Yes, the second album of Saattue will be called "Vuoroveri". Here's a studio diary - published in Finnish by T. Kalliomaki at www.saattue.net and translated to Saattue myspace by T. Koskinen & J. Koskela. More updates coming in April especially. Watch the space!
Vuoroveri (Tide of blood) - studio diary 2009
15.3.2009 Pre - production
The working process on the new songs started during the last summer / autumn. For starters I recorded the raw versions of all of the songs. They evolved for the rest of the year, January and February at the Saattue rehearsal place - until they had reached a form that should be recorded down. Working with this second album of Saattue, was totally different kind of situation, than the situation had been with the debut album. All of the songs had to be composed right after one other. The time was limited, as we didn’t want to let too much time to pass between these two records.
Working with the new songs of my other band, Embassy of Silence – at the same time, didn’t make the situation much easier. However, these new Saattue songs came together pretty easily, just as soon as I got the work started.
The studio where we will be recording the album will once again be D-studio in Klaukkala, Finland. There will be 8 new songs on the new CD - a bit less than one hour of diverse Saatto metal.
Titles of the new songs and short introduction of the material:
NOTIFICATION! Don’t take everything that you read from here too seriously =D
“Luopio” (Traitor, renegade)
This was the first song to reach its’ final form. Quite fundamental Saattue song it is. The main riff is heavy as hell. A bit Luutarhuri like. Some people have said that it is an evil twin of a children’s song called Brother Jacob =D. The chorus line is catchy and beautiful with harsh, but melodic vocals. The ending part is acoustic and pretty emotional.
“Itsensä herra” (A Master of His Own)
The working title of this song was called Paradise Lost. Mainly because of the first riff of the song has something similar in its melody lines. As a huge Paradise Lost fan, one can say, that some influences have been absorbed.
The vocals are deep growls in the verses and melodic raspy shouts in the choruses. Very catchy – Anne Mattila like – as expressed by our drummer Miku. Maybe the most original song, when it comes to its structure. It doesn’t really follow any basic song formulas and rhythms.
“Vapahtaja” (Saviour, redeemer)
The fastest song on the album - tempo 82.5 (165) bps. The working title of the song was “and justice for Metallic-hangover”. The riff in the verses sounds a bit like Metallica - simple riffing. The time signature changes quite often during the song, (7/8, 4/4, sometimes counting to 5 even). However the song itself sounds pretty simple; thanks to the straight and simple drum lines, without any reversed drum beats - a trick that I hate so much! We will be having some interesting visitors and instruments in this song, so stay tuned ;)
This song has some hit potential, and it will be the next video song from us. The director of the video is Matti Salminen. As words of relief, one can say… that we won’t be showing our ugly faces on the video.
“Synnistä syntynyt” (Born from the Sin)
Almost completely acoustic and a gloomy song. The vocals will be performed by ”our 7th member” Ines Lukkanen. You can also hear some cellos and Hammond keyboards on this song. Slightly Tenhi -like song, with female vocals. It will be played in D-tune and the song ends by a horrifying sound of a music box.
“Taakka” (A Burden)
Obviously the heaviest song of the album, played with dropped Bb-tune, while all other distorted guitars are in C-tune. The lyrics of ”Synnistä syntynyt” and this one are related.
The song itself popped up into my mind, when I heard a video song from Slipknot. I couldn’t stand the band before, but somehow I learned to like the way how they use dropped tunes. It made me want to compose one damn heavy and crushing song to this album. The vocals in chorus lines are pure Finnish folk - as catchy as a leech in your butt. =D
“Veren perimä” (Heritage of Blood)
One of my personal favorites on this album and also one of the slowest and longest songs that we have got. The vocal parts are once again folksy, in the traditional Finnish way, just as the overall atmosphere of the song is. The song starts with a long kantele (Finnish zither) intro, played by Aslak Tolonen (known from the band called Nest, and from the album “Illusions Play” by Shape of despair). The chorus lines and the ending parts of the song are pretty surprising - Rock’n’roll chorus lines, crushed by Slayerish ending part =D
“Häpeän linnut (The birds of shame)
The closing song of the album and also therefore can be seen as “Varjojen saattue pt II”. Very slow song, but still less than 10 minutes long. It doesn’t have as many parts as Varjojen Saattue. The main riff is already about 10 years old – finally I did find a place for it. Meanwhile it is the only old riff on this album - didn’t have to go through shelves to get this album done. Lyrically it’s gloomy debauchery from the beginning till the end ;) Despite of the several time signature changes, this may be the easiest song on the album.
”Evoluution kruunu” (The Crown of Evolution)
Heavy and oppressive folk - doom song (mainly due to the vocal parts). The verse has a little bit of Ajattara spirit on it. The whole song is based on one acoustic riff, which maintains in the background for the most of the song. The song is executed very much in the same way as “The Cry of Mankind” by My Dying Bride. The track has one of the best chorus lines of this album.
About the lyrics, shortly
We decided to write stories about the twisted human nature and the reasons behind it - not about the final destination, but about the turning points that lead into it and rule a dark life before it. Vuoroveri - Tide of Blood - can describe two faced human nature, as well as behavior that is related to drug addiction, double standard, or anything that twists the human nature. The album title, Vuoroveri, is mostly related to the song “Vapahtaja”.
The lyrics are written by Tuukka (vocals), with exception of ”Vapahtaja” and ”Häpeän linnut”, which are written by me and ”Synnistä syntynyt”, which is written by Ines. All complains about the compositional work should be directed to me and about the arrangements to the whole band.
At the moment we are finalizing the pre-production of the songs in our own Kammio studio. This time, only the keyboard parts of the pre-production sessions will end up on the album. The rest of the album will be recorded at D-Studio. The actual recordings will start on ..the 6th of April 2009.
TIDE OF BLOOD IS RISING!
Yours:
Tero
28.3.2009 The demos - via dolorosa.
We started to record demos of the new songs at the Saattue’s rehearsal place (Kammio Studios) in March. The main idea was to test the vocal lines, to figure out what and how to play and also to make the final keyboard tracks for the album.
As always, the sessions started with the drums, which Miku nailed down fast - as always – during the first two evenings of the sessions. A few months earlier, we had already been to D-Studio to demo “Luopio” and “Evoluution kruunu”. So there was no need to pay more attention on those songs really. Our main attention, at this point, was not to create a great sound (as you can hear on the short demo teaser of Taakka), but to go in to the performing details as quickly as possible.
The rhythm guitars were next in the line. They were recorded down by Tero and Jani. Hapa was busy with his job related things and came to learn and to write down tablatures of the changes that had been made. Hapa has tablatures to nearly all of the songs – written in a mystic way, so that no one else can understand them.
Naturally, the sessions couldn’t go through without facing problems. As soon as the time to record the bass guitar had come, Samu broke his wrist while ice skating. As an old UltraMayhem bass player, Tero quickly played Samu’s parts, so that the sessions could go further.
90% of the clean and lead guitars were saved from Tero’s original demo recordings of the songs, as there was no major changes coming up with them and we wanted to get quickly to things that needed more attention, such as to the vocals and finishing the keyboards for the album.
Tuukka handled his vocal parts professionally and fast. The amount of melodic raspy shouting voices has increased. Simply because they just sound godly, when performed by Tuukka. There are also clean and grunting voices, in good balance, to make the whole thing more interesting and to bring contrasts, which are important part of Saattue’s music. We’ll also have Ines Lukkanen in the studio, to perform the female vocal parts. Another visitor in the studio will be the original singer of Saattue, Vesa Mänty, who also has a godly shouting voice.
The most time taking part has been the keyboards, since Tero has tried to put more effort to sounds and playing than earlier. The main keyboard sounds on the album are Miroslav Philharmonik strings and choir orchestra plug-ins, the dark violins, flutes, church organs and the Hammond sounds of the Mellotron plug-in. The real cellos will be played by Aapo Romu of Vanguard.
Making of demos has been physically heavy and mentally very stressing, as the goal is nothing less than to top the debut album “Jäähyvästi”. There’s been enough work for nearly each evening, after a full day at the day job. The mission is now starting to reach the winning side and we’re ready to take the project to D-Studio and to finalize it into a record, under the guidance of Jarno Hänninen.
6.4.2009 - Drums
The first day at D-Studio started with setting the drums up and by importing the already existing keyboard tracks, and a mix of the demo recordings, into the studio..s computer. We faced some problems right in the beginning, as we discovered that the part of the symbal set that we had borrowed, was not sounding as good as we had expected. The best and quickest solution was for Miku and Jani to visit Backline Rental in Helsinki, while Tero stayed at the studio to set up rhythm guitar sounds. As for symbals, we got Zildjian A series custom and quality Sabian stuff. The drum set was the same Pearl Masterworks set that we had used on "Jäähyvästi" album.
As soon as the REC-button had been bushed for the first time, the drum parts for the first song "Evoluution Kruunu" were recorded in 30 minutes and the second one, "Taakka", in about an hour.
We also met the new studio intern, Rami - now known as the number 8 (in D-Studio terminology).
7.4.2009 - Drums
In the evening, when we had already returned home, the studio owner Jarno remembered us with a forwarded text message: "Peavey is at the studio, there..s chewing cum in the inputs, I drilled holes to the tubes and filled them with casoline, masturbated to the insides of the box, and just to make sure - gnawed off the insulating materials of the power cord. Framus will be returned in the same condition. With warm greetings, Timo (shy) Huttunen". Explosive guitar sounds to be expected then! We got 6505+ amp for our use, for a few days, while the D-Creation guitarist Timo got our second Framus Cobra in return, for his personal use, for a few days. In return we..ll change the insides of Hapa..s Burgera to the insides of that Peavey 6505, with included brown surpise fillings - Thanks!
We got 90% of the drums done, alltough at some point it seemed that some of the songs would need to be left for the next day. In agony and pain, Miku managed to finnish the main drum lines - while only the extra stuff would need to be done in the morning. Junglebongoshamanrattle, for "Synnistä Syntynyt" and "Verenperimä" and so on.
8.4.2009 - Percussions and rhythm guitars
In the morning, we finished the percussion parts. Sammy from Mind-A-Stray kindly borrowed us his instruments for that.
Rather shamanic additional percussion lines were recorded to "Verenperimä" - a song that will feature also Finnish zither and acoustic 12 string guitar. The chorus verses of "Synnistä Syntynyt" got bongos, rainstick and tambourine to be featured in the background.
It was time to return the symbals and to move to rhythm guitar parts of Tero and Hapa. A few days earlier, the guitar amplifier related consensus had been an omen. Hapa..s Burgera refused to work and we decided to find him a sound from the studios Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier instead. It was the second time, during a rather short period of time, that the Burgera broke down. It has a good sound, but the reliability is something else. There will be two Peavey 6505+ tracks on
the album, one Mesa Boogie track and one Framus Cobra track. It sounds damn heavy already now, without the Framus track.
9.4.2009 - Rhythm guitars and "making of"
The whole day was used for recording Hapa..s and Tero..s rhythm guitars - while Jani was still sleeping on the couch. Jani..s parts will be recorded next week, when Hapa has to return to his dayjob. First studio guests arrived today, not to play, but to shoot a "making of" documentary. The documentary will be made by the Filmokratik dudes, also know as Tapani Mäki of Tuonenpolku and Aslak Tolonen of the same group and the main figure of Nest. We..ll see what they got
captured on the cameras. Most likely just a lot of bad humour. We have also taken some pictures and short phone camera video takes. We..ll see if any of that material will be worth of public observing. Some of the pics taken by Tapani and Aslak, might appear on facebook soon aswell.
Tomorrow we..ll be starting with the vocals. Half of the day will be used for recording vocals and the other half for rhythm guitars. This way Tuukka will also get a chance to give some rest for his voice. Vocals for the Saattue songs are quite demanding to record down. Especially the raspy voices in the chorus verses, and there will be plenty of them.
10.4.2009 - Rhythm guitars & vocals
The first week of the album recordings is behind us now and the feeling is good. We..re pretty much on the schedule. Quite a few of us have been waking up early in the mornings. Therefore we got a key to the studio, just incase if we want to come earlier and start to record by ourselves. Tero arrived to the studio around 7
a.m. and Hapa shortly after. The first thing to do was to fix rhythm guitar lines for "Vapahtaja". They had been recorded a day earier at the point, when people were allready getting tired after being 8 hours at the studio. After a rewarding lunch brake at the local pizzeria, Tuukka had arrived to the studio, to start with the vocals. After a few voice opening test takes, the whole thing started to run smoothly and quickly. We got all main vocals for "Vapahtaja" done - only some
harmonies and other extras has to be added later. "Vapahtaja" is a damn good song. Quite "fast" and heavy tune with a catchy chorus. At this point, it..s a strong opening track candidate for the album. We..ll have 2 guests on this song: Cello and a solo. More about them later. A good deal of the main vocals for "Evoluution Kruunu" were recorded aswell, so the situation looks good.
Rami, the number 8, and the studio owner Jarno got the game room finished. Most likely it..s gonna be next weeks most visited room for those who will be free from playing duties. Now a free weekend. A beer, maybe two, before passing out.
13.4.2009 - Rhythm guitars, vocals & a lost whiskey bottle
A mysterious day, as the guitars for Taakka took a lot of extra time to do. The dropped tune caused some trouble - guitars didn..t stay in good tune - Hapa..s hands were shaking after the long weekend rest :P Also one of the two whiskey bottles, that Tero had brough from Ireland, had disapeared. A return delivery was on its way though, and extra twelve pack of beer was allready there. Should always remember that there are other thirsty bands recording in the studio too.
More vocals after finishing the rest of Hapa..s guitars. Taakka wasn..t easy tune for Tuukka either. Lot..s of high notes, as you can hear from this video -Making of Vuoroveri pt1
14.4.2009 - Rhythm guitars and vocals
Tero finished his rhythm guitars with the Peavey 6505 amp and we moved to Jani..s Framus Cobra rhythms. Finished the main vocals for "Itsensä Herra" and Samu arrived to the studio to get ready to record his bass guitar parts.
Sounds like that Tuukka has found more of that bottom to his growling voice, that he had on "Ikiuneen" track on the debut album. One chord mistake was spotted at the keyboard tracks, which Tero had to fix at his home studio.
Listening to rhythm tracks starts to get really boring. Next week - with all lead, clean and accoustic guitar recordings - is much awaited at this point. Here..s
a another video - Making of Vuoroveri pt 2
15.4.2009 - Matti Nykänen, rhythm guitars and vocals
The morning started with Matti Nykänen and his first record "Yllätysten Yö". The record was going on repeat the whole day - always when the REC button was not on. Tero had also brought "Samurai" and "Elämä on Laiffii" records with him, but they are not that good, because the presence of Matti..s - perfectly in tune - voice has been destroyed by having absurd choirs in the "background". We continued with Jani..s rhythm guitars and Tuukka..s vocals. Today we also saw tits at the studio (unfortunately only Tuukka..s) as the song called "Topless" by Matti Nykänen created special vibrations with it..s ingenious lyrics. The world is full of Matti fans, one of them Tonmi Lillman (of Ajattara, Vanguard, Kylähullut), was very happy to arrive to the studio and hear Matti..s voice in the speakers. He even has got an opportunity to sign together with Matti himself.
16.4.2009 - Bass guitars and rhythm guitars
Today we started to record bass guitars and got quite far with them. Samu didn..t even eat in between. We are using a Hartke amplifier and speakers and extra distrortion pedal. We also recorded down a direct in line track, which is for finding a good bottom to the bass and it will be also used in the case of adding some effects. Samu learned one of the songs, "Synnistä Syntynyt", after leaving the studio and before Embassy of Silence rehearsals. Busy day.
Jani also continued with the guitars. The main riff for Luopio turned up to be quite
tricky. Simple sounding riff, but difficult to play with correct finger cordination.
Making of Vuoroveri pt3
17.4.2009 - Bass guitars
Samu finished his bass lines. "Synnistä Syntynyt" naturally took a little bit longer to record, since he had not played it before. Some extra things, such as slides with a 5-string bass might have to be recorded down by Tero, due to the fact that Samu is back at his dayjob from next week on. We had no time to take Jani..s rhythm guitar recordings to the end, so we have to get back to those on Monday morning. We..re starting be behind the schedule, which means earlier mornings next week and maybe some evenings, if the studio is free. We have some guests coming in next week, as far as if the schedules work: Pasi Koskinen (Ajattara), Ines Lukkanen (Embassy of Silence), Aapo Romu (Vanguard), Vesa Mänty (our original singer, now with the Deepsix).
Some photos has been added to Saattue's facebook group
20.4.2009 - Rhythtm, extra and clean guitars
Tero and Jani headed to the studios at 6 a.m. to finish the rhythm guitars. Some extra bass guitar slides were recorded with a 5-string Yamaha bass (tuned down to G). Tero recorded some extra guitars - rhythm guitar harmonies and slides. A clean guitar sound was made and tomorrow Tero will start to record them with half-acoustic Gretch guitar. The week is gonna be busy, due to the fact that everything should be recorded down and next monday we should be able to start to mix the album.
21.4.2009 - Clean guitars and vocals
A long day that started around midday. Tero finished the clean guitars during the daytime and in the evening we continued to record Tuukka's vocals. Growls for "Häpeän Linnut" and so on. We stayed over night at the studio and emptied one of the bottles that was meant to be given to our guest vocalists.
22.4.2009 - Guests, acoustic and semi-distorted guitars
A slightly hangoverish morning started with Tero's accoustic guitars and some semi-distorted guitars. Jani went to pick-up Ines, who started to record her vocal parts for the album as soon she had arrived. She got quite far with "Synnistä Syntynyt" and took a break when the next guest, Pasi "Ruoja" Koskinen arrived. Pasi delivered us some very low growls and high blackened screams for the song "Itsensä Herra" and also some short takes for the song "Vapahtaja". As soon as Pasi had finished, Ines continued with her parts - harmonies for "Synnistä Syntynyt" and a short verse for the song "Häpeän Linnut".
23.4.2009 - Vocals and editing
Tuukka went to the studio alone with the engineer Jarno, as the rest of the boys had a midday promotional show with Embassy of Silence and Jani took of to Holland to visit the Roadburn Festival. Tuukka finished 95% of the main vocals and, which means that we're also somehow back in the schedule again. Jarno and number 8 did some track editing and mixing preparations. There was a idea to record Vesa's backing vocal parts in the evening, but in the end people had got too tired and it had to be postponed.
24.4.2009 - Acoustic and guitars, vocals
A tough day for Tero's fingers, who recorded guitars for about 10 hours today. Acoustic guitars: steel, nailon and 12-string + more lead guitars in the evening. The song "Synnistä Syntynyt" turned out to be a difficult one. It has a slow tempo on it and it was difficult to find a good "flow" and to keep the timings correct. We also noticed that the bongo drums and the bass guitar were sometimes slightly out of time, so parts of the song had to be recorded without a click track and the right timing had to be found with a feeling. The result was good in the end, but to get there was nerve wrecking.
Vesa's backing vocals were recorded in the evening. He added some additional strenght to the shorus of "Vapahtaja" and few harmonies to the song "Verenperimä". Tero finished the day by playing some lead guitar parts.
26.4.2009 - Lead guitars, vocal harmonies
18 hour working day for Tero and Tuukka. The day started at 9 a.m and ended at 3 a.m. Tuukka sung all vocal harmonies - spilled blood at the end, but finished them so that the mixing could start in the morning. Tero's fingers were again rather numb, after recording "few" leads. Tero finished some forgotten acoustic guitar parts alone, by pushing the "rec" button at the control room and then running to the studio to play the guitar parts.
27.4.2009 - Mixing day 1
We arrived to the studio around midday. Jarno had mixed the first versio of "Evoluution Kruunu" by then. It's not good to start to mix right after the recordings have been finished. The ears are too numb and listening to those same songs again and again isn't the most inspiring thing to do, at that point. No can do - have to concentrate due to the schedule and in order to stay in it. Having a producer, an outsider, at this point could be helpfull, but of course it was too late to think about that. Before the end of the day, also the first raw version of "Verenperimä" was ready for mixdown.
28.4.2009 - Mixing day 2, recording sellos
Todays saldo: first fix mixes of "Evoluution Kruunu" and "Verenperimä" and raw versions of 3 more songs. Some of the tracks, that had been recorded without the precense and order arrangements of Jarno, demanded some extra attention so that they wouldn't haven been left out by accident. The second engineer of the studio, Tonmi Lillman, arrived at 4 p.m and brought Aapo Romu of Vanguard (and live sellist for Ajattara) with him. Aapo played all the sellos for the album. He added some low depth to the song "Synnistä syntynyt" and melodies for the song "Vapahtaja". Thanks to both, Aapo and Tonmi, for their contribution.
29.4.2009 - Mixing day 3, recording piano
Basic mixing day. We got two more raw mixes to listen at home. Jarno played a piano outro for the song "Itsensä Herra". It creates a great contrast, as the song itself is really heavy and in your face kind of song and the outro for it is very calm. We had plans to add few more vocal harmonies, but in the end there was no time for it.
30.4.2009 - Mixing day 4, vocal harmonies
We've got now mixdowns for all of the songs and have now few days of time to give our ears a little bit of rest. The planned vocal harmonies, as well as some last minute vocal ideas of Jarno were captured on "tape" today. Another making of video
here 4.5.2009 - Mixing
After listening to the mixes over the weekend, one can say that the record sounds damn good. The body of the album is starting to take shape now. There are no dull - typical for doomy kind of music - moments on it. The record is lively enough and starts with a little bit faster kind of tracks: Vapahtaja & Luopio. In the middle there's the calm "Synnistä syntynyt", placed in between the heavier and more "intense" kind of tracks: Itsensä herra and Taakka. The record ends with the slowest numbers of the album "Verenperimä" & "Häpeän linnut". Some minor changes of the mixes were made today. It is still a bit of a question mark, that how much bass there should be in the mix.
6.5.2009 - Fixing
Practically we have run out of studio days. However the studio was not in use today and Tero got an opportunity to get the keys from Jarno, so he went there to make some more minor changes. A small cut around 100 - 150hz was made, since the bass guitar was rumbling a bit too much and the rhythm guitars were boosting a little bit on those frequencies. Now the overall production is starting to sound good and kicking in all monitoring devices - at studio, home, car and so on. The rest of it will be taken care of at the mastering studio.
We're still waiting for one special quest to take part on the record and then everything is ready to be taken to the mastering studio. Spinefarm Records has set the release date of the album for September the 9th.
17.6.2009 - Solo by Aleksi Laiho
Last guest of the album recorded his parts today. None else, but Aleksi Laiho of Children of Bodom, lended his amazing guitar soloing skills for us. He'll be featured on the opening song "Vapahtaja". We will see that who's going to play the solo at the shows and how :P
The album is now finally finished and it will be mastered at Finnvox studios.
30.6.2009 - Mastering + teaser
Mastering day at Finnvox Studios with Mika Jussila. We dropped by at D-Studio around 10 a.m to pick up the final studio master with the last versions of the songs. One minor mixing fix had to be done for "Vapahtaja" still. The mastering itself was very easy, since no major sound fixings had to be done and the track order was clear already. The overall sound is now heavier and somewhat darker than on "Jäähyvästi" album.
Kalle Pyyhtinen just finished the layout design for the promotional CD version of the album, which is now on its way to the print house. We are eager to see the rest of the graphics soon.
Here a teaser with short samples taken from the songs Taakka, Vapahtaja & Luopio.
The CD cover
Photo of the Finnvox master, waiting for to be delivered to Spinefarm.