CLEANing out the closet

Day 1 - Clean guitars Tuesday 15th of December

Alrighty then folks, we got a day spared for clean guitars that will be featured in couple of songs on the album. Usually we have done clean guitars in a haste when there's only few hours of studio time left. But this time we really wanted to focus on finding the best possible sound that will suit each song. After some heavy knob turning, we were ready to record and got what we wanted: cold sounding clean tone that will send shivers down to your spine :)

Tuomas was also present and we decided to goof around a bit by recording some sound effect like bass licks by plugging bass into guitar amp. The results can be heard from the album.


Setting the Sound


Adding the finishing touch to the sound


Cleaning the Tone


Huikka producing, Tuomas demolishing Cheeseballs


Listening to take


The Statement :)


Rap artist Kuivaliha from the ghetto of Salla

Hungarian Moussaka

Day 4 - Bass Thursday 10th of December

Thursday was the last day for the bass recordings. Among the songs that were recorded is already previously mentioned Ilokaasu metal track. This one has much space for some groovy bass licks - thus Tuomas had much fun recording it. At least, judging by the swearing and banging that he did with head and bass on the wall.

After the day, the basses for FM's second album were done and it was time for some refreshing beer.


"This take sounds like a hungarian moussaka"


GRRR


It's easy to pose when the basses are on tape

Basisti - rumpalin ujo ystävä

Day 3 - Bass Wednesday 9th of December

Day three for bass recordings and six songs to go. On Wednesday Tuomas nailed the remaining three of "Eemeli's songs". One of those is a song that can be labelled as honest testicles-in-your-face power metal. Usually bass players settle with these kinds of songs to back up the double bass drums but Tuomas is such an ambitious bassist that he came up with great lead like bass riff for the double bass drum parts. Like they would say on Myspace: "Mood: ecstatic"!


Bending it like Bender


H-Metal or no Romanian hobo metal at all!


Eemeli is starting to feel the combined studio and X-mas depression

Basso Kalinainen

Day 2 - Bass Tuesday 8th of December

It's always a wonder what a decent sleep can do to you. One word comes to mind when descriping our feelings on Tuesday: "rebirth".


KevytOlo pretty much sums it all up in this pic

Among the three songs that Tuomas nailed on Tuesday was the 10min+ epic of the album. Oh boy, how the rattling sound of bass strings sounded good in this one. We also did some experimental effect stuff by doubling some bass riffs and then reversing them. Pretty basic stuff but it sounds really cool. This one's gonna be epic :D


Tuomas playing the lead bass. Rhythm basses will be recorded later ;)


Da Beis is always in perfect tune

Bass Hard - Lupa länkyttää

Day 1 - Bass Monday 7th of December

Allrighty then, time for the bass recordings which started on Monday 7th of December. Since Sunday the 6th was the Independence day in Finland - everybody had been celebrating it thoroughly - we allowed us to take a smooth start for the bass sessions.

The desired sound was found pretty easily. Tuomas plugged the bass in and that's pretty much it. Okay, some knobs were turned just a little because Tuomas decided that this time we'd go with cleaner bass sound with just a hint of distortion to add some
flavour.

After 1 and half songs it was time to go home and hit the sack to start the next day with fresh minds, unshaky fingers and clean underwear.


Tuomas posing unintentionally DiMaioishly


For some reason, we were thirsty

Coffee, Vodka and Tabasco

Day 5 - rhythm guitars Friday 27th of November

The last day for rhythm guitars and two songs and a shorter, intro like song to be recorded. We decided to open with the fastest & heaviest song on the album and the end result was stunning. This one's gonna kill!

On the whole the guitars sound cool and we can't wait to continue with bass recordings next week.


Haisuli (Stinky) acted as producer


Jynkkä got the blues


Tuomas dropped in to show how it should done


After the guitars were done, Eemeli went to the corner to shame and is there still! :)

Weights, boobs & heavy metal

Day 4 - rhythm guitars Thursday 26th of November

On Thursday there were more guitars to be done. We did rhythm guitars to three tracks and everything went smoothly. After a rather long day full of hours just downpicking the riffs it was nice to grap a cold beer with numb hands and sore muscles.

Special event for thursday was some production work that we did for the chorus melodies in two songs. It's never too late to change things :)


After a short brainstorming session the album cover and name was created


Heavy Metal Doctors analyzing the guitar flapboard


Studio wanking, pt2

Ison koiran haukahdus

Day 3 - rhythm guitars Wednesday 25th of November

The third day for rhythm guitars and we noticed that we are a bit late on schedule. How to fix it? The answer is to start the recording of additional song at 23.58 and nail the 10+ min song with few takes. Tiredness makes you play faster.



Eemeli prays to goddess of coffee to keep us alive


Jynkkä with his lightning fast fingers

Kings of nordic Lohnotus

Day 2 - rhythm guitars Tuesday 24th of November

Tuesday was the second day of rhythm guitars. Huikka our co-producer and studio engineer invented a new word "lohnotus" which is a good ambiguous phrase for almost everything in guitar playing. This word became an instant hit so it's time to spread the word. Literally. For those about to Lohno - We salute you!

On tuesday we nailed two songs. Other one was the slowest song on the album which makes you desire a good Iskender kebab. And with the help of Iskender the mighty, all the flavours blended into perfect song of Sish Metal.

Thanks to our friend Mr. T.Talvikunnas who visited us on Tuesday to take some studio shots. Some of the results of this session, can be seen in this diary.


Jussi aka Jynkkä Malmsteen


Eemeli aka Pet Strutsi


Heavy metal, man!

Paksut vinkuu tykimmin

Day 1 -rhythm guitars Monday 23th of November

Hello there folks! It's time to update the studio diary because rhythm guitar sessions started today. As always, first day is for the sound - to make it right. This time we had dragged Marshall and Krank cabinets (those interested in more specific models, see pics that are coming up later) to studio. Marshall JMV410H, Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier and Peavey 6505 were the alternatives for amps.

The winner combination this time was Peavey 6505 with Krank cabinet. The rhythm guitar sound is clear but crunchy, tasty yet delicious (and so on...). It took some time to test all the amps with two cabinets but it was worth it. Clean guitars will propably be done with Marshall amp and cabinet.

After the sound was approved to be diamond hard, it was time to start the guitaring. We decided to take it easy and nail only one song which went down without problems. We're on right tracks!

Special thanks to following:

Sakke from Coredust for lending your precious Krank, thanks man!
Mr. Lahti for checking and fixing Jussi's and Eemeli's guitar, the tune is perfect!

PS. Those of you who know Finnish may wonder about the title of this post. It's about thick guitar strings and how pinch harmonics are easier to play with thicker strings :D


Studio wanking


Guitar stuff



Peavey 6505 as amp and Marshall as a stand :)

Those whom the gods digest

Day 6 - Drums Tuesday 10th of November

Tuesday was the last day for drum recordings and drums for two songs were undone at the beginning of the day.

Jake "Mr. Riddlemachine" Nylund nailed the first track and the second epic of the album was saved to be the last song to be recorded. Despite the fact that we we're in a small hurry to get the song done, we decided to do some last minute arranging in form of tempo changes to the middle sections of the song. Classic!

Now the drums are done and we have ca. 60 minutes of new Force drumming on tape. SSwweet!

Check out the video diarrhea here:


Coming up next - the rhythm guitars


Tuomas with the axes

Bon Johnham

Day 5 - Drums Monday 9th of November

Monday was pretty much alike than other studio days. Jake nailed two of the hardest songs on the album, other is the fastest and heaviest track and other is fast and pretty technical.

Some problems were caused by the bass drum trigger that we are using for Jake to hear the bass drum while playing. The trigger failed us for the second time and this time we hadn't spare parts. To F-Musiikki and fast. New trigger and we were good to continue.


Jake posing


Jake posing igen


Rytmiryhmä


The producers

Weasels ripped my flesh

Day 4 - Drums Sunday 8th of November

Sunday was dedicated for the drums of the first of the two epic tracks that will be on the album. With a length of three “normal” songs, there was a lot of drums to play but Jake nailed this track amazingly. Everybody’s pretty excited to get to play their instruments to this one. It’s gonna be epic, let me tell ya!


Krapula art


Backseat view


Take analysis

The world's most thoroughly researched bacteria

Day 3 - Drums Saturday 7th of November

With fresh energy, Jake started the recording of a song tentatively titled as Disco Hit (which basically describes what this song is about). Recordings went smoothly but after the second song there was a minor setback – Jake had beaten the crap out of his snare's brand new skin and we had no spare. Then the only decision was to continue tomorrow. Everybody was just happy because then it was time to raise the difficulty level by acquiring a decent hangover for the next day.


Günther Thomann in action


Laminated Huikka


Doku-mentalist Tuomas

Sweating like a Rapist

Day 2 - DrumsFriday 6th of November

On Friday Jake started the recording sessions with a song tentatively titled as OMG. This song includes pretty fast drumming but Jake nailed it easily. Two more songs were also recorded in Friday. The other will make FM a household name in Ilokaasu Metal genre. Be alerted!

The last song for Friday was the song with the slowest tempo in the album. This song also contains some traditional eastern riffs – it’s gonna be classic in Kebab houses all over the world!

After the day filled with hard work we were all sweating like rapists. Sweating Ballets!


Jake the Rattlesnake in action


Pose!


Thru the looking glass

Kahdeksan banaanin Terttu

Day 1 - Drums Thursday 5th of November

Thursday was the first actual studio day – the d-day when the action was about to start. On Thursday evening Jake started setting up the drums and Huikka, our recording engineer and co-producer, put up the drum recording gear.

Mikko “Junior” Pietinen from Happiness came to tune Jake's drums into perfect shape. Great work, many thanks to him! Since we started late in the evening, the first studio day was for getting the sound in place. Close to midnight, everything was perfect for the actual recording to start on Friday.

Check out the first part of video diarrhea here:



For all you equipment freaks out there


For all you freaks, pt2


Studio wanking