A very big thank you goes out to Wacken Foundation, who actively supported us and our album production. Check out how this great foundation supports metal bands from all over the world!
It comes with great pleasure that I’m finally able to tell you that my first ever book, “The Tides of Fate – An Exordia Novella” is, after some extra rounds of editing as well as some unexpected twists and turns, published. Take a look at the finished product:
The blurb for the story that inspired the last three songs on our upcoming album “What Remained” goes something like this:
The domed city of Exordia has existed for over a thousand years, being home and shelter to the last survivors of humanity in an otherwise uninhabitable world.
Josten is desperate. After losing his son Lero, who was banished from the city as punishment for a crime, and his wife Sofia for following a perilous hidden agenda, he made his choice. Clinging to the last vestige of hope that Lero might have survived in the Outside World, he decides to make his last stand…
Suppose you consider yourself someone interested in reading post-apocalyptic fiction, and this blurb sparked your interest. In that case, you can find the paperback version and the ebook format of it on Amazon.
The paperback will also be available at our merch booth on our release show for the album on June 3rd at Rockhal Luxembourg.
In the case, you’ll read it, feel free to leave a rating or even a review on Amazon and/ or Goodreads. Even if it is only one sentence, it will help an aspiring writer a great deal.
Check out the teaser for our new video for the second single “Pyre” from our upcoming album “What Remained”. Premiere will be on May 26th at 18:00 (GMT+2).
As I mentioned in a post some time ago, our upcoming album “What Remained” slowly progressed into the thematic realm of versions of pessimistic future visions and there was not a proper plan from the start. That’s still true, but I left something out.
Hear me out.
At some point, there was in fact a plan:
On our previous album “Kilesa”, the last three songs formed a trilogy, still, to this day, one of our creations we are most proud of. During the songwriting process of the new album, the idea occurred to write a new trilogy with over-lengthy, progressive songs. At some point, there was the vision of enhancing the musical vision by an accompanying story.
The idea came from, well, yours truly. I felt the itch to write a story to inspire the music, a way we hadn’t tried until then.
And so I did. I brought something to the page, and, being the greenhorn I was (and still am), it was… well, let’s just say it was not worth mentioning. In fact, it was nothing but a pile of first draft vomit. At least in my book. (pun intended)
However, it served its purpose, and it inspired the songwriting unexpectedly, resulting in three massive songs of which we are really, really proud of.
As we were planning the release of the album some time ago, Philip came up with the idea to make the initial story I’ve written accessible for those interested. After all, it was a part of the creation process. Well, I vehemently refused at first. But the longer I thought about it, the more the idea had something charming, something challenging.
I agreed on Philip’s idea, but only unless I would rewrite the whole damn thing to the best of my capabilities. So, I sat back in the chair and wrote, trying to keep its core idea intact.
With the certainty that there’s at least the possibility that someone would read it, I gave a little more effort this time. After finishing the new draft, I sent it to my sister Carole Winchester and my brother-in-law Stu Winchester, waiting “patiently”, biting off my fingernails. Contrary to all expectations, their feedback was quite positive. They offered me their help in regards to further edits (I can’t thank them enough for it!) and now we’re almost there, being in the final rounds of copy editing.
Copy editing? Yes! Thanks to their tireless and patient support, I took the decision to take the plunge and self-publish the story.
The book will be called “The Tides of Fate” (same as the opening song of the trilogy) and will contain somewhat +/- 20000 words and thus could be considered a novella.
It will be available on amazon in ebook format as well as there will be a printed edition.
Before I go, I have to mention my sister Carole one more time, as she is currently completing the cover artwork, but more on that in a later post.
Until further notice
Chris
P.S. sorry for not nailing the accurate writer poses
The release of our new album “What Remained” is approaching rather fast. As we’re planning to make the release show a special event, we decided to do a thing. (There are other things, but let’s just shed some light on this particular thing for now)
As some of the new songs on the record are heavily instrumented with percussion and we don’t want to rely fully on samples in the live situation, we asked our pals from the band Pleasing -who will be the support band on that evening- to help us out in terms of making sounds on a pretty unusual percussion kit.
First rehearsal was great. Their percussion performance adds a whole new dimension to the songs, giving them more depth and a layer of primal roughness.
If you want to attend this very unique show on June 3rd, be sure to grab your ticket here.
Peops, we’ll finally be able to hit the stage again alongside many other awesome bands at @achanceformetalfestival. Don’t miss this amazing festival in Andernach on May 6th, we missed you!
As you may already know, our upcoming album “What Remained” is not a concept album per se. Most songs, however, share a common theme. Our possible -or should I say- our probable bleak future.
We did not plan this theme for the entire album from the beginning. It somehow developed in that direction over time. Maybe our minds, like the minds of many, are troubled today more than ever with the outcome of our actions in a more or less distant future. Each song deals with a different perspective on the vast topic of our collective future, the ones being more vague, leaving a lot of room for interpretation, the others being more specific, their message directly palpable.
We are aware that we won’t in any way reinvent the wheel by theming an album with dystopian and even post-apocalyptic themes. It’s merely our statement that we -as human beings- are concerned about the ongoings in a world that echoes slowly but surely in the global events, that we have to rethink our ways and if we want to stay here for longer, we have to tread new paths and search for new solutions.
An admittedly dark-themed album like this is only the result of too much musings on such distressing topics.
Giving nothing further away for now, for those who are interested to know more about the lyrical aspect of the album, you’ll have the possibility of diving into the lyrics once the release.
We would like to bring a few points to your attention:
1. Add ons
We have lots of add-ons! Unfortunately, Kickstarter only shows them in the second step of the backing process. You will need to select a package first before seeing the add-ons. Don’t worry, here you can see all the add-ons that are available.
Add ons
2. shipping costs
Shipping costs could be counted twice for some items. For example, if you choose to take a package and like to add an add-on, Kickstarter will ask you to pay the shipping costs for each item separately. We will reimburse the additional shipping costs, and you only have to pay them ONCE.
3. additional questions
If you have any additional questions, feel free to use the FAQ!
Thank you all for supporting our project so far! We have already hit 50% of our goal. You guys are awesome!
As a reward, we show you some insights from our recording sessions. Here you can see how we tracked the gang shouts with our patented Sound Enhancing Head Resonators, or short S.E.H.R. , that really enhance any vocal recording! At the same time, it keeps bad vibes away!
Check out our Kickstarter project, where you will find more exclusive updates in the future!
Sleepers' Guilt 