Force Majeure in session: November 2009

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