Are You Ready for This?

Hello Catholic Metal community! Tonight I have two great announcements. The first one is that we are having a call for music to be submitted for “Praising Him Loudly: Volume Three!” Just to let everyone know, as of this posting, we have over 1.7 million plays! This is a cumulative number of the number of plays of our first three recording projects combined. “Praising Him Loudly: Volume Two” has the most of the plays and this announcement is on the heals of our projects hitting this 1.7 million play mark!
When we first started “Volume One,” – I’ll be honest, I thought it would be wonderful to hit the 10,000 or even (gasp!) the 20,000 play level sometime….needless to say – this is totally amazing (praise God) that we have hit this mark. A lot of people are listening to our music and the message we convey. Thanks to God for our combined talent and for the gift of humility as we continue to strive together in our collective mission to evangelize and to bring the message of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church through our music.
Now about the next project…again, it’s not going to be a concept album or a “themed” album. I’ve worked on these before and they take a lot of time. Another reason why I don’t want to do a concept is that when I have worked on these types of projects, you really need a lot of communication – not email, but face-to-face meeting with the people that are involved. Because our membership and musicianship is international, this is almost impossible. So, therefore, I prescribe that we do another compilation album. Here are some of the facts to keep in mind:
1) Bands/musicians are welcome to submit a maximum of two (2) songs each.
2) The songs must be an unmastered .wav file. Mp3s or other formats will not be accepted. Mastered songs will also not be accepted.
3) For each song, a copy of the lyric sheet must also be submitted. The lyrics/content must be
in keeping with the teachings and traditions of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
4) Any song containing vulgar language or swearing will not be considered. We will not offer any editing services to “clean up” a song due to swearing/language. We are metal; but we are also Catholic! (Do I hear an “Amen?”)
5) The final unmastered .wav file should peak somewhere between -6 dB to -3dB. The reason for this is that it keeps the finished mix from digital distortion and it gives us a little “head room” when it comes to mastering the whole project.
Now the deadline! We will have a functioning submission form by October 15, 2013. I know that we had problems with the “PHL2” form; but that was one of the reasons why we upgraded the website. Hopefully with the new website and our upgrades, things will flow much smoother this time out!
The deadline for submissions will be Saturday, November 30, 2013 at midnight. This will give us some time to listen to the submissions, give the bands some time to “fix” their songs if there are some problems and to give us enough time to master the whole project. The proposed release date for this project is January 1, 2014. This project will be released as a digital download; no physical CDs will be made. Why? The main reason is that we are trying to keep costs down. In some compilation albums that are made into physical CDs, the bands have to submit money that goes towards the duplication costs. We are not doing that.
If you have any questions about this, please feel free to email me using dave@catholicmetal.com – if you need help or advice about mixing, laying down tracks, editing or any other subject – I will offer my services to the best of my ability. I have been mixing/producing music for over 20 years and I will do what I can to help our members make great music.
The second announcement is that in late October/early November we want to have a Catholic Metal Merch Store. We have been planning this for about a year now and we are starting to firm up this project as I’m typing. The impetus for this was the many emails I have received about getting a Catholic Metal T-shirt. We also have bands in our community that have products that they might want to have included in this project. We are working out the details for this and we should have a plan for this very soon. So, I have two questions for our community;
1) Would a merch store on our website be a good idea?
2) What types of items should be on our community’s merch store?
Please email me with your answers or thoughts using dave@catholicmetal.com – I promise that I will respond to each and every email as quickly as I can.
Again, a majority of any money collected in this would go back to the bands that own the merch. We would probably keep a 10-20% donation that would go towards keeping the website running, keeping the website updated and to cover other Catholic Metal community costs.

Lastly, please make sure you add us on Facebook and Twitter. Also, let me know if there are any other social networks that you would recommend to us in order to spread the word and the music. In closing tonight’s blog, I would like to pray the Memorare and dedicate it to the Christian people who are being persecuted in Syria, and for all those facing persecution for their faith world-wide.
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help or sought your intercession was left unaided.
Inspired with this confidence, I fly to you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful.
O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in your mercy hear and answer me.
Amen
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Yours In Christ!
Dave
PRAY THE ROSARY EVERY DAY!!