Practicing What I Preach-Some of my stuff

[slstone]

I have had a few people request a listen to some of my original stuff.

As most of you may know, I have been busy mixing my CD that I will

be releasing very soon. Some of you may have watched my videos of the

covers of Kamelot and Stratovarius on my youtube channel.

However, over the last few years I have written many songs.

I have put 2 of them up on my website for your listening pleasure.

Obviously these are officially unreleased but they are copyrighted.

Everything you hear is me. All instruments, vocals, even harmonies are all me.

No autotuning although I do have the plugin. I talk alot about technique here,

so now I am letting others hear what I have been preaching to others.

The name of my upcoming CD is 'Book of Shadows'.

The songs I put up for listening are called Vision and River Of Pain.

You will find the at the bottom of the page at the following link:

http://www.slstonemusic.com/smtv.html

I hope you enjoy them.

p.s. These were recorded in my home studio and mixed by me.

[gno]

Excellent Job! Very impressive all around. Thanks for sharing and keep us informed.

[Daug Poland]

Very nice melodic songs. It remind's me a bit old Symphony X.

River Of Pain - perfect melody lines! Both songs are really catchy and cool composed. Also well fited voice to this kind of music.

Love the harmonics and guitar stuff is really cool.

So do we gonna hear these two in studio recorded ver.?

[slstone]

Actually Daug, I have another song that sounds more Symphony X'ish*(yes I am a fan...sea of lies my fave short song, for long I like Odyssey).

When I wrote this I was listening to alot of Pagan's Mind, main influence for it was Supremacy, Our Kind. As you can tell I am also a big fan of twin

guitar leads ala Iron Maiden. Probably quite a few influences can be heard in that tune. Thank you very much for the compliments and Guitartrek:

thank you as well.

Yes, these 2 songs will be on my CD. I originally recorded 9 songs for the CD, but one of them I really need to re-record from scratch. And since I write all the parts and play them all as well, recording an entire song is very time consuming for me. So I will be omitting that song, and re-record it for the next CD.

So this one will be 8 songs. 6 of them are mixed to completion. 2 more to go. Everything is recorded, but mixing seems to take me much more time than actually recording.

However it won't be disappointing as one of my songs is an 11 1/2 minute epic song with lots of guitar wanking(to quote another user) in the mix for all of our guitar fans. Going to get my CD Baby account with tax return money. So expect to see it withing a month or 2. I will announce it. Especially on my website so be sure to bookmark it.

I am really anxious to start recording the next CD as I haven't written anything new in about 3 years. That's how long I have been working on this one lol.

[ronws]

Both good stuff but I, too, have a preference for "River of Pain." I love, love, love that monster guitar riff. Nice, clear vocals with some presence.

Good stuff, bro.

[slstone]

You might need to specify which riff, I have about a dozen different riffs in that song and I am fond of all of them, lol.

Thanks bro for the kind words. Very glad you guys like my stuff.

p.s. There was another riff in that song that I took out completely that I was playing during the verses, but I decided it took

away too much from the rest of the verse.

[ronws]

The thrashy one. I don't remember which marker numbers it's prominent at but it's the only thrashy one I could hear.

[slstone]

For a short time, mainly because I want to build anticipation, I have temporarily put up my 11 minute opus, 'Sands Of Time' on my website.

Same link as the other 2 songs. As promised, there is lots of guitar wanking in this one as well as lots of harmonies. Again, like the other songs,

I wrote all the music and lyrics and played and recorded all instruments and vocals. I did have a little help in that my lovely wife, Debra, played

the thumb cymbals in the intro(think belly dancer dancing along with snake charmer). Hope you guys enjoy it. Also, as with the others, this one

is still being mixed and fine tuned.

All songs are copyrighted as usual.

http://www.slstonemusic.com/smtv.html

[ronws]

A magnum opus, indeed. Phenomenal lyrics. Totally appreciate the ethereal break with the floaty vocal melody. Then the launch into Ritchie Blackmoore Deep Purple-ish segue with the "Babylon" feel. That morphs into a Glen Tipton-esque monster riff, topped by Iron Maiden like vocals and weight. Somehow, all these influences make sense in this. Well done and good luck.

[slstone]

Thank you bro. Funny you should mention Iron Maiden as they are my favorite band. Did lotsa my learning singing along to Bruce. I call most of his style, at least in the earlier days, precision singing(think Run to the Hills or Powerslave(btw thinking of doing a cover of Powerslave(me playing everything(Maiden was first band from whom I learn to play my first metal song back ing the day)))(bit of secret trivia...first metal song I ever learned to play including solo...'Two Minutes to Midnight' from Powerslave album). So you will obviously hear alot of influence there. When you listened to River of Pain, you probably thought of that during the twin guitar leads that are heard throughout the song, especially towards the end where I have two separate twin leads going to make it a 4 guitar wankfest for harmonizing leads, then in addition to two separate rhythm guitar tracks make for 6 at once, lol. The segue, believe it or not I felt was more Dream Theater influenced as least the chord progression anyway(I was listening to Under a Glass Moon when I wrote that part). Then the monster riff, bit a tough part as it is in an off time meter.

Anyway, thank you very much. Glad you enjoyed it.

[ronws]

It's funny how you thought Dream Theater. That ethereal break made me think of a vocal version of the break in "Come, Sail Away" by Styx. Oh well, different thoughts happen ...