Ravenous on the Rampage!

 Greetings, greedy Humans of the Internet! Canada's Ravenous have unveiled their heroic new album, 'Eat the Fallen' for you to feast on most gluttonously! Be prepared to get a belly full of beer-fuelled metal mayhem down your neck - you'll be fist-pumping the air and chanting every chorus before you can say "Meat's back on the menu, boys!".

 This album was produced masterfully by the sonic sous chef Alan Sacha Laskow at Perfect Filth Productions, Canada, and features virtual orchestral garnish on every darn track, fiendishly fermented by yours truly!

Check it the hell out on Spotify - you know you're hungry for it! 

NEW MUSIC! Listen to Canada's finest metal fellas Ravenous E.H on the radio at Rock Bottom - Cjsw 90.9FM , debuting a selection of their new songs from 'Eat the Fallen', which were produced most splendidly by Alan Sacha Laskow at Perfect Filth Productions, and feature virtual orchestrations by yours truly at orchestralmetal.com.

http://cjsw.com/program/rock-bottom/episode/20190409/

This claustrophobic cacophony that I composed for the Danish thrashcore band HateSphere was inspired by the post-apocalyptic opening scene of Terminator 2, so it made sense to combine them!  

The album 'Reduced To Flesh' was released in 2018 by Scarlet Records, with jaw-breaking production by Tue Madsen @ Antfarm Studio, Denmark. I've used the pre-production audio to make this video, but you can listen to the final production here.  

To hear more of my virtual orchestrations, check out my portfolio.

Unleashed from the vaults of my unconscious, a virtual orchestration has been conjured into form for the Brazilian horror metal band Alchemia (@alchemiabandofficial ).  

Once fused with the band's sonic offerings, this string arrangement will be transmuted into audio gold by none other than the great mage himself, Tue Madsen (@antfarm_producer ) at Antfarm Studio, Denmark.  

Check out the portfolio page, where you can hear more of my virtual orchestrations for metal bands who are killing it on the international scene.  

More coming soon!

​It's always satisfying to see one's contributions to an album in writing in the CD Booklet - Obrigado,​ Moonspell!

Olá, meus amigos! The following information in italics is from Moonspell's official press releases on their facebook page.

Portugal's Dark Metal pioneers MOONSPELL are finally back with a brand new and hotly anticipated album, titled '1755'. Set to be released on November 3rd 2017 on Napalm Records, this record will outclass all standards you have ever heard from MOONSPELL before!

From the first second the conceptual dramaturgy MOONSPELL have created what feels like a detonation of the mind. '1755' is more than just the band's new magnum opus: It's the musical version of the year of horror where a giant earthquake wrecked their home Lisbon.

Naturally this album comes and is sung in Portuguese. The album, produced by Tue Madsen (Meshuggah, The-Haunted, Dark Tranquillity, Dir en grey Official, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter) also features Paulo Bragança (Fado's fallen angel), supplying a hauntingly Fado vocal, which is a big part of the Portuguese culture. His fascinating vocals are featured in "In Tremor Dei" (eng.: "Fear Of God").

Now the band fronted by the soul of dark art and visionary Fernando Ribeiro unveiled the first details about '1755' and unleash the stunning cover artwork as well as the album track list!

Says Fernando:

“I have been fascinated with Portuguese history since I can remember. The year of 1755 marked the birth of a new Portugal. Much more than just the greatest natural disaster ever to occur on European soil, the great Lisbon Quake, shockwaves can not be reduced to a dramatic death toll.

From absolute tragedy, a new city was born, giving way to a new time where Portuguese relied more on themselves than on the crown or the cross, granting us, much of the city, the lay country, the free will that we enjoy today. 

This is not just another album from us. It’s a musical and lyrical history document, a homage we pay to our legacy and to the amazing skills and resilience of our fellow Portuguese back then, of all mankind when brought down to the knees by the violent forces of Nature and Reason.

Whatever is, is right... yet the earth shakes."

The track list of '1755' will read as follows: 

1. Em Nome Do Medo (orchestral version by Jon Phipps) 

2. 1755 

3. In Tremor Dei ( featuring Portuguese guest vocalist Paulo Bragança! ) 

4. Desastre 

5. Abanão 

6. Evento 

7. 1 De Novembro 

8. Ruínas 

9. Todos Os Santos 

10. Lanterna Dos Afogados ​

'1755' is a dark adventure in medieval landscapes - emotionally, technically and completely earthshaking! The album will be available for pre-order soon.

Additionally, the band later clarified some further details of the new  album, shedding some light on my involvement in its creation:

"1- 'Em nome do Medo/In the Name of Fear' is an orchestral version by the talented Jon Phipps (orchestralmetal.com).  It was the first challenge we asked of him for our new album 1755 and  the version he did and worked for until the very last day of the album  mixes is not the same song as the Alpha Noir one with the same name.

Quite different, it will be the intro to set the mood of  #1755 as it has set some blueprints and ideas for the rest of the album  songs. Jon is also the brain and the hand behind all this album's  magnificent orchestrations.

2- Lanterna dos Afogados/Lighthouse for the Drowned is a cover version from Brazilian mythical Pop band Os Paralamas do Sucesso.  We grew up listening to this song as kids in soap operas and its  sadness and beauty always stood out. It's a homage to the band and to  the country which gave the world such great musicians.

It's a tribute to the drowned, to the ones who never came back."

It is with great pleasure that we announce the lyric video for the first track extracted from our new album " 1755 " - "All the Saints ".

“Even though this all happened in 1755, there are still a lot of world and country leaders that think themselves as saints, with a sacred mission, chosen by any God.  What really happens is that they save no one but themselves and this video showcases the message of the song: as in 2017 or 1755 all saints will not be enough to save us.” - comments vocalist Fernando Ribeiro.

Pre-order the new Moonspell album "1755"!   

Limited & exclusive editions available here:  http://smarturl.it/1755-NPR  

or via the Moonspell webstore  www.moonspell.rastilho.com

 New Music from Evadne (doom metal, Spain), with virtual strings and choirs by yours truly at orchestralmetal.com

Here's a fantastic new song from DragonForce, with additional orchestration by yours truly, at orchestralmetal.com. Produced by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios, Sweden. The album 'Reaching Into Infinity' will be released on the 19th of May.

I enjoyed working on this track, combining 8-bit electronic sounds with the pizzicato strings to pay homage to the computer-game soundtrack vibe that DragonForce are known for, but in the surprising and refreshing context of a orchestral metal ballad.  

The strings in the final chorus dance around the beat with their wide interval leaps, making a soaring melody that compliments the band's groove quite effectively (if I might say so myself!).

The Spanish doom metal band Evadne are releasing a new album, 'A Mother Named Death' this coming June, which features virtual orchestral and choral arrangements by yours truly at orchestralmetal.com.  These symphonic elements are complimented with synth and piano parts created by Sergio Peiro Molina at SP Estudios, who produced the album.

The instrumental track '88:6' is a reference to a psalm in the bible that reads 'You have put me in the lowest pit, In dark places, In the depths". Collectively we have striven to capture the darkness and despair evoked in this tragic text.

 New music from The Gift (Portuguese cinematic synth pop) featuring virtual strings programmed by Jon Phipps, mixed by Flood, and produced by Brian Eno: Check it out!

In October of 2016, Jon Phipps was commissioned by the producer Jens Bogren to add war-like brass and orchestral percussion to this thrash song by Kreator, who's new album 'Gods of Violence' reached number one in Germany's official album chart today.    

This bonus material was published by Decibel Magazine as a special vinyl release. However, it can also be heard above on YouTube:

Here's a sampler of the Trees of Eternity album, 'Hour of the Nightingale', which will be released on the 11th of November. The occasional shades of orchestral colour on this album were created by yours truly at orchestralmetal.com.  

The album was produced by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios, Sweden. 

 This is the second full song to be revealed by the band, who were formed by Juha Raivio, guitarist for Swallow the Sun (Finland), and Aleah Stanbridge, who made a guest appearance as a vocalist on 'Under the Red Cloud' by Amorphis in 2015, and 'New Moon' by Swallow the Sun in 2009. Tragically, Aleah lost her life to cancer earlier in 2016, so the album stands as her haunting and moving epitaph.

 This is the first song to be released from the new album that Trees of Eternity will be unveiling in November, on Svart Records. It was produced by Jens Bogren at Fascination Street Studios, Sweden, and features a mix of intimate and symphonic string arrangements brought to you by Jon Phipps at orchestralmetal.com.

 At the beginning of June, 2016, I went to Lisbon, to pre-produce new material with Portugal's finest goth-metal masters, Moonspell.  Over the course of four long days, four new songs were refined from their raw potential materials into dark monoliths of metal might and majesty.

Along the way, additional orchestral colours were conceptualized and virtually manifested to embellish and enhance the band's core sound, resulting in songs that sound huge and heavy.  Watch this space for further developments with this project, as the mysteries of its dark purpose unfurl over the months to come...

If you would like to hear my previous work with Moonspell, check out their 2015 album 'Extinct' on my portfolio page.  For more info on the band, visit their official facebook page.

In the gloaming months of 2015, amidst the grip of a frost-bitten winter, I performed a blizzard of guitar parts for Andrew Lavender, who is a very talented producer and multi-instrumentalist from the UK. What Andy wrote for the bridge and chorus of this song was great fun to play, with it's dramatic chord inversions, fast-strumming, and jangling dissonances.

Perhaps you've written some awesome guitar riffage for your own music, but you're having a difficult time recording some sections? If so, feel free to get in touch to discuss receiving guitar tuition from me, or whether you would like me to record those tricky parts as a session musician for your project.