I have been absent of posting updates here for awhile but as usual the reason is because I have been so busy working on music. But the good news is that the mix on the new Manilla Road album is finally finished and the mastering of the project is being done right now.

I am not going to reveal the name of the album just yet but there is a bunch of stuff that I will talk about concerning this project. We recorded the album in my own studio, Midgard Sound Labs, where we have recorded all the albums since the reformation back in 2000. We mixed our last album, Mysterium, in another studio called Cornerstone Studios and finally it seemed we came up with the type of mix that most of the reviewers agreed was a good one. In the past I have received quite the thrashing for my drum mixes on our albums and sometimes the production as a whole. Well that criticism seemed to stop with the mix on Mysterium. We had originally planned to go ahead and mix the new album at Cornerstone Studios as well. You know, the don’t try and fix what is not broken approach. But the truth is that the mixing sessions that we did with Steve Falke at Cornerstone on the Mysterium album turned into a great learning process for myself and my engineers Derek (Dr. Doom) Brubaker and Bryan (Hellroadie) Patrick. You see when I did my internship as a recording engineer it was back in the analog days. What I am saying by that is that we were still in the world of tape recording technology and there was no digital recordings back then. Even though it is still all recording music and many of the things about it stayed constant from one medium to the other there are still a lot of things that really changed in the approach of recording since the industry changed from analog technology to digital. So it was sort of like going back to school for me and making this old dog learn some new tricks. Well me and the boys were assuredly up to the task because we took in all that we could, really focused on learning all the ins and outs of being able to put together a really good sounding mix in the digital world. It was an eye opening experience to say the least. Well by the time we had finished the recording of all the songs we were starting to hear a huge difference in the quality of the album compared to anything we had ever done. So we decided to let me take a shot at mixing the project before we took it to Cornerstone to do the mix. After some really serious work in Midgard Sound Labs for about more than a month I finished the mixes. And it has been agreed by one and all in the Manilla Road camp (yes even including Neudi who is maybe the pickiest of all of us about the mixes) that this album is by far the best recording and mix that we have ever come up with. So this was all a long winded way of telling you that we mixed it in Midgard Sound Labs as well. But never fear I know that once you have heard this album you will all agree that we finally figured out how to do it all in our own studio and make it sound like it should.

As for the music content on the album I think all MR fans new and old will really love this project. It has a bit of everything that is Manilla in it. It is a concept album more along the lines of historic and philosophical than fantasy. Centered around the beginnings of human civilization in Mesopotamia it has, to me, a really deep moral meaning and message within the concept. It is not really the typical Manilla Road concept approach but at the same time it feels like maybe the most apropos type of MR concept that there could be. I am seriously really proud of this one and so is everyone else in Camp Manilla. I can’t wait to see what the response will be from all of you once it is released.

Ok, that is all that I will say about the new project for the moment but because the mixes are finished I will have a little more time to keep doing updates here until we go back out on tour this year. So I will post more about the new album and any other stuff that is going on in a couple of weeks.

Before I sign off though I want to direct you to our merchandise page on manillaroad.net because we have some newer merchandise stuff there for you to check out. I think we have finally added womens T-shirts and some other designs maybe. You will have to go there and check it all out. I know that we will be adding more and more merch stuff to the site as time goes on so go check it out and see if there is something that you would like.

Also 2014 tour information for MR is now starting to go up on the site as our management continues to finalize contracts and shows for the tour. It looks as though Manilla Road will be all over the world again this year and I am so looking forward to getting back on the road and bringing the music to whomever wishes to see and hear it live.

Thanks to all of you for your support and helping keep the Road alive and on the road. Believe me your words and wishes to us on all the media sources are so much appreciated and please know that it always inspires us to keep on going when we think of our fans. Up The Hammers and may the gods of light be with you all.

Hail Thor & Odin
Shark