The Pharaoh’s Revenge

[Dan Shipway]

You waited patiently, it was teased for days and finally the day has come.
The pictures, the messages, what were they leading up to?
I am extremely pleased to announce to all of you that work has begun on my very first song, The Pharaoh’s Revenge. It is something I have considered for a while but nothing has ever flowed and I was always fearful of what a monstrous undertaking it would be.
There are a few things I would like to talk about before showing you a clip lf the works and to begin I’d like to talk about the choices stylistically and why I decided to go down the route I did when creating the piece.
The main influence behind this was middle eastern music. I have a huge love for darker middle eastern music, there is something about it that is so evil and raw and makes me shiver just listening to it. There are also a lot of rock and metal influences that focus around the harmonic minor but also slow twisted riffs which you will hear.
The main song that built the love i have for the scale is Highly Strung by Vai and Orianthi. At 2 mins it really starts to kick off and the way that Vai makes the notes wail and the choices hooked me.
Its the scale I like to listen to the most due to the dark evil tonalities and I feel I can express myself best with it.
It’s also the first song I will be attempting to add drums and bass to so it gave me a chance to do this.
Without further ado I give you the raw uncut clip of the intro.
Enjoy
Dan

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

First comment after the long waiting.
will update about this soon, didn’t even read the post. FIRST COMMENT
Edit: this is awesome ! I live in the middle east and I actually don’t like middle eastern music. but this combination sounds really nice
Hope we’ll get the full song soon!

 

[Dan Shipway]

The song is a ways off yet, At the moment I have a Reaper session with loads of ideas to put in the song.
Most of the work now is deciding how the parts will flow into each other and writing a solo. After that its just drums bass and the mix/master.
The intro took me a pretty long time to finish because there were little timing issues or notes that didn’t ring out but I think I’ve got it now.
Thanks for all the support, glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Ethan Keeling]

Sounds great, never really listened to this kinda music but so far it sounds amazing and I cant wait to here the whole think. You should be proud so far mate!

 

[Dan Shipway]

Thanks Ethan!

 

[Ed Seith]

That’s a great start – I’m interested, for sure. Following that intro with the whole song’s gonna be a lot of work .

 

[Dan Shipway]

Its actually been pretty nice, quite a lot of the ideas for riffs verses and choruses have been flowing well. Somehow I managed to throw in an Fmaj7(#11) over E which I never knew so its a good time to brush up on my theory too.

 

[Ezequiel Romanko]

this is great dan, cant wait to hear the rest

 

[Dan Shipway]

Thanks Ezequiel, glad you like it. One thing I have noticed is how many ideas get discarded before the end result is made. At the minute my idea that went
intro-riff-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-riff-solo-riff
Now goes
Intro-riff (as verse then chorus)- new verse-chorus(underneath solo) and the last bits are not yet thought out

 

[Gabriel Corso]

Very nice! I can already hear crazy drums coming after this guitar intro.
Good job! And keep us up to the next stages of the song

 

[Dan Shipway]

I have a single track with the basic layout of the song, the hardest bit is trying to transitional the bits and make the drop in speed or dynamics feel natural

 

[Ezequiel Romanko]

yeah the writting process changes a lot until the final release, and that can make a song greater

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

intro-riff-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-riff-solo-chorus-riff-explode
!

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I like that you are mapping it out. I used to so that at first. Now.. I map it out on the fly.
Meaning I just jam the song and allow it to go the way my fingers wanna go. Eventually you’ll start adding in the techniques and scales you’ve learned and the mix is easier. My suggestion is repeat the first riff with a cool duet. I think you easily can add it and just go up an octave with the lead duet.
As for the solo… write that LAST. That’s your peak of the song. You dont wanna write it then have the song take off somewhere else. It might mess with the flow. I also find my solos take a day of two or jamming to get out. Not JUST the notes I wanna play but you gotta also teach yourself the lick. After you learn it you figure out pretty fast if it fits.. or if itll lead anywhere in the song.
Just some things that always helped me when writing. You definitely have the right approach.

 

[Dan Shipway]

I have all the riffs sorted just got to see which ones work best, just playing around in REAPER to see what is nicest before working on transition ideas. Then it’s re-recording to a higher standard.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Wow did this not go as planned, I originally started this with a few ideas in mind and they were all ideas that I knew could work but had no idea how to put together, I am definitely somewhere but the song doesn’t feel like it flows.
I have the order Intro-Drum fill-Verse-Chorus-1st verse Riff-Verse-Potentially a bridge-Solo-1st-Chorus riff-outro which I will probably stick with but the parts just don’t lead into each other very well, I have 4 different ideas that all have the sort of same sinister vibe to them but not a clue what to do with them some opinions on what should go where would definitely help, Individual tracks coming tomorrow.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Sorry guys, gotta apologise for that last post, It’s been pretty tough having to try and get everything sorted for the song, however. I think I have a clear vision. The riff I will post tomorrow is one of the coolest riffs I think I have ever written. It is also in a really nice feel and I decided that Im going to go full industrial metal on the drums, simple but huge.
I am pretty sure I am on to a winner

 

[Ethan Keeling]

Cant wait to hear! I know its gonna be great!

 

[Dan Shipway]

After a long time of inactivity on the song I have got the iso track for the verse and would love to know what you think, I am in the process of rerecording quite a bit of it and after that I should be set to get new parts recorded.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Hey guys, the project is taking longer than expected due to college and just a HUGE lack of creativity, I have most of the main ideas minus the solo recorded and it’s just a case of finding how all the parts could fit and flow and recording it all in one take by easter time.