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New Acquaintances … and Absent Friends – the album that wasn’t intended Recording Solace in Exile’s first album

November 08, 2019
When Solace in Exile recorded their single “Hypocrite”, they were not intending to record an entire album of 15 songs. In fact “Insinuate” was initially intended as their single, as it was the more radio friendly song. But when they got into the recording studio with music producer and engineer Aaron Stone, the band soon realised they had found their ‘niche song’ “Hypocrite”. 

When friends and fans of the band heard the recording of the new “Hypocrite” – it soon became their favourite SIE song. It was a more up-tempo song and has some great lyrical hooks and a personality of its own. The Band had so much fun recording their single ‘Hypocrite’ – that they thought maybe they should record some more songs and release something else. They returned to the studio to recorded “Giant of light” as the next single, tying in their Manga Artwork theme with a song based on anime series ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’. From that single, they released a video clip for the song “Justified” (Directed my Richard Barakat). 
Solace in Exile had a lot of songs to choose from their Live repertoire and as they did not have to ‘pander’ to any record company decisions – being an independent entity, all band members got involved in choosing what song’s they wanted to record. What began as a band reunion to record a single, soon turned into making an entire album - lasting 77minutes long of music, equating 15 songs. The album “New Acquaintances” was quite a lot different, in many ways, to their first release “The People we meet”. Their 5 Track E.P. was perhaps a little more mainstream - having a closer sound to Faith No More and Alice in Chains, with songs like “Somebody else” and “The Disappointment”. Although tracks “Rough Justice” and “Shallow” definitely had a ‘progressive musically technical element’ to them, that would later become more apparent on the following album. 

With the addition of a new Drummer - Michael Quigley, the band incorporated quite a fusion and variety of different styles, varying from song to song, while still being centred in the realms of Heavy Metal and progressive rock music. It was only fitting that the album was to be titled “New Acquaintances and Absent friends”. The lyrical influence for Solace in Exile focused on and included content drawn upon from - first-hand life experiences, stories, as well as favourite movies and fiction.

“2501” was inspired by the anime “Ghost in the Shell” - tying in once more to their Manga Artwork theme and possibly one of the faster/ Thrashier songs on the album. “Mental Divergence” (inspired lyrically by the movie “12 Monkeys”) was a band favourite, that was cut into 2 parts of the same story. The first of which was told through ‘almost a ballad style’, drawn upon a mixture of “Yes” and “Savatage” musical influences. While the 2 nd half - Mental Divergence Pt. 2 has perhaps more of a ‘Thrash Metal’ music sense to it, with varied dynamics. 

“The Gift”, which would be the second video clip from the album, was also a fan favourite. As the song “The Gift” was inspired by the book “Interview with the Vampire”, the video clip gained some recognition with the Vampire and Goth culture. On the band’s success of ‘The Gift’ video clip, they followed it up with a video clip for “Temptation”. The “Temptation” video clip looks like someone was a huge fan of David Lynch’s “Mullholand Drive”. It also includes a visual quote in homage to “Crossroads” with a guitar dual, during a stage performance of “The Crucible” – the musical, with the Musical Director being none other than the Devil himself. During the while, Aaron Stone who was producing and Engineering the album, had to have Key-hole surgery on his back, so Simon Tonx was asked to mix the album. (Producer and Engineer for “The People We Meet”.) The album had to be finished by the end of July, as 2 band members were travelling overseas – so Mr Tonx had his work cut out for him for the next 2 or 3 months. 

While Aaron couldn’t be there ‘in person’, for the last overall album mix, he did give Simon and the band a call, while lying on his back – the very day after his major surgery. Once the mixes were finished, Aaron Stone and Mike Lambeth shopped around for someone to Master the album. They looked up Master Disc in New York and found Roger Lian – who’s resume includes: Sound Garden – ‘Super Unknown’, Slayer – ‘Reign in Blood’ – (re-master), Pantera and OverKill – ‘Bloodletting’ and decided he was the guy. 

So “New Acquaintances and Absent friends” is a leviathan of a Rock album, that may not have happened if it hadn’t been for the band’s spirit to just keep making more music, coupled with some help and enthusiasm from their album producer and engineer Aaron Stone and Simon Tonx. After being number One on the Reverbnation’s Metal Charts, Solace in Exile are currently in the studio recording their new album, described as “Heavier, Faster and Darker”.
While the guys can’t say too much about the album yet, they can hint that the songs are a little bit more in the direction of “Slaughtered” and “2501” The album is being engineered and Produced by Richard Barakat - the same producer of Mike Lambeth’s solo album – “Ravenman”. They have finished all the lead vocal takes and Drums for their new songs and are looking to track the real guitars shortly. While there won’t be as many songs on the album, as their previous effort, the songs are definitely longer – ranging from 4 minutes to 10 minutes long, aiming to structure more like an earlier Megadeth or Metallica album. As this will be more a “Metal” album than Rock.
Though they was featured in recently released Lifoti's October/November 2019 issue 10, you can check it from below link's for your country:

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