Presentiiiiing...

One down, six to go!  In contrast to the very clandestine way I presented Escapade and especially Escapade 2, I plan to make tracks of Chronicles of a Dead End available for preview as I go - the ability to do this is one reason why I'm trying to do this strictly in order.  The quality you get listening on YouTube admittedly doesn't do the material justice.  At the end of this video, I've included very brief snippets of the previous versions of the song, both for jarringly comedic effect and to highlight just how far the material's come.

In the end, I decided there was one moment in the vocal that glaringly bothered me, so I quickly re-recorded that line.

Since there's not much else to talk about here, I think it's time to introduce the line-up!  On guitar, we have Vitaliy Tkachuk (via Musiversal).  He is a phenomenal improviser.  On this track alone, the wild main solo, alternately fiery and contemplative countermelodies, and gruff rhythm work all greatly exceed any expectations I could have had for any Escapade material going in.  And his tone is almost terrifyingly intense, yet not so distorted as to detract from occasional moments of beauty amid the sonic storm.

The rhythm section consists of Adam Alesi (via Musiversal) on drums and Bruno Migliari (via Musiversal) on bass guitar.  I've actually worked with Adam on other projects before, and have consistently found that he tends to come up with drum parts that are like what I write out for him, only much better.  Bruno is workmanlike, but knows when to add a little extra flair, as demonstrated here in the breakdown section after the solo.

I first came across Musiversal, the platform that makes this multinational collaboration possible, by way of a YouTube channel that I watched quite a lot of during the COVID-19 crisis.

But despite being a fast and virtuosic song, for me this was kind of a mere warm-up due to following the Escapade version relatively closely.  Next up is "Faraway Island"... this is where the fun begins.