2008/09/12 - New computer makes happy face! by Oscar

Sorry I haven't written in a while, I have been busy recording and I have had the same flu as Joacim has. He went home last week, and hasn't returned yet. We've come a long way with the rhythm guitars now, only two songs left. I'll be done tomorrow, most likely. Pontus also went home for the weekend, so I am alone in the studio with Charlie. The good news is I have finally gotten the computer and some of the ProTools stuff I ordered in the beginning of the recording, so I have things to keep me occupied. Nothing like ... [read more]

2008/09/03 - Two new guys and a cool guitar sound by Oscar

We were supposed to return on Monday, but Charlie had gotten a bad stomach flu over the weekend so we waited a day and a half until departure. Joacim and I got in around five in the afternoon, with Pontus arriving shortly thereafter. Charlie, with three times the trip we had, didn’t come until ten at night, so there was obviously no work done on Tuesday either. We convened in the studio late at night to drop Pontus’ guitars and equipment off – he brought a whole car full! - and then went back to our respective quarters for the night. ... [read more]

2008/08/26 - Second stage almost done by Oscar

Fredrik spent all day yesterday recording bass and I spent all day editing our video blog for Myspace. I bought Final Cut Express last week and had devoted the previous days to trying to understand the basics. The manual is 1152 pages long, so it took me some time to get into the layout and user interface of the program. Especially when one’s video editing experience is highly limited and only includes the good but very rudimentary iMovie. While I sweated and slaved with the video blog (accessed at www.myspace.com/hammerfall, click on videos), the others worked equally hard on three of the ... [read more]

2008/08/24 - Seven down, four to go! by Fredrik

Charlie wanted to do an early workout today so the two beers I got yesterday - come on, it was Saturday! - made me sleep like a baby ’til almost ten. Since we don’t have any TV-channels in the apartment and the internet connection isn’t good at all, I had my breakfast with live taekwon-do patterns once again. When we arrived at the studio Charlie had some things to do before I could start, so Oscar and I took the opportunity to shoot some stuff for our video blog. Make sure to check it out on myspace.com/hammerfall. You probably ... [read more]

2008/08/23 - Shootout by Oscar

While Fredrik went out running for about an hour, I had my own little workout this morning. And, no, all you perverts, it didn’t involve self-defilation! I warmed up with rope jumping for three two-minute rounds, did push-ups, sit-ups, and lounges. And finished everything off by practising four different kicks. I did lot of stretching before, too, need to keep those long limbs limber, hehe! We had breakfast and watched an episode of the Swedish comedy series ”Hjälp”. Last week, we laughed until we cried at some of the stuff (anger management sufferer Örjan Lax rules, we all agreed, as ... [read more]

2008/08/22 - Back in black! by Oscar

Charlie had been running the computers for a couple of days after the drum recordings, as usual, so we took the opportunity to go home for a few days. But today it was back to Torsås and the studio again. Fredrik and I had decided to take my car since we needed to bring two guitar cabinets down with us and my vehicle has ample room for such things. I had ordered two from ENGL, but they won’t arrive in time so I borrowed two from a friend of mine, Eric Rauti who plays in the heavy metal band Dreamland ... [read more]

2008/08/14 - Horrible morning, wonderful evening! by Oscar

Here’s a tip for you: after a bad night’s sleep, to be greeted by an incredibly energized and well-rested Anders is not something anyone who has been exposed to it will recommend. Trust me on this one… He ”entertained” us with singing, dancing and playing the guitar, sometimes all three at the same time. And when he wasn’t doing that, he was talking constantly about anything and nothing at all, to the point where we simply just tuned him out. Having lost his audience, he decided to go look for another one by opening up the front door and serenading the ... [read more]

2008/08/13 - First blog ever! by Fredrik

Today I woke up at 9.00. Charlie was supposed to drive his wife to the trainstation in Kalmar so we could sleep a bit longer , starting at 11.00. With 2 hours to spare I decided to go running , my belly had told me to buy new shoes after all the beers this summer. This was the first time I went running in years so I took of in a slow pace. When I got back Oscar and Anders had put some chairs aside and were practicing taekwon-do in the living room so when I had breakfast I got a ... [read more]

2008/08/12 - Salpetre Silliness by Oscar

Everyone seemed to sleep less than ok tonight, it was too cold in the room, the bed was too hard, had to go to the bathroom constantly etc. No matter, the show must go on and all that, so at ten we reconvened in the studio to begin the recording in earnest. ”Hallowed Be My Name” and ”Bring The Hammer Down” were fairly quickly done, one before and one after lunch. A quick trip to the store provided us with some unexpected afternoon entertainment in the form of salpetre (nitre) and sugar. You put it in a bag, mix it together and ... [read more]

2008/08/11 - It's that time again... by Oscar

Here we go again, boys and girls, ladies and germs, children of all ages: album recording no. seven is underway! The day didn’t begin so well for me, though; The alarm didn’t go off, so I overslept. Only a little bit, though, and I rushed through everything I had left to do in the morning and took a taxi to meet Fredrik at the rental car bureau about twenty minutes late. We got a SAAB 9-5, which would prove to be just big enough for all the gear we wanted to bring. Any smaller or just one more bag, and it ... [read more]