The Castle of Pain
Liner Notes
Emplate: In addition to extreme metal, I also worship at the altar of traditional doom and heavy metal. For the longest time I've wanted to try my hand in crafting that sort of stuff, but I just can't sing. Enter @sapient. I knew he has practiced his clean vocals during the recent years and has developed in it immensely. So I sent this track to him, and he summoned the Ancient Doom Spirit just how I imagined it. And also pulled some sick guitar leads on it.
Sapient: Do I want to do a classic heavy doom song about wizards and dragons and castle and that? Oh, yes please! I'm really happy with the guitar solo on this. For once I actually sat down and planned it out and then made sure I could play it all cleanly. Which made me think of that classic clip from "A Year And A Half In The Life Of Metallica" when Kirk Hammet just cannot get the solo for The Unforgiven right, until suddenly there's that magical moment when it all comes together...
Lyrics
Black wizard Reaching across the land Cowled wizard Fate trapped in his hand Sees no good Does naught but evil Spirits rise The chains are broken Accursed earth The words are spoken And the castle stands black against the night
None can breach the walls The dragons hear the call The mightiest will fall In the realm of the castle of pain
Red wizard Locked in conjuration White wizard Burns in retribution
None can breach the walls The dragons hear the call The mightiest will fall In the realm of the castle of pain
Alone he stands Master of all he surveys Beholden to none Belief in his power Perpetuates his blackened reign Yet his minions know All castles are made of sand And eternity’s great waves Wash them All Away
Comments
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yes, classic metal - love the harmonised guitars before the catchy clean vocals come in. great collab!!
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Well done!!!
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Hide away your graves! Here comes the overtaker (eh 🏎 ). Very nice early 90s vibe 😎
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This is tasty as hell! Love it.
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This has some serious weight, and makes me think of those metal anthems. well done with the melodic work and the intro theme!!!!!!!
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Running notes: Harmony guitars. So damn tasty. Verses - I'm getting early Queensryche, and I'm loving it. (I mean, I don't think Queensryche did wizards and such, but still...) Realm of the castle of pain is a killer hook Loving the build Ahhh, there's the growly shit. Hell yeah. Gotta change my shorts now. More harmony guitars! Yaaaassss! Smooth tapping with some alternating rhythmic sequences! Gotta change my shorts again. And full-on growl spoken word!
Thank you for this journey y'all. RAWKKKKKKKKKKK.
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Yup pleasing to the ear! Great build and those opening vocals are tops! Cool chorus! I think I hear more instruments appearing! The guitar hit, well I’m a sucker for this! It’s my icing! Great song guys.
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Love metal, although it's not a genre I've written many songs in myself. This was great! (And I watched and loved that Metallica documentary--raised my 3 sons on Metallica!) Great song! ❤️
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Fabulous collaboration love the lead guitars on the stage of the awesome heavy rhythm riff and drum grooves. Awesome vocals. I love the powerful dark and pointed lyrics! Great song!
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The rather nifty chorus is the cherry on the top of a very tasty serving of metal. If you guys had done this back in the early 80s you'd both be living as tax exiles on luxury yachts by now. I like how the production gradually gets bigger and bigger and the number of guitars involved increases exponetially, which of course is the correct approach. Lead break is stellar and I never thought I'd be typing this but the lines "All castles are made of sand / And eternity’s great waves / Wash them / All / Away" are actually a source of solace in these crazy times.
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I love how you build the main guitar theme with all these harmonies. I did not expect to hear @sapient clean vocals here and it rocks. The lyrics remind me a bit of power metal. This is so catchy