We are very pleased to announce that we have inked a deal with Intromental Management and Booking. We would like to thank everyone there for picking us up and getting us ready to get some things done!

::From www.intromental.com::

NOVEMBER 03, 2009

From USA we are welcoming the brilliant power metal act SEVEN KINGDOMS, fronted by female vocalist Sabrina and backed by a real powerhouse of 4 heavy metal thundering guys. The musical comparisons would be Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, so as you can guess, we feel right at home with these dudes (and dudette) ...


http://www.intromental.com
http://www.intromental.com/sevenkingdoms/

Just wanted to say that this video was released and finished after we had member changes. We shot this video (I think) last summer. It's taken a while to get it complete but hey, its complete now! lol thanks to cory and bry for being so metal :)

See yall at the show!

-Camden
7K 

Hey everyone! We will be entering the Morrisound Studios in late July to record  our second album. The music will feature the new front of Sabrina Valentine, as well as guest appearances by Wade Black (Crimson Glory, Leatherwolf) and Glen Alvelais (Forbidden, Testament). Were not going to release a hard copy of the cd untill a few months after we get the masters (label shopping horray! haha), but if no one wants us, SCREW IT!!! well release it on our own for your enjoyment! We can't wait for you guys to hear the new stuff. The new album has a more focused "Seven Kingdoms" sound this time around. I know some of you guys are worried that we will be going softer since we have a chick singer, but let me assure you there will be plenty of epic triumphant-ness on this one as well. The songs will also sound like every other major label release since were doing the whole thing at morrisound this time ($$$$$). But hey, thats what you gotta do to sound like the pros :)

After the studio we will be hitting the road in September/October for a small southeast tour, followed next summer by a full east coast tour. So keep your eyes peeled for new Seven Kingdoms stuff for the rest of the year!!!

-Camden
7K

So, Sabrina and I spent a few hours (makeshift) recording parts of some of the new songs today. There are a lot of parts that still need some fenagaling, but hey its not bad for a few hours of work and a kinda crappy home studio :D haha.

We just wanted to kinda give everyone a sneak peak on some of the material that were putting together......... well, while were putting it together! lol

hope you enjoy it!

-Camden
7K

We would like to take the time to introduce our new bassist Miles Neff, and also thank our great friend Cory Stene for his hard work. Miles is a phenominal bassist and im sure he will be a great addition to Seven Kingdoms. Be sure and say hey to him at the next show!

-7K

Hey ya'll! Camden here checking in. Well alot of new things are in store for Seven Kingdoms, Frist of which is new press pictures. We will be taking new ones with Andrew Tremblay hopeufully by the end of November. I should be getting my new Bernie Rico Jr. "Diva" in as soon as his stock of Floyd Roses come in. New pictures will also be taken for the Rico Jr. Site with me and both my Rico's.

We won't be taking any more shows on until the first of the year to get things re-organized musically since female vocals will be a much larger part in the new material. So we have lots of writing and re-structuring to do to the material that has already been written for the next album. Everything already seems to be falling into place for the next record. Were definitaly excited to be able to have lots of freedom to explore new ways to combine lots of different elements in the great Seven Kingdoms fasion.

Kevin, Cory and I plan to hit Wade Studios, tentatively, in late April or May to lay down Rhythm Bass & Guitars down. Drums, Vocals, Mixing and Mastering will soon follow that at Morrisound Studios in Tampa. However, we will not be duplicating the CD for a few months after its complete.

Our live show should be REALLY solid by the first of the year. You can expect new songs and lots of new eye candy to look at on stage. Im working on some uber sweet things for my 21st birthday show so keep checking in for updates on that! it will be on March 21st.

Well thats all for now! Keep in touch and keep it metal!

-Camden

Member Change

Vocalist Bryan Edwards has quit Seven Kingdoms due to creative difference. We came to this agreement together, and that it would be the best solution for Bryan and Seven Kingdoms' future. We would like to take this time and say thanks for all the great ideas, lyrics and the continuing fun we have with Bryan. We wish him the best!

We are open to new Vocalist to join in.

-You will need to be an extremely strong front person with an extremely solid voice.
-You will be required to attend every practice unless something legit comes in the way.
-Writing is presented to the band as a group to agree on.
-You must have transportation and the money to put gas in your own tank.
-Show that your working hard and care.
-NO HARD DRUGS
-You need to have an open mind about things. Be original. Be yourself.

Sabrina, Cory and Camden will be filling in the peices live for screaming and singing for the time being. As for the future, there's alot of hard work ahead of the band and lots of new exciting things that are fixing to take place. We have alot of new ideas and lots off new stuff coming. Seven Kingdoms will be woking harder than ever to bring you great music for the future.

All the Best!
-7K

Well we are back from the Yuengling Music Tour! Man was it awesome!!! We would like to thank all the people , bands, and our good buddies in From the Throne and Demise of all Reason for making the entire tour ULTRA MEGA FUN!!! When not on stage our days were filled with nothing but fun, good food, and good beer thanks to Yuengling. Overall, the tour was a huge success considering it was our first one!

Now back to normal life, we are currently taking this and probably next month off to write some of the new material, and to save some money for our HUGE recording expense for (hopefully) summer next year. We have a solid title for the new album. Artwork will be started on it in a few weeks. So, our new album has been started.

In the meantime, we should be getting a paypal link up on our page so that way the Yuengling/Seven Kingdoms T-Shirts and whatever else we want to sell can be purchased! Other than that, we're just going to be playing some shows here and there so if you can make it out!!!

-Camden

I've been meaning to put together some liner notes for Brothers of the Night for a while now, but it just kept getting pushed to the side. This is long overdue! Hopefully at least a few of you have picked up George R. R. Martin's books because of our music, or maybe you were already a Martin fan to begin with. This is going to be mainly aimed toward you, since almost all of the lyrics from the album are based on A Song of Ice and Fire. I won't be attempting to explain the WHOLE story for each song here. If you haven't already, go buy Martin's books and read them! Trust me, they're well worth the money.





Seven Kingdoms



First, I'd like to touch on the origin of our band's name. As with most things relating to the band so far, our name is taken from George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire. The setting for the majority of the storylines present in the series is the continent of Westeros, where upon lie the Seven Kingdoms.


When it came time for us to choose a band name, I originally wanted to go with Winterfell, but I found that another band based on ASoIaF had already taken that name (though they are no longer active). I narrowed down my choices to a few names I liked a lot and left it up to the rest of the band to decide (at the time: Camden, Kevin and Keith). It was between Valyria, Dragonstone, Harrenhal and Seven Kingdoms. Though Dragonstone had some support, Seven Kingdoms ultimately won out, since there are already TOO MANY metal bands with "Dragon" in their names. People would have probably thought we were just ripping off Dragonforce and Thunderstone anyways.




Brothers of the Night



I originally had no idea what to title the album, or what should be on the album cover. Thankfully my girlfriend Kristen had already read the books before me and was able to suggest some things. She came up with a scene near the end of A Game of Thrones which was particularly memorable and I couldn't help but agree with her. The scene tied together well with our song Watchers On The Wall. I didn't want to title the album after one of the songs though, so she suggested we use lyrics from the song instead.


The cover artwork was done by Camden's father, who is a well known airbrush artist (especially for murals). Kristen and I described the scene of Jon Snow and Samwell Tarly swearing their oath to the Night's Watch, and what he came up with a couple days later was absolutely stunning.


From there, a high quality picture was taken of the painting by Camden and sent via email to Kristen. She made it look even better in photoshop and added the band logo and album title.


Finally, the finished cover and all lyrics were sent over to Mike at Morbid Subculture Productions to put together our booklet and CD case design.



Eyes Of Summer



You might say that the title is purposely misleading, because it seems vague. The lyrics can be rather vague as well. However, to a fan of ASoIaF the lyrics will make a whole lot more sense, even to the point of an enlightening realization. It's been fun seeing reactions when people finally figure out what the song is about.

Eyes of SUmmer is about Bran Stark, who has been left crippled for life after falling from a tower in Winterfell. Ever since then, he's been under assault by powers inside of him which he can not fully understand. His dire wolf companion, Summer, has a special connection with Bran which grows into a somewhat shared existence. Bran can take control of Summer in his dreams. As his story progresses, Bran finds himself on a journey northward to seek answers about his powers from the Children of the Forest who are rumored to still live beyond The Wall. As it so happens, other supernatural powers are also awakening in the wild lands to the north.


It's a song about freedom and seeking meaning in life even after you think fate has turned against you.



Musically, this one was heavily inspired by Sonata Arctica, and to a lesser degree, Gamma Ray. We had almost finished all of our songs for the album, but still wanted to do a simple, straightforward power metal song. Surprisingly, we wrote all of the riffs and structured everything in only a few hours (usually it takes us multiple writing sessions to complete a song's basic composition). The results couldn't have been more perfect for what we were trying to achieve.



Stormborn



If only Sabrina had been a part of the band when we recorded the vocals! This song is about Daenerys Targaryen and it takes place somewhere in the middle of A Game of Thrones. Her elder brother Viserys is abusive and slightly insane. He only seems to care about her as long as she can help him regain the throne of the Seven Kingdoms. She's sold to a Dothraki horse lord, Khal Drogo, for a promise to help Viserys gain money and power. Unfortunately for Viserys, Drogo and Daenerys end up falling in love despite the arranged marriage. When Drogo begins taunting and belittling him in front of everybody, Viserys becomes enraged and falls further into insanity. During a celebration of the horse lords to recognize Daenerys's addition to their highest female caste, Viserys pulls a sword in a drunken rage and demands that Drogo keep up his end of the bargain. With her newfound power and individuality, Daenerys is faced with the decision to either try and save her brother's life or let the horse lords kill him. She chooses the latter. Khal Drogo places his golden belt in a pot above the fire and melts it down. Keeping his end of the bargain, Viserys is given a crown of gold.


While it may be rather morbid, I absolutely loved this part of Daenerys's story. After being so repressed, used, and abused by Viserys, it was extremely satisfying to watch Daenerys become her own person and escape from his manipulation. This is also a song about freedom, and the message is a lot more straightforward than in Eyes of Summer.



This was the half-way point in our writing of the album. We wanted to try and do some melodic death metal with this song and it ended up a little more melodic than expected. Arsis and In Flames were the big influences here, though many seem to think we conjured Into Eternity for this song. If anything, the inspiration for the clean breaks came from In Flames and Insomnium here, though we are fans of Into Eternity.



We Do Not Sow (The Legacy of Black Harren, Part I)



We move forward to A Clash of Kings with this song and meet the Ironborn and their quest for plunder. I absolutely love anything that remotely resembles Vikings, so the Iron Men won a place in my heart instantly. They have an incredible sense of pride and lust for power, though hubris is often their downfall (which is touched upon in Part II). This song is about Harren the Black, once one of the greatest of the Ironborn and a leader of sorts. Harren conquered a large portion of northern Westeros during his lifetime.


The lyrics of the bridge section of the song are taken directly from the book. It is a prayer to The Drowned God which is spoken when Iron Men are annointed by their priests. There are also numerous paraphrases within the rest of the lyrics which are taken from dialogue and descriptions in A Clash of Kings.



The music here is quite obviously a stylistic tribute to Iced Earth. Jim Morris even said that he felt deja-vu while we were recording the vocals in the studio. The exact same effects used on the vocals during the bridge of Iced Earth's Damien are used during our bridge. Original scratch tracks of the bridge used the same multiple voiced whispering vocals as well, but we dropped the idea before heading into the studio (before bordering on ripping off Iced Earth rather than paying tribute).



Blackwater Rush



I wanted to really let loose with the Battle of Blackwater Rush and try to make a song about Tyrion Lannister, so I killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. Essentially this song is about that battle, as seen through Tyrion's eyes. For those who don't know the character, he's a dwarf (and when I say dwarf, I mean he's like a midget, not the dwarves we know from Tolkien or Dungeons & Dragons). "Halfman" is a common, derogatory nickname people give to him.


The battle begins with some of the ships of the opposing forces coming from the sea into the inlet on Blackwater Rush, next to King's Landing (the capital city). This is the only way to directly reach the walls of the city, so in preparation Tyrion has been instructing the whole city to build an enormous chain to cross the channel of the inlet. As soon as the first wave of ships come through, the chain is raised up from underwater, trapping them inside the channel and in the range of catapults.


The catapults are hurling a substance called wildfire, which is highly combustible and burns like oil on top of water. Thus, the trapped ships end up becoming "islands of floating death" as the green fire burns everything uncontrollably. It really is an incredibly terrible, yet awe inspiring battle. Martin spends multiple chapters telling it from different viewpoints toward the end of A Clash of Kings. I'm planning on revisiting a different viewpoint in an upcoming song.



This is the only song to feature writing contributions from the Byrd brothers. All of the other music is written by Camden and arranged by Camden and myself. The bridge section is probably my favorite part of the entire album, and I do believe that's the part the Byrds wrote. Expect more from them in the future. *wink wink*



This was my favorite song to write lyrics to, since the music was so catchy and upbeat. I did the absolute opposite from what you'd expect and talked about death and destruction. The end result is a song that makes you want to dance, yet feel disgusted at yourself for doing so. I love it. This was also my chance to try and do something along the lines of Falconer's low-range vocal melodies. The medieval atmosphere lent well to it.



The Bloody Meadow



This song was the HARDEST to compose lyrically. I think I went through four different rewrites before finally figuring out exactly what to do with it. There were lyrics based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Then there were lyrics based on The Count of Monte Cristo. There may have been lyrics based on Watership Down. Eventually I ran across a small section of a song in A Clash of Kings which fit the chorus absolutely perfectly, and the rest was easy from there.



Other than the chorus, the rest of the song is my own. It speaks of the power of music to tell a story and give eternal life to those in it, similar to Blind Guardian's famed The Bard's Song - In The Forest. I basically took an obscure lyric of a song Martin came up with and only mentioned once, and built an entire story out of it about when the person who wrote it witnessed the events therein.



I don't think the music was inspired by any particular bands for this song, though the chorus was geared toward massive vocals in Blind Guardian's style. The scratch tracks actually featured some soaringly high harmonies in Hansi Kursch's vocal style, but those were dropped as a quality control issue for the album. I'm certainly not Hansi.



Dragonflight



It all started here. The original version of Dragonflight was titled Shadow and Flame, and was about Gandalf's battle with the Balrog in the Mines of Moria. While I absolutely loved that song, it just wasn't good enough to make the cut once Camden became proficient with his recording software. Instead of re-recording it exactly as it was, we opted to shorten it and do all new lyrics.


This was before I started reading Martin's novels and before we started getting serious about putting a band together. I wanted to write something stupidly stereotypical, just for the hell of it. So I ended up making lyrics about pissed off Viking-like-people who ride dragons into battle. To make it even worse, I chose the title of the classic Anne McCaffrey book just to mislead people. I'm a bad person.



Anyways, this song features a lot of influences, but most prominent seems to be Amon Amarth (especially in the original version of the song). I really wanted to put the "Ohh-Ohh" part in the bridge just to have some Iron Maiden flavor in there. Iron Maiden are my favorite band, but tragically it's extremely difficult to emulate them without seeming like an asshole for doing it. So, there's my one Iron Maiden hat tip, other than the bass I wrote for The Long Night.



The Long Night



This was our second song, and it was originally titled The End. It was another song I threw a lot of stereotypes into. With a few minor lyrical changes, I made it about the titular event in the distant past of Westeros when the Others invaded from the north.



Yes, the intro is absolutely a nod to Wintersun's song Beyond the Dark Sun. Camden and I loved our version of it so much that we kept it, despite what anybody might think. We'll be the first to say that Wintersun are a much better band than we are, so don't give us crap for wanting to try and recreate a favorite musical moment of theirs.



As with most of the album other than the last few songs we wrote, I composed and recorded the bass guitar tracks. This song in particular was my chance to really try and emulate Steve Harris's writing style, with a little bit of Geddy Lee in the chorus. I had a lot of fun with it, though it's not so easy to hear with all of the vocals stacked on top.



All of the high-pitched black metal screaming on the album is done by Cory. He's featured heavily in this song as well as Towers of Hubris (The Legacy of Black Harren, Part II).



Watchers On The Wall



Like The Bloody Meadow, this song was really geared toward an epic chorus, so that's what I aimed for first. Strangely enough this song was also difficult to write. I think I had a draft based on Watership Down again, but it got dropped in favor of sticking with the ASoIaF motif. This was one of the last songs we wrote for the album after all.


After listening to the song over and over again, the bridge really stuck out to me for some reason... and then it clicked. The oath of the Night's Watch! It fit perfectly. So, almost exactly word for word, the oath became the bridge and the song took shape from there. It's set at the end of A Game of Thrones from the perspective of a random brother of the Watch.


The music is power metal for the most part, with no particular bands to cite except for maybe Freedom Call. There is an amusing bit of trivia to the music and lyrics though. The very short metalcore breakdown after the first chorus is Camden and me poking fun at the rest of the bands in our local music scene. The lyrics during the segment also feature the name of one of the most popular local bands at that time... The Dead Shall Rise.



Towers of Hubris (The Legacy of Black Harren, Part II)



This is another song with some trivia to it. It was the last one we wrote for the album, about a week before heading into Morrisound to record vocals. If it sounds like it didn't get as much attention as the other songs, that's why. It was also written in the vein of Iced Earth, like We Do Not Sow.


Vocally, I tried to emulate a syncopated metalcore style and broke words up into odd syllables here and there. It was an interesting experiment, though I doubt I'll do it again.


The guitar solo at the beginning of the song was recorded at Morrisound by Pat from the death metal band The Absence. Our keyboardist John knew him and asked if he'd like to guest and he was more than willing. It ended up being one of the best moments of the whole album I think.


The lyrics here are a continuatuon of Harren the Black's story. He's built his enormous castle Harrenhal as a testament to the power he's gained and his massive pride. When the Targaryens invade Westeros and ask him to give up his lands, he locks himself in his castle believing that nothing could ever destroy it. In his hubris, he dooms himself to death. The Targaryens fly down on their dragons and burn everybody inside of the castle alive, though the castle itself remains with little damage. Henceforth, everybody who lives in the castle meets some sort of grim demise and nobody lives there for long. Rumors go around that the castle is haunted and cursed.


Though pride can be a powerful force for advancement, it can also be a person's biggest flaw. That was the point I was trying to touch upon with this song.



Winter Comes



The last song on the album, but the first song Camden and I wrote with expectations to put a band together. I had just finished reading A Game of Thrones, so it was fresh on my mind and I wanted to write a song about Eddard Stark. The length of this song really gave me a chance to tell a lot of story, so I chose to write non-repeating lyrics. The results ended up being an awesome and epic way to close the album, so that's why it's at the end. I won't elaborate on the story for this one, since it spans the entirety of the book. Know that there are some serious spoilers here though, so don't read into the lyrics too much if you're planning on reading A Game of Thrones.



It's probably obvious that Camden and I wanted to really shoot for something similar to Amon Amarth. They are another of my favorite bands, so I had a lot of fun writing vocals here.



One final bit of trivia: The original scratch recordings for this song featured Blind Guardian styled prechoruses and choruses. As I said before, I'm not Hansi, so those were scrapped when the time came to do actual vocals.


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I hope you enjoyed reading more about the songs and how they came together. I'm sorry if I got confusing somewhere along the way and went on too many tangents, but I wanted to include as much as possible and this took a LONG time to type up. Thanks for reading if you made it this far!



The next album is coming together slowly, but surely. The addition of Sabrina on vocals has added a whole new dimension to writing lyrics which is proving difficult at times. There are already a couple songs finished musically and the Byrds have been a larger part of coming up with material this time around. Overall I'd say we've moved well ahead of where we were on Brothers of the Night, though there's always room for improvement. I can't wait to see what you guys think of these new songs!



Take care and keep on moving forward,

Bryan