Chapter 38: Flight to Mackinaw Island.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Fosters.
AN: The next chapter. Please leave lots of reviews. Also, with all the "Songs" mentioned in the track listing, I have actually written lyrics for them, but I have not put them in the chapter, and I haven't put them to music because I have no talent with instruments and I can't find anybody who can play thrash metal well enough to do it for me. Also, somebody sent me a message asking what my OC's (Jax, Castor, Austin, Carson and Alex) actually look like. Jax looks like Jason Earles, Castor looks like Logan Lerman, Austin looks like Bradley Steven Perry, Carson looks like Asa Butterfield, and Alex looks like Ross Lynch.
Connor's POV June 1st 2020:
Jude and I have been married for two weeks, and we are finally leaving on our honeymoon. We didn't leave right away, was because all the rooms at the Grand Hotel were booked until the 1st of June. For the two week gap between our wedding and honeymoon, Jude and I started to settle into married life. We were also kept busy with final preparations for finishing the album.
We released two singles from the album to proceed its release. We released "Born To Be" as the first single and "Demon's Charm" as the second single. They actually did pretty well for debut singles by a band that barely anybody had ever heard of, and they were getting a decent amount of airplay. "Born To Be" debuted at #62 on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Demon's Charm" debuted at #39 on the Billboard Hot 100, which means we actually already have a Top 40 hit. Barely, but it still counts. When Jude and I heard "Demon's Charm" playing on the radio for the first time, we nearly crashed the car in our excitement.
We finished mixing and mastering the final songs and sent the finished product in to Lars and James a week ago. The album would be released while Jude and I were on our honeymoon. The album would be titled "Cursed", and it was being released on June 3rd 2020. The album cover featured a picture of the whole band, dressed in black, against a black background, and all of our eyes were photo shopped to be fire engine red, the bands logo across the top left corner, and the album name across the bottom center. The back of the case featured the track listing and writing credits, and all the other information. James also told us that Lars was booking us a the opener for Testament on their summer tour, which began August 1st in San Francisco, the birthplace of some of the greatest bands ever to play heavy metal.
We left the airport in San Diego earlier this morning aboard a plane that my uncle had chartered for us to take us straight to the island. Apparently the island has its own airport, even if it is a bit small. James sent us an advance copy to listen to on the plane on the way to Mackinaw Island. As I sit here, in a seat on a Lear jet on the way across the country with my husband, staring down at the jeweled CD case in my hands, I breathe a sigh of contentment.
"Hard to believe isn't it?" Jude asked, "That album is ours, and it's finally finished."
"Yeah." I agreed, "No kidding."
"Which songs did Jax, James and Lars decide to put on it anyway?" He asked.
We had recorded upwards of twenty songs. We put Jax in charge of choosing eleven of them to go on the album, since he had an ear for it, and he went to James and Lars with his choices for approval. He didn't tell us what his choices actually were, but he told us we would be happy with it. I flipped the case over and read off the track listing aloud.
"1. Demon's Charm (Jax Finnegan).
2. Memories (Evan Stevens).
3. Headbanger (Connor Adams Foster/Jude Adams Foster).
4. Waterfall of Tears (Connor Adams Foster).
5. Inequality For All (Jude Adams Foster).
6. Devil's Due (Castor Johnson).
7. Day Of Reckoning (Austin Beverly).
8. Suicide (C. Adams Foster/J. Adams Foster/J. Finnegan/A. Beverly/J. Robertson/C. Johnson).
9. My Demons (Starset Cover).
10. Flattened (Jeremy Robertson).
11. Empire of Dust (Connor Adams Foster/Jude Adams Foster)."
"We've got more writing credits than everybody else does." Jude points out.
"I wonder why." I said, confused, "I thought Jeremy's Karma's A Bitch would be on here for sure. It was better than Headbanger was."
"I don't know." Jude said, "We'll ask them when we get back. For now though..."
He got out of his seat and plopped down in the chair next to mine, and laid his head on my shoulder.
"Let's listen to our masterpiece shall we?" He said, giving me a kiss.
"Yes, sir." I joked, smiling into the kiss.
We popped the CD into Jude's laptop and listened through it. The new album version of "Demon's Charm" was different than the original version. The original version Jax wrote years ago was almost thirteen minutes long, and had a really doomy tone to it, a slow tempo and clean vocals. The new version was only seven minutes twenty seconds long, and was a fast paced thrash song with rough vocals on the verses, which I sing, and screamed vocals on the chorus, which Jude sings.
"Sounds better than the original." Jude commented, bobbing his head to the music.
"Yeah." I said, as the chorus came on, "I still can't believe you can scream like that."
"I can't either." He agreed, "I had to go to a vocal coach to be able to do it."
"I have no clue how we are going to play this live." I commented, "I don't think Austin or Jax will have trouble with the guitar parts, but Castor'll need an adrenaline shot to play that drum line properly. I don't know about Jeremy."
"He'll be fine." Jude said, "He practiced that bass line so many times, he could play it with his eyes closed. He might have to wear leather gloves so his fingers do end up bleeding, but he won't have a problem with it."
"I can't believe this became a top 40 hit." I commented, "Thrash has been fizzling out for years. Not enough new bands coming in to replace the old ones that are retiring."
"Have James or Lars talked about retiring yet?" Jude asked.
"I don't know, I'd have to ask them." I said, "Uncle Evan would probably know."
"Well, yeah, but he knows everything." Jude said.
"I don't think they'll ever retire." I said, "I don't think Robert or Kirk will either. I mean, they're fucking Metallica. The day they disband is the day metal will probably die."
"Well, I wouldn't go that far." Jude said, "Thrash maybe, but metal as a whole? No. I mean, if they broke up tomorrow, you'd still have a lot of good bands out there. You'd have the rest of the big 4: Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer. Then you'd have bands like Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, and Machine Head. And Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are still going."
"That is true." I conceded.
The second song came on. "Memories" was the song that my Uncle had written, that was given to me the day of the big accident that nearly killed him. It was only six minutes long, but I think it pack a certain punch. The final product reminds me a bit of the Avenged Sevenfold song "SO Far Away" in its tone. Jude and I took turns singing the verses, and all vocals were clean. It was also the only song on the album that used an acoustic guitar for the whole song.
The song "Headbanger" was next, and as we listened to it Jude and I giggled softly. It was meant to be a joke song that we had written with each other in less than twenty minutes. It was fast paced, and almost had a punk rock vibe to it. I could hear Jude laughing in the background of the song every time the word Headbanger was shouted at the end of the three line verses.
"I can't believe he put this on here." Jude commented laughing, "This song was meant as a joke. It's too tongue in cheek to be on the album."
"I don't know, I like that about it." I said amused, "All the other songs are so serious, this makes a nice reprieve."
The next song, "Waterfall of Tears", was as hard for me to listen to as it was for me to record the vocal tracks to. It was the first song I had ever wrote, way back after my relapse into self harm. It was very important to me, and listening to it in all its glory was something else. It was classic groove metal. Slow tempo, grinding guitar riff, downturned guitars, and vocals that growled with a certain menace that I didn't realize I could do.
"I can't believe that's me singing." I commented, "I didn't realize I sounded like that."
"Yeah, we were all kind of surprised." Jude said honestly, "I didn't know you could sound so menacing."
"Inequality For All" came next. It was the only song we hadn't changed a lot of stuff around on for the final product. It was the same song we had cobbled together the first time we ever practiced as a band, and the same song we recorded for the demo. It was a song that Jude had written for an assignment in Poetry in our freshman year of high school, and the lyrics had remained unchanged since. The only difference between the original and final versions were the sound quality.
"Devil's Due" was a song neither Jude or I were to sure about. It was Castor's song. It was as close as we could get to a Slayer song without actually being one. It was also the only song on the album that neither Jude or I sing on. We both refused to sing on it, because it made us uncomfortable. It was the nastiest thing on the album. Literally, the second word of the song was "cunt", a word which Jude and I both don't like using. Thankfully, it was the shortest song on the album, at only two minutes thirty even seconds.
"What the fuck were they thinking?" Jude said, "Putting that on the album?"
"I have no clue." I agreed, "I think Corruption would have been better than this thing. At least you and I won't have to sing it if we play it live."
"That is true. Why did he even write this?" Jude asked.
"He told me that some old lady at his church found out he was in a metal band and called him a Satanist for it." I explained, "I think he wrote it out of spite."
The next song, "Day Of Reckoning", was a classic metal style song. Mid tempo, almost like an old Iron Maiden song, except it described a zombie apocalypse. It was Austin's baby. He wrote the lyrics and the music all by himself, and he was extremely proud of it. I remember it took Jax twenty tries to get the guitar solo at the end right, because it was so intricate and complex.
"Suicide" was the only song on the album that all of the band members had written together. It was a grand affair, and at eleven minutes long it was the longest song on the album. It had a doom metal tone to it, but I think it had a haunting beauty to it. It served as an outlet for all of us, something which we poured all of our negative feelings into. It was cathartic.
The cover of "My Demons" by Starset was an almost note for note cover of the original song, but it was still important to me and Jude. It had become our unofficial theme, and it had become probably the most "epic" song on the album in terms of production and sound.
"Flattened" was a song that Jeremy had written. It describes how a man reaps revenge on his significant other and the person he caught them cheating with. The music was reminiscent of Guns N' Roses' "Double Talkin' Jive".
"Empire of Dust", the final song on the album, was another slow doom metal song... mostly. The verses were sung slowly and cleanly by Jude, set to a slow trudging riff. When the chorus kicked in, the tempo quadrupled and I came in shouting at the top of my lungs. A high speed guitar solo from Jax followed every chorus, before fading back into the verse riff.
When the final song finished, we popped the CD out of the computer and put it back in the case. Jude leaned his head back on my shoulder and sighed in content.
"We did it." He said.
"Yeah. We did." I said.
"How long do you think it'll be before we get there?"
"Well listening to that killed an hour and twenty minutes, so... about seven more hours."
"Isn't there a bed in the back of the plane?" He asked.
"Yeah, why?" I asked.
"Want to cuddle up and take a nap?" He asked.
"Sounds like a plan."
Seven hours later we were interrupted from our peaceful slumber by the plane lurching. Jude startled awake and would have fallen out of the bed if I hadn't had a hold of him so tightly.
"Whazgoinon?" He mumbled only half awake.
"We're probably landin'." I mumbled.
We both got up and went up into the middle section of the plane. When the plane stopped moving, the pilot came back to meet us. When we disembarked from the jet, there was a small gold cart waiting to take us into the main building of the airport.
The man driving the golf cart was middle aged, with brown hair that streaked with grey. He looked exceedingly chipper and as soon as we approached him, our suitcases rolling along behind us, he shook our hands with vigor, a big smile on his face.
"Jude and Connor Adams Foster?" He asked us.
"Yeah, that's us." Jude answered.
"Excellent. My name is Maxwell, but you can call me Max." He said, "I have been told to escort the two of you to the Grand Hotel. I hope you two enjoy your stay."
He turned and gestured to our surroundings.
"Gentleman. Welcome to Mackinaw Island."
AN#2: Okay, so they've landed. The honeymoon will probably be about three chapters not counting this one. Please leave lots of reviews, as usual, and thank you so much for reading.