Aeuk oldies compilation, status update 2

Summer holiday is already (ancient?) history and I've returned to work, our kid returned to school, etc so it's getting back to everyday life, yeah. Recently I've been working with the Aeuk oldies compilation in small sessions - some bit silly (tongue in cheek apocalyptic and destructive stuff) lyrics have been born rather fast and vocal arrangements have been done on the fly. Very easily. Hard to say is it because of these ancient simple straightforward songs, or is it because it has been so fun to do it? Or perhaps it's combination of both, yeah.

Anyway, currently the situation is this; I have 8 songs with vocals recorded and pretty much in their final form. Still 5 songs left, crafting lyrics and recording vocals. The vibe is good and I personally like how the stuff is sounding like the compilation's title as it will be "Amiga death rock v1.1". The music has very much Amiga vibes, certain games back in the ancient Amiga days had "rock" approach. Well, take similar samples or just a nod better ones, brutalise the Amiga "rock" into extreme speed/thrash and mix it all with screamy black metal vocals with occasional death grunts and ... it's "death rock" ... v1.1 is reference to both Amiga's kickstart system (those who know, know) and also it might be a hint of volumes for this compilation thing. This might be just first package - I might do more of these, v.1.2 etc ... but not necessarily identical music style. Or then not, depends on inspiration and vibes, as always. But this compilation I'm working with now, is certainly coming out this autumn at some point - it is extreme, is is most definitely retro, and I'd say it is fun in a twisted way.

There is also one extra reason / explanation for term "death rock". Wanna know what it is? Well, back in the 1980s there was one case where I learned about new extreme metal bands via Amiga release. This case was one and only, there was nothing like it ever again. Sometimes in late 1988 or so I received a music disk which was titled simply "death rock" and it was ... a simple music disk, with simple menu to choose from few song samples. Whoever had done that musicdisk, had sampled / digitized (!) some 2-3 songclips by two bands: Napalm Death and Carcass. It was crazy back then, certainly first ever time I heard anything "sampled / digitized" like that - consider that it happened in freakin' 1988! Sampled clips of the two bands, it was few clips from both bands' debut albums. It was stunning experience, even that the sampled clips were (of course) lofi, but even still; it was good enough quality to recognize the tunes later as I received ND's "scum" in early 1989 or so. And it made it all even more special.

If I had to name just one grindcore band and nothing else, it would be Napalm Death, period. There are not enough words for how much especially early Napalm Death influenced and inspired me - hell, even my bigsister (RIP) started jokingly calling me as "scumbag" back in the late 1980s and you can guess where it came from (ND's "scum", of course). So, ... naming this compilation I'm working now as "death rock" feels approriate. One of the first ever tracked metal mods I did already in late 1989 was total ND "scum" worship.

If someone had said to me 30 years ago that yeah dude, you'll be reworking these little speed/thrash metalmods of yours 30 years from now on, modernising drum samples and recording full vocals for them and releasing them just for fun ... I would have laughed and commented probably like "are you crazy? get real, why on earth I would do anything like that? this is tracked metal music, it's listened with tracker software!" ... 

... and yet, here we are, and I'm reworking this old stuff. And having fun while at it! :)

Preview tune @ Youtube

Just threw one tune from this forthcoming Aeuk compilation into youtube so that you can check what kind of speed/thrash madness is ahead. At the same time you'll get sneak preview of the compilation's front cover artwork and even its' name. You can check out the tune ('Thrashardominate') <here> or hitting play below.

Now I'm off ... summer holiday calls. Have a nice summer!

Aeuk oldies compilation; status update

During June I've been working on bunch of Aeuk oldies, tracked metal mods just 26-31 years old. It looks like there might be 13 tracks overall, mainly speed/thrash metal in style, and some of the tunes having stronger "Amiga vibes" than the others. Majority are straight-to-face speed/thrash though. :)

Musically speaking most of the songs are remixed into pretty much final form, I think - but there is big factor making the tunes different from their original shapes; the vocals. I've crafted some simple lyrics for 5 songs and I've actually managed to record vocals for 4 of these already. Rather high pitched screamy vocals, kind of - some layered vocals. Black metal style in a way, so the tunes have sort of blackened thrash vibes to them in their new, vocalized form.

I'm on summer holiday from early July into early August, so not much might happen in July. I'll quite likely continue with this Aeuk compilation in August only. But it looks like it might see the day in let's say ... September, perhaps? We'll see how it goes.

But now it's time to enjoy summer! (also some music festivals, at least some for me in August) ...

'Snowfall machine' by ATQ

You can find the "snowfall machine" by ATQ from streaming services already, at least Youtube Music and Spotify have it already based on quick search.

EDIT: Also rather funny observation about this single tune. Thought that it's better to mention this here just in case. It seems this "snowfall machine" tune been marked as "AI" ... what the hell? The music is 100% manmade, made by me in Autumn 2000 with using tracked software (Impulse Tracker or Modplug Tracker, considering it was in 2000), vocals are 100% done by me, and some guitar chugs in this tune are played / sampled by me - and it's all tracked song. Like there would had been AI in year 2000! :) And personally speaking I'd never use AI to do my music. What I do, I do myself when it comes to music. Sure, I can admit the coverart partially uses AI - not all of it is AI though. In past, until very recent years I've done all my coverart (be it handdrawn, or photographs like in most cases) 100% by myself - nowadays depending on what kind of project it is I'm working with, I do utilise AI for certain graphic things, for bringing my visions for the coverart closer to what I'm after.

Aeuk oldies under work + ATQ single coming soon

I've been continuing the work with bunch of old Aeuk tunes dating back to 1995-1999. Pretty straightforward speed/thrash stuff, mainly fast stuff, but occasional slower tunes with bit of Amiga vibe in them. Drumworks have advance big time, some mods (tunes) were tricky slightly said - but I've managed to solve these challenges quite nicely. Some tune or two needs still more adjusting with "too crazy drums", but nothing major, really. Currently there are 12 tunes in this package, might be the final figure, too - or if it's not, I bet there's only perhaps one more tune coming in - not "brutal" one, but more of a Amigavibed one, so to speak. Depends on how tricky that tune is for reworking it ...

Also, I got an idea to release ancient Aztec Toll Qua aka ATQ song as single. It's a song which was the very last "new" song I created for ATQ back in the day. When was this? This was in 2000 autumn. Yeah, only about 26 years ago! :) I think I never released that song really, of if I did, it only appeared in TiS (Trax in Space, if anyone remembers that online service anymore) briefly and that was it, basicly. It was different kind of ATQ song in the way that it also contains Kraftwerk style robotic vocoder vocals. Heavy big beats, some electric guitars and robotic lazy vocals. Weird combination of chillout, electronica, big beats, heavy guitars and vocoder vocals. It's a tune about first snow, which came early on in Autumn 2000.

The single will appear into streaming services already within a week or so, I set the release date as 15th June but I'd say that next week. There shouldn't be any obstacles anyway. And as you can see from this single's front cover, the snowfall machine is ... Amiga 500! ;) And of course there has to be the android which sang in this snowfall tune before the actual snowfall took its' digital life away, and as you can see them guru meditation error is flashing on the screen, too? Yeah.

Coming soon to streaming services ...

Compilation of Aeuk oldies possibly happening

I've had idea for making some other compilations out of ancient 'Aeuk' tunes for quite some time already. Actually originally I thought I'd make some ATQ compilations - not so "brutal" tunes ... but as it happens, I got bit different kind of compilation idea right now. Instead of going into less brutal, somehow I ended up digging into 1990s speed/thrash mods of 'Aeuk' and ... well, I have already bunch of rather intensive tunes under works. The actual riffs/melodies won't change at all, they will sound exactly as they did some 25-30 years ago - but them drums will change completely. Not necessarily the beats, but the sounds of drums. I've had fun with the tunes so far. Not all the old tunes are easy work though, I've had to abandon some tunes simply because ... multiple problems, even with doing some heavy tracker software work with tune or two. Well, that's just fine - because I've been choosing short, aggressive speed/thrash tunes only now and the idea has developed bit further, too.

At first I only thought about changing the drumworks, sounds, and mixing the stuff together bit differently compared to the mod days / sounds from 1990s. But then I thought that as these tunes are all instrumental, which was most often the case back then - I might end up writing some short, nasty, cheesy (or something) lyrics and record vocals for the tracks. The name of the compilation ... I have already the name with me, and it's simple and referring to freakin' distant Amiga 500 days in the late 1980s. :)

But that's all for now, I don't have idea when this compilation might be ready. There is no deadline whatsoever, though I have a feeling this might happen already during the summertime? Depends on inspiration and chores of daily life, etc.

Death cover

Another tracker metal cover tune in the "covertune mixed with original band playing the same song in some (usually ancient) neat bootleg video" series went into Youtube. This didn't take much time, mainly some syncing - the video used was the one I released in 2023 at Youtube, with Death's studio album track of the same song. But this time it's coversong by Aeuk (music) & Grindire (vocals) dating back to 2004. There was a musicdisk in tracked metalscene released in Autumn 2004 or so - called "infernal mods" if my memory serves me right, musicdisk which had Death coversongs by bunch of tracked metalscene artists. I had at least two tunes there from what I recall; "scream bloody gore" and "defensive personalities".

Check this one out at <Youtube> or down below.

'Away from them devils' (replace "devil" with deathclaw)

So ... another AI based creation and rather heavy videoedit session over several evenings ... I got idea for another ATQ tune, making a music video with help of AI. Something which would be if not impossible but very tricky indeed to do without AI. As a longtime Fallout games fan (ever since 1997-1998, I first got Fallout 2, then dived right away into Fallout 1 after several hundreds of hours of F2 in 1998) I got this idea for using Brotherhood of Steel figures playing music / instruments in wasteland. I originally crafted big bunch of visuals, both images and video clips with AI back in November 2025 - but I didn't know for what I'd be using them. I just created them to see how it looked and what can I do with AI connected to Fallout themed visuals. BoS was just one subject of matter for testing. I liked the tests so I left best ones for later use ... fast forward middle of January 2026 and suddenly I got idea for this "Fallout themed music video" and that I'd  do it for ATQ tune "Away from them devils". *

* Originally this tune was titled "Away from the devil" and I created it in March 1997 - and it was not ATQ (Aztec Toll Qua / Quetzalcoatl) tune at all, but it was one of Aeuk tunes. Clearly more metal than "non metal experiment" as most of ATQ stuff. But while I was crafting ATQ compilations in the 2000s, I threw bunch of these Aeuk tunes under ATQ simply because they have strong Amiga music vibe to them - they might be quite thrashy but anyway, not necessarily Aeuk type of brutality (death/thrash/grind) but mainly the biggest reason was the Amiga vibes. Which came ouf of samples dating back to Amiga days, naturally. Even that I sold away my Amiga 500 in Autumn 1991, I kept using some Amiga samples from Soundtracker days even in late 1990s ... ! 

So, ... how the BoS / Fallout visuals connect to this song then? Well, the "devils" in title represent "deathclaws" from Fallout, and everyone who knows the Fallout, surely knows that you don't wanna find yourself in front of one (at least not without serious gunpower ready!). You literally stay "away from them devils" unless you have good reason to go hunting them down (sometimes you do have reason, yeah). Ha!

I got the random BoS videoclips synced rather nicely (kind of) to this ancient primitive thrashy tracked tune. The most funny part is that while at it, I also got idea for crafting Fallout/BoS themed intro / outro scenes for the video. They came out nicely, and as a bonus the video ends with St.Anger ('tallica) joke which at least I personally find amusing. After hundreds and hundreds of St.Anger jokes during the last 25 years ... well, now St.Anger snare has a place within fictional BoS / Fallout world. ;)

As usual, you can check out the video at <Youtube> or alternatively check it out below. I have also tracker view edit of this video coming out - but first here's this video which has no tracker view mixed in.

EDIT: And here at <Youtube> is the same tune & video with tracker view mixed in, too:

Remember 'ATQ' ?

In past I wrote lengthy about the "non metal tracked music" (see here) I created from mid1990s into early 2000s. Most active years were 1996-1997 when piles of these so called "non metal" experiments were born. First the artist name for these creations was Quetzalcoatl, then it was renamed using same letters into Aztec Toll Qua and in the end when I was making remix collections of the songs years later Aztec Toll Qua turned into abbreviation ATQ.

Well, I revisited one ATQ remix tune titled "Hover like a leaf". Originally to be precise this was titled "Hovering like a leaf". The title of the song came from the music itself directly, and the music was created around this main idea of UFO hovering in the dark woods during winter and it's snowing and the snowing turn into blizzard as two kids stumble across this UFO "hovering like a leaf" (like they used to describe the movement of claimed UFOs back in 1940s and 1950s especially) and the kids stumble across it because they hear this strange music coming from forest ... it comes from the spacecraft where grey aliens are playing the music (which is of course the music I tracked). Original song had some two minutes long (too long) intro part (this remix version has none of it, remix version begins directly from "meeting the UFO" section) which depicted the two kids happily playing in forest when it's not late yet, there's daylight well left. Then the music changes (intro section ends) as they hear the strange slow music emitting from the forest - and they start going toward the music, until ... they get there and witness aliens playing alien music. And while they are watching this one tune only, time passes with several hours (like in the old UFO tales/cases) and suddenly it's dark woods around them, and the spacecraft shoots off to the sky / space as the hypnotic song ends, seemingly lasting for hours.

I've even written into tracker file's comment section ages ago like this, direct screen shot captured from the tune via OpenMPT (if needed, click to see it bigger) :

So, ... fast forward almost 30 freakin' years forward and here we are. Suddenly it's possible to make that idea for music video into some kind of reality, with help of AI. Funnily it was easier to get the UFO / alien videoclips matching how I envisioned it back in the day, than getting AI doing fitting enough video clips of two kids adventuring in dark forest. It took few weeks to get fitting enough video clips crafted all in all. The end result is entertaining at least to myself, because it's pretty much the kind of vision I had tens of years ago for the video "if it was possible to make such a video". 

As a bonus, you can also see the tracker view of the song faintly rolling in the video.

Check out the video in <Youtube> or check it out embedded below.

Incantation cover

Back to Incantation ... in 2003 I made this Incantation coversong with Unbird, it was 3rd Incantation cover tune that I made and 1st one which sounded really enjoyable (instead of being extremely rough or detuned or sloppy otherwise) from start to finish. I was really happy with how this coversong turned out back then, the way it jumps straight to face and even the guitar solos came out rather nicely. It sounds rather thin kind of, but I didn't feel it was any problem then - and even these days some 22-23 years later I don't mind it. And as usual, while I was improving with the tracked metal music creations (read: music), Unbird was improving as vocalist and his vocals here in this track work pretty damn good, too.

So, here you go, check out the coversong in <Youtube> or check it out below - and enjoy, I still do! :)

Napalm Death cover

Next up is Napalm Death cover from 2002, with me handling the music as usual in my tracked metalscene releases and someone else, in this case Impious, handling the vocals. Considering that it's not easy task to in any way replicate (I don't mean exact replica, more about the mood) early Napalm Death atmospherically speaking, back in the day I was actually quite happy in how this short blaster tune from Scum's B-side turned out.

Without further babbling, you can check out the cover as usual in <Youtube> or by watching it below.