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.

Incantation and Repulsion cover

 This time it's Incantation. The song is one of their most doomy songs, from their sophomore album "Mortal throne of nazarene". I covered the song back in 2004 with Unbird, who as usual handled the vocals while I handled the music. I remember I was very satisfied with how this cover turned out. Both how I got the song covered and at least as much impressed with Unbird performing his lowest / sickest growling ever. So very fitting for this nasty tune and for paying homage to Incantation. If you know your Incantation, you know what I mean.

Sign of things to come or not, but it was actually one of the very last tracked metal songs I did in tracked metalscene - this was around October 2004 based on quick research. It wasn't about "me thinking the scene is dying" but it was more about the real life stuff taking way more time; I started my university studies in January 2005 and I got to know about being selected for the studies around October/November 2024 from what I remember.

You can check out the cover in <Youtube> or right below. Enjoy!

EDIT: Oh! I also released Repulsion cover (dating back to 2002) recently. Check it out at <Youtube> or as usual, right below. And prepare for some over the top drums in this case! ^_^

D.R.I. cover

The next cover tune I turned into video using the real life band's ancient bootleg footage is D.R.I. (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles). In reality I wasn't so much impressed with D.R.I.'s crossover thrash metal in the late 1980s (even that it was pretty good, though) but I was more impressed with early D.R.I.'s manic, grindcore'ish extremity. But there is no denying that D.R.I. wouldn't had done lots of good'n'great stuff, like this song I covered back in 2004 with Barfington (he handled vocals while I handled music). This is a true attitude song which happens to be so very fitting in these crazy times in 2020s with certain leaders of certain countries. Just check out the lyrics (they roll graphically in the video) and you'll know what I mean.

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

Enjoy! Back in the day when we finished this covertune, I was really proud of this one. Simple but effective song, covered in faster tempo than original making it even more crazy sounding shit!

Celtic Frost cover

Background bytes: I've done big pile of tribute videos for bands, where I've used studio track of the song and then selected a fitting bootleg video for the project - then syncing and finetuning the bootleg / gig video of that selected tune so, that it runs smoothly (or in some cases smoothly enough) with the studio track. Sometimes it's been a lot of work, sometimes surprisingly easy. But I wouldn't had been doing all that, if it wasn't fun thing to do. I enjoy the result and I get kicks of it. In some cases I've got extra kicks when member of band I've done tribute for, have commented something in brief to the video, or just posted something like \m/ ... of course it feels awesome. Even more so as naturally I tend to do tributes for bands / music that I've liked a lot, in many cases for tens of years already, since 1980s or so.

Recently I got an idea for crafting bit different kind of tribute / fan art video. Different how?

Well, I've personally covered big bunch of bands / tunes back in the early 2000s especially, when "tracked metalscene" was at its' most active era (the most active era was let's say 2000-2004). Tracked metalscene didn't last as a real scene for more than roughly 10 years, depending where you count it's birth and death. But anyway, I was really active metal tracker in the scene with nick "Aeuk" (whadda surprise) and while I tracked lots of crappy stuff (I mean truly lofi and rough and cruel as hell sounding shit - not in a good way) I also personally "peaked" around let's say 2002-2004 with tracked metal mods. I also crafted big bunch of metal cover songs that I still like and am even a bit proud of in some ways. So, ... the idea was following:

1. Let's take a good tracked metal cover I've done as Aeuk
2. Let's seek ancient bootleg video of the band which I covered
3. Let's throw both coversong and bootleg video into video editor
4. Let's edit them so, that bootleg video is synced with coversong
5. Let's throw lyrics into the video edit to make it even more fun

The first cover tune that I thought for this was for the band I've followed since a kid in 1986 ... Celtic Frost. CF, especially with their magical lineup of Tom/Martin/Reed. I covered CF's "Visions of mortality" back in 2003 and another tracked metalscene guy nicknamed Nightrealm took care of vocals.

Without further babbling, here's the end result (and I've already got something more lined up). You can check out it at <Youtube> or directly below if you for some reason don't wanna go to Youtube.

Enjoy!

Tracked Metalscene: Refuse the grave

Today, 12th August, saw the release of literally tracked metalscene coming back from the dead. Like I mentioned earlier in June, the idea to revive tracked metalscene with a music disk came out of blue and there were pretty nice bunch of former tracked metalscene fellas who wanted to participate. Me included.

You can find the full V/A compilation from <youtube> under my youtube channel and I'll embed it below as well. Some truly amazing tunes in the compilation and hey I am not talking about my (Aeuk) tunes. Also nicely varying representation of different metal genres, from heavy and power metal into death and black metal, some grind and punk, and even some symphonic metal can be found, and like this wasn't enough ... also some experimental edge here and there. I think it's impressive compilation considering it's closer to 20 years since last music disks were released in the so-called tracked metalscene.

Enjoy!

Brand new Aeuk tunes after 17-18 years (!)

Few weeks ago the idea was born in Discord's "tracked metalscene graveyard" group (group containing  about 20 former tracked metalscene members from distant past). The idea was simply resurrecting tracked metalscene via music - which was always the main thing in the whole tracked metalscene. Many fellas were right away into the idea, and yes sure I was interested as well. 

I tracked a death/grind tune just some day or two afterwards, around 12th June or so - totally oldschool way of doing it. There was 17-18 years long break from tracking metal, but it all came smoothly like there never was any break. How fast it happened tells it all, exactly as I used to "work" back in the tracked metalscene days: It was matter of one day, music was 100% completed one evening, and lyrics written the same eve, vocals recorded the next day. And I submitted the piece to the forthcoming metalscene compilation release. There is no strict deadline, but supposedly it will be released late Summer 2025.

Well, there is that one tune I did, but ... I got idea for making another tune: While the first tune I did was oldschool tracked metalmod, meaning it was all tracked with ancient samples (bit newer drum samples though) and vocals recorded in DAW ... the idea was to make the 2nd contribution / tune the way I nowadays do my music projects, DAW way. So it's not "Aeuk" as in tracked form, just drums are programmed ones (with good quality, too) but guitars, bass and vocals are all recorded, not tracked. The song turned out really good, methinks. And just like with the first one, I got the idea yesterday, crafted drums, recorded guitars and bass yesterday ... wrote lyrics yesterday evening - then finetuned and arranged lyrics today, and recorded several layers of vocals and mixed them in. Few mastering / mixing takes and done! Submitted that song today, too.

I will put my contributions online sometimes in the Autumn as the compilation gets released - and I will put release information here about the compilation as well. It's gonna be entertaining package, I think. 

In any case, my summer holidays starts soon and so ... have a nice summer out there!