IceBus' Choice - Children of Bodom 'Bed of Razors'

[Wolf11]

Thats pretty cool ..I wondered where the name came from I take it you havnt seen them live...Must admit I wouldnt mind now after hearing a couple of there tunes,although whether I could stomach the growling /screaming etc I dont know


I had this afternoon free so sat down and finally learnt it ....Respect goes out to you Dani as the solo is far harder than I thought and listening back to yours you did a bloody good job on it

I love playing this song and get a big grin on my face from doing it ,but did suffer a bit from the dreaded "hitrecordandplayshiteous" every time I tried to play it lol ..

I tried to sing over it but relaly couldnt get the vocal timing in my head as you can hardly hear the lyrics on the original ..but at some time I wouldnt mind having a go to see what it would sound like with more normal singing !

Razor


I just couldnt get the midi level right and the keyboard part kept changing midi sounds all the time grrr for no reason that I could workj out

Wolf;)

[Ice]

Very good Wolfy mate. Pretty clean throughout and only a couple of bits that sounded like you could use a wee bit more practice on. The only real comment I could say improvement wise is to watch your string muting between finger shifts, sometimes there were wee bits of extraneous noise. Absolutely cracking version though mate, you have set the bar high!

I'm going to mess about with the action on my Strat tomorrow to get it nearer the nice new guitar (which has now developed shite-bridge-string-breaking-itis... methinks Graphtech will get more business from me...). Introduced some friends to CoB today and they were a little bemused

Danni, cool news about the CoB murder suspect, let us know how it pans out as I don't think it's made the news here.

[Wolf11]

Thanks Peter

I slightly confused myself when playing it as I had been practising the song with down strokes only on all the rythmn parts ,but by the time I recorded my hand was too knackered so in a couple of bits I had to play up and down rythmn ....I'm really working on my rythmn playing as I used to be really good at fast downstrokes but alas I have lost that skill :S at the mo

Wolf;)

[DGV]

Killer version Wolf. I really liked the tone and overall feel of your playing on this one. The playing sounded smooth and sure throughout. Very nice work. Special props of course for the sweeping parts that were completely beyond me, and I really liked what you did with the chorus in particular. Sounds very good.

No news on the murders of Lake Bodom yet. The media has been crazy about it, but they've got no new information, so they're giving recaps of the actual murders and stuff like that. You can guess the controversy that's always surrounded the band's name, since this is one of the most famous (never solved) crimes in Finland.

[Wolf11]

Thankyou DGV

It will be very interesting if he does get convicted ,is there a death penalty in Finland for Murder or just long jail sentances like the UK ?


Wolf;)

[Bigpops]

Very good job there Wolf. Very nice throughout.

Ineresting story about the Bodom murders too.

And on a lighter note.

I've just borrowed an Epiphone Les Paul off a mate, which i think i'll use to play the rest of the track. You should have seen the state of it. It hasn't been played for about three years. It's been in storage for the last year. The frets were green, the strings were rusty, and the fretboard was grimey.

I've spent the day getting it back into shape. I masked off the fretboard, and polished the frets. Oiled the fretboard. Took off the pickguard, and cleaned the guitar. Cleaned the switches with switch cleaner. Re-strung it. Set the action and intonation, and it plays pretty well now. It weighs a ton though. I only played it for about a half hour, and my shoulder was killing. Anyway, it hasn't made me want a Gibson Les Paul yet, so that's a good sign.

[Wolf11]

Thanks Darren

I always sort of fancy a Les Paul more for it,s looks and tone than anything else....But the wieght would put me off as I find my shoulder hurts after a while even playing a fairly light guitar .I must admit though I do sometimes think about a Tokai Les Paul after evryone raving about them ...I'd like a white one I think

I'll be interested how it sounds though ....


Wolf;)

[DGV]

No death sentence in Finland. Actually, no country in the EU has a death sentence I believe. Murder is automatically a life sentence with basically no loopholes except for presidential pardon.

I like the tone of a Paul, like the playability etc, and love the looks. The classic LP sunburst is cool, but then all black, or all white, also extremely beautiful. The weight doesn't bother me all that much. It IS heavy, but since I tend to play seated, it really isn't that much of an issue. In fact, it's only lately that I've been starting to work on playing standing.

I'll probably be looking into some Tokais soon. Corts as well. Then I'll think about finacing it with my newly acquired summer job.

[Ice]

Thought you guys might be interested in this:-

CoB - Sixpounder

Check out the solo at 2:13! Probably one of my favourite CoB moments so far for melody and phrasing. No tabs of it anywhere though I really need to sit down and work on my sweeping

[DGV]

The song in itself isn't the best Bodom song I've heard. Heavy as hell, sounds to me like they're probably playing in drop D, or rather drop C. However, the whole isn't that oustanding. No moments like the chorus of Razors. But then, there's that solo. Brilliant. Just brilliant. Like you said, great phrasing. Definitely a solo worth learning. That is, once I get the speed to do so.

[Ice]

I agree, the rest of the song is a bit 'heavy by numbers' but the solo kind of makes the whole song worth it, pity it's not longer lol

While I'm at it:-

[ REMOVAL REQUESTED BY HOST - PLEASE SEARCH GOOGLE INSTEAD FOR SUPER MARIO BROTHERS GUITAR VERSION or KeiicHi]

[Bigpops]

That Mario tune is truely awesome.

Love the harmonics immitating the coin collection sound.

[DGV]

That sure put a smile on my face. I need it today. Sick as hell with 40 degrees C fever (brought it down with medication and cold showers - wouldn't be posting now otherwise) and vomiting and whatnot, and to top it off, I found out that I failed my last exam. Not my day.

[Wolf11]

Very sorry to hear about your last exam Dani and you feeling ill


I quite liked that COB song ...thought the solo was pretty cool (but was expecting slightly more after your buildup ..not that I wouldnt give anything to play like that ) ..but it,s the rythmn playing that impresses the hell out of me ....I played for a few months in a Thrash /Speed metal band but found I couldnt cut it on some of the stupidly fast rythmn parts ......I was alright for maybe one or two songs but couldnt play a whole set as my arm cramped up or it was just techniclaly beyond me ....So I admire really good rythmn players ....it,s a discipline not that many guitar players aspire to imo ....that why COB impress me because Ale is so good in his own right .



I am trying to devote at least 2 practises a week to rythmn as it is my weak point in general playing ..yeah I need to get better at soloing but 99& of songs soloing is only a small part .

I'll d/l that mario thing in a Bit

Wolf;)

[Wolf11]

hehe that Mario thing is well cool ....I love how he gets some of the sounds .....

It,s amazing how many cool players Japan has as they worship Metal/Guitar playing ..I think it's great that people like George Lynch etc can make a good living in Japan .....A friend of mine I used to play in a band with plays the rock clubs there and says it rawks ....they are in a time warp of the 80,s (bit like me I think ) ...

Wolf;)

[DGV]

Things are easy when you're big in Japan... That's one country I'd love to visit. I've seen several clips of crazy Japanese guitarists, and frankly, I think it's just part of their mentality to work insanely towards whatever goals they set themselves. Whatever they do, they go to extreme lengths to perfect their thing. Same thing with all those crazy video games they have, there's a bunch of clips on the net of guys who've spent a lifetime perfecting some games like tetris or whatnot. They're an extreme type of people.

[DGV]

So, I just spent the better part of 2 hours setting my guitar's action and intonation. First I thoroughly read about it on several sites, then I got to work. The action setting was fairly disappointing, as I was hoping to gain some serious advantages with it. Unfortunately, my guitar's action cannot be set as low as I want it. I set it as low as it'll go, and it's still considerably higher than just about any guitar I've ever tried in a shop. Go figure. At least it's a bit better than it was before, I mean, at least the action's lower than on my acoustic now...

I then worked thoroughly on intonation. I only now fully understood what it meant, and managed to get it pretty well set. That only took me about an hour and a half. Now I am proud to say that my guitar is set up just about as well as it can be with this bridge, which I might change along with the pickups, if that's the road I'm going to take any time soon. Let's hope my work payed off.

[Ice]

Good going man It's pretty satisfying knowing you've done it all yourself and the guitar is playing as well as it can isn't it?

[Bigpops]

If you're feeling adventurous, you can shim the neck to bring it closer to the strings, but probably best left to a proffesional.

I just wanted to let you know that you still have options.

[DGV]

That it is. Just wish it was capable of a bit more.

[DGV]

What would shimming the neck mean?

[Ice]

Basically putting a thin bit of wood between the neck of the guitar and the neck joint on the body of the guitar.

BTW Bars 88&89 of the solo are killing me, getting the two bends done quickly enough even at about 75% speed. Any tips? Also, that sweep section beforehand is a nightmare!

[Wolf11]

Yeah I found those bends a sod .....I just kept playing it over and over again at about 50% speed and then slowly raising the speed only when I had it nailed,not that it stil didnt stop me fluffling it a teeny bit

As far as shimming goes...I once did and old guitar....I got a very thin slice of balsa wood ,took the neck off and made a square of it ..drilled out the screw holes and put it in between ...I then just shaved off a teeny bit here and there till it worked , at the end of the day if it hadnt worked I could just put it back to normal ....I borrowed a strat off a m8 once and that was shimmed with carboard or paper ...And I,m 85% sure it was a factory mod

Tis quite good fun playing about with Guitars ...I just wish I was good at wiring ...My charvette which I modded quite heavely is unplayable at the mo as I fooked up the electrics....When I,ve got some cash I might sort it out ..but tis a mess in there at the mo ...when I took it apart I made a diagram of where the wires went but 6 weeks later my diagram made no sense ..I d/l a diag that sort of makes sense I just havnt got around to retrying it

Wolf;)

[Wolf11]

Peter I meant to say I listened to COB "Towards dead end "...absolutley awesome ..I love the whole track ....I actually think the singing sounds cool on that track ,and the solo at the end as you said is awesome...but it,s the melody all the way through the song just like this( Razors edge) one that I love ,almost like a non stop solo ...I also Love it when the vocals come in ....I keep turning it up loud...(definatley the next album I'm gonna buy I think )

Wolf;)

[DGV]

Okay, now I get shimming. But I don't think I'm adventurous enough to try that on my own, at least as long as it's my only electric.

Those two bends ar difficult. I did pretty much what Wolf did till I got my fingers to adjust to it, then I started adding speed (with my beloved speed trainer ). I got up to around 110 bpm pretty well, but couldn't do the bends any faster. So, I sort of cheated. I played it with a partial pre-bend, so that the actual bend was very short. At that speed the cheating isn't too obvious, and it hardly stands out from all the other mistakes I made in the solo.

It's always weird to come about a solo of this type. I always like to think that as a guitarist I can appreciate what's easy and what's difficult to play. I didn't think this was as hard as it turned out to be. There are some parts in the solo that really make it hard.

I can't help you with the sweeping, though, since it was completely beyond me. I tried it for two days. There was little to no improvement. I will start working on my sweeps asap.