FELLFRØST PRODUCTION NEWS

July 20, 2023
The Heroes of Fellfrøst are excited to announce this recording project!

This will be a European-style power metal type album featuring some of the best metal musicians in Nashville. I know, you're saying to yourself, "Nashville? European Metal? What?", but, reality is that the genre is popular worldwide, yes even here in Nashful there are devotees to the style and we enjoy making the music that we love.

Nashville is home to thousands of skilled musicians, hundreds of music studios, and the entire music-making business machine. This deep talent pool is quickly understood by those moving here, but perhaps less appreciated by those who haven't really thought about it before.

It's kind of like Hollywood, and you've got the same kind of thing going where the best show up here to prove themselves in the big game. So... no shortage of talent in Music City. Even the bad bands are pretty good here.

From this deep talent pool the heroes of Fellfrøst are summoned!

I'm so proud to welcome good friends and ace musicians I've met over the years participating in this musical recording project with me. Please welcome the actual people who will be portraying these epic, mighty heroes you'll become very familiar with, in alphabetical order,

D.C. Baldwin - Lead Guitar
D.C. has a very neo-classical style, arpeggios, sweep-picking, the kinds of noodling you want and love from European power metal. You're going to really enjoy his shredding.

Curtis Erdek - Lead Guitar
Curtis is not only a talented recording engineer who is working on assembling the songs in the studio, he's also an incredible guitarist and a master of tone, taste, technique. I've worked with him on previous productions and he's got perfect instincts and his pitch on his string bends are really true.

Cat Fritchman - Backing Vocals
Cat is the lead singer of her own band, Level 77 with her husband Mike on guitar. She's got a soulful, bluesy voice and sung with me in the past in recordings and on stage. Her flexibility vocally is quite amazing, as she has an opera background and sang in those productions for years. I enjoy contrast of our voices, as she has called it in the past, 'we're meat and potatoes.' I am not entirely certain if I am the potato there or not - I felt it best not to ask. #KeepYourIllusions

Ryan Mark - Bass Guitar, orchestrations
Ryan plays many instruments, has been a music teacher, composes classical and choral pieces, and is perhaps one of the most talented people I've ever worked with. I'm so excited for everyone to hear how he's composing 1-2 minute long symphonic introductions to each song. A couple of them in particular just leave me shaking my head in amazement. Oh, yeah, he's also a really good bass player too... he also writes... sings... talented guy.

Tim McDonald - Lead Vocals
Been playing around Nashville for a long time, various heavy metal projects, even a Judas Priest tribute band. That was my favorite band coming up, so, my vocal style is a little bit like Rob Halford, although I consider myself more of a clean-voiced singer, I still like to hit the high notes like my mentor. I am influenced a lot by Roy Khan (Conception, Kamelot), and older singers like Ann Wilson (Heart), Frankie Laine (cowboy crooner and a superb baritone), Freddie Mercury, Joe Lynn Turner, and most recently i'm a huge Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast) fanatic, she's my current favorite. I've written some pretty decent songs here and I'm so happy to get them recorded with some of the best hard rock/metal musicians in town.

Patrick Nickell - Drums/percussion
Patrick has been killing it on drums for years with various bands including Theocracy, Oblivion Myth, and most recently Noisecult here in Nashville. He's a pure european-style power metal drummer that is the cornerstone of this project and in a way, what's making it all possible, his skills can't just be replaced, nor can his list of inspirations - we listen to a lot of the same bands - so! Who better to get to play drums on this project! Nobody!

Vicki Reid - Backing Vocals
The Vicki Reid Band has been a staple in Nashville for a long time and she's great at 80s rock particularly. Her performances are high-energy and very entertaining. She has the ability to sing in German as well as English and has played in thousands and thousands of shows over her career. The daughter of a Turkish model and movie star, she's even been on Wheel of Fortune! But we know her as the local goddess of performance rock, and now, she's transcended into a Valkyrie!

We're working out the songs as demos currently before we record drums for real in a local studio and will have some further and exciting announcements to make about that. Drummer Mark Nemer has also assisted on some of the demo creations and deserves special mention here.

I will be revealing some great updates as we go through it, so stay tuned.

Production Pictures - tracking Demos at Curtis Erdek's AudioTopia studios in LaVergne, TN