Jagged Spiral Presents – Fire And Dice

Album Cover for Jagged Spiral's Fire And Dice - Artwork by J. S. Johnson
Album Cover for Jagged Spiral's Fire And Dice - Artwork by J. S. Johnson

Cover Art for Jagged Spiral’s second album, Fire and Dice. Artwork by J.S. Johnson.

Jagged Spiral’s Second Studio Album is Finished

In 2007, Josh, Colin and I debuted our ‘Northern Rock’ Concept Album - Days From Evil – releasing the mp3s online for free between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2007…

…on 11 July 2008 the Days From Evil CD Release Party was held at Club Underground…

…then we disappeared.

I’ll bet you’re wondering, was it jail or rehab? I’ll give you a hint:

We can’t afford rehab.

The Bureau of Morality defined our music as a weapon of mass destruction, subject to the Homeland Security Act we were classified as terrorists. Not political ones, mind you. More like spiritual/psychological terrorists.

But it turns out the computers in the Hennepin Country Detention Center are not too shabby. Plus, they have high-speed internet. So after a refreshing waterboarding, a couple years of good behavior, a brisk cavity search, and a couple login password resets, I’m finally able to share with you some New Jagged Spiral News:

The long-awaited second album from hard-dark-metal-art-rock-whatever band Jagged Spiral is finished!

It’s called Fire and Dice, and it will redefine the genre of Northern Rock. (We can do that since we created the genre.) It is nothing less than epic. If the Valkyrie had i-pods, they would listen to this album as they rode Pegasi, swooping down on the battlefield to drag the fallen heroes off to Valhalla.

What’s It Sound Like?

Fire and Dice sounds like an unlubricated orgy of Black Sabbath, Foo Fighters and Tool. Being shot to death. On an aircraft carrier.  Towed by a space shuttle. Crashing into a planet. Made of enriched uranium. Which explodes.

Fire and Dice makes The Big Bang that gave birth to our universe sound like Coldplay.

Or if you like, here’s the old marketing copy, which is still fairly accurate:

…Angry. Progressive. Conceptual. Epic. Brazen. Dark. Metallic. Since no other genres suffice, they have decided to declare a new genre of music: ‘Northern Rock’. Rough as a serrated edge. Cold and slick as black ice. The harsh brutality of Gothic Hard Rock merged with ambiance, depth, and groove, then left out in the rain to corrode into something completely unique.

Everything you loved about Days From Evil, only more so. But there’s no concept this time. At least, not any intentional ones. If you really miss it, just pretend each song is a mini-concept-album.

Release Date – 21 Dec 2013

Saturday, December 21st is the Winter Solstice. On that day, the sun will hide away from this side of the world, giving us the longest night of the year. A fitting time to release something as dark and cold as Fire and Dice.

There is no public “release party.” Consider it a virtual online thing, so feel free to get crunked in the comfort of your own home while downloading/listening and don’t forget to share it with your real-world friends and your facebook “friends” since in case I forgot to mention it, Fire and Dice is absolutely…

Free

Jagged Spiral’s music transcends materialistic/capitalistic nonsense. Keep your money. Tell your friends, write a blog post review, or share your enthusiasm on social media instead.

Unless, of course, your name is Diablo Cody and you want to use our music in your movie score, video game soundtrack, or dubstep remix. We still might let you use our music for free, but you have to get permission for commercial use.

Likewise, if you want a physical CD, you’d have to buy it, but I’m not sure why you would. Download all the tracks for free, and burn them to a disk yourself.

Fire and Dice on Bandcamp – To download, simply click the “Buy Now” button and add in a price of $0.00.

Hope you like it.

-Zero

Rough Demo of Horrorcloud Posted to Myspace

Hey all, been a bit. We been busy, see. You don’t rush greatness. You don’t rush us neither. We played a couple shows recently… funny, we don’t remember seeing *you* there. Maybe you forgot to go? Maybe we were drunk and forgot you went?

Anyway, *if* you actually did go to any of our shows, then you would recognize the song Horrorcloud. (Here’s a hint: It’s the song without the word “Horrorcloud” in it)

We hacked out a rough version of Horrorcloud tonight and fluffed it up with enough compression that we could easily enter it in the loudness war with Metallica. We couldn’t win mind you, but we’d be in there somewhere. Probably on the back lines ordering supplies, making waffles and complaining about all the noise.

You can check out the new Rough Demo of Horrorcloud here on the Jagged Spiral Myspace Page.

 

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Jagged Spiral Music for your Zombie Movie at NationUndead

Independent Filmmakers rejoice! Because the only thing more fun than filming a short movie about your favorite subject (Zombies!) would be scoring it with music from your favorite band (Jagged Spiral!)

Thanks to NationUndead.com now you can do both! Nation Undead gives you the genre and storyline as a seed for your independent film. Get some friends, a video camera, a case of Newcastle, and a few gallons of fake blood, and make a movie that Quentin Tarrantino could only dream of making.

When you’re done, you’ll need background music to add extra punch to your production. Jagged Spiral has you covered. I’ve uploaded the entire INSTRUMENTAL VERSION of Days From Evil to the Nation Undead website, and it’s FREE for you to use in your movie, just make sure to list Jagged Spiral in the movie credits.

  • Need some spooky background music? Check out the beginning of Run.
  • Need music for a chase scene? Check out Hallowed Ground or The Last Song.
  • Having an all out Zombie Bar Fight? You can’t go wrong with Let It Out.
  • God forbid you have a moment of Zombie Emotional Interlude, then you’ll find yourself in need of the tender acoustic moments in Lament.

Even if you aren’t scoring a Zombie film, feel free to download the Instrumental tracks from Nation Undead, share and enjoy!

If you want to know more about the Nation Undead project, I recently interviewed the creator, Patrick Pierson. You can read the interview on conradzero.com.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Days From Evil Free Music Download – Track 6 – Lament (part ii)

As forewarned, the latest free single from “Days From Evil” is now available. Click over to the music page to hear ‘Lament (Part ii)’.

Yet another mood swing on the Jagged Spiral Playground, this song was written as an ode to Saveau, a friend of the band, and contains vocals from our very own Hometown Heroine, the Uncanny Cassie Banning!

Listen up and stop back for the next three songs, available over the next three weeks of December!

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Days From Evil Free Music Download – Track 5 – Let It Out

The fifth song from “Days From Evil” is now available for download on our music page. It’s called “Let It Out”. Like all the others, it is completely free, so check it out, and if you like it, spread the word.

Let It Out was one of the few tracks to have lyrics finished before the vampire movie “Pray For Daylight” was finished (the others that I remember being “Not Enough Bullets” and “I Am Death”) An abbreviated version of “Let It Out” was used for the two trailers of the movie, the only vocals retained were the “Let It Out” grunts which gave the song its name.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Days From Evil Free Music Download – Track 4 – Run

“Run” is the fourth song from the “Days From Evil” album. You can go to our merch page to download it for free, along with the first three songs.

Believe it or not this song was finished on 26 Jan 2006, almost 2 years ago. For a long time it was called “Plung” which was the name of a sound effect loop that the song was based around. The sound effect was later removed, and the song was then titled “Creature Finds the Window”. Later verse writing led to the chant “Run!” which became an obvious name for the song.

At one point we had agreed that when we played together live, Run was our most ‘accurate’ sounding song, meaning when we played it live it sounded the most like it did on the record. We weren’t particularly proud or embarrassed about this fact.

Check out Run and the other songs, and let us know what you think. Then check back each week until the end of the year, and we will have plenty more audio for you.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Days From Evil Free Music Download – Track 3 – Hallowed Ground

The next piece to the Days From Evil puzzle is now available on the music page. “Hallowed Ground” is a significant mood swing away from the last track, “Monsters”.

If you want the lyrics for Hallowed Ground, or if you want to know more about the making of any tracks on Days From Evil, go check out the Days From Evil album page.

If you have kept up with the free music downloads we have made available so far, we would love to hear your comments, criticisms or any feedback you have about the album. Shoot me an e-mail at conrad at jaggedspiral dot com.

The next track we will release is called “Run” and will be available on 21 Nov 2007 (Thanksgiving Eve).

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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Days From Evil Free Music Download – Track 2 – Monsters

The song Monsters has now been uploaded for your listening pleasure. It is the second song from the Days From Evil album. Click over to the music page to pick it up, the song is completely free to download.

Last week, we debuted the first song off Days From Evil, Forced Entry. The next song Hallowed Ground will be available next week. Check the side of this page for the countdown timer to the release date. At www.springwidgets.com you can find all the countdown timers for all the Days From Evil songs. Its easy to copy the code and add them to your own websites/blogs/myspace/facebook pages…

And there’s more goodies to come. Keep checking back as we release a new track from Days From Evil every Wednesday at midnight for the remaining weeks of 2007. There will also be some desktop wallpapers, videos, more pix of the band, and plenty of free stuff to gorge your hard drive on.

Conrad Zero LogoYours Darkly,

Conrad Zero

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