Enter the 36th Chamber of Mausoleum!

"There is only 35 chambers. There is no 36th. ? I know that, but ... I want to create a new chamber."

This is quote from classic old-school kung-fu film 36th Chamber of Shaolin. It has certain wisdom in it..
I always feel, once creating a new music, that I try to create my own 36th chamber, and add something unique to allready existing complex of musical discographies! It has taken us long time to create debut album of Mausoleum Gate. And now we are almost finished. I finally managed to mangle out 3rd and final mix revision of the album. Time for party eh?
Not so.. next we have to finnish the artwork and send the thing for mastering. Well Anyways, I'm happy that most of my part is done , it has almost driven me crazy!

Few words about mastering the album... We wanted to have outside mastering for the album, since I have personally recorded and mixed the whole thing, and to be honest , at this point I'm not sure what I'm doing anymore.. so It's time for second opinion! For me mastering is about second opinion on sound. And of course also double check with probably far more advanced listening conditions than we have in our underground lab. What I like about the album soundwise, that it sounds just like our band sounds! I think we have managed to bring out the small details, and even the imperfections in our performance. But all these small details and imperfections are very important part of the musical energy.

And we want to represent it raw , honest , honouring the underground ways.

I had a break on listening the album, before I finnished the mix. and Now it's time to have quick look on what have we done..

First side of the album starts of with Magic of the Gypsy Queen, which is fast heavy metal rocker.. Iron Maidenish opening riff, and then goes on more furious riffing.. Even MiniMoog appears background giving magical atmosphere to track. And for my money, Count delievers really nice solo on this one. Funny thing to notice from start of the album is that our band has this own weird style of playing things (timing , phrasing etc.) which gives it a bit weird feeling sometimes. After Gypsy Queen we enter realm of Demon Droid. This is sinister track of mid tempo heavy metal.

For me the albums propably highlight comes third. the album version of Lost Beyond the Sun show's everything that the current line up stands for. The song starts with simple and hard hitting guitar riff, and then acoustic guitar hit's in and exchanges passages with electric guitars. VP's vocals are shining here, with more down to earth singing and eventually turning in the three part harmonics. For me the band hasn't played as unit any better than here. Personal highlight is the drumming of Oscar Razanez here.. He really delievers the atmosphere this song needs with his obscure approach to rythm and fills. Another interesting feature is the long jam-out session, where we are demonstrating our approach to improvisation. Rythm section delievers something I would call a chance for solo guitarists to lay out different feelings.. And of course real Mellotron on traditional heavy metal setting is epic as hell!

B-Side of the album starts with Oscar's obscure Drum intro, which might be something of a mixture of Conan Barbarian soundtrack and 60's avantgarde music... Then we launch in the hard NWOBHM rocker Mercenaries of Steel, which is the Heavy Metal song of the album.. The main riff on the song reminds me of classic 8-bit games music and the hardrockin guitar solo is highlight for me! After the obscure transition of drums, bass and hammond organ jam, we present the probably darkest and most "metallish" song on the album , There must be demons. Kasperi's solo guitar is cool here, and VP delievers again great and very different vocals!

B-Side closes with the longest track on the album Mausoleum Gate. The track basically has everything you can expect from traditional heavy metal epic.
I'm feeling really pompous while listening to this haha! And of course the orchestrations here are done old-school style, with Mellotron, acoustic guitar, hammond organ and vocal overdubs with tons of reverb, giving this out there feeling. And Oscar again delievers crazed groove. Also Expect tons of lead guitar work on middle section...


To sum the record up, I think it fuses quite a lot influences together, and hopefully the audience will enjoy what they hear. And hopefully this album takes more than few listens , since I think there are quite a lot hidden details here... For me one of the great things is that, the tracks presented on the album has matured since we started working on the album project. We added allkinds of tiny details to them, that weren't there before.

And to open up few possibilities regarding album, list of seven albums that I personally listened heavily for influence and inspiration while working on this album:

1.Yes - Close to the Edge
2.Led Zeppelin - The Song remains the Same
3.Miles Davis - Miles Smiles
4.Neil Young - Zuma
5.Mahler - Symphony No.9 (various recorded versions)
6.Radiohead- Ok Computer
7.Rainbow - Rising

Now it's up to listener to decide, wheter to like or not.. We have done all we can with our abilities right now, and we shall move further and countinue the madness of MAUSOLEUM GATE!

The Full Lenght should be out on Cruz Del Sur Music, October/November this year. While waiting for this, you can still check out our earlier offerings!

SEMI 001 - Mausoleum Gate - OBsessed by Metal 7"
SEMI 002 - Mausoleum Gate - Gateways for the Wicked Demo re-issue Tape  
SEMI 003 - Mausoleum Gate - Heavy Metal Tradicionalista T-shirt  (random sizes available)
SEMI 004 - Mausoleum Gate - Obsessed by Metal and Gateways for the Wicked Sessions CD (Only Wholsale starting from 10 copies of more)

Available from various distributions or directly from Semistimiinuksella@gmail.com   

-Wicked

Some serious mixing and fixing

UUH... Finally time to give update from Mausoleum Gate camp! The debut album of the group is almost complete! Just finnished the second complete revision of the mix , and now we are in the middle of heavy listening session! We are playing the recording for the trusted persons, and possible parties involving the release of the album. The idea that we have extended listenings at this point, is that we want to have some input on sound poltics and stuff, just in case there are some unadressed problems etc. And othervise because we have listened the stuff too much, just some comments how it comes out!

What took us so long, even though most of the stuff were recorded few months ago? Cannot really say, but things sometimes need time! And of course there were tons of other stuff to do as well! And for me the tricky thing was also to get the keyboard parts right, choose the right vocal takes, best solos etc. We had this idea, that we want to have record that sounds like it is band playing live, although we don't have facilities good enough to do it live. The basic idea was to record and use long takes and leave some obscurities on tracks, as long as they are not too bothering. Like you have some tiny time differences and stuff when you play live. I think the result sounds quite "played" and lively, although I really have to dig into the mastering of the record.. Revision 2 we are currently checking out was done by me, but Not sure if I do it myself, or if we have budget, somebody else does it?!? We'll see...

Now some stuff about the album and the music itself. There are 6 tracks, totalling 40 minutes of music! For some this might sound low running time, but for me the rule of the thumb is that once the record fits in one 12" vinyl, the lenght is just right.. and this one sits in quite nicely! Then the music itself! Well like you might expect with Mausoleum Gate, TRADITIONAL AND OBSCURE HEAVY METAL! But in a way I thing we went bit further to the Obscure Direction than before. I think all the involved parties took more risks in playing vise than before... Especially I think Rythm section plays more freely than before, which is maybe heard also with more natural drum sounds than before. Talking about sounds, the guitar sound for my money is really great.. All you need is single channel tube amplifier and then you have to nail it with playing (Laney GH50L and Marshall JMP 2203 was used)! And by the way, we only used three keyboard instruments on the album : Mellotron , MiniMoog Model D and Hammond C3 organ! Talking about old-school...

When the stuff will be out then? Hopefully if everything goes well during the spring! And if everything goes accoding to plan both cd and 12" vinyl, but things rarely go hahahah!

- Wicked

Something special!

Once in a while one comes across something really great... For me , once I find something great, I usually start going crazy and telling everybody, how great this and that stuff is! We have allready worshipped some stuff on this blog, but now we step in a different arena.. I strongly recommend you to check out following piece of art from youtube by Compagnie Marie Chouinard :
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNh9488y0WI&list=FLSBQ76fCXhj3rFkkAAUevWw&feature=mh_lolz

You need to log in to your google account to view, but I'll strongly recommend you take the time and let the piece of contemporary dance take over! It's not the easiest piece to digest, but once you get in the mood it might be end up truly mind blowing, like it did for me! I saw this piece first time on youtube maybe two years ago, and I had to watch it three times in short time! Some time ago I watched it again, and It still gets inside me.. And needless to say, I would really want to see this piece live, because I think the video even cannot do justice to the whole piece.

I'm not going to start analyzing BODY REMIX/GOLDBERG VARIATONS piece.. But for me this piece has a lot of to do with restrictions and possibilities of human body and soul! Being trapped inside body and limitations of mind etc. That aside, I suggest you just take the performance as it is and not over analyze what happens, that way I think, you can find something that moves or inspires you! Or then you just can take the wonder as WTF just happened? In either of these ways, I think it won't leave you cold!

Highest recommendations from Semisti Miinuksella Productions!

Still Obsessed!

Hello

Long time no write anything! Been too busy with allkinds of work, music and personal projects! Just to make sure that everything's cool, here's couple of nice news!


First of all...
MAUSOLEUM GATE has been recording full-lenght album for quite some time now! It's probably 70% done! We are still working on some, effects, keyboards, acoustic guitar etc. small details! And after that intensive mixing session shall take it's place!

What can I say about record, it will surely be old-school as hell.. and the band even kind of takes a step back in influences!We try to get the sound really warm and natural (60's / 70's style), like it's band playing live and you are listening instruments in the room! But it's tricky to get that stuff work, so hopefully we'll manage put the things in order! We have about 60 minutes of material, so everything won't go into the full-lenght.. so maybe we'll do another 7" or something, time shall tell! Anyways, the process is bit slow due to: too much things to do with everybody! But please be patient! I will write update when things progress!

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Second thing.. Mausoleum Gate will perform another live madness strike at the end of year!
Be prepared, more info will follow soon!

Till waiting that, be sure to check out these crazed Mausoleum Gate live performances at youtube! We surely had great time in Helsinki couple of months ago!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6hup6icRU - Mighty Infernal from the Obsessed by Metal 7" b-side, Damn this song has grown for me, both live and recorded!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_iBQOFtuMM - New material in form of Apophis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ucg0wLogGXU - Through Dark AEons of sorrow live version!

And then some preview of the album, live version of Lost Beyond the Sun from Henry's Pub Kuopio early 2013.. This is old news for most, but some things are worth repeating over :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmjZW6Z0Kp0
- By the Way, I love Oscar Razanez's Crazed drum work here! More will follow on album!



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Last but not least...

We still have Mausoleum Gate T-shirts available in all basic sizes (S,M,L,XL,XXL)! Check the cool desing here:

And of course also Obsessed by Metal 7" and Gateways for the Wicked Tape also available for order!

For order, drop a line to : SemistiMiinuksella@gmail.com
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Back in black

WHOOOSH!

Slight update :
We are working on getting Mausoleum Gate 7" to maniacs in USA.. We have encountered slight problems with getting stuff there, but all in time! Due to postage costs, it will be then easier for those in USA and Canada to pick the 7" up!

We are also trying to arrange some copies to Japan for sale, hopefully we'll get some distribution there..

and finally arsenal of Semisti Miinuksella crew just got stronger, and hopefully will be heard for example on Mausoleum Gate full lenght! Introducing the mighty black MELLOTRON:

In search of Ancient sampler! Mellotron M400

2/3:rd of Semisti Miinuksella Crew, will travel from Finland to Germany in search of ancient musical equipement! The objective is to acquire Mellotron M400 electromechanical keyboard!

What the heck is Mellotron, well Wikipedia can tell better: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellotron

Mellotron can be heard allover classic Brittish progressive rock releases of 70's.. and it's needless to say, if everything goes well, the upcoming Mausoleum Gate album will feature some sounds from the mighty Tron!

To hear the Tron in action at it's best, here's couple nice tracks to check:

Yes- And You And I - studio album version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-rdL2KkvzY
And live version 1973: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mASjsw9zIos

-The Live version 1973 is simply magnificant, to see the band at it's full glory.. Howe's legendary slide guitar and 12-string.. And of course Rick Wakeman and his keyboard arsenal, including two Mellotrons to enhance bands symphonic sound! Some complain about the soundquality of the live version, but listen to playing and arrangements and the tone of the band.. Simpy overwhelming!!! Those not familiar this track before the album version might be starting point... Well what can be said about one of the definitive moments of symphonic progressive rock the part II of the track Eclipse.. Wakemans classic keyboard action of Mellotron and Minimoog Model D is simply beyond this world.. and then Howe adds the slide guitar huh... I could continue forever, but check the whole Close to the Edge album!

Genesis- Dancing with the Moonlit Knight : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQwgPDPttJQ
-The chorus with Mellotron Choir is just stunning.. of course other notable stuff great guitar riffs, great story.. Classic is bloody classic!

King Crimson- In the Court of the Crimson King : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlNantlznCA

-Simply put, this is one of the most haunting and beautiful tracks ever! The 3-violins string sound of Mellotron heard allover the track is just stunning, check it your self.. Out of this World! The track features one of my personal favourite lyrics in progressive rock track ever, and obviously great vocals by Greg Lake!
And the last verse and transition to it... well listen to it for yourself!

-Wicked Ischanius

ps. Some Mausoleum Gate news coming at beginning of next month! and hopefully pics from our trip if we come back alive!

Semisti Miinuksella Productions , Small Introduction

Semisti Miinuksella Productions is small , totally independent, collective of persons! The idea behind this movement, is to release underground art , mostly music, in different formats. We are not limited in one genre, although, the focus on first releases will be metal music. How we want our metal? In old-school way of course! And we are proud to present two releases of Mausoleum Gate as our first act of musical madness. 

Releases by catalog number:

Semi 001 - Mausoleum Gate - Obsessed By Metal 7" vinyl = 5€
Semi 002 - Mausoleum Gate - Gateways for the Wicked demo re-issue tape = 4€

You can order them from: SemistiMiinuksella@gmail.com

Of course if you have allready bought them somewhere else, you can contact us or band with comments! Distribution list coming as soon as we get couple of more deals done!

Last but not least here is cool shot of the releases (thanks to Petteri Ovaskainen for gratious shot):