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Posts Tagged: Existence Zero

From fairly early on, Definitions Of A Heresy suggested a lot of visual imagery. From the scale of the music to the Warhammer 40,000 themes Vish was drawing on: it clearly needed something cosmic, something to live up to the music. (Although, despite trying to draw on Vish’s influences, I finished it and suddenly started spotting how many influences from my teenage years had snuck in without me noticing.)

After drawing the images on Good Ol’ Fashioned pen & paper, I scanned it and started digitally adding colour and textures. Particular mention for textures should go to the Carina Nebula image from the NASA Goddard stream, used under Creative Commons. To add the finishing touches I passed it along to Marc “Neo” Evans, who, aside from being a metal musician in his own right, is also rather a wiz when it comes to digital visuals.

I was only really expecting a few overdubs, but Neo isn’t one to do things by halves, and we received this glorious remaster. Seeing my own work enhanced with someone else’s visual flair is still freakin’ cool every time I look at it. Neo has a very different style to mine, which he’s managed to blend seamlessly, I particularly love the combination of my logo layout with his rendering.

Huge thanks to Neo for helping to give Definitions Of A Heresy the cover it deserves.

Of the musical projects I’m currently involved in, Existence Zero probably hauled me furthest from my comfort zone. Metal is hardly a genre central to my musical style; and yet, Definitions Of A Heresy is very much a PLANETS SHALL BURN AND THE STARS WILL RESONATE WITH THE ROAR OF COSMIC WAR METAL sort of EP. Fortunately, I have very talented friends: Vish (project mastermind, also bassist for Playing In Circles), Jorge (guitarist extraordinaire and my main collaborator for Playing In Circles), and Kap (another excellent guitarist, not part of Playing In Circles).

All of which left me free to be the non-metal-guy, which was rather liberating. Sniffing out part where I could layer in my own style of guitar or some orchestration, crafting high contrast introductions and generally lending an ear with a different sensibility. Not only an enjoyable experience, but one that really pushed me as a musician. I’m really proud of the end result and can confidently call it AN ULTRA-EPIC CASSCADE OF MELODIC AGGRESSION THAT WILL CAUSE THE MIGHTY TO QUAKE AND THE WEAK TO COMBUST.

Source: existencezero.bandcamp.com

Coming Soon…

Coming Soon…

Definitions Of A Heresy sketchbook.

Warmup pieces for the sleeve of the upcoming Existence Zero EP: an Ultra Epic, Cosmic War Metal extravaganza with a cast of thousands*. Set your emotions to Unrestrained Moderate Anticipation. (It might still take a while and I wouldn’t want you to strain anything.)

*Um… four of us.