Will there be more thiocryptos projects? Be super epic...

Acabo de escuchar esta banda y está excelente Creo que me pasará lo mismo que a ti

Glad you like it and "get" it. Epic doom metal is something else, isn't it? I have a couple more Thiocryptos songs in the works but honestly it's hard to top this one. Thanks for listening.

Agreed my friend

Great! Thanks for listening 🤘

There is a good band almost like that, also very good ISOLE.

Great interpretation! So there's this larger than life, epic, dark, otherworldly feel here and that's what I was going for. Cool to see what that evokes in people's minds as they listen. For me, it's as the lyrics say... the end of an age, cataclysm, survivors, and the coming of positive aliens or superhumans who show the survivors a new way of living. It's actually a hopeful song despite the dark background of cataclysm. To me that's what epic doom can aspire to, triumph against adversity but on an apocalyptic scale. People love movies about that stuff, I want the music version of that.

TomMontalk I totally get it; out of the ashes, the Phoenix will rise. 🙌🏽❤️

Isole/Forlorn is great, been listening to them since '99. They do doom right.

Couldn't agree more. They were my first taste of doom metal when I discovered them by mistake back in 2005. It really grew on me and a few years later I started my own epic doom metal band. :) Either way, it's nice to see that they have fans abroad and not just here in Sweden. They just don't seem to be a very well known band, but maybe I've underestimated their popularity.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Sky Phoenix The divine and ethereal forms of music are necessary and have their place. If you're trying to soothe the soul or heal the body you'll definitely want to pursue purer, more harmonic, more sacred types of sounds. If instead you want fire, energy, breaking through obstacles, strength and power to deal with physicality and its challenges, then I would say metal is one receptacle for those kinds of impulses. The problem is that energy and power, like fire or knives, default toward destruction. It's very easy to be swept away by 'heaviness' and slip right into 'hate, anger, destruction' because they seem to follow like A, B, C, D ... however, when wielded in a different and more positive direction, you are simply augmenting that direction with the power and energy that metal provides. So if you juxtapose, say a feeling of divine love in terms of melodies/harmonies representing that, with a pretty heavy type of metal, it turns a tender well wishing from afar into an epic sweeping "kingdom of heaven descending upon on earth" kind of thing. The marriage of heaven and earth is the fundamental task of alchemy, by the way. To make matter subservient to consciousness, and consciousness to divine spirit instead of the other way around. Therefore yes, it's perfectly possible to purpose metal towards loftier ideals and impulses. All you're doing is strapping a rocket booster to whatever it is you're mixing the metal with. It just can't be used for healing purposes; for healing, you need special and pure sounds, like how classical music helps plants grow. For emotions, though, that's where this kind of music excels. The point of The Shipton Prophecy is to capture the cosmic, global, sweeping, titanic atmosphere that surrounds the idea of earth and mankind passing from one Age to another Age, with the destruction of the old and birth of the new, and the sheer epicness and relentless marching quality that time/history/change has when it grows beyond human control. You know, like if you got to hang out on a mountain watching it all go down. How would you feel during and after it, knowing what transpired, what life was like before and what it's like afterward. The old life would seem so small. I just don't think that concept can be captured in most other genres.

TomMontalk A fitting and very clear answer Tom - what it feels like when becoming the Jedi. The opportunity is before us to prepare for the coming Earth changes. Thank you.

The 432Hz is what I tuned my instruments and everything else to. So if A on a guitar is normally 440Hz, I turned it down so that the string made a pitch at 432 Hz, and so the whole song is therefore lower in pitch slightly than it would normally be. The 440hz standard has been described as having more tension, more of a neurotic element, whereas 432Hz is more relaxed and natural and at ease. So they say. I did it as an experiment, and also because it helped me sing a little easier. As for Emoto, there are also experiments with plants and cows where classical music made them grow better or produce more milk, with rock having the opposite effect. My view is that frequencies like these act on the etheric level of organisms and crystals, and that purer simpler harmonics (simpler sounds, i.e. no distortion) are healthier at least on the etheric level of effect. If you want 'music' that's strictly etherically positive, it would probably have to be Indian classical music or crystal bowls or harps maybe. Now, if you think about things like textiles, blades/knives, weapons, fire, electricity, rocket propulsion, chemicals, etc. these are also physical and possibly etherically deleterious. Fire will vaporize water, burn a plant, and cook a steak. And yet, humans have used fire to disinfect, blades to do surgery, weapons to save lives, chemicals to treat disorders. Point being, I believe metal music is something that, like fire or knives, is intrinsically 'dangerous' in a certain sense, and many metal musicians default toward the destructive and negative use of it, but the silver lining is that it can also have a net positive effect on humans as well. Not so much in what it does etherically, because it's jarring there, but what it does astrally and spiritually to act as an empowerer, motivator, awakener, and resonator of spirit if created in the correct way. So yes, metal music will distort a water crystal, but we're more than physical and etheric fields which is all a water crystal is. We're also astral and spiritual beings, and on that level I believe it can (again, if used properly) impart a very positive and empowering effect. For example, metal imbued with divine melodies = divine power, heaven materialized on earth, the spiritualization of matter, good works accomplished here in this world, courage, bravery, justice, glory, etc. basically alchemy. It's not for everyone, but this archetype of moving earth for the sake of heaven is what I resonate with, and so metal offers the power and the potential to reflect that, hence why I'm drawn to it.

Thanks, you understand where I was coming from with this track. It creates a kind of sobriety that shows how asleep and mundane ordinary modern life can be. Memento mori.

Thanks, appreciate the feedback. This music is the real me.

Thanks, that NH album was based on gear/knowledge/skills from the 2006-2011 period. This Thiocryptos production is from what I've gained 2011-2015. Better software, better gear, better mixing/editing skills, and different production philosophy. On NH, I purposely minimized the use of pitch correction and compression on vocals, and didn't do any vocal doubling even on choruses, mainly as a test of rebellion against the overproduced mannequin music people are accustomed to hearing. For Thiocryptos, I eased up on that stringent idealism and went ahead and polished it up more during production. I'm not a performer or instrumentalist, but a songwriter and composer. If extra editing/engineering produces the same results as another six months of practice then it's irrelevant as the end result is what counts. That's why I'm not into improvisation or live performance, because I treat music like a piece of sacred architecture where everything has its place and the only challenge is making the end result match the design intention with as much fidelity as can be mustered, by all means necessary, using whatever tools are at hand to accomplish this. That said, I have more NH songs in the works, next one will be a mix of power metal, symphonic metal, and punk with a choral ending reminiscent of the soviet national anthem.

Thanks again for this very interesting and convincing explanation! So this new approach will also apply to the new NH songs, right? It sure sounds like there's much to look forward to :) (I would particularly love to listen to more Thiocryptos) !

Yes, all my songs going forward will have a production quality that meets or exceeds what you hear on this song. Vocal styles will fluctuate depending on what's needed. I think you'll find it hilarious the divergence in style between The Shipton Prophecy and some of the Neptunian Horizon songs that will come out. That's why I created two projects, to give each the freedom to take their directions to the extremes.

+TomMontalk That sounds really promising then, I'm even more exited for it now! All the best for to you for the creative process ahead :)

Jason Demakis The setup was pretty different this time. Here's what was the same as previous album: my acoustic guitar, electric guitar, audio interface and mic (on Deep Black Lake and Lost Return). What's different: computer (hex core with 64 gigs of ram), headphones (focal spirit pro), monitor speakers, guitar processing chain (used LepouLegion and Recabinet, and Amplitube 3 this time), bass processing chain (TSD BOD mostly), vocal chain (lots of stuff here), bass pickups (EMG PX and JX), drum sampler and samples (Superior 2.0), and all the sampled tracks like choirs, strings, horns, and flute (via Kontakt). I'm also in a different acoustic space, so had to make six acoustic panels to compensate. My most useful plugin during this mix was IK Multimedia's EQ73 due to its preamp saturation emulation and no frills EQ knobs for very basic shaping. I also used parametric EQs with spectrum analyzer readouts for handling specific troublespots (annoying resonances mostly).

Amazing, man! You are so far ahead of me with your understanding of home studio tracking. What tunings do you typically use? VERY heavy!

Jason Demakis I normally use B, C, C#, and D standard depending on the song and what's best for my vocal range. This one was done in B standard, tuned to A432Hz. Guitar was my old Schecter Damien with Evo 2 pickups in the bridge. I picked relatively hard on both the guitar and bass, which helps. The drums had micro timing to reinforce the groove. The bass chain resulted in this pretty heavy rumbly raspy middy tone which is a huge component of a heavy sound. Here it had to be over the top enough that it sounded scary on its own. Bass chain was mostly TSE 808 + TSE BOD + EQ + stacked compression. If I were a better bass player like you, I could have gotten away with less processing.

+ortsormorsels Thanks. 3:25 is violin/viola string section, a low and high part in unison. The scream at 3:25 sounds like black metal but was produced via a death metal technique. The difference is that the first is pretty loud when done for real while the second is lower volume but ends up sounding just as big in a mix. Thiocryptos is more a gothic/doom/symphonic project but yes there are black metal influences. The song Deep Black Lake from my Neptunian Horizon project has some too: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iriRldh6mtCUmZs.html. I like the idea of having the epic, macabre, and fury-oriented aspects of black metal in contexts outside satanism and corpse paint. Several of my favorite bands have black metal influences too: Arcturus, Therion, While Heaven Wept, Vision Bleak, Wintersun, and Orphaned Land.

+TomMontalk I need your help immediately if you are kind to do so. I am currently following a channel on KZfaq known as "this crazy german" who claims to be a tall white alien helping humanity. I need your opinion on what you think about him. is he a disinfo agent? or is he being honest? please my friend.

***** Oh yeah I've been busy with multiple projects, music being like 1/5th of everything. Also working on upcoming research/writings for montalk.net and various science projects, to name a few. It'll all result in public releases eventually. Meantime, it might seem like nothing is happening with me but I'm productive every day on long term efforts. I never have a wasted day. Music actually keeps me motivated, happy, and energized in life, which boosts me in all other areas so it has an indirect positive effect in other areas too. Yes everything in this song is me one way or another; the choir ahhhhs / flutes / drums / strings / horns are all sampled but I programmed them in note by note. So the bass, guitars, verse and chorus vocals are all my performances.

You're Amazing! Been a fan on Montalk.net for years. Ive spent hour with you, lol! Thank you for helping me to WAKE UP! Much Love!

I put my best melodies into this song and performed it at 110% so it's a hard act to follow. I have other Thiocryptos songs in the works but they're still missing a few components. One issue is that I need to have pretty much all melodies come to me, as if given out of the ethers, in moments of almost supernatural inspiration. And so I can't just sit down and mechanically "make" a song. I mean I could, and hammer out a song every week... but it would be generic and uninspired. So what will it be, quantity or quality. All I can say is, yes I will be making more, am working on more, and some of them will be exploring other flavors of epic doom. For example, Shipton is reminiscent of Candlemass and Isole, while another track I'm working on has a more While Heaven Wept direction. Personally I like the idea of variety. But when I have enough melody clips to arrange another medieval sounding tune in the shape of Shipton, then I'll definitely record it.

Great!

+jason orion Thiocryptos is an experimental side project where I'll do more doomy, weird, and black-metal type stuff. Neptunian Horizon is still active, and will have some upbeat songs that are a bit too bombastic or elfin/sylvan and therefore contrast too much with the Thiocryptos material. This allows me to let loose in either direction toward greater extremes than what you heard on Descent.

Thanks for the support. This project will exist as long as I do. Whenever I come up with a song that is sufficiently doomy it will become part of Thiocryptos. It has to be quality though. I could write a generic doom song every day but it wouldn't have that special quality that only comes when I wait for inspiration from another world.

Ayreon's great, I have three of Arjen's albums. Tons of variety, interesting storylines, and really good production. Since they're all lengthy concept albums there's going to be some filler to carry the plot and dialogue, just like any musical or opera, but then there are the high points which are truly inspired tunes.

Sweet, thanks for your reply and yeah there are some really amazingly inspired tunes and those are the ones I'm actually talking about, love them. Thanks again and keep up the good work and with your mission on this plane.

+Looch This was Superior 2.0 with a mix of Metal Foundry (cymbals) and Metal Machine (kick, snare, toms). The pattern is a marching snare style beat, so a lot of soft fast notes (alternating in strength slightly for right vs left hand) with the harder hits in there, and underneath was a quarter note kick. The image I got was a medieval procession of piper and drummer during the Black Death days. Kind of a Cimmerian Codex vibe: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rcphg8pkytzXfas.html

Thanks, working on it, amongst a million other things. Hard song to top though, I'll admit that much. Put all my best ideas into this one. If you want something similar, please check out Apocalypse Orchestra, Isole, Candlemass, Khemmis, and Wilderun.

@@TomMontalk Right on, man. I appreciate the suggestions. Candlemass is literally one of my favorite bands. Looking forward to hearing more material from you dude. \m/(. .)

Man I wish you could plug an audio cable straight in my head and listen to what's already there. I just concepted out a new song this week, actually. It's more classical/gothic style. But first I need to finish vocals for a Neptunian Horizon song, then will start recording that Thiocryptos one. It'll be a while, though, due to work and research projects. Hoping to get it out before year's end. In the mean time, if you haven't then check out the discographies of Yearning, Lethean (their Hope's Flame Burns Low re-recording), Solstice, and While Heaven Wept. And maybe Krux and Candlemass.

I consider myself a *connosiuer* of epic doom metal, but yeah I got some work to do! I'm a big fan of Solstice and Candlemass! The lead guitarist of Solstice is a pretty cool guy, he helped me out with tabbing one of their early songs. I was wondering if you could tell me more about the direction Thiocryptos is going to take, and like your influences and how you learned to write music so well! I play guitar but I'm only getting into the hang of things when it comes to writing songs! Also, when you release the album, will you also have a vinyl release?

Epic Doom is my favorite genre and I've listened to a lot of music over the decades. To me it's just the realest, surrealest, biggest, deepest, loftiest, most timeless type of music. There's something beyond human, something sacred, or something ultra deep that you can pull off with epic doom that you can't with other genres. It's apocalyptic in every aspect of that term. Forgot to mention Isole in my list of discographies to check; you're probably familiar with them. My favorite songs by them are: Nightfall: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/Z7uYmseE3LfIiGQ.html Deceiver: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mbecgKiYu6_XaYk.html Life? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m7uDpsypupvFeWg.html Now Thiocryptos is a long term project for me. It's a "whenever I come up with something that's too weird/dark/slow for my Neptunian Horizon Project" it will become Thiocryptos instead. So I'm working on two music projects at the same time. I'll be releasing songs one by one as they come. And yes, one day when I have enough tracks, I'll remaster them and put out an album. I'll look into vinyl options, will get some shirts pressed as well. This is my avant garde music project. As for direction, it will always revolve around dark epic doom, black metal, and gothic melodies. Exploring the different colors of the doom rainbow so to speak. When I get an idea for a verse or chorus or intro, I record it quickly into my handheld recorder for reference; I have around 1100 of those melody clips on file in totality and a quarter of those are doom specific. Typically one in particular will grab me and become the nucleus of a song, the trick being finding other clips that go with it, and then mapping it out in my audio editor in midi piano format so that I can rearrange and adjust the melody sketch. Then I program the drums, record bass and guitar, then do vocals/solos and finally add in choirs and strings and such. A lot of work and thought goes into a song, every drum hit deliberate down to shifting a snare hit by 1/128th of a beat to control the micro timing or 'feel', etc. Anyway, I'll never stop making music, even if it takes a while between song releases. Thanks for appreciating my music.

Thats great dude! Will you ever get a group together to play live?

Dendritic Various upcoming Neptunian Horizon songs will have solos, but this particular one didn't call for them. It all depends on what the song requires. Force fitting one in makes it stand out too much as an act of guitar wankery. As for topping Descent, the controllable areas like production quality and performance are guaranteed to exceed it. The rest is subjective based on what you personally value in music. I feel that several of the Neptunian Horizon songs underway are better than anything I've done before, while the others are comparable, but for the most part they are simply _different_. I treat every song as its own universe independent of all others (meaning I don't judge one song by another) and all of the core melodies must come to me in an inspired, unforced, and uninvented way (meaning it's not possible to sit down and force better music simply by trying harder, as my effort has nothing to do with what comes to me). So what comes, comes, and it's only the skill of execution that can be improved over time but the source of the melodies seems to have its own mind.

Good idea, added to my to do list. But for starters it's in B standard guitar tuning with A432 instead of A440 on the tuner. The chords that sound like a low A power chord are just 0's on the 2nd and 3rd string. My bass I drop tuned to an A for those parts, but guitar remained in B.

Matthew Cowell Yeah, the backing tracks don't connect with the vocals, sounds like karaoke unfortunately.

DystopianEmpire01 Yeah you nailed it.

+Matthew Cowell This is tuned down to B. How much heavier can you get? Any heavier, and he'd have to transmute heavy metal into some unknown dense material with an unquantifiably heavy weight.

Dendritic It's the master mix, it just needs some work is all.

+DystopianEmpire01 It is a testament to how heavy and layered the guitars are that his voice could sound thin in comparison. But he is a one man band doing everything himself. If you listen with headphones the vocals sound much better in the mix, especially during the chorus. Saying it sounds like karaoke is a bit of an unfair dig in my opinion.