, mouthing the words of James Hetfield: "Yeeeah!" and Lars Ulrich: "Fock!"

At one point I forgot I was the one creating the music as my instincts kicked in and I almost went to jump in a pit myself!

When the crowd are buzzed, so are we, and it's passed back and forth throughout. 

We sang happy birthday to James, drank more, and then left! 

Great show, we loved it! 

Take care,

ARK Walton. 

Gig Three - South Sea, "Metal 2 the Masses" Heat One.

Wednesday 19th February, 2014.


I looked forward to this way too much, and set my expectations way too high.

Blackened Eyes are awesome.

I love our music, I love what we do, and so of course, naturally, I want everyone else to.

The winner of the final of this competition get a slot at Bloodstock Festival (where Megadeth are headlining), and get a chance to play in Germany and Slovakia, and loads of other cool stuff. Who wouldn't want this chance?

Two bands win each heat to get to the Quarter Finals.

So, I invited as many people as I could as it's 50% votes, and 50% judge vote. Despite the 100's I invited, of course only about 20 said they could come. 20 is a lot, and would pretty much secure a victory. However, 11 showed up - which is still a nice number of people, but 9 is a large amount of people not there, when you're counting on votes.

We arrived at the venue, quite nervous, to what you can probably imagine was quite a competitive atmosphere. The bands that night were bands I'd never heard of, so to me they were just competition.

As my friends started to arrive, our area at the venue was pretty full. The other areas in the venue seemed quite quiet, so it looked as though we had the most supporters. I began to get excited.

The first band played and put on a good show, but I didn't pay too much attention due to the building up nerves. I don't get nervous often, but when I'm being judged, and when there's a solid reason for playing (i.e to win the competition, rather than a ... non-solid reason(?) such as playing just for fun), I feel the pressure.

The band finished, and so we began to set up. I'd had a few beers at this point, and kept needing the toilet every five minutes. Just before we were about to play, I put my guitar down and ran to the toilet for a minute.

Nerves or beer? Both.

We played our normal set of four songs, (Days of Terror, Forgiven in Death, Farewell's Song and Scorn), and put on quite a good show. We had the energy, the nerves disappeared after the first song, and we were on form.

However, as I switched guitars for the second half of the set, for Farewell's Song, something went terribly wrong.

Before the gig, me and Dave agreed that from now on I'd take the opening solo to Farewell's Song. As we wanted to give a solid 30 minute set, we were to double the length of the intro so I could show off a bit more to try and score points for "Musicality".

He began the nice, acoustic introduction. I stepped forward, turned my guitar up and "EEERREHGHGHERHGHGHEGH", said the guitar.

Crap.

My input socket was playing up, and so over this quiet acoustic part, instead of a solo it was the loud noise you get when you try plugging your guitar in when drunk.

The only way I could stop it was by holding it in place with my right hand, but still the song continued, and so I had to solo with one hand.

I did alright, considering. I tried to stick to one string and perform many slow bends, and I kinda got away with it. But I wasn't happy. What should've been a beautiful solo to prove our range of dynamics was below a mediocre solo and ruined the mood.

Luckily, as the distortion kicked in, I found a spot on stage where the guitar worked - as long as I didn't move. But this meant less stage presence.

At the end of Scorn I shredded for about a minute as the cymbals and chords rang out - just to try and make up for Farewell's Song, and then held my guitar in the air.

The guitar got stuck in the netting above the stage. But it was more funny than serious, so it was okay.

We proceeded to sitting down in our places as the next bands played. We drank beer, and I tried to forget the Farewell's Song mishap.

Goat Leaf played - a rock band that have been going 20 years, and did really well, and they brought quite a lot of people as expected. So I thought, quite confidently, that they would win and so would we.

Everyone in our area said we were amazing and better than the other bands, that we were the "best metal band there". Perhaps bias, but I agreed with them - not just because it's my band, because it's my personal preference of music, that's why I'm IN this band.

My ego was building, I kept imagining: "And the winners are... Goat Leaf and... Blackened Eyes!" My heart raced every time I thought it.

Results Time.

No one got to actually see their results, their scores or anything. It would've been nice but there you go.

The man with the results took to the stage, and we all piled into the audience area.

"And the winners of tonight, in no particular order, are GOAT LEAF and NORMALISER!"

Dramatic, but it felt like everything stopped. I downed the remaining half coke and rum I had in my glass, and without looking at anyone, walked to my seat.

In hindsight, I went overboard with how angry I felt, how upset and disappointed I felt, but at the time it was real. This felt like my chance to make it with the band I love. When you feel like you can see more people in the building there to support you than not, when you feel like you put on the best metal performance, but you lose. All I kept thinking was: "My stupid bloody guitar". I was angry at everyone who said they'd come but didn't. I was angry at some of my best friends who didn't come for any given reason.

"I killed them all. Not just the men. I killed the women, and the children". - Anakin Skywalker.

(That quote is for humorous/dramatic effect. I didn't really kill anyone with that quote in mind.)

I just imagined us reaching a further stage in the competition, and how I could get us a great chance of winning by just inviting everyone I know to support me to reach my dreams of making it as a musician.

I'd help any of my friends reach their dreams if they knew how to do it and asked me to help them, so I naturally presume my friends will do the same.

Goat Leaf were great. Normaliser have even reached the Semi-Finals since. I had nothing against the bands, they were great guys, and by no means do we deserve to win this whole competition, but that's what competition is, right? You get passionate and defensive about it and you want the thing you love to become successful.

Take care,

ARK Walton.

Gig 2.5, Thomas Rotherham college, "Battle of the Bands"

(The following blog is about my experiences of being in the thrash metal band Blackened Eyes. It is from my perspective, and so if anything upsets you, please contact me via Facebook and don't hold the group responsible. Nothing will upset you though, because I'm nice, and you aren't a rusty yellow tractor with feelings).

"I don't usually like metal, but that was right good!" 




"Quirky S alert."

Since starting college, I'd always had these fantasies about playing in my college's canteen. I walk for about twenty minutes every morning from my bus stop to college, and often I listen to music. To make time seemingly go quicker, I imagine myself playing the current song in the canteen at dinner time, where there are about 200 college students socialising. I don't just imagine playing the guitar, I imagine being every band member. It gets me really excited when it's an angry song, and I imagine my teachers watching me and thinking:

"Oh. Where did I go wrong?"

Doing this makes me walk twice as fast as normal due to the strange excitement I get. I love performing so it's natural I have fantasies about performing, right?

Yes I've played at my college before with my old group, but this time, at last, we were offered to play the canteen at dinner, when it's busiest. 

All I could think was: "I finally get to show everyone who I am and what I do."

I am notoriously known at college as "that blonde weirdo" or "the Frisbee guy". Why? Well I suppose I can take some time out to tell you. (Read in a hushed, darkened and dramatic voice).

***

The Dreamer

It was one winter's lunch hour at the college of Thomas Rotherham. Clouds settled over the castle, as students rushed in from the rain. The students mourned, despaired, at the thought of lessons that were to commence in just twenty-five minutes' time. 

Suddenly, an unknown student pulls out what I can only describe as hope and freedom. 

A Frisbee emerges into the busy canteen, full of students socialising and eating their packed lunches or their own knees. The Frisbee is made out that tent-like canvas material, and so hurt nothing it struck. 

Each time it was caught, a champion was born, celebrated in the Halls of Fame. The whole room erupted with cheers, applause and laughter. 

But there stood, in a tiny group, a dreamer. A blonde-haired, leather coat wearing, desperate boy, in his last day of childhood, desperate for the fame and the glory that this Frisbee could bring.

O, didst he dream the dream that he would catcheth such obstacle that stoodeth between himself and glory!

As the lunch hour neared its iminent end, the young dreamer lowered his face to the ground, wondering why life must be so difficult.

But!

A spark of hope, the Frisbee flies as if in slow motion towards the open, desperate hand of the dreamer, his eyes lit with the vision of fame, his lips moist at the slight taste of glory! 

It was not to be. Another male had reached over and grabbed it, snatched glory from the dreamer's grasp. Upset, he was.

On the verge of giving up, his lover grabs his arm and yanks him out of the canteen to walk the dreary path to lesson - but to the dreamer, it was but a path of defeat.

However...

Just as his leg had crossed the doorway, a loud dissatisfaction occurreth. 

"Booooo!" chanted the peasants of the canteen!

"Unrighteous fiend!" cried others.

The dreamer turned his head, his brow sweating, his eyes curious. What was it that was occurring?

Indeed, a fiendish man in the uniform of "Ye Caretaker" at the college of Thomas Rotherham descendeth through the canteen towards the doorway in which the dreamer stood. In his grasp was the Frisbee. It brought him not glory but hatred. One Frisbee to rule them all! And this monster was using it for evil! 

The dreamer's eyes lit up with opportunity. 

He must indeed save the land! Restore morality! Grasp glory at last!

The dreamer, flicking the hair out of his eyes, swipes the Frisbee from the fiend's hands and launches through the canteen, bearing the Frisbee above his head, the whole room erupting with cheers and applause to this strange boy, this dreamer.

This boy was to reach adulthood on the morrow, but felt a sense of manhood consume his innocence, he felt something grow within him that was not his Twat Tunneler. 

A boy so young reached his dreams at last.

The End.

                                                                                ***

But then I was taken to the principal's office and got called "pathetic" for finding a Frisbee fun. I guess he just wants me to act my age, and find drugs fun instead.

So, I enjoyed the Frisbee fame for a while, but then finally realised I wanted everyone to know I was in a metal band, and so I took the first opportunity I could to allow my band to play in the canteen.

The Performing Arts students have to put on an event as part of their coursework, and one group decided to host a "battle of the bands" in the canteen. I of course said Blackened Eyes would love to do it.

Another band was formed by a few students to compete against us. 

I was really looking forward to it. Finally, a chance to show off what I do, what I CAN do, and to show off my band.

Problem One.

I told my band of course what was to happen, telling them that we were playing a lunchtime gig in my college's canteen.

However, our drummer thought it was in the evening, and so had to work. 

All hope of my dream finally coming true of playing the canteen seemed to be draining away rapidly, until the college sound technician who has been recording Blackened Eyes' EP offered to drum two tracks for us that he knew due to all the mixing. 

I was definitely up for this as not only did I want to play the canteen, but it wouldn't have been fair on the performing arts students who's grades partly depended on this event. 

So finally it was sorted. He learned the tracks, and we practiced with him the day before. Nothing else could stop me from achieving this now!

Problem Two.

Of course something could stop me. It's life.

Dave at band practice that night said he had a solicitor's appointment the following morning meaning he couldn't make it to my college. So that left me and Callum, the bassist. 

I was furious, of course, that I had to let down the students again. I tried intensely to learn the words and to play guitar at the same time to the fast song "Scorn", to attempt at front-manning the event myself, however, it was extremely difficult, and the pressure was breaking me, so I begged Dave to move the appointment.

He did!

***

I attended my two lessons that morning before going to set up in the area we were to play in the canteen. 

I was really excited. We were getting strange looks from the few people walking through the canteen as we walked around with guitars, tuning up etc. The other band were to play first as Dave was still not yet here, and the other band were soundchecked anyway.

Dave arrived and I helped him carry his equipment in.

Lunchtime.

The room was packed, which was surprising for a Wednesday - where most people including myself can leave after dinner due to not having afternoon lessons, but yet the room was full, with at least 200 people.

The first band, Lost and Found, began their two song set. They played two Arctic Monkeys covers, and did quite a good job of it, the crowd were clearly enjoying it and singing along. 

I was getting fairly nervous. College seemed too innocent to be raped by our music, and the students all seem to be dressed in fashion.

The band finished, and now was our time to run on, set up, and play.

Problem  Three.

We were all ready to go, when suddenly my guitar sounds really weak, as though the volume is turned down almost fully on my guitar. The only way it sounds powerful and metal again is when I press down on the volume knob, which I obviously couldn't do all the way through the two songs!

Dave, however, saved me by just flicking the pickup switch on my guitar, which made my tone a bit too fat for my liking but at least it didn't sound like a squirrel chewing on a sodden chestnut.

***

We kicked off with Days of Terror. 

Just as we started, the college Principal walked into the canteen. This song is practically about Islam, more specifically the extremists and terrorist Muslims. Our college contains quite a few Muslims and I was scared the Principal would hear me shout some of the lyrics to the song and kick me out of college. 

Until I realised:

1. Freedom of speech.

2. It's metal, who hears the words clearly anyway?

I looked up after the song had finished, an awkward two second silence fell upon the canteen. 

Suddenly, the room erupted with cheers, and it seemed busier than it was when we first got on stage to perform! Wow!

I asked everyone how they were. When they cheered, I said:

"You're lying, because you're still at college."

Dave stepped to the microphone and said:

"This one's about being fucked over, who's ever been fucked over?"

Everyone cheered, it was great.

We thrashed through Scorn and then I finished up by shredding and the event was over.

It went by a crowd vote, and apparently it was close which is great. Of course the other band won, but I'm just proud that a Thrash Metal band came close to Indie music in a college. We had people coming up to us saying: 

"I don't usually like metal but that was right good!" 

Someone wrote down "Black Guys" as our band name when voting, which we found highly amusing.

I even managed to squeeze the line "Fuck this place up!" (Robb Flynn rip off, I know), during our set. I was just disappointed I didn't have the chance to introduce a song as "This song is about getting good grades and a good night's sleep!" 

Overall it was a really interesting day and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thanks for reading,

Take care,

ARK Walton.

www.facebook.com/blackenedeyesofficial

www.facebook.com/ARKWalton

Gig Two - South Sea: Red Rum and Screaming Ace

(The following blog is about my experiences of being in the thrash metal band Blackened Eyes. It is from my perspective, and so if anything upsets you, please contact me via Facebook and don't hold the group responsible. Nothing will upset you though, because I'm nice, and you aren't a 3 month old baby seal).

Wednesday 22nd January

This gig is considered by us as our first official gig, as my birthday gig was more for me and to show my family and friends what I do; and this one at South Sea was a gig to start getting the name out there and such. 

This gig was like a cow on fire; except it wasn't cow-like in any possible way. Lets just say then that it was us who were on fire. 

I was told not to look forward to this gig as the venue is apparently often "quite empty". I wasn't particularly looking forward to it anyway as it's a Wednesday evening, and my thoughts were 'who comes out on a Wednesday evening? People have work or college or their weekly child sacrifice the next morning!'

Well, let's just say we were pleasantly surprised. But, I'll get to that in a bit. 

Firstly, the rest of the day. 

We, Blackened Eyes, were recording the biggest chunk of our song Days of Terror for our upcoming EP. We did all rhythm guitar parts and all vocals. I was getting tired out doing my vocal parts as I've never done so many vocals in such a compressed amount of time. It kinda worried me about whether I'd do well enough at the gig. 

As we're recording at my college, there was a 'talent competition' in the dinner hour just downstairs from where we were recording. The winner gets a new iPad so I decided to just head downstairs and shred for a couple of minutes. 

Why not? 

I walked in and to begin with played Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, badly, on purpose. Then, when I shredded, I also had the element of surprise on my side. According to Callum, (Bassist) two others walked in as I played, saw me, and said:

'Should we not bother?' 

I finished, thanked them and left to return to recording. 

Me about to record my lead parts

Me and Callum then left to get to South Sea (albeit two hours early as it was the only way we could get a lift.) We were both falling asleep! 

Luckily, the man working there let us in, and so we took in our equipment and sat down to play Pokemon and Candy Crush. It was as cold inside as outside!

The first band (left unnamed so I don't get angry phonecalls, threats, or my legs set alight,) turned up, a typical hardcore/metalcore/whatevercoreitsnotreallymetal from Essex. They set up, then ignored everyone all evening and then left when they played. 

An hour later, Dave and Nidge and his girlfriend turned up, as did Red Rum, followed by Screaming Ace. 

We all got talking about thrash, played pool, drank, and a decent crowd turned up. The atmosphere was fantastic. 

"We're... Think Metallica, crossed with Bodom. Yeah, we're not like that."

My favourite album of the month was also on shuffle; Hellalive by Machine Head. This really pumped me up. 

The first band went up then finished. 

Next up was Blackened Eyes. 

Dave Mitton

I actually got nervous! A room of metalheads, and it was the first time (at long last!) I was to play onstage at a gig in a metal band. 

I wanted to impress. Especially considering someone I despised was in the audience, (some other guitarist of some other band who weren't playing.) So, I wanted to impress the audience, my band, and piss on this guy. 

Aren't I lovely?

With Machine Head, excitement, adrenaline and hatred driving me, I was in a very metal mood.

As the previous drummer in the previous band was left handed, Nidge was taking a while to set the kit up the way he liked it. Me, Dave and Callum were all ready to go, but Nidge took another 5 minutes yet. Dave said to me;

"Shred Adam!"

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

And so I did, for about 30 seconds. It was quite fun, a good warm-up too. As soon as I finished, I apologised to the audience that had gathered, saying it wasn't a song, we were waiting for our drummer. But someone shouted:

"Yep, he's better than me!"

Me looking fairly angry, and Dave

Nidge finally set up, and I began to play our first song, Days of Terror. 

So far, so good. The crowd seemed to be enjoying it, we were pretty tight and my vocals weren't too worn out from the recording. At one point, I looked at the guy I don't particularly like in the audience and shouted the lyrics whilst staring at him; 

"Well I say fuck you all, I'll take my chances with the beast."

(I changed the lyrics from Your God to You all just for this moment.)

But then...

Dave's string snapped.

He turned as I played pointing at his guitar while he sang, and he had to keep singing while I played, before the instrumental part, where I played his parts instead so the song didn't sound empty. In hindsight, I ought to have done Dave's vocals so he could have switched guitars, but it all worked out, and we laugh about it now.

Nidge Nilsen!

Despite the monitors not being loud enough, Nidge was owning this gig from behind the drums, only making a few tiny errors. 

The song finished, and we got a loud cheer. Excellent!

Callum tearing it up on lead bass!

Next up was Forgiven In Death.

This was our first practiced song as a band, and so it was very tight, we had people headbanging too! 

Next up, I had to tune my guitar up to C standard from Drop B using Dave's tuner, which looked quite awkward but it worked out alright. Dave introduced the song as:

"The song Adam wrote. It's about death and dying and shit."

I began Farewell's Song, which starts with a clean guitar and Dave performs a nice solo over it, before he goes into the fast, main riff of the song, and we start headbanging! I have some killer solos in this song, I actually sat down and wrote the solos to this song as opposed to improvising them. (I feel like Alexi Laiho when I'm playing them!) In the heavy breakdown section, I got everyone chanting along and moshing like crazy which was really great. 

Finally, we played our super fast thrash song Scorn, and the crowd went mental, no one's head stayed still. Nidge messed up the end a bit, as we usually do a full halt to end the song, but no one seemed to notice, I didn't care because we did so well anyway, and we covered it up well too (drawn out chords, a short burst of shredding etc.)

As soon as I turned to switch my amp off, people were on the stage to congratulate us and tell us how good we were, what a great feeling! 

Someone said to me: "You give Herman Li (Dragonforce) a run for his money!"

We also got some great photos courtesy of Nidge's girlfriend, Claire Bunting. She really captured my many strange stage faces!

Outside, the guitarist from the next band told us he knew what we meant by "Metallica crossed with Children of Bodom", and that Dave was like Robb Flynn (Machine Head. Dave's idol!) and I was like Steve Vai. Needless to say, we were both pretty happy!

The next band were fantastic and probably made everyone forget about us! 

Red Rum. 

They are a pirate/folk metal band, and they were brilliant. Typical pirate-sounding melodies with great solos and heavy riffs and fantastic vocals, keyboard playing, drum playing, acoustic guitar, 7-string guitar, 8-string guitar and Lute playing!

The next band rounded the night off pretty well, but I had to leave before they finished due to lift arrangements. Their sound was messed up apparently. 

I left buzzing, and as a whole, Blackened Eyes were extremely happy and well motivated. 

Next up, we have a gig at my college in the canteen during the dinner hour, which means about two hundred people will be watching us, (estimated twelve by the end of it!) as part of a "Battle of the Bands" college are putting on. Except, we're the only band, and the others competing against us are a duo, playing piano and guitar, who have never played together before. They formed just for this. Oh, great. If they win, I'll be throwing myself in front of a small ambulance.

Then, we have a very important gig at South Sea on the 19th February as part of the "Metal 2 the Masses" tournament, where the winner of four consecutive shows play Bloodstock Festival with bands like Megadeth and Children of Bodom! 


Thanks for reading!

ARK Walton

www.facebook.com/blackenedeyesofficial

www.facebook.com/ARKWalton

Where do I sign up for the "craziest hair 2014" competition?

Gig One - Treeton Miner's Welfare Club

(The following blog is about my experiences of being in the thrash metal band Blackened Eyes. It is from my perspective, and honest opinions are often used, and so if anything upsets you, please contact me via Facebook and don't hold the group responsible. Nothing will upset you though, because I'm nice, and you aren't a 70 year old woman writing to complain about a coach holiday.)

Blackened Eyes.

At last.

At long last, I'd made it. 

At last, I am legally able to drink. Who cares about voting or credit cards? Alcohol is now purchasable by ME.

"It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye. Then it's just fun and games that you can't see anymore," James Hetfield. 

I first planned this day when my father suggested we hired out the club and got a cover band to play or something. My dad did that for his 40th a few years ago, he got a Queen tribute band, and I did my first ever stage performance on the guitar with them, playing Hammer to Fall and owning the solo. I was only 12! This was when I first really tasted that sense of fame and ego you so selfishly feel after a performance, when everyone talks to you about it afterwards and says how well you've done. It was exciting 6 years ago, and it's still exciting now. Performing music is like a drug to me. So to play this stage again, with my own band, on the day I reach adulthood - quite a sentimental thing, I feel.

As soon as he said 'band', I said: "No, I'll get my band and a friend's band to play!"

I had a vision of this evening for months. It was all I could think about. Blackened Eyes' first gig, with a huge audience of my friends and family. 

I asked Kriss Stainton if Habberdash would play, and he said yes. 

So now I had to figure out when to put us on during the evening, to create a "bill" for the night. And I had to figure out how to make the venue gig venue-like. There was no PA system or monitors. 

I got a good friend to do lights for us, and another friend to do a live recording for us. 

I went on holiday to Florida for 3 weeks, (I wrote so many depressing poems whilst there, feeling extremely lonely when my girlfriend and friends were thousands of miles away, when it's only 8pm for me but everyone's in bed at home. I even got a cheap ukulele to make up for not having a guitar; just to keep my fingers moving!) and when I got back I had a week to sort some stuff out that I tried sorting out before the holiday but couldn't due to let downs. 

We were told by the venue owners that we'd probably be able to use their regular DJ's PA system for free. And I thought 'monitors aren't so important, right?'

Ha. Oh dear. 

We arranged to meet with this DJ, who decided to charge us £100 for this 'really good PA and microphones'. I'm sure they're good in a decent venue, but I think paying £100 to be hit by a Fiat Punto would be a bigger bargain than the sound quality we got that evening. 

£100 for moving his equipment 20 metres from the back to the stage, then back again. He tried I guess but for £100 it was pretty damn awful. He let us use one of his wireless mics; but the one problem? 

It kept switching itself off every minute. 

Fine if you're using it to call out bingo numbers, but when your songs are 6-8 minutes long and the vocalist plays guitar too, you can probably imagine the consequences. (I've always wanted to call out bingo numbers though, I mean, get people's hopes up when I say: "A two and a six... sixty two!" Or "Two little ducks, seventy three!"

I was there, on my 18th birthday, from 1pm, thinking I could relax, drink a bit while sorting out the stuff I had in front of me; that we'd have all sound-checked by 4 and could relax and drink 'til 7 when it opened. 

So what went wrong?

Take a guess. 

The microphones. And Kriss' new amp didnt work. 

Great. We soundchecked for ages trying to sort it all out, and apparently the Habberdash bassist was getting funny because he wanted to soundcheck. 

Believe it or not, so did we! 

The vocals were too quiet, the mic kept switching it off, and the drummer couldn't hear a thing.

It was okay for Habberdash mainly because there were only three of them, and only one did the crucial vocals all the way through, so they didn't really need two microphones. They were sounding ace! 

One of the women behind the bar, resembling an old farm animal, was complaining to my dad that it was too loud and that we'd driven the 'customers in the next room' away. 

It was 4-5pm. There were no customers to even drive away, and I'm bringing 100 people to this event to make you money. Silly woman! 

7pm.

A few people started to arrive. My sister was to perform first, many of her friends were there too. She did really well! She played acoustic covers. She's usually really shy, but she just got up and played, despite having a sore throat. She claims it was the best night of her life.

It was my 18th and it wasn't even my best night!

I went on stage to greet everyone for the evening: "Tonight is a very special night for me. I've reached adulthood, and it's a time I get to see everyone I love in the same room. But more importantly, it's a place to showcase my talent." 

Sure I stole a Jim Carrey line, but hey, I am made up of all my influences. No one is ever purely original or unique.

Next was Habberdash who were as always good, and even let me play their song 'Candle' with them. My first time on stage that evening performing, it took some of my stress away at least. I added a guitar solo of course, it was the perfect song to add one over; the song has the same chord sequence as John Wayne by Billy Idol; which has a good solo in it, so I thought I'd be like Steve Stevens on speed. 

Now was a guest performance, composed of my father on drums, me on lead guitar and vocals, Kriss on vocals and rhythm guitar and then Callum, Blackened Eyes' bassist on... Well, bass! 

We performed Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. I ended up singing the majority of it because Kriss didn't know the words. Otherwise, it sounded good!

Then was our mystery performance.  

For about 6 weeks previous to this, I had head of the song "The Fox" by Ylvis. ("What does the fox say?") Whilst in the States, I discovered a metal cover of this, and so decided it would be extremely funny if we attempted a similar version at my birthday.

My father, a non-metal fan, even loved the song and wanted to do it on the drums for me. So, I did vocals and guitar, and Callum did bass.

We had rehearsed it once together before the show, and so as expected, it was pretty terrible, but people were crying with laughter at me shouting/screaming the words whilst running out of breath. (Still training my vocals here!)

But, no regrets, right?

Originally, me and Kriss had planned to do an acoustic performance now. However, I was getting really stressed out.

All these people I loved were in this room to see me and to socialise with each other, and I so desperately wanted to socialise and drink with them on my birthday. Yet, here's me, trying to entertain and greet and socialise with everyone. It was impossible. So, I cancelled the acoustic act and brought Blackened Eyes on, thinking:

"At least I'll get to drink for a couple of hours after!"

Wrong.

We went backstage, the lights went out, and I put on the scary, horror film-like intro music I created at college for a stage introduction, something to build excitement.

We ran on stage to lots of cheering and such, grabbed our instruments, and we went straight into Days of Terror.

So far, so good. But then came the vocals. The vocals no one could hear, except my backing vocals. (I mean, people could hear my backing vocals, not that my backing vocals grew ears and could hear the lead vocals.)

Why not use the backing vocal microphone for main vocals instead? I hear you ask.

Well, the wire wouldn't stretch long enough to reach the middle of the stage. Dave didn't want to stand at the side of the stage, and so we never moved, though in hindsight he should've done.

We finished the song, everyone seemed to be enjoying the performance.

Except us.

The drummer couldn't hear us, the microphone was stressing us out, and when I went to switch guitars, it was for some reason in the wrong tuning, so I had to just use the same guitar and tune up the lowest string on stage.

By this time, most people had gone and sat back down while we tried to fix the problems.

In my opinion, we were fine after this little "break". We were stressed and self-conscious after the time spent fixing things, but in hindsight we played the rest of the songs really well.

It's hard to enjoy a performance when you're self-conscious.

I'm never usually self-conscious on stage, I feel like I become someone else, I become "ARK Walton" onstage, just my inner performer, my pure emotions with everything else filtered out. The music is what matters, and when people can't hear the whole music (e.g the vocals) it means they're hearing something else to what we intended, and I don't really enjoy that.

Metal inspires many, many people, and helps them with problems, day to day life, with emotions. I like to be that person who can help you get through tough times through the use of aggressive music. Whether the music allows you to forget the problems just for 30 minutes, or whether it vividly brings them back in order for you to deal with them there and then; if it helps, I'm glad.

Our music isn't the most beautiful, it isn't meant to remind you of the happy things in life, it's raw emotion, whether it's anger, sadness, depression; it can bring back bad memories, but then hopefully make you angry about them and thus get over them quicker. So in the long run, it makes you a happier person, 'til the point where you listen to a metal performance and it makes you immediately happy because you think, "Here's my remedy, my escape."

We finished our set, and I went to get food and drink, to try and enjoy the rest of my 18th birthday.

Oh, but guess what?

There was no more food left, and the bar was to shut in just 30 minutes. I felt like I had wasted my 18th in some ways, and was disappointed it didn't end with me throwing up everywhere.

However, I am glad everyone else enjoyed it, that I did what I've always wanted to do - entertain people.

In fact, my father's friend came up to me saying his son had said "Dad, why can't we listen to that type of music at home?" His son is about seven, so it's good to see we've corrupted young minds!

Overall, most people had a nice time, we practiced a live set to a non-strict audience, we felt that we'd learned what needed work, and even though Dave was a bit angry for the next few days, we all spoke, learned from it, and the next gig (blog due up in a week or so) went fantastically.

Oh, and I managed to make up for the lack of drinking on my 18th at Dave's New Year's Eve party. Problem solved! (Photo of me and Dave asleep on his bathroom floor is on one of the other posts.)

Thanks for reading,

Take care,

ARK Walton.


www.facebook.com/blackenedeyesofficial

Blackened Eyes, the Rebirth - Part II: Setbacks, Songs and Shows

(The following blog is about my experiences of being in the thrash metal band Blackened Eyes. It is from my perspective, and so if anything upsets you, please contact me via Facebook and don't hold the group responsible. Nothing will upset you though, because I'm nice, and you aren't a UKIP supporter).

I've always loved writing songs, but writing metal songs with Dave? It's fantastic. 

Dave is the only original member from the original Blackened Eyes. I'm the only new member remaining from the first practice/audition for the rebirth. So what happened to everyone else? One drummer left after the audition, two bassists been and gone in just a few months?

Well, it was a fairly frustrating process. Personally, I was just glad Dave seemed to like me and think I was good, but I of course wanted the band to do great, and to do great, you need great musicians. A band without good musicians behind the songs is basically a solo artist with session musicians. 

Dave is a great musician and a great songwriter. He writes most of the riffs and lyrics. I consider myself a good musician, (as people have told me so, not because I pray in worship to myself every part of the day that I'm not climbing up my own arse,) and so we wanted to find a shredding bassist and a killer drummer. (A drummer who is good, not who assassinates people for money.)

For our first practice, I had learned two "demo" songs that the bassist had sent me, (at the time I presumed he was an original member of Blackened Eyes, he seemed like the band leader as I spoke to him by text when joining Blackened Eyes more than Dave,) and they were pretty heavy. One was very melodeath inspired. 

However, when I got there, Dave decided he wanted us to learn Forgiven in Death (his song from the previous line-up). Why?

1. He wanted us to learn the style of his previous band.

2. He hadn't learned the bassist Nick's two songs!

So, 2/3 of the new line-up (Nick and I) learned the song pretty quickly. The drummer?

I don't remember the drummer's name, how he looked or anything. He sounded foreign, and every time we suggested a beat to him, he nodded and played something completely different, and he kept the tempo too slow for our liking! He seemed nice, but then he texted Nick to say he didn't want to be in the band.

Oh no.

Nick, however, was awesome. He was very into his music theory, even more so than me. This meant that he knew some great harmonies to add, great basslines, riffs etc. and he was a great guy in general. We had a few more drummer-less practices, and transformed one of Nick's demo songs into something completely different. (Seriously, if you listened to them both, you wouldn't guess we got what we got from the demo. We gradually changed each riff until it completely transformed.) 

Nick suggested this drummer he met at a gig once, called Nidge Nilsen. The only slightly strange thing was, this guy was apparently 44. Now, I'm used to being the youngest member of the band, but this dude is older than my dad! But, we had no alternative. 

It turns out Dave met this guy at a gig too, so he was surprised to meet him again. 

As soon as I saw Nidge, I was happy. (Not as in I'd found my inner-homosexual, I just mean the smiling/content sort of happy.) He was wearing a Metallica t-shirt. 

Nidge: 1.

He told me he'd seen them 19 times.

Nidge: 2.

He sat at the drums, and played something very metal, with the double bass, for a minute or so.

Nidge: 3.

This guy was on fire!

Nidge: 4. (Just joking, he's still on three, you don't get a point for spontaneous combustion. In fact, that's a minus point. Two.)

But then...

Nick had to leave. He got a new job, and so we had one last practice together, where he told us of Nidge, and then we never saw him again. (We hope to see him around though!) 

By the end of the first session with Nidge, we'd pretty much got Forgiven in Death sorted! It was sounding great, especially with this awesome double kick stuff in it! We introduced him to our next song, which was at the time about four-five minutes long, (now it's about eight.) He put some fantastic beats in that really made the song sound both heavy and melodic.

We stepped outside, and Dave asked me:

"Has that other drummer you told me about got in touch?"

"No."

"Nidge, you've got the job. You're in the band."

Nidge was so happy it was actually a beautiful moment! I'm so glad we gave him a chance, he's awesome, generous and fricking funny. 

So now to find a bassist.

Dave tells us a couple or so weeks later that he'd found a bassist, the old "roadie" for Blackened Eyes.

This guy Craig seemed nice at first, helped carry stuff in etc.

But bloody hell was he a pain in the neck, as time got on.

Personality crashes began happening between me and Craig. He seemed like the typical kinda guy from the local music scene I wouldn't like in any other circumstance, except he was in my band so I had to.

He just got cockier and cockier, and needed everything writing down because he couldn't work it out for himself. At one point, I was showing Dave a dual solo I made for the "second song", (which I then wrote lyrics for, and another riff for it, making it into the 8 minute track it is today, Farewell's Song. (Though it's the song that took the longest to learn in our 10 month or so run, and we didn't actually get it finished 'til after we wrote the next song and perfected that!) and Craig waved paper in front of my face until I responded, saying:

"Write it down. Write it down."

Or at one point, I'd got there early, set everything up, everyone turned up, Craig was late, and he came up to me:

"Where's my mic-stand? Get me a mic-stand then!"

Thankfully, me, Dave and Nidge got into Dave's car and all came out with pretty much the same thing. Craig isn't good enough, and he's pretty damn rude. And so, we became bass-less. Again.

During Craig's time in the band however, we got a third song and quite a bit of a fourth song done. Dave entered the room one day saying: 

"I wrote an awesome song last night! Listen!" He was so enthusiastic, and he was right, it was awesome. This ends up becoming the first song we record, Days of Terror.

I also took on the role of backing vocalist around the time Nidge joined, which I had never done before as much as what Dave wanted me to. My confidence grew, and I can now shout down a microphone in key, and even do a few death metal growls! Woo!

So, how do we find band member four?

Find out next w- nah, I'm joking.

Ye Quest To Find Ye Great Callum

It was the holidays from college. It was summer. Life was great. However, since our results just came out, for about three weeks, no one had heard anything from one of my best friends Callum. He was actually one of my guitar students for a month, and he hadn't turned up to two lessons, without telling me. So, me and my girlfriend ventured to his house, after creating a large group chat on Facebook asking where Callum was. I found his house out of memory of picking him up one night for a Secret Romance gig. We knocked on the door, fearing for the worst.

"Is Callum there?"

"*sniff* C...Callum died."

"What?!"

But the worst didn't happen. Instead, his mum just shouted:

"CALLUM!"

And he poked his head out of his bedroom window:

"Hi!"

Prick!

He came downstairs, and sat outside with me and Charlotte. He brought his guitar outside, and then he said:

"Oh wait, look what my dad picked up for me for £20!"

He brought out an old looking, paintless bass guitar.

Bass guitar.

So, I asked him if he wanted to temporarily learn and play bass for Blackened Eyes until we found another bassist, because Callum was a guitarist.

In the next few lessons I taught him, I taught him the Blackened Eyes songs on bass, and he turned up to a practice one night, played the songs near-enough first time, spot on, from memory, not written down. 

Callum joined the band. Obviously.

I stopped teaching him because it seemed weird charging to teach someone in my own band, on an instrument I don't even play. So I had less money, but a great band. Fine by me!

Since, he's contributed to songs, recorded bass parts, played on stage with us, learned songs just by watching Dave play the riffs. We finally had a real bassist, and he wasn't gonna be a temporary member anymore, after just one practice it was pretty obvious he was gonna be the full-time member.

(This photo was taken at a photoshoot we did in Retford. This was around the time we were falling out with Craig. Dave invited me and Nidge round to his house, for some beers and food, (this later becomes the thing I look forward to most when they happen, a "Mega Mash-Up at Dave's" or a "Piss-up at Dave's", many different names. We stick metal DVDs on and drink 'til the floor is covered with beer cans!) but he asked: "Should I invite Craig or...? Nah." Craig eventually found out that it was happening, presumed he was invited, but said he was busy anyway. So, we did this photoshoot without him. (More awesome photos can be found on our Facebook page). When Callum joined fairly shortly after the shoot, I subtly photoshopped him into the above photo. Can you tell he's not actually there in person?)

Blackened Eyes are now all set. Great musicians, great songs. Next up, we play on my 18th birthday at my local club, on a stage not used to having bands played on it like most venues!

Do we cope? Do we fall out? Do we get drunk? Do one of us get hit by a train? Does Callum go missing?

You can find out in my next blog, "Gig One - Treeton Miner's Welfare Club".

Thanks for reading!

Take care!

ARK Walton.

www.facebook.com/blackenedeyesofficial

www.facebook.com/ARKWalton

Me and Dave at one of his Blackened Parties, on New Year's Eve. We fell asleep there for about twenty minutes.