Story takes place in Summer 2014, so in this chapter the legend himself is still alive.
-ArmageddonClan
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Chapter 2 - Twilight Witchcraft
"Light bringer – shine your light on me!
Ooh, yeah. Who you gonna call?"
Ian almost fumbled with the riff as he listened to Kim's lyrics more intently for the first time. He barely avoided breaking in a laugh. The lyrics were clearly supposed to be theological in nature, yet "who you gonna call" hinted at something completely else.
Kim was clearly living up the bassist / vocalist role to the maximum, dancing with the bass guitar while singing with her head tilted up to reach the microphone she had deliberately adjusted high, resembling how Lemmy Kilminster sang.
It was easy to tell she would be popular with the guys in the audience. Particularly when she would finish growing the long hair back.
That was the chorus, and Jo's solo would be next. She stomped the phaser pedal in, and the sustained solo notes appeared to rotate around the room. Ian thought it would never be acceptable in thrash, where all solo notes had to be crystal-clear, maybe just some delay or reverb allowed.
Ian followed with his own solo, which was just basic, faster pentatonic madness as the song changed key three semitones up.
The solo section ended and now Ian and Jo just headbanged in unison while playing a simple, driving interlude riff. That too would be acceptable in doom.
The breakdown / spoken word part would be next. The guitars quieted down and Erik just kept a simple kick drum + hi-hat beat going.
Kim spoke in as low and sinister voice as she managed.
"The dawnbearer, the Morning Star called Venus. Grant me thy wisdom and knowledge, for I hunger to know it. Guide my spirit, for I wish to come to know thee. Ooooooo -"
The music began to build up intensity, and Kim's voice started to rise, until it was a high shriek. This almost resembled something Iron Maiden or Judas Priest would do on their early records.
Ian could only think, Hell yeah. This too, was acceptable. Practically they could step across the classic genres – rock, heavy, doom – and draw influences however they wanted.
"Lucifer!" Kim shouted out loud.
This signaled the concluding jam / cacophony section of the song. It had not been planned out maximally. Jo kicked the phaser effect in again, and played chords which almost made the guitar sound resemble an organ more.
Finally the song slowed down and ended in feedback. Kim wailed in falsetto for one last time.
...
It actually works out, Kim thought. They were headed back to the cabin in Erik's truck now.
Naturally, there were arrangements to be made. It would be a ridiculously long distance to drive to each rehearsal.
Kim thought of her short-lived trio doom band, Necrotic Dust. This would be the way to continue its legacy. Abigail and Shanae had died horribly in the dimensional incident, and in a way she would be paying tribute to them.
Kim understood there was just a slight problem.
For the "Light Bringer" song, she had just googled for "prayer to Lucifer" and copied the lyrics from the first result she got. In other words, she did not really know what the hell she was doing. In Necrotic Dust, Abigail had managed all the lyric-writing. Or had Viktor been alive, he could easily have written lyrics like that without even thinking, from his own true perspective.
But if not this, what then?
On the driver seat, Erik had also been rather quiet. Even though the rehearsal had been a success. In addition to playing their new songs a few times, they had played covers. Kim especially liked Reverend Bizarre's "Doom over the World." It had a simple, driving rhythm, but the highlight was really the lyrics. An awesome vision of coming war and destruction, visited on the song's narrator by a horrible-looking angel. Kim could imagine her skull and bones showing through, or something.
If she only could write lyrics like that!
"What did you think?" Kim asked Erik.
The voice was low, as usual. "It went fine. I mean, I could complain of not being able to put my hi-hat hand to the 200 BPM test. But there are already thousands of bands doing that, and I'm not getting any younger. And you're doing great as the frontwoman."
"Thanks."
Fuck. It was good to hear the compliment, but it also felt like being locked in to a role Kim necessarily did not consider her own. But did she have a real right to complain? Maybe she just needed to suck it up and start writing lyrics that were her own, that actually meant something.
She also could not help thinking if Erik was actually, completely honest. Or if it was something bothering him too, and he just did not want to tell, as this had been Kim's idea.
Fuck indeed. It was tough.
...
"I'd call that a tie. If we write riffs based on food incidents, and Kim copies Ghostbusters," Ian laughed.
He, Jo and Russ were sitting in the kitchen of the Alder residence, beers at hand. It was already late in the evening, and with the rehearsal over, and Erik and Kim on their way back, the atmosphere was pleasantly relaxed.
"The first one?" Russ asked. "It's the good one. The second is shit."
"The sequel has one good thing. The bad guy calls himself the Scourge of Carpathia. That could be a band," Jo said.
Ian started a blastbeat against the table, imagining the music. True Carpathian black metal.
Just for fun, Jo took out her cell phone and searched for "Scourge of Carpathia" on Metal Archives. It returned 0 hits. So the name was still free. Of course, a band would actually have to be from the region for that to make sense, so they could not take the name anyway. Unless they would relocate to where Vlad the Forger lived and recruit him.
Then she performed another search on Metal Archives. It was possibly never a good idea to search for yourself.
But what the hell. Done what's done. Being drunk, she could live with whatever she saw.
Real / full name: Jo Alder Place of origin: United States
Age: 25 (born Sep 6, 1988) Gender: Female
Active bands:
AGENT (2014-)
2014 Demo I Guitars
Metal Archives apparently thought AGENT was still active, and no-one had corrected. Well, it was in sort of a limbo. The Past bands section predictably listed Cyberpriest. It was just a bit odd to see that someone had entered her birth date. As far as she could think of, very few people in the band circles even knew it. René certainly had known, but he no longer lived.
Just then her cell phone beeped, and she was a bit startled.
Then she realized it had no connection to the Metal Archives searches. But the coincidence was still odd. She had to read the message twice before it made sense.
"I got a message from that prog band. Black Flame of Sin. They say they didn't get any applicants that were more promising than me. And they're asking if I would want to reconsider."
As Jo thought of it more, it felt a little like the ground opening up below her, and her head spinning. Particularly with the effect of beer added.
She could not honestly be sure what she would answer.