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.

Blackened Eyes, the Rebirth - Part I

(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 6 year old girl.)




Since the summer of 2012, I've been involved with the best band I could wish to be in, Blackened Eyes.

If you've ever read my blog based on my experiences with my old band, (then heavy-ish punk band, now punk/pop-punk band) Secret Romance, you could probably tell that deep down I was a thrasher; solos, fast riffs and angry vocals were my true passions, and because of that, Secret Romance were heavier than they are without me. However, they sound good - if not better - without me in the mix. I tried, and failed, to make them into something they weren't built/destined for - heavy. Unfortunately, a guitarist inspired by the likes of Metallica, Megadeth and Machine Head etc. doesn't mix well with a guitarist who likes McFly and All Time Low. Great guy of course, but playing styles just clashed.

So what happens, then, when you mix the aforementioned guitarist with another guitarist who's main influence is Machine Head? With a drummer who's favourite band is Metallica, who's influenced by Slipknot, Anthrax and Slayer, who's lived through the 80's and seen every thrash band? With a bassist who's favourite band is Dream Theater, influenced by bands like Megadeth and Metallica? Well, you get a thrash metal band who call themselves Blackened Eyes, that's what.

Practicing for months, hours every week, to be certain that we are more than ready to begin our conquest, starting with the local venues and with recording EPs, singles, and writing an album. Just 4 songs done, one cover, one almost-done song, and a newer song on the waiting list to be practiced after all these hours? When the average song length is 6 minutes, the average riff count is 6, and you want perfection, and you have ex-members to replace to form the best possible line up; you might be able to see what's taking up these months.

How I Joined

After being band-less for a month or so, I started missing the feeling of creating music with other people. Those who do it, or have done it, will know of the certain high you get when you create music with other people. If it's with the right people, it's powerful. With Secret Romance, the high sunk pretty quickly, arguments, musical differences, ego and power problems - it becomes a turn off quickly.

At first, I met with the bassist who left Secret Romance just weeks after I did. We both discussed leaving, and I was the one who walked the plank first. The think about Kriss is that he's a born bandleader, like I thought I was, (until I learned to share power/control, or give it up because you know someone is better with it than you, i.e Dave Mitton, frontman of Blackened Eyes. I'm a good riff writer; but he's better. He knows what he wants, it's what I want too, but he knows how to get it, achieve it, and so I'm gladly along for the ride,) and so naturally Kriss wanted his own band. 

Kriss now does have his own band under the name of Habberdash, an alternative, grunge, punk, rock styled band. They're really good.

But before Blackened Eyes, before Habberdash, we wanted to write music together. We sat together for 3 hours, and came up with a really catch country song. 

"What key?"

"Um... E major?"

"Style?"

"Uh... Country?"

"Sure, how about this?"

"Awesome, we could add this?" 

Etc. 

And so very quickly, we created a great song. There was that high again. He felt it too. So why didn't we ever start a band? We've even tried in the past, however, money and travelling was an issue, and so we went our separate ways. (We still write together every so often, so many potential songs within us would've been wasted otherwise!)

So, he formed Habberdash, and I found a band I wanted to audition for. Zak Glossop from the excellent thrash band Epitaph, told me of a guy who was forming a band called Occult, and needed a guitarist. However, it was more of a rhythm/shared lead role. But, I had no alternatives, so I got in touch. 

This guy wanted a video audition. Big uh-oh for me, no decent video recorder, no where good to film etc. The song I had to learn was Welcome Home by King Diamond.

The thing was, my life was derailing into quite a mess around this time. I had no time or desire to learn this song and stress about recording it. To find a band member, you meet them, watch them, have them audition in person to see if there's a personal connection too; but this wasn't how he wanted to do it.

It had been a few weeks, and I still hadn't filmed it. I tried my best learning by ear, improvised the solos to add my own touch, but then, naturally, my darkest hour hit me.

The thing about misery is that you never know when it'll creep up on you, and the truth is, it rarely creeps up, it jumps out and stabs you.

Practically out of no where, I was kicked out of my house by my parents, and I was off to France with college for a week about 6 hours of sleep later. I got home and my stuff - guitars and amps included, were outside in the rain. My dad said I could live with him when I returned, but he messaged me while I was in France to say I couldn't, so in effect, I was homeless. (The irony I suppose that the song I had to play was Welcome Home for this audition.)

When I returned I was welcomed back "home" to arguments, yelling and hatred. They "let" me live there again, and still I needed to film for this stupid audition.

Not even half heartedly, I filmed it with my sister's iPad. Out of practice, out of motivation, just so this guy wouldn't turn around and tell me not to bother because he's waited for over 3 weeks for it.

"I've watched it, I'm sorry, but you aren't good enough for what I had in mind."

I slowly sunk into depression.

I still didn't forgive my parents, stress at college due to looming exams, and now what I'm best at isn't good enough, I had no band and no hope of being in one. It was a kick in the balls, but what was misery turned into something much healthier. 

Anger.

No one says I'm not good enough.

But just like misery, good things can strike at any moment too, and the opportunity to join Blackened Eyes was one of these good things that suddenly popped up. 

Days after being rejected, Zak messaged me again to tell me that a band named Blackened Eyes were reforming and needed a lead guitarist. Zak, who I saw way back at Secret Romance's first gig (As Epitaph played there too,) (Read the blog, I mention "Guys in Metallica shirts,) recommended me. I checked out the songs, and instantly I was hooked.

This is what I've been waiting for.

So, I got in touch with Dave, and first bassist Nick, and managed to get an audition.

A few days before the audition, however, Nick informed me that another guitarist was interested too. I was shocked, and quite frankly annoyed and upset. They made out like I was already in the band, despite not yet having the audition, because of my "enthusiasm, interest, and because Zak said I was good".

But, I played it cool. I was confident that I'd be good enough now. My life was picking up, and I'd practiced like hell to secure this.

(What I recently found out was the guitarist who also wanted an audition was the same guy who said I wasn't good enough for his "project". Karma.)

Anyway, I was auditioned, I showed off my solos, Dave said I was wicked, and I was now part of Blackened Eyes. It was my enthusiasm that got me in; so believe in something, and you might just get what you want.

Oh, and luck is incredibly important too, of course.

I joined Blackened Eyes, but now we had to secure a solid line-up...

Part II, "Setbacks, Songs and Shows", will be uploaded as soon as I write it, no estimated date yet, so keep an eye on this page or on the band's Facebook:

www.facebook.com/blackenedeyesofficial.

Thank you for reading!

Take care, thrash on,

Adam 'ARK' Walton.

Lead Guitar - Blackened Eyes.