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This is a cover of the song “Mind-Spun” from Animals as Leaders’ 2014 album, “The Joy of Motion.”

I covered “The Woven Web” a few months ago and have been meaning to cover more Animals as Leaders since then. Their music is groovy, brutal, complex, and so good! This song in particular is one of my favorites on the album and I hope I do it justice! I learned this song by writing the notation out piece by piece in Sibelius. That drum notation is available on the Transcriptions page.

Not much is new in terms of gear on this cover – other than an extra tom and the addition of a cymbal here or there. I’m still using CAD Touring 7 drum mics, with the exception of an Audix D6 on the bass drum. I also used two overhead condensers, one on my right pointing directly down at the bell of my 18″ Meinl Benny Greb Byzance Sand Medium Crash and the other pointing directly down at the bell of my 16″ inch Meinl Byzance Traditional Crash. The snare, rack toms, and both floor toms were miced on their batter heads with the remaining instrument mics via rim clips or, in the case of the snare, via a low mic stand.

I’m using a custom drum set made of Keller drum shells and Pearl lugs and rims. I worked with the maestros at Columbus Pro Percussion in Columbus, Ohio to build this bad boy. For cymbals, I’m using pair of 13″ Meinl Thomas Lang Signature Byzance Fast Hats on my left, a Meinl 16″ Byzance Medium Crash on my left, a Meinl 18″ Benny Greb Signature Byzance Sand Medium Crash on my right, a Paiste 18″ Signature Thin China on my right, a pair of 14″ Meinl Byzance Dark Hats on my right, and last but not least, a stack consisting of a 14″ Zildjian K Mini-China (with jingles drilled into it by yours truly) and a 10″ Zildjian A Series Brilliant Splash on my right.

This is a cover of the song “Halo of Blood” from Children of Bodom’s 2013 album of the same name.  I also created a video lesson, which you can check out on my lessons page!

I received a request to cover this song and I gladly accepted! This song rocks and is a ton of fun to play – despite the slight scowl I generally sport throughout (I can’t help it – that’s just my face, haha).

I knew this song would be challenging, but it was much more difficult than I expected. The long periods of blast beats and the quick spells of double bass really take it out of me, and I had to warm up quite a bit in order to play the song at full speed.

As for the mix, I moved mics around a bit compared to my last video (The Haarp Machine’s “Esoteric Agenda”), but I stuck with a fairly common set up. I worked on getting the snare sound right as well, so I hope that comes through. I’m still flying by the seat of my pants, but overall the sound is getting close to where I want it.

For reference, I’m using mostly CAD Touring 7 drum mics with the exception of an Audix D6 on the bass drum (pushed about 5 inches into the drum, pointing directly at the bass drum beaters). Otherwise, I used two overhead condensers, one on my right pointing directly down at the bell of my 18 crash, and the other pointing directly down at the bell of my 16 inch crash. The snare, rack tom, and both floor toms were miced on their batter heads with the remaining instrument mics via rim clips or, in the case of the snare, via a low mic stand.

…oh, and yes I am wearing two different colored socks 🙂

Please check out the the full drum set transcription on the Transcriptions page.