| This song and The Witness were given to me by Jeff after I saw them play live. Jeff wanted me to join Harbinger and though I thought they were good live these 2 songs really impressed me. They were heavy, edgy, Jeff had gained some incredible control of his range and his production was outstanding for a cassette demo. In fact, I think Edge Of Insanity and The Witness may be his best recordings of all the projects he handled over the years, particularly since there is live drumming. There were 8 total songs recorded and I packaged the 4 best for CD in 2007 though I gave Jeff a CD with all 8. For all the praise I can give him on the first 2 songs, the other 6 were not well cared for. Production was fine but Todd's lead work was too off the cuff, sloppy and had alot of dead notes. Jeff seemed to not give as much attention to his vocal performance as he did on the the first 2 songs. I'll have to see what Jeff's response is because they were all well crafted both musically and vocaly though much more pop sounding. But as they stand I'm surprised he'd let anyone listen to them- Ouch! Well I did join Harbinger with the recommendation that we focus on the heavier stuff but despite my distaste for some of these songs I did learn them for practice and actually enjoy listening to them because of the memories. Edge of Insanity though is a truly great song that we played for many years. |
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Edge of Insanity is one of the first brainchild songs which Todd Hensley and I seriously sat down and wrote for a band format. When we decided that we wanted to start a band, we knew this was going to be the one to clinch other musicians in joining our band. Before this song, we had worked on a project which was in docu -drama format with just Todd & I as musicians. Todd actually laid down the music to Edge of Insanity with a generic drum beat which was on some cheap electronic keyboard. The lyrics actually came natural and you can read about them in the Archivon Live das Boot CD liner notes for the meaning of the song. In this segment, I will tell of the recording itself. It was the first song we recorded for the montage. We did have to change a couple of sections in the song for timing reasons upon recording which we would always let slip by in rehearsals. But this was hammer time dammit! Oh, I mean, it had to be right in the recording. As I listen to this version, it seems kind of slow and stiff. I could have done it better vocally given the right circumstances but I think I am saying that in hindsight light years later after a wealth of experience and knowledge has been gained. I will take it for what it is for the period of time, resources and manpower available. Billy had some difficulty with this tune as the first which we recorded but prevailed. He would sing backing vocals in live application to this song. Gary did ok as his first recording project. I don't think anything really fazed him anyway one way or another. Todd ripped through the chords but had some difficulty with the solo section. The solo which he kept isn't one of my fav's and he probably would say the same. This would prove to be one of our staple songs throughout all projects in a live setting.
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