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So I was watching this anime called Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, and I loved how the band in the show interacted and the type of music they were playing and how the songs weren't about death and depressing shit but more about having fun and enjoying life. I wanted to be in a band like that. So I made one up. Taking Out Anger was born. The idea, was to create a band that explicitly used Drop D tuning for their songs, didn't have guitar solos, didn't use keyboard, had pissed off random lyrics, didn't swear, and had easy, fun to play music with nice beats and those killer rock grooves that make you wanna mosh/headbang but without being depressing and with a world of energy. I wanted to make a band that people would NEED to see live. I wanted to make a four song demo of this idealistic band. So I did. The songs included were Proto, Two Hundred Fifty-Five Promised Lies, Taking Out Anger, and Culture. Also I had a cover song of one of Vince's tunes called Christine (the original version by Vinnie Scullo can be found on the album Deaf Leper). The demo went really well and I decided to move on with creating a full-length album for the band. Thus, For Never came into existence. It was a few months later before I started working on the album sometime in February of 2008. It was finished soemtime in March of 2008 and ended up something I am entirely proud of. When this album was finished it signaled the coming of the future 'Bands' series releases (like De Sent, Scarlet Learned, etc.) and showed me that I have it in me to create amazing things beyond what I used to think was possible. I mean, come on. I made up a band, and wrote an entire album for them. As far as I'm concerned, that's pretty impressive for anyone to do. Enough about the story behind it all though. As there really isn't much to tell. Let's discuss the tracks. Proto - The main riff isn't anything special and the rhythm it uses has been done tons of times before but I wanted to make it my own and I wanted it to be a strong introduction to the band. The vocals in this were originally really soft but I had to do them again because I needed that extra energy in the track to carry you onto the rest of the album. The lyrics honestly mean absolutely nothing but have a lot of references to beginning things (thus the name 'proto'). And one of my favorite lines "this is how it all falls down" makes an appearance. The ending is interesting because the song just completely changes. I wanted the ending to stand out to show the level of variety that this band is capable of. It fits, but it fits in a way that makes it different. Also this outro kind of leads you into the next song. Two Hundred Fifty-Five Promised Lies - You can call this song 255PL for short if you want. That's pretty much what I've been doing. I just wanted the lyrics to be fun and kind of humorous. So I thought, what if I use the title to convey that there's a guy just getting pissed off because this girl just keeps lying to him? And that's where the lyrics went. It sort of represents that the guy keeps getting pulled back in but he's got his own lies going on (which is where the 'mom' reference makes sense towards the end). This is definitely one of the better songs on For Never. Outrage The Innocent - After I'd made the demo songs, this ended up being one of the first tracks on the official album coming only after Taking Out Anger. This song is really weird for me because normally I don't like my voice but in this song it is kind of featured in the places where the music stops. It is kind of awkward at first with the fast riff, but later on when the heavy riff kicks in the song really begins to shine. One of my favorites. And also my first real political song. Holding Back - This song has a great deep feeling to it in the beginning. The lyrics are especially fun with all the references to personal restraint. Then the riffs in the middle of the song and the lyrics too, just really flow together well and help this song stand out as one of the darker ones on the album. Taking Out Anger - The first song I wrote for the band. The hook at the beginning is something I actually came up with a long time ago. I heard it again recently going through files on my computer and thought... Hm. I could make an interesting song out of that. I had to modify it a bit to fit the TOA style but it worked well. Then I just made a riff based off the same kind of feel and came up with some lyrics to go over it. I wanted this song to have a lot more lyrical focus than instrumental because I felt like TOA needed to say something powerful to reflect who they are. This song definitely accomplishes that and it seems to be a pretty big favorite amongst certain listeners. Just Fall - This song is pretty generic in concept. The uplifting riff that you can hear a couple of times (namely at the beginning) is a favorite of mine to play for no reason really... The verse riff and lyrical flow really work for me here because everything slides into place I think. The energetic riffs and screaming also highly appeal to my sense of taste and overall this song contributes heavily to the feeling of the album. Await Hatred - This song is kind of upbeat, especially in the verses, to be on For Never. Though it still fits in with the rest and even the major sounding verses work somehow. Not my favorite song on the album, but definitely not the worst. Dead Eyes - This is what you'd consider to be the slow song on the album. The main riff is entertaining but I'm not really happy with how it came out presented. The verses on the other hand are amazing and I love how those came out. The main point of this song is just about being pissed off at some blind person and wanting to end their blind-related suffering. Why? I dunno. I came up with the name before I wrote the song. Given It All - This is the love song on the album. Awkward right? It's all about this girl that takes everything from this guy and leaves him miserable. Then she tries to break her habit and gives everything to someone else but that leaves her miserable and wanting it all back. So her and the guy end up falling in love and she eventually dies and he is stuck alone without anything. The moral of this story is that some (not all, maybe most) women are greedy as hell. Also, the main riff was hard for me to get the timing down. I had to use a count of nine to start playing it properly, even though it's in 4/4 time. Go figure... Culture - I wrote this song for a very special reason. In the anime that inspired this idea, there is a scene in a gym where the main character and his group get up and play this short little song with the most catchy guitar riff I've ever heard. I wanted to do something kind of similar to that. Mine is faster and more complex but it has just as much energy and is probably my favorite song off the album. The vocals are just about wanting to be who you are and everyone else wanting you to become like them. Also I LOVE the breakdown in the middle of this song. Clearly a favorite. For Never - This is a truly interesting piece. I stole the idea from Final Fantasy (as I do with most of the kewl stuff I do) and how they have epilogues at the end of their games that incorporate themes heard all throughout the game into one long, awesome song (though operas have been doing this a lot longer than FF has). I wanted to do the same thing but I wanted to use the best, or at least my favorite, guitar riffs from the rest of the album to make up the song. But I wanted it to have original lyrics that encompassed the entire feeling of the album into one really exquisite number. The neatest part though is that the song goes through riffs from each of the tracks on the rest of the album in the same order as the tracklisting. I did encounter a problem though, because I wanted it to start the same way Proto started but it was too similar to Proto so I added in the rhythm guitar solo at the beginning of the song. It worked out really well I think and this is by far my favorite song to listen to. Also it gave me the chance to add another verse to Culture which I had wanted to do since I first wrote Culture for the demo. Another interesting thing about this song is how it came out sounding like a medley you'd hear a rock band do when they don't want to play their old songs or something. I really like this one. So that pretty much sums it all up in one long ass webpage worth of shit. Hope you enjoy the album! |