- The Burden Remains released their album «Downfall Of Man», it’s available as a free download over at their website. The release-show was quite the event – We were actually able to rehearse at the Nouveau Monde for a couple of consecutive days, which was awesome. Recorded the whole show as well, we’ll see what might happen with this. A bunch of shows have happened in between, 2012 might even be bigger… Keep ya posted!
- I did a bunch of off-shows with bands such as Attack Vertical, Abraham, Roots Of Death, Zatokrev, Arkhan, etc. all over CH, plus a quick tour w/ Abraham throughout EU, and another couple of shows w/ The Ocean, plus a bunch of special events like the Serenity In Fire-Festival in Berne, etc.
- I mixed and mastered We Said’s first EP, ‘Humanimals’, which also is available for free download at their homepage - Fun project!
- Hosted a bunch of events, such as Decapitated, Aborted & Co at the Fri-Son in Fribourg… Turnout was not so well, but the shows none the less intense!

2012 is looking quite awesome so far, with three tours (Zatokrev & Impure Wilhelmina being one of them) confirmed, and two EPs/LPs on the horizon. As far as fixed dates go, here’s a quick update:
- 28. 12. 2011: Zatokrev/Preamp Disaster/When Icarus Falls @ Bad Bonn/Düdingen
- 13. 01. 2012: The Burden Remains/Hellvetica @ Rock City/Uster
- 14. 01. 2012: The Burden Remains @ Headbanger’s Ball/Bern
- 27. 01. 2012: The Burden Remains/Emerald/Posthumanbigbang @ Fri-Son/Fribourg
- 03. 02. 2012: The Ocean @ Kufa/Lyss
- 09. 02. – 19. 02. 2012: Zatokrev/Impure Wilhelmina EU-Tour
- 23. 02. 2012: The Burden Remains @ Kab/Gèneve
- 24. 02. 2012: Posthumanbigbang/Uneven Structure @ ISC/Bern

More wicked shit to come…

2011 has definitely been the best year so far for Fireantmusic.ch, with over 127 shows  at the mixing desk, numerous albums released, etc. – Thanks to everyone for trusting in me, it’s been a pleasure!

Live-Stuff:
- I was doing some work at the JazzParade in Fribourg again, either FOH or backline/stage.
- RFI were also happening two weeks ago, that was intense. I had never before spent 16h a day strapped to a console at 35°, plus tearing the whole stage down afterwards – Also, doing most of the gigs without any sound- or linecheck. Well, now I know.
- In between were a lot of off-shows, such as Coilguns with the mighty Dillinger Escape Plan @ Bad Bonn, or The Ocean @ Rock Altitude, playing alongside acts like Meshuggah, Unfold, etc.

Regarding future events:
- Obviously The Burden Remains (Ex-Cideraid – Yeah, they changed the name) are my main-focus for now. We did a ‘live press-conference‘ to announce the name, some new music is out there, plus the release of the album ‘Downfall Of Man’ as well as the shows are approaching.
Here’s a quick rundown of all of this:

- 10. 9.: Album Pre-Listening party @ Bad Bonn/Düdingen (w/ DJ-Sets by the band)
- 12. 9.: Release LP ‘Downfall Of Man’ as free download (!)
- 17. 9.: Record Release-Show @ Nouveau Monde/Düdingen (w/ June DeVille & Radwaste)
- 01. 10.: Show @ Silver Club/Payerne (w/ Attack Vertical, Promethee, CrossCheck)
- 11. 11.: Show @ Base Bar/Lausanne (Monster Night 2, w/ Algebra & Helmut)
- 13. 01.: Show @ RockCity/Uster (w/ Hellvetica)

Also, the band is doing quite the PR-Run for the album, check out all the radio-visits right here.

- Other than that, I’ve still got the ‘Oh My F*cking God’-Evens @ Fri-Son up and running,  War From A Harlots Mouth, Promethee and Abraham are confirmed for the 22nd of october, plus I’m currently working on a nice and heavy package for the 16th of december.

To sum things up:
Lots of exciting stuff on the way, psyched to see all of this happening…
I’m currently booking shows for The Burden Remains, Abraham and Saïko Record’s own Kejnu, so please don’t hesitate to contact me for all sorts of interesting ideas.

See you all out there!

Studio-Wise, i finished most of my projects the days (And litteraly moments) before I left for the tour – Here’s a quick update:
- The Lost Aries-EP is getting mastered as we speak by Christoph Brandes/Iguana Studios.
- Tojinbo is finished, and already mastered by El Spiga himself.
- The Cideraid-Album is done. Now that fucker took a little longer than the rest, but it definitely was worth it. Svante Forsbak (Rammstein, Volbeat, etc.) did the master, turned out  nice and chunky.

So now basically I’m spending 24/7 on preparing to release Cideraid’s album – You know, fixing deals, booking shows, preparing press-info… The usual stuff. Not that much fun, but definitely worth it in the end. And as of course, there are quite some surprises in there as well… Keep ya posted!

Studio-Work:
- The Cideraid-Album is getting mastered right as i’m writing this post – Svante Forsback (Rammstein, Volbeat, etc.) has been chosen for this task, looking forward to listen to the complete album by the end of the week. Meanwhile preparing the next couple of steps on our masterplan…
- I also finished the mix/mastering for Calcined‘s new EP (http://www.myspace.com/calcined), quite the fun experience.
- The last two weekends I was in Saas Fee, tracking guitars and bass w/ Lost Aries, after a nice Drum-Session three weeks ago. We might attack the reamping quite soon, plus since the vocals have been done first thing, the mix might follow quicker than expected.
- I also did some session-work w/ Tojinbo, a grind-side project from two Amagortis-members – Drums, Bass and Guitars are in the Box, vocals will follow soon.

Live-Work:
- This friday the 18th, Attack Vertical will play at the SAS in Délemont.
- Saturday the 19th i’ll host the last of the ‘Operation: Impending Doom’-Series at the Café XXè in Fribourg – After 3.5 years and 18 events, it was clearly time to move on… Stigma (IT) and Trailer Park Massacre (CH) will play both a devastating set, plus DJ Housi and myself will be delivering the tunes until the end of the night… Yeah!
- Throughout March/April I will do a series of european shows with the mighty Zatokrev, this will be fun – Check their page for details
- Just in: I will embark on a Headliner-Tour w/ The Ocean from may 29th to June 19th, with a bunch of festivals (Greenfield, Hellfest, Metalcamp, Summerbreeze, etc.) added here and there.

studio-work
- the cideraid-album has been finished up to the final mix by now. we tracked guitars/bass at their rehearsal space for a couple of days, then moved on the la fonderie to track the vocals and some gang-shouts by a couple of friends. after that it took me quite some editing, but julien fehlmann got to turn this thing into a hard hitting f*cker, if i might say so – well worth the energy and trouble! now we’re trying to pick a master-engineer, while already preparing the next couple of steps…
- i finished the basic-mix for calcined, and just might finish the complete ep the following days
- i three weeks i’ll track drums w/ lost aries, with whom we already did the vocal-lines, given the fact that their singer is gone for quite a while.

live-work
- i mixed a couple of misc. shows throughout late december/january, amongst them tasteless, etc.
- i did two shows w/ attack vertical, one of them their record release-show @ le nouveau monde. they’ve pretty much stepped up to my expectations, delivering a tight set – which makes my job always way easier.
- went to berlin last weekend to do a show with the ocean, at the museum für musikinstrumente. technically quite the horror, but i think we got out quite ok after a whole day of trying to fix things. the whole show was recorded for a further dvd-release, we’ll see how this is going to turn out.

events
- this friday i’m launching a new event @ the mighty fri-son in fribourg, with my buddy hq: ‘oh my f*cking god’ – it’s meant to hit hard. for the first round we’re having amagortis, kess’khtak and daïgoro up on stage, let’s hope we can do some more of this in the future… don’t forget, fri-son’s got two stages!
- saturday we’re having another saïko-event at the nouveau monde, this time around it’s saïko vs. soundtracks, with the likes of kassette, feat. jim, tasteless, etc., where each of these bands will cover some of the most famous soundtrack-tunes. should be fun.
- the 19th of february might just go down in history as the day when the sun got swallowed whole by darkness and despair. rorcal will play at ‘operation: impending doom XVII’ @ the café le xxè in fribourg, along with fennec (ex-berserk for tea time). they’re doom as fuck, and their latest release ‘heliogabalus’ is one of the heaviest records out there.

anyone knowing the dillinger escape plan should know by now what i’m talking about, but these guys proved to be even cooler than expected – their complete crew was incredibly sweet & pro, it made our life on tour so much easier. doing sound for the ocean was quite the run as well – it took me some time to get used to their dynamics, etc, but it turned out quite nice in the end. plus, being able to rock places like the electric ballroom in london really did the trick for me… anyway, looks as if i might have gotten myself some more gigs with them: they are doing a short eu-run w/ anathema by now, for which i only could do the sound on the two opening shows in switzerland. but we’ll reunite for another gig in december, plus i’ll be going to athens with them at the beginning on 2011…
anyway, shitloads of new and exciting stuff happening:

studio-work
- the mix & master for lifeless hill is done, christoph brandes from iguana audioproduction managed to get some more punch from my mixes.
- i started to record a local death metal-band called calcined, by now everything except the vocals is done, i’ll start mixing by the end of november.
- i also started to record a 5 track-ep w/ lost aries. given the fact that their singer won’t be around for the coming three months, i actually had to start with the vocals, putting them on top of their pre-production. we’ll move on with this project by january.
- the cideraid-album has finally gotten the much needed kick over the starting-line: drums were done by julien fehlmann, and sound quite neat… we started to track the guitars last monday, second guitar, bass and vokills will follow throughout december.

live-work
- i’ll be doing sound for zatokrev this saturday at the dawn of doom-festival in winterthur, and might also be going on tour with them throughout a couple of weeks in april
- i’ll also doing sound for them and the ocean on the 4th of december at the sommercasino in basel, plus the mighty knut will open… balls to the wall!
- lifeless hill will headline a release-show for the ep on the 11th of december at the ébull, with yours truly behind the desk.

events
event-wise, there is not that much happening… both cideraid and remote lane (who will start working on an upcoming album in some time) are off the live-radar for now, so i mainly do my own ‘operation: impending doom’-events for now.
- speaking of which: friday night i’ll host the XVIth event of the series, featuring the mighty amagortis, tedh secret and dj deerstruction at the end of the night… café le xxè in fribourg is the place to be, the entry is free, and the ales should be quite cold be then. see you there!

studio-work
- progsik‘s demo is appareantly reaching out… they’ve sold about 50 copies at the mountains of death, so yeay for them!
- moving on with lifeless hill‘s ep – vocals & re-amping should be done by the end of this week.
- we decided to work some more on cideraid‘s pre-production, mainly to bring producer julien fehlmann in to add his input.  the drum-recording will start on the 25th of september at studio mécanique, and we’re really looking forward to move on to the next level with this album.
- also, i will start tracking a demo w/ calcined by the end of september, this should be fun as well.

live-work
- remote lane played another bunch of shows, and proved to become quite the live-band. by now they’ve developped a pretty tight sound, which makes my job quite a bit easier.
- i worked at the rfi in fribourg for a pretty intense week – not my cup of tea music-wise, but the folks were very nice indeed. lots of running and fixing stuff beyond fixing.
- throughout the whole october and the start of november i’ll be on tour/doing the sound for the ocean as the opening act for the cancer bats/the dillinger escape plan eu-tour. looking quite nice so far, i’m stoked as hell.

events
as always, i got a couple of nifty events lined-up, which should feature some intense headbanging and wall to wall-vomiting later on:
-  operation: impending doom XV is happing next saturday, the 18th at the café xxè in fribourg. we’re having zatokrev and mycelia playing, plus djs hq, mara and winekellar spinning the wheels of steel (or plastic, for that matter), we’re doing bbq on the balcony, the cal of ror-guys will put up a cd-/vinyl-shop, plus stemutz.ch and llyrdwen are exposing some nice pictures taken over the course of the last o:ids. i wouldn’t want to miss this if i were you…
- remote lane will be playing the metal assault-festival in grand-vennes/lausanne on the 1st october, w/ samael etc.
- saïko records will be hosting a festival at the nouveau monde in fribourg on the 5th and 6th of november, featuring some of the greatest indie bands from switzerland…

oh yeah, no rest of the wicked. see you all out there!

booking-wise i’m currently focusing on remote lane, so here are a couple of additional shows for ya:

100730 –  immortal sphere-festival / wattenwil
100806 –  bad bonn / düdingen (w/ cruszt)
100911 –  v. o. music-club / lausanne
101001 –  metal assault-festival / grand-vennes (w/ störtregn, cyphery, eskeype)

the lads did astonishingly well as the opening act for lamb of god, despite a slight technical hiccup (as in ‘no more guitar for half a song’) during the show – and they actually sold more cds than lamb of god! ok, it’s probably fair to say that lamb of god didn’t bring any, but… still.

i’d really love to point out two shows at this very end of the post, so bear with me:
• you shouldnt’ miss remote lane playing the bad bonn on the 6th of august, this event could be quite fun – plus cruszt are quite a cool band, happy to have them on board too – let’s just hope they don’t get stuck in a post-building this time around .
> go here to follow the event on facebook

•  on the 18th of september, i’ll be throwing the next operation: impending doom-bash at the xxè, and since it’s the first one after the summer-break, we’re having another round of bbq on the balcony, three bands live on stage (among them: mycelia from zurich and rorcal from geneva), a bunch of djs around the clock (hq, mara, winekellar, etc.), and a friggin’ huge merch-stand for all the lovers of nice records and stuff.
> go here to follow the event on facebook

yeahyeahyeah – looking good!

in other news, the day after there’ll be a full metal-event at the nouveau monde, also in fribourg – with mighty impure wilhelmina headlining, plus direct support from redheads are vampires, plus prevail over one’s horizon… i’m posting this because i’ll be doing the sound for impure, which should be fun as well.

again:
100604 – lamb of god w/ remote lane, dj el muerte @ fri-son, fribourg
100605 – impure wilhelmina, w/redheads are vampires, prevail over one’s horizon @ nouveau monde, fribourg

see you all out there!

100417 – ébull (w/ amagortis)
100501 – moshpit / naters (w/ lost aries, etc.)
100611 – schüür / luzern (w/ cynic)
100730 – immortal sphere-festival / wattenwil (w/ emerald, etc.)
100911 – v. o. music-club / lausanne

more to be announced soon!