Mazes For Sale

This is how it feels right now

A while ago (about 9 years now) I have my first encounter with what I felt it was the real deal. I had some friends who were trying to play guitar and go "for the next level", when I met a guy who at that time I thought he was a sort of demigod of guitar. He played classical pieces (without using any pick) and had a complete mastery of the instrument, it was so that that was the first time I felt really blown away.

Apart from classical stuff he played a lot of flamenco pieces and he taught us some of his repertoire and the essence of the fine and complex art of the flamenco guitar (I still remember some of that), but most importantly, he showed us the master, Paco de Lucía. That changed my life.

Some years later, and probably I'd say this, I began listening to Metallica and that changed my paradigm of music. From then, I follow the path of "Metal" until 2008 when I met two crazy guys who showed me "Death" and of course Chuck Schuldiner. That changed my life again, I began to listen more obscure stuff and one thing led to another and I started writing my own shit and have my first band.

Those were happy, crazy years where I met a lot of interesting people and learnt a lot of things.

After that, about 1-2 years ago, I began to put attention to some of the MP3 files I had for a long time and entered a world called "The Jazz Ocean". ANOTHER CHANGE FOR FUCKS SAKE! I DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND JAZZ AT A COGNITIVE LEVEL AT ALL!

For all the changes I've been through this is the most hard and chaotic of all. But that's fine, that's not a problem for me per se, the problem is that my thirst for composition it never quenches. So what do I do? Continue writing Thrash/Death? Try to understand Jazz better and then take off? My inner shit says that I belong to distortion and speed, but that could be only because I've doing this for so long?

That puts my whole life in a sort of limbo, where nothing can happen. And that's what happens. Nothing.

That's it. Flatuleitor out.

The Overlord EP

About the EP itself I must say... the songs were fine (?) but the lyrics were something else (this is related with Christianity). My musical mood at that time was very frantic, unpolished and sometimes repetitive.

At that time I was still into Christianity (but with serious doubts), my inspirations at that time were, for instance, Mortification, Vengeance Rising, Believer, and the like. Even though they put out some serious albums back in the day (Believer's "Dimensions" is a total technical holocaust), today I don't share their "worldview" at all. Anyway, I was very influenced back then.

About the EP itself, sometimes I try to listen to it, but I can't. I just can't. Not because of the music/sound of it (even though it sounds very raw and unpolished) but because of the lyrics. They were wrote in Spanish and it dealt with the superiority of GAWD and how everybody must tremble before his holy douchebagness.

Sometimes I think how incredible the human being is, how someone can turn 180 degrees from the most essential aspects of his life. I born in Christianity, I was indoctrinated everyday since then, mixing nonsense with feelings everywhere. It was atrocious. That's why even though it's part of someone process or "spiritual journey", I can't help but feeling awkward about this EP everytime I try to listen to it.

Anyway, after released, I began the search for musicians (at that time I wanted Overlord to be a full-member band). That search took place on the internet in many different forums and then finally two guys from a band called "Mashet" responded to the call and contacted me in order to play together and smash some asses, destroy the cosmos... you know... Thrash Business. Unfortunately, after a few rehearsals and never finding "a proper drummer", Overlord as a full member band concept went to shit.

After that, I felt somehow miserable because I felt that as a failure. But in March of 2011 after entering University for the first time, I decided to fuck on everybody and do all the shit by my goddamn own. That's when the "Tiempos Antares" sessions began. But that's another story.

This fucking EP, even though it appears on Overlord's official discography, it doesn't represents me neither lyrically nor conceptually. At all.

Here're some pictures from that time:

One of my best friends "Chocho Necromoco"

Recording vocals. Look at the microphone.

Some of the gear.

Marshall Valvestate II

That's it. Flatuleitor out.

Human States... A Utopia

HSNA: "Human States of Nowhere/Anywhere"

We all have dreamed with the perfect place. In fact, if I'd ask you about your ideal or utopic place, immediately you'd think about material matters, let's say, a forest, a green field, an afternoon at the beach, or even a full week blasting casino machines (surrounded by high-class-whores/suspiciously gentle putos). But why am I doing this assumption?

The material world we live is in some aspects completely the opposite: Things most of the time never work as expected and people you trust finally end up disappointing you. So, what's up with the "Human States"?

There's a place, let's say a landscape. The inner landscape. Sometimes that place is unknown and obscure and blurry, even hostile (at first). Some of us know that place and we've been there many times, when we are tired of dealing with conformists uni-dimensional shitheads. Of course that place can be seen as hostile at first, because as humans we have the inherited fear of the unknown, but what does separate us from, let's say, the neanderthals? We can rest upon the shoulders of previous generations and trust in the investigations and empiric data collected through the centuries.

People, I mean, weak minded people are still afraid of changes, afraid of the unknown, afraid of those different from them. That fear is "rationalized" and transformed into hate. A extensive list can be made.

Here it comes the planeee

That's why nobody is talking about this inner landscape anywhere in the media. It seems like no one cares. Apart from this fact we can add some more, here in Chile the school hours of History and Arts were reduced to give more space to Math. Numbers. Does that contemplate such a life-important concept as to know your inner landscape?

The utility is more than the inherent value of the human being who knows him/herself. That's the order, that's the reality. Society values you for what you give to them, what you are able to produce or deliver.

All things considered, I don't want to be esoteric or write about pseudo-scientific nonsense. I'm just simple saying: all of us can live in a common nation, something that some people say "I'm a citizen of the world", to live in one state, where you control your fate, and please don't be confused with alienation from reality, just know what's inside of you.

When you do that, when you know you inner landscape and when you are able to go there anytime you want you will find more people like you there, and you'll realize you are finally in the Human States. Enjoy yourself.

That's it. Flatuleitor out.

First Years With Music

Maybe this post is too personal for a public blog, but given that probably I'm the only motherfucker reading this: HERE WE GO.

I can't really remember exactly when I had my first personal encounter with Music. Probably it happen even before I was conceived. Anyway, the first thing that I can remember is playing a toy-guitar from my brother who got that for Christmas (I received a robot).

My conscious journey began at the age of 4 when I asked a friend of my mom to teach me to play the guitar. The most beautiful, kind, gentle, funny and smart woman I've ever known. She was my first inspiration (still is).

After being taught for several months my dad bought me an acoustic guitar. I remember taking it every day, practicing for hours. I even remember my parents sometimes had to take it away from me (I suppose it's harmful for a little boy to play guitar, maybe a gory/sexual/crude TV program/game could be more "suitable").

About that particular aspect, I have to say I really love when there's some little kid on TV playing either piano or violin or whatever, and they say that they study music since they're 5 years old, or some shit like that. And then they show their parents and they say "...yeah, we supported or son/daughter because we believed in them..." I can only think about my possible scenario at this point of my life if I had received the support from my parents.

I always was a sort of a rockstar in my mind.

I have very bad memories since the moment when my parents realized I wasn't fucking around with the guitar, that I was serious about that. They're many... many bad episodes, passing through my whole infancy and early youth. Even today I have problems related with music with my parents. Even today.

The root of all that has a name. One fucking name. RELIGION. The root of all the problems of my life. I'll expand on this later on.

But whatever, I'm here talking about music.

I spent all my early years in church. Most of the times against my will. But that brought me the possibility of interacting with a large number of "musicians" and I learning by practicing, both in my house and at church.

I began writing songs at the age of 8 with my little guitar and with my little voice. All those songs where about how cool God was (I didn't know any other "type" of music, you know), and to make my parents happy, maybe to win their consideration and approval.

So I spent all those years practicing the guitar basics over and over again. And after some years I advanced a lot compared with the rest of dudes from the church and that brought some consequences, both good and bad.

When you learn the music, you can open new grounds and new ways of doing the same the rest is doing (yes, music at an early age increase your creativity). Anyway, something that called my attention at that time was the framework of music. That can be modified depending on the circumstances, the style, the genre, the mood, the social-historic context, etc. And in this case, in church, the framework was (is) so little and tight and repetitive that when I tried to do "new stuff" everybody turned to me looking upset and I even received some comments like: "Don't play like that" That's the evil's way" "Restrain yourself and don't make us look more mediocre than we already are".

And given that I was a little kid I followed their advice. For years. Now, I can look behind and say: "Well, probably it helped me to practice the basics even more, so I had a more powerful musical foundations".

But one day Metal came into my life. In a Metallica "S&M" album form.

But that's another story.

Conclusion: Don't take shit from anybody. Listen to the advices, but do whatever it feels right.

That's it. Flatuleitor out.

Why a Blog and not a YouTube Channel?

I've always loved Blogger. Since I was in highschool I had some little blogs talking about toddler shit, you know...

"Dear blog, today I had morning wood and my sister fucking saw it. Awkward." 
"Dear blog, today at school I caught my Math teacher giving me a nasty look so I asked permission to go to the bathroom"
"Dear blog, the eggs are starting to burst. And it's green this time" (Well, the last one never happened. Can you imagine? Seriously, imagine that).

I deleted all that shit. Even though I remember doing a backup of all that nonsense, if I can only remember where I put that...

Anyway, I watch a lot of YouTube videos, about many topics. Game plays (African american voices and mannerisms are the best. I don't want to say nigga slang), some Jazz channels, Bass-guitar-related,  Music (duh?), comedy (Tim fucking Minchin, Louis CK, Tangalanga, among others) and more lately Atheist channels.

I find the YouTube way to express yourself ("broadcast yourself" anybody?) quite direct and let's say "updated". In contrast Blogger it's sort of abandoned today.
Why? Simple. People don't like to read anymore. 
It's easier to watch a 3 minutes video with a straight forward message than reading a big ass testament and rescue 2 ideas from it.

If you read "youtube" with Spanish pronunciation, it can be heard as "I had"

So why make a blog if you know beforehand that the people ratio will be much lesser? Exactly because of my last statement, the people who actually read/follow/make/share blogs are those who love reading. I don't want to be too pragmatic but that's the only reason I can come up to.
Wait, the other reason is that given that I know the English language, my pronunciation is kind of floppy (even though I passed the FCE test in 2012) and I like my ideas to get inside the receiver without hesitations, stutters, etc.
If by any chance you have something to add/discuss/refute the comment section is always open. I like discussions.

That's it. Flatuleitor out.

Chilean Overlord

Given that this is my personal blog, I'm entitled to post whatever the fuck I want to and blow my own horn for a while -PAUSE-.

I want to talk about OVERLORD. Overlord is (was?) a Thrash/Death Metal band that I started in 2010 here in Santiago de Chile. I began with writing some songs which ended up in a EP which was released later that year.

Overlord  - 2010

After that I decided to continue the punishment and through 2011 I worked in "Tiempos Antares" and well, I released it totally gratis as with all my albums. That year I began my degree as English Teacher so I divided my time between the Univ and Overlord so given that I was a freshman, the pressure wasn't too hard. At one point I felt I was totally born to do "Tiempos Antares", it was my destiny to put this shit out there.

Tiempos Antares - 2011

In early 2012 I started a new band with some friends from the Faculty called Frog Skeleton Impalement (FSI). It was a Death Metal band and it was my attempt to make "fun/joke" metal, you know, basic riffs and patterns, joke lyrics... a sort of Municipal Waste "DeathMetallized". That was an awesome chapter of my life with good friends and good music. Unfortunately things didn't work out even though we had some rehearsals and me with another friend wrote some good songs (which later took part in another Overlord album).

In September 2012 I had a very deep conversation with a long time friend in which he expressed his feelings about "Tiempos Antares" making a series of respectful, admirable comments.
Those comments made a deep impact and even though we were, let's say, drunk, I saw honesty and respect. That motivated me to start working on a new record.
The new album was supposed to be called "Antiprophecies" and it was finished on December the same year. Almost half of the album was never included on the final mastering. Finally I decided to call it "Blackout" according with the lyrical approach of the album which I felt it represented more the title.

Blackout - 2013

I had understood that one of my best friends who was at the army at the time was going to be "released" that same month so I wanted to release "Blackout" when he came to Santiago because he was near Punta Arenas (more than 2000 km. of distance). But sometimes odds are just bitches. He called me to tell me that he was going to be in Santiago in March/April of 2013. Fuck.
So I postponed the release date.

But what happened in the meantime? Well, in January 2013 I had a sort of romantic deception and what better way to put the fucking shit away that making an album. It started as an experiment: I wanted to create an EP in less than a month, filling it with "standard" riffs, frantic rhythms, a hideous voice and strange lyrics. What was my goal? Create a some sort of album which were basic Thrash Metal/Death Metal with not much effort from my part and still see if that had success, I mean obviously not commercial but in terms of impact. And according to the comments I received, the goal was achieved.

Conclusion: You don't need to break your head writing complex, technical, thought-provoking material; you just need a couple of riffs, a very raw distortion, very fast tempo and unintelligible screams to be successful in today's metal panorama.
This obviously is sarcasm. But with a pinch of genuine hope losing. Seriously.

The Undead Cantata - 2013

The next day (seriously) after I released "The Undead Cantata" I began working on the next Overlord dose and the project code name was "The Rise and Fall of Stephanie Z" and it was supposed to be a concept album divided in 2 discs (yeah, that's crazy). Don't even ask me about the story behind that pretentious title. All I can remember is that it went about some woman from outer space who saved the Earth from extinction.
Now I can realize why it didn't work out.

Anyway, I wrote about 6 songs before entering class in March. After I realized that "Stephanie" wouldn't do the trick, the phrase "Tolerance Collapse" attacked me. For weeks. I tried to rationalize and apply it to any aspect of my life and then suddenly I yelled "THE FUCKING FINAL OVERLORD ALBUM!" (Well, I didn't ACTUALLY said that. I said something like: "Conchetumare ahí 'ta el nombre pa' la weá de Overlord!").

It should be pointed out that I was sort of fed up with the whole Overlord thing at that point. But anyway, I decided to make the effort of my life, despite the results from "The Undead Cantata" experiment. I tried really hard to do my best, working really hard the whole motherfucking year.

I began the sessions in late March/early April of 2013 and the instruments were finished in November of the same year. My goal was to finish the album before 2013 finished, but sadly, my "microphone provider" (a cool guy who was supposed to lend me a super cool studio microphone) had some problems and December 31th came and I was like "Fuck it, DIY all the time bitch!" so I purchased a shitty Corean microphone and I began recording the vocals.

I spent January 2014 post producing the whole shit and at that point I was more than exhausted from the fucking University and the interminably long "Tolerance Collapse" sessions. So probably the final mixing was not so good.

Tolerance Collapse - 2014

And that's it up to this date. Overlord was a very important part of my life, I made a lot of mistakes but I also learnt a lot.
I will continue talking about Overlord in this blog, probably sharing the albums, some stories and everything related to it. This was just a brief history of what happened.

But it's time to move on.

Let's explore new grounds!

That's it. Flatuleitor out.

Pretentious and Narcisistic

Hello.
This is Flatuleitor.
This is my blog.
This is a dog.

A dog indeed.

So who's Flatuleitor?
I'm a chilean musician (22), I study English Pedagogy, as a side activity. So my whole life spins around Music.
I have been playing guitar since I was 5 years old, fucking around all these years in different bands, most of them related either to Thrash Metal or Death Metal.
I have (had?) a solo band called Overlord in which I spend the most productive years of my life, writing without any pressure from any front.
Also, I'm just one step away from atheism. I come from a very radical traditionalist Christian background/family, since I was born. Yeah, since the moment I popped out to this world I was bombed with insanity. So is not easy to leave everything behind at once, even though I trust in Logic and Reason. More updates coming soon...
Anyway, apart from my Metal let's say, musical "formation", about 3 years ago I began to explore other styles and of course I began to write songs from different styles, even "samba". That's right, samba.
All these years I have been playing the electric guitar, but in 2012 a bass guitar came to my arms after a hard struggle against my past. So this is kind of my instrument now, even though it's tough to separate myself from the electric guitar after all these years.

And that brings us to the main purpose of this blog.

This moment of my life is going to be marked by big decisions. And those decisions probably won't make everybody happy, so this blog is mainly for me as a sort of log book (that's where "blog" comes from?).

Also it will serve me to make propaganda of myself. Shamelessly.

This was me in 2011. What happened after? Stick around.

That's it. Flatuleitor out.