BLAZON STONE - Return to Port Royal

Pirate Treasure Delight - a delicious riff salad of early test mixes to give you a taste of the upcoming BLAZON STONE album, entitled "Return to Port Royal." Beware of the Kraken sticks, they could be rather spiky!

Well, I've certainly heard shameless tributes to much much worse bands than RW....... Mixes sounding really good, who's behind the board?

Thanks! Behind the board, as well as in front of it, playing on all instruments (including the drums which are real and not Angelo Sasso, haha!) is a jolly little fella called Cederick.

Keep in mind this is very early test mix. Ced is yet to record solos and clean guitars among other bits and fixes, and then off across the pond it will go to Diego for some tasty vocals.

you have had some really great stuff lately Stormie!!

Can't wait to hear the finished result!

Me too!

A short update to let everyone knows what's going on in camp BLAZON STONE:

The album is practically recorded. We only need to dub several acoustic intros and one guitar solo left. Ced ran into some hardware problems with his computer, which he should be taking care of this week.

We still need vocalist though. We tried Michael Rinakakis from AIR RAID and I liked the result, but Ced rejected it - he has quite a stern vision on how it should sound, so we are still on the look.

We are going to try Joe Liszt next - he is a local guy here in my city, currently singing for 80s Bay Area thrashers HELLHOUND. He has a husky mid-range voice not far away from Hansi Kursh which could work for Blazon Stone, I hope. We shall see.

The artwork is going to be hand-drawn acrylic on board. It is done by Michael Nörback who is also Ced's bandmate in one of his numerous musical endeavors. I've seen Michael's sketches and they look great! Totally in vein of classic pirate era RW.

I'm going to press this baby on vinyl, if only we manage to finish it off!

Exclusively for the Heart of Metal Board I'm going to post an advanced stream of a tune from BLAZON STONE (early mix, vocal-less). It will be only available for next 24 hours, so listen while you can. (Early mix w/o bass)

The song is called "The Curse of the Ghost Ship" (link expired, thanks for listening!)

This was pimped in the news section in the latest issue if Scream Magazine.

I love the sound of this

yea sounds cool

This will be mine!

Curse Of The Ghost Ship makes for a monster instrumental track. If a singer is becoming a difficulty, Blazon Stone have the chops to go vocal less.

I'd be cool with doing a song or two.

Yeah, we're using Joe exclusively for ROCKA ROLLAS, and we still need a singer for BLAZON STONE.

However, the BLAZON STONE album consist of 9 tunes, 8 of which require vocals. So we really need someone willing to step in and sing them all...

Here is one BLAZON STONE test tune sung by Joe, it is called "Stand Your Line"

so damn gooood

That was unbelievably good. Is there any chance he'll be the permanent singer? He sounds perfect to me!

Unfortunately not, because Joe felt ROCKA ROLLAS fit his singing style better, and we want to keep Rocka Rollas and Blazon Stone separate entities with different vocalists...

Besides, "Stand Your Line" is not a typical song for Blazon Stone - it is a mid-paced "rocker" similar to Running Wild circa 1987, while the rest of the tunes are more faster and speedier, akin to Tortuga Bay / Marooned / Phantom of Black Hand Hill / etc. that require higher pitched screaming type of delivery, which goes outside of Joe's comfort zone.

Overall, I like to think of "Return to Port Royal" as the album Running Wild could have released between Pile of Skulls and Black Hand Inn. This was the original idea - not to have a blatant RW rip-off, but rather a missing-link type of an album, paying homage to the pirate era RW, but with own identity as well.

Here is some info about the songs:

1. Intro - We don't have a name for this one yet, though it would be
definitely something RW related, like "Black Chest Inn" or something.

2. Return To Port Royal - the speedy opener of course. Crunchy and fast just like RW used to cut them in the good old times.

3. Stand Your Line - quite good rocker with catchy chorus and the ordinary fist pumping lyrics.

4. Amistad Rebellion - this one reminds a lot about "Conquistadores," but with a unique chorus. It is based on a historical event about a slaver ship mutiny. Probably the pilot single we'll be using to promote the album

5. High Treason - another fast power-cruncher in the style of "Marooned/Phantom Of Black Hand Hill." Another possibility for pilot single

6. The Curse Of The Ghost Ship - this song is basically the answer to RW's "Powder & Iron"

7. Blackbeard - this is actually the only song that doesn't feature an actual chorus. But it works well without one, somewhat similar to "Kiss Of Death" and "The Privateer" which none of them have chorus either.

8. Wind in the Sails - another speedy scorcher in the vein of "Tortuga Bay." Pure crunchy headbanging delight

9. The Tale of Vasa - THE Epic finale of the album. Somewhat similar to "Treasure Island," great diverse song with fast parts, majestic "Jens Becker" bass harmonies, spoken part, epic middle section, and furious finale of pure undiluted glory leaving you gasping for more!

I know there will be people laughing at it and calling it a rip-off, but this album is first and foremost for ourselves, as well for all RW die-hard fans who still crave and cherish the old glory days, smell of tar, treasure hunting, and pirate stories! AHOY!

"Return To Port Royal" sounds like it's shaping up quite nicely! I'm looking forward to it!

stormspell wrote:

Unfortunately not, because Joe felt ROCKA ROLLAS fit his singing style better, and we want to keep Rocka Rollas and Blazon Stone separate entities with different vocalists...

I understand the decision, but I am surprised. The new Rocka Rollas EP seems like it's taken the Running Wild direction, whereas the previous full-length didn't seem to have as much RW influence.

The EP is great, by the way. I'm not sure if you saw my review for Skull Fracturing Metal but I really enjoyed it and I'm going to be buying it once it's available! Can't wait for "Metal Strikes Back"

Please allow me to introduce you to power-house vocalist extraordinaire, irresistible sex symbol, and potential BLAZON STONE vocalist, Juan " the Beast" Rodriguez:

Juan couldn't find the time to work with us, BUUUT his loss is our gain, because we found Erik instead! So here it is, for the N-th, and hopefully for the last time, let me introduce the new Blazon Stone vocalist. This time his name is Erik and he is calling from Sweden. We are really hoping things will go fast and we can have this release out soon.

Here's the first demo with Erik. It is called "Blackbeard." Enjoy:

stormspell wrote:

I really like that. I hope this vocalist sticks because he fits the material perfectly, IMO. Looking forward to this.

I'm confused. Is he the yellow one with the blue hat? And are you sure the song is not called "Blackbird", because that is what he sings

In all seriousness, it sounds great!

It is true then: Norwegian folk cannot pass a Swede without making fun of him

stormspell wrote:

It is true then: Norwegian folk cannot pass a Swede without making fun of him

Norwegian Swede

ehh i guess it's alright this Erik fellow better stick around for the whole damn album