Musical Notes: Time Untold

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

Pick Up the Pieces

“Time Untold” began its life as a lonely chorus. I wrote the music and lyrics to the chorus back around 2006, and I used it with numerous different song ideas. In fact, there was once a song that contained parts of both “End of End” and “Time Untold,” which is not terribly surprising given their similar tempos, riffs, and chord structures. However, I was never satisfied with the way the song came together.

After Jason and I finished recording “A Spirit of Burning,” I decided to revisit my heavier song ideas, including the “Time Untold” chorus. This time, however, I had some new riff ideas inspired by Killswitch Engage and Soilwork. I didn’t think the introductory riff was good enough to drive the song, so I decided to explore the syncopation of an underlying rhythm track. Jason wrote his part around the rhythm tracks, and the push-and-pull motif of the introduction was born. Initially, this motif continued into the verses. I had written a rhythm guitar track to go underneath the higher verse riffs, but the opposing guitar parts masked the vocals and made the verses muddy. I decided instead to double the higher riff and fold the proposed rhythm guitar parts into the bass guitar line. This proved much more effective, leaving room for vocals and for drum nuance.

EuroSynth

To keep “Time Untold” in line with our developing "epic" rock/metal sound, I wanted its chorus to have a vast, adventurous feel. (That was an incredibly nerdy sentence, wasn't it?) Again, inspired by Soilwork and other European metal bands, I added an ethereal synth line to the chorus. The goal was to create a subtle but soaring pad that would smooth out the staccato chugging of the rhythm section and enhance the melody of the vocals. Of course, the chugging mid-tempo chord changes are closer to Sevendust than Soilwork.

The Guitar Lead

This guitar lead is one of my favorites on the UTR album. I love the bluesy, classic rock feel of the whole passage. If the majority of the song reflects metal influences, the lead (and its underlying rhythm parts) definitely relies on classic hard rock. The final ascending run at the end of the lead was difficult to play cleanly. (When you have a family and a full-time job, practicing guitar scales takes a dive on the priority list. This would’ve been easy when I was 17!) So, I simply pushed “Record” and played that run over and over again until I got a clean take. Then, I pasted the run in the appropriate place in the song.

(In some circles, that’s called cheating.)

The lead’s opening sequence reflects the influence of my dad’s blues-based approach (i.e., Stevie Ray Vaughn). However, the tone of many of my leads (including “Time Untold” and “Give Me Something Real”) is inspired by Eric Johnson (see 1:35-2:35 and 3:18-end). I love the “creamy,” violin-like quality he achieves, where the guitar seems to sing. For me, the trick is to smooth out the pick attack, especially since my own unprocessed lead tone can sound a bit twangy due to the way I hold my pick (for example, listen to the lead in the UTR song “Behold the Wicked Man”). I usually smooth out the attack by turning the tone knob down to 6 or 7, adding a slow, subtle chorus effect, and applying a short delay. Also, I love the smooth attack I can get by using the tapping technique in various ways. You can hear one version of this technique in the chorus leads, which are mixed pretty low to make room for the vocals.

In the end, this song turned out as a metal-tinged hard rock song that drives from the beginning and doesn’t let up. That works for me.

--Aaron