Recently, our good friend and former bassist Ken Miller posted a blog featuring some rare demo and live tracks from his days with Last Day Dying. Check it out and download the music at the bottom of the blog:
Throughout the two years LDD spent writing the full length "Lover's Arms," I collected about 16 cds worth of Last Day Dying Demos, Rehearsals, and Live Recordings. It amounted to almost 3 hours worth of material, a total of 31 tracks (multiple versions of 12 different songs, including: 10 Rehearsals, 9 Demos, 10 Live Cuts, 1 Studio outtake, and 1 spliced track). From this material, I compiled a collections of 13 tracks; My choice cuts from all the recordings during the 2 years leading up to the release of the CD. It won't exactly all fit onto a CD, but most of you probably have ipods. So here you go.
LAST DAY DYING
Dress Rehearsal (Demos & Recordings 2004-2005)
1. With The Decapitation Of Big Top We Made Our Skin
[Rehearsal - Spring 2004]
This was the very first recording of the first song I wrote with LDD. Originally, it was intended for the split that was planned with Dare I Say. I think it marked a turning point for LDD, elevating the band past just a metalcore band to a creative blend of melodic progressive metal, moshy two-step hardcore, and heavy breakdowns. The song was later named "Tramp's Last Bow," when vocalist-Mark started to envision a story that would become the concept for the full length.
2. 2 Pennies
[Live at The Grange in Malvern, PA - Spring 2004]
This was the first live performance of another song that was intended for the split with Dare I Say. This one focused more on drawing movement and energy from the crowd. It was fast, hard, and heavy. The song would be thrown all over the set. Sometimes we'd open with it, sometimes we'd close with it, or sometimes play it in the middle of the set – the interlude in the middle of the song was a nice "breather" to break up the set. This song was later renamed "Snapshot Wedding Vows," to fit in with Mark's concept.
3. Leaving Cold Blue
[Live at Club 218 in Philadelphia, PA - August 2005]
One of the things I loved most about playing with LDD, was the counterbalance between the tightly polished studio recording and the raw, emotional and energetic live performances. The LP version of this song is so tight, and so clean. This live version is a great contrast.
4. Shorter Than A Holiday
[Rehearsal / No Vocals - Summer 2004]
This is a practice recording, from before the vocals were completed for the song. After completing the writing of the music, we would generally record it using Ross' video camera, and he would bounce it down to CD for Mark to write vocals for. I love this song. It is short and sweet.
5. Time-Span Of A Heart-Attack
[Live at Club 218 in Philadelphia, PA - August 2005]
This one just shows the openness and willingness to have fun. This show was the night before Conor's 21st birthday. He is the youngest in the band, so we were celebrating our boy being all growns-up. As we were setting up on stage, I talked to Matt and Mark about pausing in the middle of the song to sing Happy Birthday. Matt controls the natural pause in the center of the song, because we wait for his guitar chug to go into the next part. Conor had no idea. His reaction was great. Having this recorded version is great.
6. Tramp's Last Bow
[Live at The Crowbar in State College, PA - Summer 2004]
In the summer of 2004 we toured for 2 weeks with Dare I Say across PA, up into NY, and down through NJ. Our first stop, and most enjoyable date on the tour was State College, PA. We began the day playing at the Penn State Campus radio station. We hung out in town trying to advertise the show that night at a place called the Crowbar. I'm sure the places really fills up when a rock-pop cover band plays. But for metal… it wasn't happening. To make matters worse, it was a battle of the bands. So we were competing with our friends in Dare I Say. Not really. In actuality we all voted for each other. A female fronted rock band wound up winning. Good for them. This was a great recording of our "hit" at the time. We had championed the song by this point. Dare I Say was on the dance floor singing along. We two bands were pretty much off in our own world the entire tour.
7. Snapshot Wedding Vows (Outtake)
[Claycreek Studio, Newark, DE - Fall 2004]
We recorded Lover's Arms in two chunks. This was the version of this song from the first session in 2004. We decided to re-record it when we went back into the studio in 2005. There was nothing necessarily bad about this recording. We just thought we had improved playing it. I think the same could be said about the first 4 songs on the album… but we didn't have the time money or energy to re-record everything. The major noticeable difference is Mark's lyrics. Again, there wasn't anything bad about them… he just liked the newer lyrics better. They fit better with the concept leading into the second half of the album. This is what kind of made in necessary to re-record it.
8. Let's Hear It For The Martyrs (Demo)
[Matt Nye Studio, Downingtown, PA - Fall 2005] This was the first song written for the second half of the album. In the summer of 2005 we started to get our process down tight. Before going into the studio we added the step of "demoing" the songs so we had an idea of how we wanted the songs to sound when we went into the studio for real to record… and pay for it. Up until Mark named it, this song was being referred to as "The Metal Song." We were pulling influences from Metal bands new and old, east and west.
9. Rope Dancer (Demo)
[Matt Nye Studio, Downingtown, PA - Fall 2005]
We wanted Matt to contribute a piece of ambient work to put before the final act of the album's story. When listened to in the order of the album, this song is really touching. Matt composed and recorded the first half of this song digitally. Then we recorded the second half live. There are no vocals on this recording.
10. Christopher's Evidence (Demo)
[Blackbox Studio, Somewhere, DE - 2005]
This song was originally recorded on their first self-produced full length "Anatomy Of A Collapse." We were toying with the idea of re-recording it for the album. We were regularly playing this one in our live sets. We beefed up the song a little bit. But for the most part, the original version is in tack. The plans to include it on the album got dropped once Mark completed the concept story. It was then pushed to maybe putting on a future EP.
11. "Indie Song"
[Rehearsal / No Vocals - Date Unknown]
Conor and Matt were working on this prior to me joining the band. Mid way through the Lover's Arms writing, they showed it to me, and we were all for using it on the album. However, due to the later songs growing in length, we wouldn't have been able to fit it on the album, which, without it, was clocking at 70 minutes. It was added into the planning for the next EP, along with Christopher's evidence. This is another instrumental practice recording. No vocals were ever written. I think LDD may be using parts of this song for a song on their upcoming EP.
12. Kiss Or Stop Breathing
[Rehearsal - Summer 2005]
Feedback… drum intro… a millions and one transitions… a long guitar solo… sing along "wo-ohs" …this song had it all. And it was at the point of writing this song, which LDD had stretched the boundaries so far, it allowed us to do anything we damn well wanted to do in a song. It's great to push that boundary musically, to open the doors and not have to follow a format.
13. For The Ghost…
[Rehearsal / No Vocals - Fall 2005]
What ….A 20 fucking minute song? …Can you say "Progressive-Metalcore?" When we went in to record the first 5 songs, Nick from Claycreek commented about our choice for the first song on the album. It was 10 minutes long. He was pushing us to make it last, saying that epic songs should always be last. We disagreed. The intro to Cold Blue was exactly how we wanted to start the CD. So, jokingly we told him that the last song was going to be 20 minutes long. Well… that actually happened. It actually happened naturally, too. The song wasn't forced into being 20 minutes. We just had a lot of ideas. This recording is from before we finished writing. The ending is not complete. The last quarter of this track is actually all improvisation. We weren't sure how it was going to end. After recording this and listening to it non-stop during the week in between practices, we brought back several ideas, and completed the song.
Download Part 1 and Part 2:
http://www.mediafire.com/?n12zezjyzoo
http://www.mediafire.com/?tzjjjmyzjm2
This is not an official LDD release. It is just a compilation of songs I massed over the 3 years I was in the band. You can purchase all of the band's release through the band itself.
-Metal Ken
visit my blog: http://vacantplanets.blogspot.com