Where it goes from here…

Hello everyone,

I just figured that I would give a quick little update about where things are going to go from here as far as Planet Gemini goes. Before I really get into anything major I seriously want to thank everyone that downloaded and enjoyed Cauldron of Fuzz V. I had reports from people that the server actually died on me on November 1^st (4 or 5 e-mails saying the page was down). It's quite awesome that you all enjoyed it and it was actually a huge undertaking on my part (basically writing an album in 4 days and putting it out a week and a half later…

I wanted to comment on a post I made the day after releasing the album if you would indulge me for a moment. I posted a quick little "Thank you" post and posted the numbers that I got from my hosting company about how many people downloaded the album… and whatnot. Well, needless to say about 15 minutes after I posted it I got an e-mail that was basically saying that I was coming off pompous… and like.. that was never, ever my intention. I don't throw numbers out there to impress anyone. It may seem kind of hard to understand but, to be honest sometimes it even shocks me how many people download this stuff. So please understand that my intentions on posting anything like that is more in the lines of trying to give you all an inside look at the project and not me trying to "awe" you with numbers. To me all that matters is that you enjoy the music. Could be one person, could be hundreds. The person that wrote me with this wasn't rude about it and I truly do believe that they were calling it as they seen it. Due to that e-mail I definitely will be more weary down the line but I hope if anyone else had a chance to read the blog they didn't take it that way. Believe me the fact that someone is probably listening to one of my songs as I type this still blows my mind. Now, with all that being said.. back to news.

Where does Planet Gemini go from here?

Well I can tell you this. As of right now Wicked is being put on hold. It's not off completely but I really do have some stuff I'd rather work on. It's not that I don't love Wicked because I do. I'm just not ready yet to release it. It does need work. It's a fine release as is but it's not everything I want it to be just yet. So the album will go on hold and I will continue to work on other things until the time where I feel that I'm ready to tackle Wicked again.

I've already started writing new tunes for my next project (which is untitled) I must admit that the new stuff is a little more different. I'm broadening my horizons a bit and to me it really is a nice change for Planet Gemini. It's still Sabbathy and heavy in it's own way but I want to explore with more. More acoustic sounds.. more instrumentation. Things like strings, mandolin, and even (gasp) keys sometimes. Different percussive instruments are definitely in the future as well. I want to compose and I want Planet Gemini to be an explosion of different sounds. PG will always be a guitar heavy band and there is nothing to worry about as far as me ever selling that short. However, there is much more power that can be generated with other forms of music. I recently have been listening to the new High on Fire album and it's quite inspirational to hear how their songs took shape with different instruments. I am not a live performer.. and so.. I should be layering these pieces as if they are more geared towards a studio recording. The problem is that I've always played like a live player. I wrote like a live band member would write. Every song I released it was always kind of "well… if I ever need to pull that off live this is how I would do it". I want to do away with that. I want to be more ethereal, more powerful, more haunting.. and I think that in the long-run it's not too far off from where I was heading with Cauldron of Fuzz V.

While writing some of the material on Cauldron of Fuzz V I found myself saying (ya know I've never thought about approaching this song from this angle). With songs like "Ritual Evolved", "Temples of Infinity" or even "A Time Before Time" it wasn't as much a structured song as much as it was a fun jam session. I loved that Ritual and Temples were about 7+ minutes and Time Before Time was about 10… and I can listen to those tracks and they don't feel boring to me at all. Ritual Evolved basically got it's name because it was the same idea building throughout the 7 + minutes of the song. It started off with a tribal beat then the punching of the cymbals started growing. The vocals floated over but by the time you got to the end of the song you were still listening to the same tribal beat… it was just presented in a heavier way. The riff morphed and moved to make a heavier experience and in a nutshell that's what I loved about the track. By the end of the song with the three punches basically was basically the final breath of the song. It was born.. grew.. and died all in 7 minutes and 2 seconds.

I don't know when the next Planet Gemini release will be. I'm hoping for something in the spring/summer of 2008. I can't say that it's going to be Wicked because at this moment I have to look at what I have and look at what I'm stopping myself from creating in overworking on Wicked. In my experience when you hit a wall like this sometimes you need to take 10 steps back and find another route around the wall… if Wicked is meant to be released it will be. There is no question about that. However, I think that right now I'm creating music that is extremely deep and emotional and I feel that Wicked is holding me back from creating more.

For example, Cauldron of Fuzz V would have never seen the light of day if I didn't put Wicked on hold and decide to release something new, and Cauldron of Fuzz V is probably my favorite Cauldron of Fuzz project to date (it's definitely the most personal to me). So I don't want anyone to think that because Wicked is being put aside that I am going to stop writing and creating music. If anything I am doing this BECAUSE I want to write and create more deep, meaningful music.. and not limit myself to things that sound like they should fit in with the previous Wicked material.

Thanks so much for all of the response and to everyone who posted about Cauldron of Fuzz V on various message boards.
I know sometimes it feels like a thankless job but really every little bit helps. New people find out about Planet Gemini everyday and it's in a large part thanks to the people who go out of their way to spread the word. I can't thank you all enough.

Sincerely
Rev. H (The Hand of God)

 

PS: I wouldn't doubt if an extended edition of Cauldron of Fuzz V came out somewhere down the line with the full 13 minute Demonic Wall and maybe 1 or two more tracks. But, we'll see about that. One thing about Demonic Wall that worried me was making an album that started off with 22 minutes of drone. I can't stand too much drone starting an album. So Demonic Wall was stripped (not to mention the time restraints were quite huge).

PSS. And to the bible thumpers out there who tend to read my messages and then send me e-mails advising me to stop "Dealing with the devil"… I'm going to leave you all with… I don't judge you.. nor do I ask you to conform to my way of thinking. Hell, You don't even know what my way of thinking is.. so.. please… stop carpet bombing me with your church spam. I realize this is just acknowledging you and now you're just going to continue… if not get worse.. but I assure you.. I am saved.. you are much closer to satan than I will ever be… J

Final Progress Report (The Day Before)

So it's the day before Cauldron of Fuzz V's release and I'm still quite hard at work finishing everything up. Rest assured it will be ready to go by tomorrow night (barring any bizarre computer incident that might happen). The album sounds good. It's a little more ethereal. Kind of "experimental" in some points.

I really made a cognoscente effort to avoid the "Verse, chorus.. repeat" thing on this album. It's there sometimes but… rarely.

I can tell you all that the album should be 40 minutes + of new material.. and I'm thinking of throwing 2 b-sides out there as well. Right now there is a guaranteed 6 that will be on the album tomorrow and I have about 5 tracks that I didn't get to use. So, somewhere down the line there might be a COFV "The Bonus Material" but rest assured these 6 (or 7) tracks will be worth the wait.

This is going to be a very doomy yet very spacey release. I'm very happy with everything. Just got some vocals to throw on tonight and I'm finished. Very minimal in the way of mixing but that's always been the COF way. I hope you all enjoy it.

BTW, Thanks so much for the e-mails and myspace messages to everyone who has written me proclaiming their excitement for the album. I'm pretty psyched too. It'll be nice to actually sit back and listen to it when it's finished.. (which will probably be around the same time you all get to hear it.. oddly enough).

Due to time constraints I am only going to be putting the album up in MP3 form for tomorrow night. The WMA (Lossless) stuff will be available the next day. (This is obviously depending on how much time I have to do this stuff. But, as of right now it's looking like the mp3's will be the way to go for tomorrow. But fear not. The WMA stuff WILL be put up. Just.. when I have more time. It is Halloween tomorrow and I have children and small animals to throw in the meat grinder.

So, seeing as this will probably be my last blog before Halloween (That won't be a press announcement) let me just say "I hope you all have a fantastic Halloween… and I truly hope you enjoy the album"… and to those of you who wrote me saying that COFV will be the center of your Halloween gathering… that's just fucking awesome.

You all rule!
Sincerely
H

The King of Lies

Scratch that, I went to the studio. Lots of progress too. Temples of Infinity and "The Start of Your Demise" are done..

Man, Temples is freaking me out at the moment. It's so.. weird.. and ethereal.. but yet.. It's hard to describe really. It starts off in a major key and then switches to minor almost immediately.. the result is kind of disorienting.. and then once you get used to it the song changes again. This will totally be a "Love it, or hate it track" I almost wanted to put piano at the end.. it's just so messed up.

Goodday today.. Maybe I'll take off tomorrow.. and then.. come in and finish everything ;)
Just figured I'd update
H

The Inevitable Burnout Has Occurred!

Well, It is day 5 of the studio mixing/mastering week and yesterday I finally hit a snag. I'm working on a couple of other tracks that I wrote that didn't finish up so easily. I'm really trying to include a wider variety of stuff. As of right now.. I have 9 tracks for the album. 4 are completely finished and ready to go. 2 are a little ways away but that will be no big deal. The others are "iffy". I'm trying to tell myself that this is a Cauldron of Fuzz album and that perfection isn't as important as the emotion behind the music. Some of these tracks are very powerful and just crazy sounding. Here is the names of the tracks I have so far.

Ritual Evolved
Demonic Wall
The Start of Your Demise
A Time Before Time
Temples of Infinity
We All Fall Down
SINsation
The Gallery
Day of Reckoning

Again, this is not a guarantee of anything here but I feel confident that I can get out these songs for the final release. (Keeping in mind that I have roughly 5 days to finish this.. hehe) I just had to take today off or I couldn't see myself making it through the whole weekend in the studio. Sometimes the walls.. they.. speak to me.. and they were telling me to get out yesterday…

I would pretty much say that yesterday was the first "wasted" day in the studio. Trying to clean up "The Start of Your Demise" was ironically enough the start of my musical demise. The good news is that this weekend is completely devoted to the Cauldron of Fuzz album (Sat, Sun and Monday).. I'll take most of Tuesday as well and at that point hopefully Wed morning I'll be done with the album. "We'll see about that".. COFV WILL be up on Halloween. I'm just hoping it's all 9 songs. If It's not.. for some reason.. (this isn't making an excuse or anything) but I am going to try my damnedest to get it finished by the end of the week and I will put the songs that ARE finished up for download. If I had to put a % rating on the progress of each track it would go…

Ritual Evolved 75%
Demonic Wall 75%
The Start of Your Demise 40%
A Time Before Time 95%
Temples of Infinity 50%
We All Fall Down 95%
SINsation 95%
The Gallery 80%
Day of Reckoning 100%

As you can see there is still some work to be done but it's nothing insane. Nothing that I haven't done in years past for the COF albums. I'll probably design the webpage for this project today…. Who knows.. I might as well get something done.

BTW, I got the new Electric Wizard today…. I don't know what to think of it. It's different that's for sure.
Hope all is well… and thanks for the continued support
Sincerely
H

More about the New Fuzz Album

Hey everyone,

Trying to make sure to keep everyone up to speed on the progress of the new Cauldron of Fuzz album (Which will be available on this webpage www.planetgemini.net at 8pm EST on October 31^st 2007) now with that blatant self promotional plug out of the way I am going to take a little time to talk about some of the songs that I've got coming on here and where they are as of right now in the production process.

 

1. Ritual Evolved:
   Right now Ritual Evolved is done musically I just need to work out some vocals and maybe a few guitar harmonies for the track. It's about 7 minutes long and it's very "tribal" sounding. While I would call it "Riffy" per say it is very "invoking". This was the first track that I ended up writing for the album. It just came out and I thought (well that was fun) from there it just grew heavier and heavier. 7 minutes in and the song is crushing until it finally builds to a big finish. I really enjoy this track and I think you will as well. A little different from the past Fuzz Ritual songs that started off the COF albums. This is not as guitar driven.. but very guitar heavy. You'll understand what I mean when you hear it I'm sure.
   
2. Demonic Wall:
   Demonic Wall's drums are done and bass are finished I need to layer guitars over it. Vocals are done but not perfect so I'll probably sing them over again. Another slow tempo'd song. Very doom laden (as is most of the tracks on this album). It features my high pitched screetchy voice (which I'm sure will THRILL those of you who can't stand it…) hehe but what can I say.. it serves the song well. Demonic Wall is all about the main Riff.. it's got this riff that you would imagine being in Sabbath's Volume IV album just much much heavier. (think Under the Sun and I think you'll have an idea what this track sounds like)
   
3. Temples of Infinity:
   This one is finished with the exception of the ending which contains a spacey clean solo track that I haven't recorded yet. It's once again mid tempo to slow.. and actually contains some tribal drumming in the middle that sound very strange. Followed by this "rolling" bassline and it just strikes me as odd for a Doom band to experiment with these different sounds. The song is fairly straight forward with a nice mid tempo groove double timed in the middle and end. No chorus on this track but like I said there is a look of weird musical things going on here. This will be the track that people either love or hate. However, one thing that surprises me is the people that listen to my music are usually very open minded to new styles and music. So.. I hope you all enjoy it.
   
4. A Time Before Time
   This song can be heard at my Myspace Page www.myspace.com/planetgeminidoom for those of you who haven't heard it yet. It's finished but might get a guitar harmony at the end. Not 100% sure yet I guess it depends if time permits.
   
5. The Gallery
   A song just basically thrown together off of an A Minor progression. Sounds very dark and evil. The songs meaning was discussed in the last blog post I did. All in all it's a good track. Finished with the exception of vocals
   
6. We All Fall Down
   This song also can be found at my myspace page www.myspace.com/planetgeminidoom it is a little bluesy in a way. Just straight up riffage… vocals were secondary here but it was a fun track to record. The middle part needs fixing on the demo and maybe a little harmony on the guitar but that's always the last thing to go on for me
   
7. Day of Reckoning
   this track to can be found on my myspace page. So what are you waiting for.. go.. now.
   

So there are 7 days left to the release of the album and I still have a fair amount of things to do. But nothing that will hold me back from the release. I should have at least 7 songs and I'd like to add one more (a fast original)… I also wouldn't mind ONE more song that I've been kicking around for a while called "Iron Voices"… I think it would fit well. All in all this is going to be a very very doomy release. Heavy.. lots of riffs.. (in the key of A for some reason… guess I got tired of B and E… )

Not long now. I may end up doing a whole new webpage design for this release but I'm not sure if I'll have the time. I'd rather spend more time on music than webpage art at the moment.

 

Thanks again guys
and keep in touch
H

Cauldron of Fuzz V: Information

Well, I am very happy to say that Cauldron of Fuzz V is written and just being polished now for the October 31^st release (at 8pm EST) on www.planetgemini.net . I know, I know.. I'm already plugging away but you'd be surprised I've actually gotten a few e-mails from my myspace friends that have never downloaded a Cauldron of Fuzz album before so they are unaware of the process. So.. yeah… just for clarification the album is downloaded on the official webpage NOT a myspace, virb or any other page like that.

The album's tracklisting is as follows (so far)

01. Ritual Evolved
02. Demonic Wall
03. Temples of Infinity
04. A Time Before Time
05. The Gallery
06. Day of Reckoning

As of right now the album is about 40+ minutes. I have a couple extra songs that I've recorded but I just want to be sure that I am giving myself a big enough window to get the album done for Halloween. If I finish mixing and mastering early (which there is a very good chance of this) I may add another track or two. This album is very downtrodden, slower.. more loud than "The Path" ep. I wanted to clearly make a disctinct difference between the two. This is a Cauldron of Fuzz album and should be just blaring guitars and lots of loud Heavy Metal.

Some of the song lyrics have really surprised me. The track that I've just recently named "The Gallery" is a great little story about an art gallery that the devil presides over. He enlists a painter to the paint the picture of people he's never met. He goes into this trance and closes his eyes.. envisioning the person he is to paint the person painted then loses their soul to the devil. The thing is that after he paints 5,000 people the 5,000^th person takes over the gallery and becomes the new painter… and the first picture he paints is the previous artist.

I love when music comes together like this. This album was written and recorded so quickly that it really does feel fresh. It's what I enjoy most about having my own studio. I love recording other bands and working on my own projects.. but, I really excel in improvisational playing. I always have.

The album will be released on time. Feel free to check out 3 tracks on the Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/planetgeminidoom and any comments or questions can be sent to me via my e-mail address hellion@planetgemini.net.

I hope you are all doing well and thanks so much for the support
Sincerely
H

Planet Gemini - Cauldron of Fuzz V: Sometimes it Comes Back

Well THAT didn't last long... I know I said last years Cauldron of Fuzz was the final installment... but... I've changed my mind. With WICKED giving me such greif I figured I would just have some fun and write some music.

Here are the details
I started the project on monday.
I'm giving myself till the middle of next week to write the album
I have 4 songs recorded

01. The Wretched (8 Minutes)
02. Temples of Infinity (9 Minutes)
03. A Time Before Time (10 Minutes)
and a cover of Pentagram's "Day of Reckoning".

Basically I'll be in the studio everyday this week and whatever gets recorded is going to get released. Even if it's just what I have already.


For those of you new to Planet Gemini
The album will be free to download via my webpage
http://www.planetgemini.net

Cauldron of Fuzz V: Sometimes it Comes Back will be available at 8pm on October 31st (as the COF series always is). Here is a little more info about the Cauldon of Fuzz project for those curious.

Cauldron of Fuzz projects consist of material that is mostly improvised. It's basically glorified jam sessions the vocals are not really written out. I just turn the music on and sing whatever comes to mind.

This is the 5th installment of the series and will be the 2nd Cauldron of Fuzz that I've written myself (I also wrote 3 pretty much by myself all the time). It is about a "Jammy" as one guy can get. I record the drums and basically hone a riff around it. Then I re-record the drums to punch with the riff.

I'm done this for one reason really. I know a lot of people out there are looking forward to some new Gemini and I really have to buy more time for Wicked. So I hope this album will appease you all.

You're all the best and thanks so much for the continued support.
I'll post more on the album as it progresses
Thanks
H