Musical Notes: End of End

You can listen to and purchase this song at http://undertheroseband.com/track/end-of-end. 

This song, like “Time Untold,” was pieced together from several older riff ideas I had written between 2002 and 2010. In fact, at some point, pieces of “Time Untold” and “End of End” existed together in the same song. The only new riff written for “End of End” was the bridge riff.

To the Beat of a Different Drum(mer)

As with “Divide and Be Conquered,” Jason’s drum parts completely transformed this song. The introductory riff was originally written to have a strong mid-tempo groove, but Jason plays in double time, giving the passage a more aggressive feel. He also added the quick double-kick fills during the chorus, which I follow on the guitar and bass. This adds an interesting flourish to the otherwise straightforward, Sevendust-style groove.

However, the biggest departure was Jason’s decision to play a death-metal-inspired blast beat during the bridge. The bridge is so over-the-top and heavy that I usually laugh when I hear it. But I love it! One interesting element during the bridge is the acoustic guitar. When the blast beat begins, the acoustic guitar begins playing a series of ascending chords. This slight movement adds a barely detectable melodic texture to the driving percussion.

Big Harmonies

As in some of our other songs (such as “Give Me Something Real”), I experimented with adding progressively more vocal layers to each chorus. By the final chorus, I was in full Boston/Journey/Kansas mode. (Okay, maybe not that cheesy.) It’s easy to ruin the raw vibe of a heavy song with too many “pretty” vocal layers, but I love the sound of lush harmony, especially when contrasted with screaming. 

Growl, Laugh, Repeat

This is also the first (and, so far, the only) song on which I recorded deep, death metal growling vocals. (Yes, in the span of two-and-a-half minutes, you too can learn to death growl... from a 15-year-old.) Jason visited one weekend in the summer of 2011, and he helped me tracked the last few vocal tracks for the album. We decided it would be hilarious to add these type of growls/grunts just because my normal speaking voice would make you think this type of vocalization is impossible for me! Plus, it's just over-the-top. As my friend Stacy Renfroe once told me, "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing." I wish we had taken video of these recording sessions. After the first growl, Jason and I doubled over laughing for about five minutes before we were able to go on. Every time we played back the recording, we laughed some more. 

--Aaron