This is the overture to Act 1 of my metal opera, "Melodius and the Soulforge". There are 3 tracks that I can separate out, I would prefer that this piece of music is enhanced only for inclusion in my metal opera project, which is a community-contributed work.

The theme of Act 1 Scene 1 from Melodius and the Soulforge; please bear with errors, this was captured live in one take at the piano. As with the other metal opera compositions, I'd prefer if this one is modified for use in the metal opera project itself, so let me know if you'd like to use it for something else.

A theme idea for part A of Act 1, Scene 2; Entering Melodius' parent's house.

The longer part B of Act 1, Scene 2, where Melodius thinks about his situation at home, then sees the contest information (pre-flashback on how the contest got setup).

In this scene, Melodius composes the song that will win the contest, and of course we hear some of that song. I just put together a 4-chord progression loop with a few variations; hopefully the final version would have a 4x4 chord/bar progression (16 bars total), and then loop that whole mess instead of just the 4x1 I have here so far.

In Scene 4 of Act 1, Melodius is ambushed by the antichrist, who was cleverly disguised as the contest benefactor. This guitar loop is intended for the scene bridge, where the shocking disguise is revealed to everyone.

This alternate ending for Act 1 Scene 5 accompanies Melodius' encasement in stone. This recording summarizes my idea of the "sound and feel" of M&tSF -- pipe organ and guitar together for most of the heavy leads (preferably with sick drums... coming in pending uploads!) Note: the beginning half of the recording is off slightly because it was done multitrack in one take, but it lines back up and should match after that. A retake with a click track could easily fix this.

As melodius is trapped in stone watching everyone he knows die over the course of a few centuries, something like this theme might play in the background. approx. 4 changes in this theme compared with some of the others that are just single-progression loops.

Scene 1 of Act 2 opens into the future/present day. I improvised a few lead variations about halfway through, but otherwise this would be one progression of the theme for Act 2 scene 1.

A possible intermission theme -- if there's a sound that comes from deeper within the planet of metal opera than pipe organ and electric guitar, I don't know what it is.

In the end of Act 2 Scene 1, Melodius is thawed from the stone. I imagine this theme would be the actual thawing theme.

In this scene, Melodius rehabs with the girl that thawed him from the stone prison.

This theme could come in for act 1 as a daydream scene, or it could work for Act 2 Scene 3 (the Love scene). I hate slow love scene music, and obviously any metal opera needs something a bit punchier.

This theme has a super-long chord progression in it, if you bear with it till the end, it does cycle back to the original theme again. It sounds sorta quiet but I have the level blasting, it's just the particular keyboard effect's low attack curve that makes it sound quieter.

Act 2 Scene 4 includes the dramatic moment where the AC reappears in the future and kitnaps Melodius' girl. From here out in act 2, the music takes on a more frantic, aggressive feel to coincide with Melodius' anxiety over getting her back soon.

This song demonstrates one way I am considering going into a coda for the end of act 3, notice the sweet coda on the end of the song, note: I am not using echo or delay to achieve the effect, just manual note blending.

The overture to the final act, set in "hell". We might fade this out as a code into the opening dialog, with the coda running over Melodius and his band navigating the tunnels down to "hell".

I finally came up with a main theme for the Melodius metal opera.

Another good metal opera work theme, now I'm moving more into translating the work into actual finished pieces, but I have so much more to upload! I have 47 uploads ready and 110 tapes left undigitized... yeah. I'll be at this for a while.

This might go in the Melodius metal opera, but I got the idea to do another side project metal opera called Hyperion and the Fire of Eternity. Here's a positive progression with a really difficult hand-swap in the middle that I would use in the part where he has to walk on the ceiling during his exploration of the center of the Earth.

Theme #35 to string together into the now giant, epic progressive metal opera "melodius and the soulforge". How many takes would it take to get it right? Probably hundreds. Would it be worth it? Oh yeah.

This theme is a start at the idea for Melodius' ascending to "heaven". The piano comes in about halfway through.

I started numbering these because there are so many, that I will lose track if I just call them all "Melodius theme of some kind". Excuse the one-take guitar work, I have been meaning to clean that up.

This is my version of the "warrior metal" sound applied to a 4-chord progression. I did not use a sequencer except for the drums... if you ever wondered how people might actually die just from carpal tunnel syndrome, just try to reproduce this and you'll be halfway there, just like me! :)

A classic synth effect explored with a number of progressions.

This progression bridges into the Act 1 intermission clip at the end.

This loop will go in MATSF during a bridge in the action. The levels are a bit messed up because it's an ancient track. The drums need work... a whole lotta work, they're basically a click track in this.

It wouldn't be very metal of me not to upload something on friday the 13th. I finally got my computer hooked up with the multitracker, and now with the screenplay nearly done I am back to working on a more polished sound. This demo doesn't have drums but I think I at least have figured out how to hook everything up. For more info on the MATSF project, see:

http://www.devinmoore.com/matsf.html

I finally got the drums to work ... sort of, but at least the guitar cabinet mic sounds way better.

Here's a 3-part break (3 drum parts) for some act or other. I got the guitar too loud on here, but how could I not? When you mic a guitar cabinet and it sounds like this, you can't help but have it too loud.

The lead guitar track from the new song "secret in my mind" off of the Melodius and the Soulforge Volume 1: Epics. The sound quality is not good, but the arrangement is very close to the final guitar track arrangement.

This is the organ part to Act 2's cleanup scene, the whole song is coming soon hopefully.

The Coda from Melodius turning to stone. Note: I fixed the guitar mixing problems... yay.

This lead augments the other Act 1 End / Act 2 Beginning scene demos; this is the piano part.

This is the chorus from Melodius and the Soulforge epic: Was My Life Worthwhile. Lots and lots of D chords.

Just a clip of the song, with some demo vocals... Come on!

Update: now includes a massive 2-minute long intro/verse/bridge. One idea for the death scene theme, with vocals. I am aware of and working on the mp3 artifact issues.

Guitar and vocal, nearly complete song. This song goes near the end of act 2. Get the song art here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/devinmoore/3649934023/

Edits: full demo version, much better than the other although it only has one vocal track now.

Believe it, I am on a mission to finish these compositions. Updated - fixed a lot of stuff.

Act 1's main theme with drums, etc. Update: fixed the skip. Part one here of the theme is done now, I will work on part 2 of the theme next and then merge them back together here hopefully soon.

Update: I added the other section with words into this. It's much better now.

This is the new version of the flyover, updates: major changes to the structure, a single longer loud section, etc. Edit: now includes acoustic bridge.

I didn't use any filters, effects, etc. on the vocal track here. I prefer the natural sound whenever possible, I think it creates a more "immediate" presence of character in the music.

Please sing it to me, tracked complete on the keyboards with vocals added for the chorus. I'm not sure if I'll add other vocals, etc. for the demo on this one, at least for now it has the feel that I want. The vocals start at :30.

I'm going through and uploading the ones that have vocal tracks as well now so that I can just finish this 3-disc demo album project asap. Home stretch!

This new version of the Cleanup incorporates an older melody of mine to create a much more interesting and complicated progression with less repetition. I'm thinking of having it just be piano, but I might try to come back and re-orchestrate this version of it once I make a few other songs better.

Arpeggiator? Nope, its all manual. Vocal distortion? Nope, but my voice hurts now. Awesome? Indeed! Update: fixed the guitar intro part.

A look into the studio process of composing a new b-side for alone again, possibly to get added into that as a bridge of some kind. This is the first take just ad-lib words and keyboard with no preconceived notion of what to make.

This demo track featuring highly demo vocals is just something new I'm thinking about over my holiday weekend, possibly for an Act 4 or perhaps for a sequel to MATSF vol.1.

A much better fight scene intro, another thing I'm working on over the holiday break.

I am trying to push the limits of my system to find out what the best possible sound I could hope for is, and this is one attempt to get at least the instrument parts blasting.

I have a whole ton of new stuff going on, this is a new idea for the fourth act. The whole project has turned out slower and darker so far than what I expected, but I think it sounds cool.

Update: Now includes chorus. You won't be disappointed.

This is a call-and-response type piano demo I recorded yesterday as part of a new collection of demos for MATSF act 4. They assure me the Act 1 proof will be here any day now, so that should go on sale this week.

Here are two brief samples of another new piano lead with slightly different phrasing.

This is pretty close to the final version of the act 2 intro, mp3 format. I had to re-tune the song because I still cant afford a baritone guitar... hopefully one day I'll be able to get one. The sound quality on the actual CD is better.