Review on my new Bogner XTC Blue Pedal

Hey guys,

While last month I had to finish our video "The making of heroin" which you may watch on Youtube (click here), I'm now back doing some review stuff. This time, I want to give you a little review about my latest addition to my pedalboard - The Bogner XTC Blue Pedal.

Honestly, I have to say that Youtube videos about the Blue Pedal are probably more interesting and informative for you than my post is. But it might interest you, how it works with my set up. While in the recommended videos below both players use the pedal with a lightly distorted amp, I put the pedal in front of a 100% clean channel. As you may remember, I use a Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier 50/100W Amp with a Marshall 1960A Cab. In the signal chain of my pedalboard, the Blue Pedal found its place at the very end before getting directly plugged into the amp. I use this Blue Pedal exclusively with a clean signal. And that's what it makes fantastic about it. The Bogner really works perfect through a clean channel amp. The pedal is equipped with a normal channel or a boost channel. With the latter you can adjust gain and volume level independently. That's amazing! The normal channel sounds through my amp like a Fender Twin Reverb. It clearly adds some warmth to the signal and compresses it like I would have put on my MXR Red Comp. That blew my mind, the first time I played it! Further, with the boost channel I push the gain on maximum and leave the volume knob on the normal level. This boost gives me more or less the same distortion sound as if I have switched the channel mode on my Mesa Boogie amp from "clean" to “push”. And that's why the pedal is so important to me. It literally gives me a fourth channel on my Amp. Even better, the pedal functions like an amp as well. When I turn down the volume knob on my guitar, the pedal calms down as well though all dynamics are still out there. That's where you get the typical Steve Lukather sound which I personally like a lot. Here you probably wonder, why I added the pedal instead of just turning down the volume on my guitar using channel two (vintage / distortion on 90%) on my amp. The thing is, I didn't want a distortion level that is too pushed down by my guitar on channel two because with this way I lose all characteristics and dynamics of the channel itself. It shatters down. This does not happen with the Blue Pedal and that’s why it is such a beneficial addition to my system. I can only recommend it to every heavy metal guitarist who works with a clean channel.

 

Below you find two links for reviews online.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAfGiRqjA0U (german)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UacASksOtEk (english)

Stay tuned for more posts within the next month.

Enjoy Seasplash!

Bon Jovi "This House Is Not For Sale" - record review

"The Band you love(d) the most is back". With this slogan Bon Jovi announced their new record this summer. For this occasion, I thought it would be nice to make a little review about the latest work of Bon Jovi. But before getting even started, you need to have some background information about my story with Bon Jovi.

Since a little boy of four years old, Jon Bon Jovi was my idol and still is. Not only his music with the band is fantastic, even more impressionable is his character (still married to the same wife, no heavy scandals, does charity, is humble, etc.). Bon Jovi also affected our music a lot.

Probably you think how I might write an objective review about the new record. Easy. Since the record "The Circle", Bon Jovi missed in my opinion the point to change their music. Because all of them are getting older, it was at least clear to me that they couldn't hold their high level of perfection in music. Still the world tour in 2010/2011 was perfectly played when Richie came out of rehab again. The record "What About Now" in turn, was a solid record with good stuff on it. But the live show I saw in 2013 at Bern was not good. Jon didn't have the energy to sing all songs right. I was actually really disappointed. At this point, I felt confirmed in my opinion. So when I heard that Bon Jovi came back again with a new record, I wasn't psyched about it. I was afraid that my idol would break and loos all the credibility and integrity they've held up for so long.

So with a pessimistic attitude I bought the single "This House Is Not For Sale". And I had to confess, the more I listened to it the more I started to like it very much. Kind of a typical Bon Jovi thing though. But then came the record. Right away I have to tell you, Bon Jovi turned it around!

Heavy drums, hard guitars coupled with nice melodies, beautiful keys, smooth bright bass, typical choir and a lower adapted voice of Jon which sounds mature and fit. Besides the technical parts, most of all songs are arranged differently and vary in the style of sound (e.g. "Come On Up To Our House" and "The Devil's In The Temple"), even though the record has a clear structure (find out about these terms more on my section "how to write a good rock song"). The lyrics of the songs seem to reflect their souls and seem honest. Proof it with songs like "Scars On This Guitar" for example.

A big credit for the turning point goes in my opinion to Phil X. As the new guitarist he fits in the band perfectly which you hear on the album. He brings in fresh and bold diversity in the guitar sound, almost as Richie did in the early years, but isn't overloading the songs with too much guitars. Same for the solos, Phil brings in perfection without pushing it too hard. 

With this fresh wind of Phil X, songs like "Roller Coaster" or "New Years Day" bring Bon Jovi definitely back. And of course the rock ballads aren't missing. Bon Jovi show again with "Labor Of Love" or "Real Love" that they are kings in this category.

In sum, the record puts Bon Jovi back on top, where they belong!

Congratulations to this fantastic work!

Enjoy Seasplash

Second Release "Black n' Red"

Like I have announced earlierer in September 2016, our second album "Black n' Red" is out now. Besides the background story of the record and the single version of the song "The Crying Train" we will do a little making of video of the song "Heroin". Though the video is still in production, you will be informed over all plattforms of our social network. 

click here to listen to the single version of "The Crying Train"

In the meantime, check out some other songs we have on the new record (click on the link below).

Black n' Red
 

We are especially proud of our cover song! Share your opinion about this cover on social media!

Thanks for your support and enjoy Seasplash!

Story behind the record "Black n' Red"

As you already know, we produced our second record called “Black n’ Red” in 2012. This September the record will be released online. For this occasion we want to take you on the journey behind the scenes. This post starts the journey by explaining what the story behind “Black n’ Red” is. Besides this post, we’ll release a making of video of the song “Heroin” and do more stuff. 

Unlike the first record, which was basically a compilation of our best songs at the time, the album “Black n’ Red” has a certain complexity in it. This complexity is the frame of the painting and represents simply contradistinction or if you will contrasts.

As you could imagine the color black itself stands for dark, unpleasant, scary, or shocky scenes where the color red stands for warm, carrying, committing, or lightened scenes. The contrast line starts with the titel itself. The contrast of black and red comes from the ancient Greece with their mythology where they considered black and red as contradistinction. They thought that red (Eros) stood for love and life, and black (Tanatos) for death. These two symbols are placed in the whole record and appear in different forms. As already mentioned, the first form is the titel of the record itself.

The second appearance makes the track list. This list begins with dark songs and ends up with light and warmer songs. Though the album is in our opinion a classic heavy metal album, the contrast is marked by the melodies and arrangements of the songs. For instance, some songs content both symbols in the lyrics like the song Heroin, Goodbye or 666. Other songs only symbolize black (Tanatos) like Forsaken, the rest only symbolizes red (Eros), like “The Crying Train” or “What it’s worth for”. Also the dark songs are played in minor, where the love songs are played in major. There you have the second contrast.

The third appearance of the contrast makes the lyrics of each song. “Heroin” for example paints a scene where people get bound to drugs. The craving for it or the love they get of the sugar stands for the red.The sad end by the last shot stands of course for black. The contrast lives in this bizzar coexistance. Another contrast appears in the song “Goodbye". Though the song itself is played in D major the story is about a man who loses the fight against cancer. One contrast there. The second in this song is this. The man does not regret what happens in his life and thanks to his wife. This is red. After he died (black), he waits at the gates for her which is red again, though he stands on the dark side. Considering the ancient Greece again, this is about the river "stycs" where the dead stand on one side and the living on the other side. But it is possible to wait at the border for the living and watch them.

You see that this record is all about these two symbols, black and red. But why?

The point is that death is for certain and bad things can happen anytime. And still, if I didn't fear these things to happen I would be ready to receive the good and positive things like love. Death means here more than just the end of a humanbeing. It also means in a metaphoric way a loss of something. To me, love and death are the two dominant but subconscious motivators in human lifes. Most of us search for the one love. Having found it, the next station for both would be death. Maybe they stay together until the end of their lifes or maybe their love falls appart (metaphorical death) and the new search for someone or something to love starts all over again. We can not escape nor controll both things. They just happen because we are humanbeings. Though this view seems to be fatalistic, it also means you should not be afraid of dying because it happens normally in a natural way. However, what I want to say is that: What ever happens in life, it is heavier to keep on carying for something you love than throwing it away or letting it dying.

In sum, the record makes you think about the mentioned issue and takes you on an emotional ride with ups and downs. Don't miss it out!

Stay tuned for more information.

Enjoy Seasplash!