Metallic Taste of Blood - "Pashupati" Video

Alistair Peck of Human Eye Studios has made this psychedelic video for the Metallic Taste of Blood track "Pashupati", taken from last years "Doctoring the Dead":

Metallic Taste of Blood live in Austria

I'll be joining Ted Parsons and Eraldo Bernocchi next week for a live "power trio" version of Metallic Taste of Blood at Q-West in Kufstein, Austria, click here for FB event page.

We'll be playing material from both Metallic Taste of Blood albums, but where necessary re-worked and reinterpreted as a trio…..expect the unexpected.

Tools part 6 - Ovation Magnum II

I get a lot of use out of this unusual late '70's designed Magnum II bass from Ovation.

Featuring a highly distinctive body shape, a thumb rest, unique bridge design and a rarely seen approach to active pick-ups, these instruments were replaced by the later Magnum III and IV before being discontinued.

It's a comfortable, but solid (heavy) piece of wood, also with a longer than usual scale length, which meant initially sourcing strings with windings that went past the nut was a little tricky, but I have settled on D'Addario ECB81 XL Chrome flatwounds.

It's capable of some grinding rock sounds, but it's appeal for me is either for thick rubbery dub type bass, or, with the foam mute in place, played pick style (sometimes in conjunction with a delay pedal) for a retro bass sound that my other, more modern instruments can't get close to.

I also sometimes use an Ovation Magnum I, which is the passive version of the same bass, you can read more on the differences between the two on this original Ovation manual.

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Two pick-ups, and foam mute.

Close up of the tone/volume controls and pick up selector.

Neck pick up aka "Mudbucker"

Backplate showing serial number.

You can hear this bass in the dub section (an excerpt from the title track) in the middle of the above sampler of the new Metallic Taste of Blood album "Doctoring the Dead".

Also on  "Mesh":




It's very prominent on the title track of the new Tim Bowness album "Stupid Things that Mean the World" too.

My Basses Part 3 - Wal Fretless

When I started my hunt for a good fretless bass, I had already been playing a fretted Wal for a couple of years, a solid ash model, originally made for my bass playing friend Martin Elliott.

At the time,  I was looking to replace a cheap and cheerful Westone Thunder 1A fretless with something a bit more serious. 

I opted for another Wal for two main reasons, one being that I was already comfortable with the string spacing and fretboard feel, so making the leap to playing fretless was, I reasoned, sure to be less problematic, and secondly, I was confident that in choosing another Wal I could be sure the craftsmanship and materials would mean I was going to find another really great instrument.

Wal basses have become very sought after in recent years, but at the time, a secondhand Wal could be found fairly regularly in the pages of Loot (…now replaced by Ebay and the like) for somewhere around the £400 - £500 mark, which seems amazing today given the prices they go for.

Made in 1984 at Electric Wood in the UK, my Wal fretless has a Brazillian Mahogany Core with American Cherry wood facings and an Indian Ebony fretboard.

Wal's own design active pick-ups, extremely flexible in terms of tone. Note worn varnish above the pick-ups, I  had the bass revarnished by Electric Wood some years ago.

XLR output socket next to the main output visible below the controls. This only works when there is a jack in the main output, it's very useful when recording for taking a signal direct from the bass.

Currently strung with D'Addario Flatwounds.

View of the Bridge.

Headstock, Hipshot D- Tuner not visible.

Serial number on the backplate.

This is probably my most played bass, I used it almost exclusively for a number of years, below a selection of tracks, old and newer:

I am lucky enough to own three Wals, my most recent acquisition being another 80's era fretted which was previously owned by Jack Monck and given a thorough working out on The Incident tour and album with Porcupine Tree.

Bye for now,

Colin

Metallic Taste of Blood - Album Trailer & Pre-Orders

Above, a short preview of some tracks from the upcoming Metallic Taste of Blood album "Doctoring the Dead", to be released May 26th.

You can read a bit more about this second album, on my previous post here, and the first review has just been posted on Echoes and Dust

To Pre-Order "Doctoring the Dead" please follow this link where various formats, (vinyl, CD, FLAC etc) are available.

Best,

Colin

Metallic Taste of Blood - "Doctoring the Dead"

Here's the cover image for the second Metallic Taste of Blood album, which is due in May on Rarenoise.

Once again myself on bass with Eraldo Bernocchi on guitars and electronics, and also Ted Parsons on drums and percussion, with Roy Powell on keyboards.

Audio samples coming soon…..

Best,

Colin

Prague Recording Sessions with Metallic Taste of Blood

2014 has got off to a great start with myself, Eraldo Bernocchi and Ted Parsons (who has previously drummed with, among others Prong, Jesu, Swans, Godflesh and Killing Joke ) getting together at Faust Studios in Prague to commence work on the second Metallic Taste of Blood album.

Prague is certainly one the world's most beautiful cities with some great looking buildings, churches, statues, bridges and a rich, impressive history and atmosphere to rival any major European city, not to mention a selection of beers that could have seriously undermined the album writing process...

In order to match the intensity of the first album I hope that perhaps we managed to tap into that undercurrent of mysterious energy, which in ages past, attracted the likes of Edward Kelly among other alchemists, scientists, mystics and seekers to the city. I certainly felt something, within ten minutes of arriving at the studio I was confronted with an unlikely co-incidence which caused me to reflect on the nature of life itself…..some other strange things too….

Anyway, for now, some footage of us at work:



Best,

Colin

Live Photos Metallic Taste of Blood.

Some live photos Metallic Taste of Blood from Wroclaw, thanks to Veronika Klimonová and Kamil Downarowicz for the pictures.

Balazs Pandi

My Wal

Eraldo Bernocchi tunes up...

 Roy Powell

Roy's hands

Eraldo Bernocchi

Balasz Pandi

Metallic Taste of Blood Live Debut

Very much looking forward to playing live for the first time with Metallic Taste of Blood at the Asymmetry Festival in the beautiful city of Wroclaw, Poland on May 4th.

Eraldo Bernocchi, Balazs Pandi and myself will be joined by Roy Powell, of the band Naked Truth

Click here to visit the festival website for all the information and check out the bill, also including Melvins Lite, UfoMammut, Cult of Luna, Mayhem and lots of others.



I am also happy to say The Metallic Taste of Blood album has just been voted by the staff at Metalstorm.net as the best Avant Garde/Experimental Metal album of 2012, and although having been out for a while now, the album is still picking up some great reviews too , here on the blog horsebits, here on ultimateguitar.com, and also on Dutch website Progwereld.

Bye for now,

Colin