Quicksand Dream-Aelin epic concept stuff, would you know?

[GJ]

Didn't really know where to post this as there is an old "Corroseum Bands" thread in the Into Battle forum? Finally I posted it here since I rather see the Corro-regulars getting it first. Also, the recordings are not new, the "band" does not exist anymore. Moderators: Feel free move it though if you think I have violated this sacred ground (well, you could give it a listen first - it may well be a very late late seventies proto-metal classic!).

Anyway this is a recording me (Göran Jacobson) and a friend of mine (Patrick Backlund) made (as Quicksand Dream during the latter half of the nineties). My contribution was the singing, vocal melodies, some lyrical consultation and some small arranging stuff. Patrick wrote the songs and recorded the guitars, bass and drums (drum machine) on a four track portable studio. The vocals were recorded on top of this at our good friend Henrik Flymans (of Moahni Moahna, Zool and Evil Masquerade) digital home studio - he also added some keys.
Some songs were already played in some form early on when we had a proper band (Epic Irae/Quicksand Dream 1988-1993 R.I.P.) in the early nineties. I remember us playing Caress of the Breeze and the nice 16 minute epic The Lighthouse Dream. Also Road Goes Ever on (my fave along with Lighthouse) was on our first demo (Ballet of Desolation - 1989) with completely different music.
I guess we had some ambitions of doing a follow-up and made demo recordings of own songs separately for a future proper recording and "release". But we were lazy bastards (I am certainly) and nothing came out of it. I got my demos still though, which I can upload if any of you would be interested.

This was a full concept album which was "released" in, I'm not sure, 15-30 CD-R copies complete with a colourful homemade 16-page booklet. Some copies may have made it's way abroad but most were spread among friends.

I listened to it for the first time in ages recently and found it quite a nice listening. Not very aggressive at all, quite heavy at times, round edges and a warm sound. This is not intended for any commercial use - feel free to post (repost) it where you like and spread it in any form. Give it a try!

Quicksand Dream - Aelin - a story about destiny (a bit cheesy title imo)

http://rapidshare.com/files/235136775/Q ... n.rar.html

1. Prologue
2. A Child Was Born
3. House Of Wisdom
4. Caress Of The Breeze
5. Road Goes Ever On
6. The Lighthouse Dream
- a. Fading Away
- b. On The Shore
- c. A Sunny Day
- d. Over The Sea
- e. Awakening
- f. Home Again
7. Aelin's Oath
- a. The Light Appeared
- b. Epilogue

Edit: Spelling mistakes
Edit 2: Reuploaded demo - new link

[ION BRITTON]

...well, at least your introduction was pretty interesting.


Just kidding I downloaded it today at work, didn't find the time to listen to it though. I assume it needs a more calm mood to be appreciated and i'm not in one at the moment. Hope will listen to it within the weekend. Let's see what young GJ was feeling and thinking some years ago. Thanks for sharing it!

[GJ]

...well, at least your introduction was pretty interesting.

Why, thank you!

Let's see what young GJ was feeling and thinking some years ago.

I was thinking: "We're the Kings of Metal comin' to town!" and felt nothing at all - except for a strange feeling in my stomach due to Henrik's very strong black coffee.

It would be cool, though, if you posted some thoughts about the music - if you can bear sitting through the whole lot... or even why you could not!

Btw it was finished in 1999. Patrick began recording a few years earlier - maybe in 1995 or 1996. I began writing melodies (and trying to remember some of the older stuff) in 1997. I lived quite close to my work back then so I rode my bike home for lunch every day. So I could play rehearsal tapes I got from Patrick for practicing the vocals, shouting along in the kitchen whilst cooking. Ah, sorry for the rant! I'm in a nostalgic mood, I guess.

[ION BRITTON]

Well, to be honest, i didn't hear any groundbreaking compositions, but what made me an impression is how different the songs sound to each other. On the 1st track i could swear i was hearing Quorthon singing some old version of "Under the Runes". The 2nd track reminded me a bit of Alice in Chains, the 3rd one of Tea Party, the 4th was quite NWOBHM-ish etc etc.

I think a little bit of aggression is lacking in general, but the melodies are quite good. I think people who are deeper into prog stuff than i am, will appreciate it much more. What i heard isn't exactly my cup of tea, but it wasn't bad or boring in any case.

[GJ]

I appreciate your honesty. Yeah, the lack of aggression I can agree with to a certain point. Guess I never was good at Halfordish shrieks - being a barytone doesn't help either... need to work on my falsetto. This was what came out naturally at the time. I can live with it. Should I start listen to Alice in Chains now? I always get a Levellers wibe from the vocals of the second song, and I haven't heard a single note by them since 1993 or so!

May I tempt (plague) you with a more aggressive side of me:

http://rapidshare.com/files/194723911/0 ... n.mp3.html

Less than two minutes, one riff all the way through - I will never write a better song.

[ION BRITTON]

I won't lie, i like some Alice in Chains tunes Don't know, the middle section of the 2nd track reminded me of them. This doesn't mean of course that you both should have been fans of that band, i just thought that for some moments you sounded like them. I've only heard a few Levellers tracks, don't really remember how they sounded...

Aggression of course should not be (and it is not anyway) the be all end all element in Metal, i personally can live without it to some degree, however it always make me happy when i hear plenty of it in metal bands

Will download "The children" soon. Thanks for uploading it.

[DaN]

Had a listen to this yesterday. Yes, the lyrics were quite corny and it does get a wee bit wimpy at times, but for the most part it's great shit! "EpicDoom-light" I guess would be the proper pidgeonhole to throw it in? Listened to Candlemass much? Other bands that come to mind are SOLITUDE AETURNUS, DARK QUARTERER and at your best, even PAGAN ALTAR (!)
All in all I think this will go down pretty well with plenty of folks around here.

Where Grungemeister John got the Alice In Chains-references from totally escapes me though. Should we ban him perhaps?

[ION BRITTON]

Grungemeister? Me? Oh god... On Monday, and if i remember it, i will to try to post the exact moment where it reminded me of them. Maybe i'm wrong after all and they did sound like BATHORY "Blood fire death" era there, although i do remember that i heard something grungy. I don't remember doing drugs in the evening either

And you, Dan, you obviously listen to PAGAN ALTAR a lot. Every third band you hear that sounds somehow doomy reminds you of them

[DaN]

Hm.. let me see... a band that don't remind me of Pagan Altar...?

BOMBARDER?


..Though I still stand by my statement that MAX PLANCK were sorta, kinda, occationally, with-a-little-creative-thinkin', comparable to Thee Mightly Englanders.

[ION BRITTON]

I kinda agree to a certain degree about MAX PLANCK, although i don't think they had already heard PAGAN ALTAR when they were recording the demo. Their sound does have similiarities though.

BTW, i have a BOMBARDER unreleased track that sounds exactly like "Sentinels of hate", but i want 1000 Euros to upload it, hahaha, what i fucking liar am i

[DaN]

BTW, i have a BOMBARDER unreleased track that sounds exactly like "Sentinels of hate"

but i want 1000 Euros to upload it

hahaha, what i fucking liar am i

[ION BRITTON]

LOL, I'm SURE that if i really had it and had also lowered the price a bit you'd have already bought it!

[DaN]

Yeah, there's no denying it... I'm a slut for Metal

[GJ]

Had a listen to this yesterday. Yes, the lyrics were quite corny and it does get a wee bit wimpy at times, but for the most part it's great shit! "EpicDoom-light" I guess would be the proper pidgeonhole to throw it in? Listened to Candlemass much? Other bands that come to mind are SOLITUDE AETURNUS, DARK QUARTERER and at your best, even PAGAN ALTAR (!)
All in all I think this will go down pretty well with plenty of folks around here.

Where Grungemeister John got the Alice In Chains-references from totally escapes me though. Should we ban him perhaps?

I should be glad I didn't write the lyrics then! Well, I guess they are a bit corny at times (all the "long beards" and "goodbyes" may make you wish you wouldn't have paid so much attention in english class ). I never was into fantasy books or films and that kind of stuff - but still a great deal into Manilla Road and Iron Maiden. I don't know why - I like Edgar Allan Poe and Ray Bradbury and their kind of fantasies but have never managed to read Tolkien (except for The Hobbit, which was really easy reading but not particulary good). But Patrick was deeply into this kind of stuff (at least then) and I felt I weren't "educated" enough to interfere with his visions (after all this was stuff he had been sketching on since the very early days of Epic Irae). I like the flow and the "feel" of the story, though even if it may not mean too much to me.

About Candlemass: Yes! They were the most important reason (Stormwitch's Stronger than Heaven album was involved too) schoolmates (and fellow footballers) Patrick Backlund (almost 16 years old, taking up bassism) and Thomas Svedlund (16, guitar - already knew how to strum some chords) came up to me (16 too) in the late summer of 1988 asking if I would consider joining a band they had in mind forming as a singer. Intended drummer, whether he wanted or not, was the completely unknowing younger brother of Thomas. He, Mikael Svedlund (14), I was told, had some experience on said instrument and knew how to bang away along to Hallowed be thy Name - man, was I impressed!

I had written a suicidal doom metal love song called "The Solution" on the piano already at fourteen, very much inspired by Solitude (both by Sabbath and Candlemass) and Winternights by Sad Wings which was transformed into a proper doom metal (love) song. Patrick wrote a song called Lord has come (which borrowed lines both from Ilse of the Dead and, if memory serves me right, Tolkien). At this time I had had "The Deluge" LP for a year and a half and this was the only Manilla Road any of us had heard up till then. Patrick then found Open the Gates and Crystal Logic at Heavy Sound when we were in Stockholm to see Iron Maiden (and Helloween) at Hovet. I brought with me back home Night on Bröcken, Long Live Metal and Fit to Fight. I had recorded the great Axedance from some German radio show over the AM band (pretty noisy) but guess the nude butts on the cover attracted me also. Btw on that same program they also played the ultra cool Heavy Mörtel Mischmaschine by MCB - this one took me years to finally find as I had no idea what the band's name was. Eventually in the mid-nineties I stumbled across this Hard & Heavy LP and reading the song title made me sweat rather heavily.

We even had a really silly teeny-weeny dedication to Candlemass on the cover of our first demo cassette (1989) claimin them being the only thing not making us feeling shame and disgrace for our country. We'd blame the giant flood of Europes that Treats that ruled in Sweden back then medially, nation-wide and locally there was all these AOR-ish, blues based, or whatever they'd call themselves, perfumed and poodled former Heavy Metal bands. Locally we had loads of these Renegade (who used to be good), Ivory, Mystery, Roulette, Lions Share, Gilt, Ace, Paradize, Big Prize... even Behemoth singer Sirre became AOR-ized (still probably is - really nice guy though). Ah little did these four mid-teen "farmer" boys from Timrå know of our uncool ways - but Kerrang made fun of the looks of Manilla Road so I guess we were in good company.

On Solitude Aeturnus: Vocally, I think see your point - Robert Lowe has been accused for wimpyness too. Personally, I really like his voice. I like things nice - but with an evil twist. But Patrick probably hadn't listened very much to them - and he wrote the songs.

Pagan Altar and Dark Quarterer are bands I first heard around 1998 I think. Got the PA boot from the infamous MarsHall guy - white cover. I like Jethro Tull a lot and from what I hear in Pagan Altar they may well do too. They seem quite folky at times like JT. I have studied swedish folk singing for a while in 1993. Dudejdadiddeladidudijamtadidudadidejjjjaa... Nice. Dark Quarterer are nice too.

About Alice in Chains, I kind of disliked the druggy non-metal look of their singer and thus I shut my ears already in 1992 or whenever they used to show up on Headbanger's Ball. This makes me unable to judge Ion's refering to them, I guess. I am such an open-minded, tolerant and humble persona, ain't I. "Yes Sir, you really are!", the enlighted and overwhelmed crowd responded in greatest awe, sheer happiness and fulfilment! So, DaN, please let him stay!

Good Lord Satan! Nostalgia got me again! What did I write? Arrrh, who gives a freakin' fuck? Two pictures and I'm off to the fridge for tonight's first beer. What? I mean this morning's first beer.

The complete Epic Irae/Quicksand Dream discography

Aelin CD 1999
Metal North Local CD sampler 1993
Ballet of Desolation Demo 1989
One Cloudy Day Demo 1990
A Lonely World Demo 1992-199? (this was finished when the band was no more probably around 1994-1995, can't remember)

Idea for cover of unfinished second Quicksand Dream CD Darkness That I Am


Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!