The last two years... I guess "eventful" would be one way to describe them. About 150 shows (gotta
find a way to count those...), our first label release, our first music video, many months of
recording and mixing, our first touring festival with 10+ bands, and collaborating with one of my
favorite vocalists of all time. Even though we still self-produce our music and make our day to day
band decisions in the ways of yore, these last two years have been the ones where we stopped being
an unsigned, fully DIY band. They also had the hardest moments for us as a band, all the full-on
Behind the Music drama that you can't anticipate happening to you and your friends. It looked so
silly watching it on VH1 back in the day, and in retrospect our miniature versions of the
stereotypical band woes were just as silly. Actually much sillier, you know, because of the foam
armor and candy and stuff.
We toured relentlessly through this last mini-era, and it made us a far better live band while
taking us to the brink of collapse a few times. I'll spare you the tired retread of modern touring
and its hardships. We've done vans and tour buses and either way too much of it can hurt the band
in ways I didn't foresee. It's obvious now that we "overtoured" and we've changed our overall
strategy for the better as a result. More focus on recording, foreign territories and concert
opportunities unique to us (i.e. conventions, nerd culture based non-metal-exclusive shows and tours
and so on) and less on back to back metal tours. We will still tour North America once or twice for
each album cycle of course, and we'll still tour with metal bands when it makes sense (some of our
tour packages did work very well after all), but our single minded pursuit of touring in one "scene"
wasn't the right move since we're a band from several distinct musical and cultural worlds.
Normally I disregard the New Year's Resolution tradition and am content to learn nothing and avoid
personal growth at all costs. But these last few months off the road did give me time to think
about what's changed for us as a band in the last few years, and sadly one change is that we've been
more distant from our listeners than in years past, myself most of all. So, in this one instance I
suspend my moratorium on maturity and progress, and vow to change this in 2012.
The forum is a smoldering ruin, so under the rug it must be swept! It shall remain as a grim
reminder of spam's inhumanity toward man. The robots won the war and hopefully they will rule that
cyber wasteland with a cruel, hyperlogical efficiency that we never could. I've never been a social
media or forum person and don't want to awkwardly force that, but what I can do is provide online
content again. I have a few ideas in mind now that I haven't really seen many or any bands do
before and I'm eager to try them. Also I'll be fleshing out vgmetal.com finally and putting that
content here.
In 2010 we reaped the rewards of jumping 3 squares ahead in the music world, and in 2011 we put in
the hard work to maintain that and adjusted to our new jobs and responsibilities. In the end, the
four of us are still here and the future is starting to make sense. In between tours and working on
the Batman video we spent some of 2011 recording a project which I'm not allowed to announce yet (no
not like Lulu don't freak out, it's, uhh... whatever the opposite of Lulu is... yeah) and now we're
shifting gears to recording our next album which we're truly more excited for then any previous
record. Any time we ran into a rough patch last year, I would just think about doing a new album
and it became worth it. This will be Metal Kombat II in spirit and attitude with the technical
level and arrangement quality of Saturday Morning Apocalypse. We're all on the same page with its
direction and sound and I know its what our fans want us to do musically, so the path is clear.
I'll end with a live video from Fort Lauderdale, the Symphony X tour May 2011. Not only does it
have passable renditions of Tetris and Pokemon, but it was also a tough show for me since I was
incredibly sick. My throat was so destroyed that it was also my first day quitting cigarettes.
Watching this does make me remember how shitty I felt that night, but I haven't smoked a cigarette
since. Drink in the sweet milk of my tears!
PS: I can't believe our music is played at the GSL!!! I've been a pro Starcraft geek for years, and
during the crazy packed schedule of last year I stopped watching. Clearly this is a sign from the
Protoss mothership to geek out once again! Ah it wasn't long ago I watched the 2010 finals and my
personal heroes Galneryus came on after the match and I was just blown away by the awesome. LIFE.
GOAL. ACCOMPLISHED.
