METAL FANS - NEW METAL BAND HERE

shadowmac · #1 09-14-2009, 02:29 PM

Hello All. Long time TB-er here. I need your help.

My band HEDDA recently finished our 4 song EP, "The Calm Before". We also launched our web-site and MySpace pages. The replicated CD will be in our hands in about a week.

HEDDA is made up of 4 veteran musicians of diverse musical backgrounds and this project is very different from anything any of us has done in the past. This is unanimously our best work to date.

We are currently rehearsing the material for the rest of our 11 song, full length album, "The Storm" in preparation for our return to the studio this fall.

I describe our style as "Provocative Power Metal with Progressive Moments and Tendancies" (i.e. Kamelot, Firewind, Masterplan, Balance of Power, etc.). Our music is similar in style to the aforementioned bands but is also heavily influenced by older bands such as Iron Maiden, Rush, Queensryche, Savatage, Dream Theater and Fates Warning, among others.

Please take a listen and let me know your thoughts.

http://heddatheband.com/index.html - One minute samples of our songs in 320 Kps high quality format are available here.

http://www.myspace.com/heddatheband - Full versions of our songs are available here.

If you visit, please leave a message for us on our contact page or here at TB with your thoughts of the material, the artwork and / or the production quality.

IF YOU REALLY LIKE OUR STUFF, please utilize HEDDA's contact form available here: http://heddatheband.com/HEDDA-contact.html, or on our CONTACT page and let us know; we'd love to post some positive feedback quotes on the site.

We NEED your help and support.

Thank you very, very much! Take care,

Jamie Mac - HEDDA

shadowmac · #2 09-15-2009, 09:52 PM

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo?

IconBasser · #3 09-16-2009, 11:44 AM

Hello.

IconBasser · #4 09-16-2009, 11:46 AM

honestly, it sounded too much like hair metal for me to like it.

shadowmac · #5 09-18-2009, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IconBasser

honestly, it sounded too much like hair metal for me to like it.

Interesting. First time anyone has said that. I've heard "power metal", "epic metal" and "power-prog". I am extremely familiar with most of the hair metal bands (I was a hard rock / light metal DJ for years)...What is your frame of reference?

shadowmac · #6 10-13-2009, 03:54 PM

Hello again, the first run of "The Calm Before..." arrived today and now HEDDA will begin the quest for label and / or distribution interest. Obviously, it is a very tough market to break into and word of mouth means so much, please check us out and spread the word.
Our discs will be available on CD Baby shortly, but for now, here is the link to our MySpace page.
http://www.myspace.com/heddatheband

METAL FRIENDS:
Our good friends in WISZDOMSTONE are doing extremely well with their first full length release, "Rise". There was a time (before he joined WS) when we had thought about approaching their singer, Andre', (who is an old friend of mine) about doing the vocals in the HEDDA project - he is extremely good. If you like metal, check out the WISZDOMSTONE stuff; great guys and great music! Tell 'em Mac sent you!

http://www.myspace.com/wiszdomstoneinnercircle

Wish us luck. Jamie Mac

bassophil · #7 10-13-2009, 04:13 PM

My thoughts:

"Who is playing the synths?"

"Where are the cymbals?"

"Ahh, far in the back, buried in the mix are some cymbals"

"The voice is nice"

"The bass is little too loud"

"Reminds me of Manowar"

"A step up from that mid tempo would be nice sometimes"

You asked

bassophil · #8 10-13-2009, 04:19 PM

Ok, I just saw on your Homepage that who played the keys. Only visited the myspace page before

shadowmac · #9 10-14-2009, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bassophil

My thoughts:

"Who is playing the synths?"

"Where are the cymbals?"

"Ahh, far in the back, buried in the mix are some cymbals"

"The voice is nice"

"The bass is little too loud"

"Reminds me of Manowar"

"A step up from that mid tempo would be nice sometimes"

You asked

Thanks for the interest. The synth parts for "Yield" and "Gypsy's" were written by the band and Paul Moore and were performed on the disc by Paul. Keys on "Full Circle" were written by our guitarist (Kent) and keys on "The Gates" were written by me and performed by Carter Hunnicutt.

We intentionally mixed the crash cymbals back a bit, as is the trend in this style, i.e. Kamelot and Masterplan, but we used a fair amount of automation in the mixing and certain cymbals do come forward in the mix throughout the album.

We actually use two voices - did you hear them both? One is smooth the other has a bit more gravel.

On certain computer sound systems, the bass booms. On others, it is hard to hear. MP3 format on a basic computer sound system is a difficult combination of sonic challenges to overcome. We listened on 10 or so different systems throughout our mixing sessions and the final mix and master gave us the best sound in the majority of systems. Hopefully, at some point, the majority of our listeners will be listening on a home stereo or in the car and the music will sound more like we intended it too. Once again, this aspect was a huge challenge.

The MANOWAR comparison: I agree that the first song has some aspects of Manowar, BUT, Did you listen past the first song? I'd just like to point out that ours is a concept album; The first tune "Never Yield" describes an impending battle between two forces of angels, and thus has some battle imagery and military like drum cadences - which is coincidentally a staple of MANOWAR. I'd offer that our stuff is quite a bit more complex than typical MANOWAR - actually, we were a little concerned that based on John's clean voice, "Never Yield" would be compared more to HAMMERFALL.

If you get the chance, please listen to "The Gates" and "Gypsy's Kiss" - I feel very confident that comparisons to MANOWAR will be cut to a minimum.

The tempo: 2 of the next three that will be recorded (for the full length release) are QUITE a bit faster (in the 160-180 bpm ranges). The way we selected songs for the EP was a little odd (due to necessity), and unfortunately the tempos were all mid range - on the desire for more up-tempo songs and passages, I agree with you 100%. They ARE coming.

Thanks for the comments and questions - I really do appreciate it.

Mac

DoomandHeavy · #10 10-14-2009, 12:59 PM

Good stuff, I love how audible the bass is. Too often it gets mixed out in Power Metal. Keep up the good work!

shadowmac · #11 10-14-2009, 01:57 PM

Thank you very much! We will. Take care Doom!

Mac

Chowowbus · #12 10-16-2009, 06:39 PM

I like your stuff. I would definatly come to see you guys if you showed up here in Olympia WA!
We have the same name Jamie!

Jamie

shadowmac · #13 10-17-2009, 03:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chowowbus

I like your stuff. I would definatly come to see you guys if you showed up here in Olympia WA!
We have the same name Jamie!

Jamie

That's totally cool! Thanks for the kind words. We'd be pleased to get the opportunity to do some gigging outside the mid-west. Check the site occasionally for updates - hopefully we'll have some show info in early 2010. We are currently rehearsing for the next stage of recordings and live shows will follow. If you're interested, the EP will be up on CD Baby sometime this week.

Take care Jamie!

Jamie Mac - HEDDA

shadowmac · #14 10-20-2009, 09:58 AM

Hey guys! HEDDA is going to shoot a vid for "Never Yield" and I got my newest toy just in time: its a Custom Cirrus 5 in black on black. The story of getting it is a saga which is described in this TB thread The Official U.S. Peavey Cirrus Club. I put in a few pix.

The vid will be a cohesion of studio footage and a "set" video. Gotta have something to put on YouTube, right?

Sales of the EP have started to pick up - thanks to all of you for your time and support.

Take care, Jamie Mac - HEDDA

shadowmac · #15 12-29-2009, 10:23 AM

As it turns out, the video is ALL studio footage from our "Never Yield" sessions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W03aoZc7HQ

DangerDog gave us a (+) review. Apparently, we are spearheading a new genre "The New Wave Of Classic Heavy Metal". Interesting. http://www.dangerdog.com/index.php

BeyondEarCandy.com has put us into the streaming music rotation, which is really cool and feedback has been very good: http://www.beyondearcandy.com/site/

The Shepherd Express gave us a glowing review, which is a big deal for any band in southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/article-9295-hedda.html

We are currently rehearsing for the next studio sessions.

Thanks again to everyone who has taken their time to take a look and / or respond.

Mac - HEDDA

shadowmac · #16 02-01-2010, 01:08 PM

We recently got a very nice review from Ron Fuchs at ProNaut.com: http://prognaut.com/reviews/hedda.html

The members of HEDDA have all been playing primarily progressive metal prior to this project and our "prog" mind-set follows us even in this much more straight forward setting. Our prog moments and tendancies are what stimulated the review on a mostly progressive site.

Many comments have been made concerning the sound / production on the EP. Some have liked the rawness of it, others have condemned the EP because we don't illustrate the "big studio" sound and production of the major bands in our genre.

We are about to begin re-mixing and re-mastering the song "The Gates" using a professional 3rd party engineer (removing ourselves from the process this time) in hopes of creating a "beefier" sound on the track. "The Gates", upon completion of re-mix / re-master will be the song we submit to ProgPower USA for the 2010 compilation CD. You can here the original version here: http://www.myspace.com/heddatheband

We are currently rehearsing the next 3 tracks selected for the studio including a two minute instrumental with a neo-classical (Yngwie meets Gus. G) vibe. This will be the only neo-classical piece on the album.

Cheers until next time.

Mac - HEDDA

shadowmac · #17 03-23-2010, 12:33 PM

Howdy again friends of metal.

HEDDA recently remixed and remastered our song "The Gates" for the 2010 ProgPower compilation. A FREE 320K MP3 is available for download on our site: http://heddatheband.com/HEDDA-media.html

It's a fairly large file at 320K, so give it a couple minutes to load completely.

PLEASE give me some feedback - What do you think of the material? What do you think of the mix? Any other thoughts regarding the music?

Note: The bass is not as far out in front in this mix as it was on our EP, "The Calm Before..." but hopefully the song as a whole has a little more OOOMPH!

Let me know.

Jamie Mac - HEDDA

shadowmac · #18 03-15-2011, 08:07 AM

Wow, it's been a long time since I hit this thread...sorry 'bout that.

HEDDA has been busy. We changed studios and engineers in the Fall of 2010 and have a brand new song up on MySpace. It's called "See The Light" and is the bottom song on the playlist. THIS is what HEDDA is supposed to sound like.

http://www.myspace.com/heddatheband

Please give it a listen or two and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks and I'll check back for your responses, JM

P.S. I recorded "See The Light" with my Skjold PSD '92 Off-Set 5 string through my main rig and Epifani Cabs. Oh yeah, it shows off my intimidating keyboard skills as well, Hehehe.

shadowmac · #19 03-15-2011, 04:19 PM

Hello - anyone?

bstringkyle · #20 03-16-2011, 07:50 PM

Very nice!!! I really enjoyed listening to it. Sounds like Epic metal to me, but I am no Expert.