Thanks for the feedback. I really respect the amount of thought that’s gone into some of the input. I feel a little bad jumping on the forum and putting this up when I hardly have time to post, but I’m glad I did because I’ve found everyone’s advice really useful.
I agree with zick, grmpy and everyone else who said it needs to be tighter. It’ll get there, and I was taken aback by how much balancing there needs to be between each instrument for something like this. It isn’t linear and we’re not even playing the same rhythms in some parts, so making something like that sound tight requires a ridiculous amount of awareness of yourself and everyone else that’s playing.
Gunnar, everything you said was really helpful.
But usually when classical is re-interpreted to metal form the artists will take pieces where strings (most often violin) are the main characters of the piece.
But the original piece in yours is piano.
You hit the nail on the head. Every metal band that dabbles in classical or is focussed mainly on that does it in a way that comes across as a bunch of dudes who listened to the classical music station on the radio for a day, mimicked the violin parts on their guitars. In the end, you get something that sounds like a really tasteless version of classical and a really weak version of metal.
The only time it ever sounded good was when the Great Kat did it… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0unYFKdG82I
This is about being as faithful as possible to the original piano sonata. When I heard it, I had all these ideas in my head. It’s naturally heavy, with those opening chords, the funeral march… it’s screaming for a full band arrangement. My only regret is the so-subtle-you’ll-miss-it dynamic contrast and tone which are the most important elements of any Chopin piece have largely been lost given I’m competing with drums and guitars. The most we can do is really obvious ‘loud-quiet’ bits.
but often the “brutalness” of a piece is better highlighted by keeping it clean. Play around with more melodic and clean uses for the guitar portions and I think it could help elevate some of those emotions that the original evokes.
This is something we’ve been working on. It’s going to make it a tougher and lengthier process, but it basically demands we get our pedals happening with a variety of different sounds and tones which suit each section, partly to compensate for the lack of tonal control we have to deal with due to working with amplified instruments. We’ve been thinking of using nylon string and acoustic instruments for certain parts as well.
you should spend less time being good at music and more at taking edgy pictures
I fucking lol’d void… well played… [laugh]
That’s something else we’ve discussed, in terms of live presentation tho. We’ve thrown a heap of ideas around as to what we should wear, makeup, etc… I had this idea of having a mausoleum onstage, getting wheeled out in coffins from the mausoleum, then popping out and looking dead- not zombie like, but all green-black, maggots, skin flaking off, gravewax… etc. We’ve still got no idea what we’re certain of doing, but we’re tossing around as many warped ideas as we can.
This is what I liked about it so much. It would sound great on a really old, rickety piano. It’s slightly atonal and off kilter
I should play it to you on the piano from the Arthouse (the hotel that closed down) if you come over to my joint. That piano is really old, rickety and plain grim.
Thanks again for all the ideas everyone. 'tis much appreciated.