Ankoth + Musician in Burton-on-Trent, EN

SEEKING

ABOUT

I am Shadow von Nyx and I lead a small solo Thrash/speed metal act called Ankoth. I produce original music from scratch, recording every instrument and mixing and mastering by myself. I wish to have a band that would allow me to play gigs live, but due to poor social/interpersonal skills, and differing music tastes, I usually struggle to get on with many people or form strong enough/lasting connections. As a general rule of thumb most people I know either hate me and that ones that don't, aren't into Thrash or metal music, so I've mostly worked alone, getting the act to a decent state and getting songs in Spotify, but it is hard to play so many roles alone and almost impossible to play gigs where people expect live musicians.

Screen name:

Ankoth

Member since:

Sep 21 2022

Active within 24 hours

Level of commitment:

Very Committed

Years playing music:

5

Tend to practice:

More than 3 times per week

Available to gig:

1 night a week

Most available:

Days

Influences

My Influences range from 80s thrash metal bands, such as Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax etc. To Symphonic and Orchestral and Cinematic music made by composers such as Ludwig Van Beethoven, as well as many Symphonic works from film score and Video games OSTs, such as the Soundtracks from the StarCraft series, Diablo and The Heroes Of Might and Magic Series. I also am heavily inspired by the Symphonic metal works of Septic Flesh, Carach Angren, Hevein and Al'Virius. I strive for my music to be heavy, dark and intense. I also am influenced by Atmospheric metal and Ambient/Dark Ambient music, so occasionally I will add some Ambient guitar intros. My style can be described as Atmospheric Thrash Metal/Speed Metal/Punk/ Crossover Thrash, with frequent Symphonic/Cinematic and horror based influences. I also take some inspiration from horror scores and creepy sounding music, such as the OST from Poppy Playtime, as well as the Horror Influences of the likes of Carach Angren, Venom and Slayer. I record often to tape and like my music to sound raw, rough and filthy as well as epic and aggressive.

Instrument experience:

Other:

Expert

Vocalist:

Advanced

Rhythm Guitar:

Advanced

Background Singer:

Advanced

Lead Guitar:

Moderate

Bass Guitar:

Intermediate

Drums:

Beginner

Other Percussion:

Beginner

EQUIPMENT

-Encore Blaster Series Guitar with hot rails on the bridge pick up and the ability to connect MIDI Hex Pickup (Fishman Tripleplay Connect)
- Large pedalboard, with an EHX Mel9 mellotron pedal, used frequently for Atmospheric and dirty layers under riffs, a Compressor pedal *used to boos guitar signal and often to mix drums and record vocals, an Ibanez TS9 overdrive pedal (used mostly on my voice to achieve a LoFi "radio effect" (think Alastor from Hazbin Hotel but raspier and metal) so it serves as a vocal processor), a behringer HD300 heavy distortion pedal (used usually as a gain boost for an even heavier tone on my guitar), An amount Looper pedal and a Zoom 505 Guitar multi-fx pedal (I used it on my bass as an amp sim and heavy drive, but it has other effects too), I also ordered a Sonicake Vol-Wah Pedal, which will serve as an expression pedal to control my guitar clean/dirty signal or add wah wah to my solos.
- Valve/State amp setup - I have an orange micro dark for my main tone, which I use the valve pre amp of and I have it slaved to a Marshall MG100fx combo, which I use the power amp of and the celestial vintage 30 speaker. I also run the mellotron output of my ehx mel9 into the preamp of the MG and add a little drive and reverb, blending it with my guitar.

- Foster 160 multitracker. This old skool four track cassette tape multitrack recorder is a a staple of my sound. I like to record on it to achieve a rougher and dirtier tone, as well as have a simpler layout fir demos to get ideas down. It runs regular type II high bias cassettes at double speed for better sound and can record in all four tracks at once. It also doubles as a mellotron/sampler like instrument with any pre recorded sound being able to be played off the cassette and looped and each four tracks added to make new music, a bit like Allessandro Cortini in Nine Inch Nails (he uses a tascam portastudio instead). Standard Tape effects can be used on this four track also, like saturation, Artificial double tracking and tape delay to name a few, and it also comes with a low pass and high pass filter and an auxiliary send on every track which can send tracks to a separate FX buss (I usually like to add my Compressor pedal there and do parallel slam compression with drum tracks).

- a Donner DED200 electric drum set, with MIDI out - this allows me to bypass the cheesy sounds of the e drums and control Spectre Digital's Extinction Level Event to create hyperrealistic drum tracks that sound like a real, dry organic kit in a small and quiet package. I also set up ELE to replace the hi hat cymbal with a semi closed X hat and the Hi Hat pedal with another, slightly different sounding, bass drum, creating a Lobardo style double bass drum kit with a small setup.

- a Laptop with Logic Pro (latest version) and a plethora of plug ins (mostly free ones, but they are amazing, although Requiem Light Symphonic Choir and Extinction Level Event are not free). I mostly use logic for post production where I get all my recorded ideas from my four track down and turn them into professional productions. I like to orchestrate them using Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphonic Orchestra Discover, ProjectSAM's PowerStrike or Soundiron's Requirem Light Choir or play around with logic stock sounds. My abilities in orchestration as well as sound design mean I can really break the mould and experiment and make some quirky and epic sounds.

- Behringer Xenyx1202fx mixing desk (I use it as a mic preamp or to get my sound the way I want it to before I hit the tape, or during mixing my tracks). It contains some good effects and also a nice eq with controllable mids and an FX Buss/Aux Send.
- An Ibanez 5 string bass guitar - used for bass lines

- a World Rhythm Djembe drum, a steel tongue drum and a self made Cajon (I usually use these if I want to add percussion parts in post production).

- the orange PPC08 black cab (it sounds like crap but I plan on replacing the speakers to make a small but powerful eight inch cab)

- a TC Electronic Aeon Guitar sustainer - it's like an ebow, and good for lead lines. I need to replace the battery in it though

- a Subwoofer from a home cinema (I use it as a bass cab)

- a Satellite twin speaker power combo amp - came for free with my guitar and it's atrocious and I don't really use it, but I guess it can double as a drum amp or vocal amp.

MUSIC