ANATOMY OF I - the brainchild of vocalist/guitarist Michael Dorrian, with long-time friends Dirk Verbeuren (SCARVE, SOILWORK) on drums and Steve DiGiorgio (SADUS, DEATH, TESTAMENT) on bass - have issued a new studio blog, part 2: bass.

Dorrian begins: "After wrapping up the drums, it was up to Steve DiGiorgio to step up to the plate to record his parts. The 2 months preceding the recording session for the bass that we had scheduled at my studio (Gugglebum recording), Steve was busy learning songs for live appearances with OBSCURA and OBITUARY, two very different bands, whose material does need some time to master for flawless live performances. Therefore, I told Steve not to bother working on the AOI songs beforehand, as we'd have enough time to go through all the parts in the studio.

We started out with a really natural approach, without any pressure, which proved to be quite efficient. The primary goal Steve set for his parts was to be the glue between the drums and guitars, gelling my riffs and melodies with Dirk's rhythms. All this, while taking the jazz approach of giving each other space to shine and taking the right moments to highlight his own parts. This led to all kinds of killer parts, sometimes funky or jazzy, while never losing any energy and raw attack. To make some of his parts stand out more, I suggested to Steve he should try using a wha pedal; a Morley pedal ended up being the right fit, adding some slight overdrive and emphasizing the filter/envelope effect.

All in all, he did a solid yet crazy job, and I'm sure people will be thrilled to hear what Steve came up with, on this one. Having seen Steve play a zillion times over the last 15 years, whether it was a show or our occasional jams, he was still able to surprise me with some wacky techniques I hadn't seen/heard before!

DiGiorgio adds: "Working hard in Den Haag!!! Recording the bass for the AOI Substratum album. I think I brought the California weather with me. It was a glorious three days near the sea, although the only beach time I logged was at 2:30 in the morning! (Hey, we were busy...!) And it rained (no surprise for Holland, I know)...but the whole time I was there it only rained for about 15 minutes (there ya go, that's rare for Holland!). Mikey told me that out of the possible three weeks of warm sunny weather they are allowed to experience per year, I was there for one of them.

So we plugged in the Thor Bass into the Line 6 Bass POD (the same exact one I use at home) and got one of the best tones I have pulled out of this bass in the studio thus far! I was pausing from the recordings every so often and just playing random tones all over the neck amazed and pleased at the nice cutting and full tone it was producing. And honestly, I forgot to confirm it with Mike, but I think we spent like just a handful of minutes on getting the tone. Sometimes guys want to spend an hour, two hours...more...just dialling in a sound to work with. Not this time! I came right out of the case ready to rape and pillage. Well, actually it didn't. I had to change over out of the Trident mode back into regular five-string mode, but then it sparkled faithfully.

We put in some long hours each day, I hate/love these sessions where I have never heard the songs before starting. What I mean by that is, obviously without being familiar with the songs, most of the time is actually learning the riffs, parts and arrangements then trying to conjure an instant chemistry with the drummer and lock in. It progresses slowly moving forward in small increments. But also one really special thing about this style of not knowing what to play beforehand is rewarding when bass lines and counter melodies are improvised on the spot and when that magic one hits just right, man, it’s so much better than something prewritten. So with this kind of find the way in the dark until the end, we made some killer bass moments that support the guitar melodies and compliment the awesome drum insanity. We really didn't spare the creative what-if's?.

Still the guitars to record, solos, and vocals. So it will be some months until it’s ready for release. But I’m sure as soon as something is close to being done there will be samples posted on the band’s MySpace page. Check back in often."