Serpents Of The Church (2011-Altsphere)

Tracklist:

Serpents Of The Church
Crossroads
Slow Decay (Sonic Mantra)
Funeral Song
The Martyr
In Dooms Name (The Chosen Ones)
Children Of The Sabbath

Serpents Of The Church is our first release on a label (Altsphere). The basic drum, bass and guitar tracks were recorded live over three days in late 2010. In the next few months whenever we had time & money we overdubbed the leads and vocals. Originally we were going to self release it early in 2011 on our own rotedoomrecords label but at the last minute Altsphere offered to put it out thus delaying the release until September. The album contains two re-recorded old solo demo tracks (Crossroads & Funeral Song) with the other 5 songs being written as a band in 2009/2010. Children Of The Sabbath is our tribute to the mighty Black Sabbath. The lyrics are constructed from Black Sabbath song titles and there are a number of other musical bits based around Sabbath songs. Andrew Gillingham plays all the bass on the recording, Jess came into the band after the initial live tracks were laid down. Jess contributes a small amount of vocals/talking in "In Dooms Name".

Sorrows Path (2010)

Tracklist:

intro/The Path
The Song Of Sorrow

Sorrows Path is a two track 20 minute EP which is rote mare's first proper studio recording and CD release. The intro was written by Andrew and then altered/ruined quite a bit by Phil. Phil wrote the music and lyrics for The Path. The music for The Song Of Sorrow was written by Sean with the lyrics by Sean & Phil. The intro was recorded at home by Phil in April 2010. The main recording was done at The Fish Shop by Nesta Mitchell on June 5th, 6th and 14th.

There are about 4 different demo versions of The Song Of Sorrow as it took me (Phil) a while to come up with vocal lines and melodies that i was happy with. There is also a studio outtake with a totally different vocal to the final one that appears on the CD. I recorded it on the 6th then during the following week decided that it was not good enough to appear on the CD. I then came up with a new vocal melody and slightly altered lyrics and went back in on the 14th to redo it.

Sorrows Path also features the debut of some of Seans artwork in the form of a drawing on pages 2 & 3 of the CD booklet.

Trilogy III (2009)

Tracklist:

Monument
Suicide Song

Trilogy was intended to be a triple CD release. I decided to start the project by recording two 20 minute tracks which were to become the third CD in the trilogy. Disorder the other track from these sessions was intended for CD I or II which were to be albums containing tracks of more normal lengths. Trilogy III is finished as i intended but it is somewhat out of context without the other two more normal CDs. The samples in Suicide Song are taken from a documentary entitled Devil At Your Heels (i think) which detailed the suicide/attempted suicide of two American kids while listening to Judas Priest. It is the typical story of "deeply religious" but abusive idiotic incompetent parents looking for a scapegoat for their childrens deaths. It details the court proceedings and the families involved with interviews etc. It's definately worth having a look at.
Trilogy was abandoned when i finally decided to expand rote mare into a band. A few of the ideas i had for Trilogy have been used in coming up with the new tracks for the band, but a lot of the ideas are totally new.

Corruption (2008)

Tracklist:

Happiness
The Stones Of Blood
Into The Fire (Another Funeral Song)
Inquisitor
The Death Song
The Serpent
Disorder (Bonus Track)

Corruption is the most extreme of the demos. I wanted it to sound really aggressive and yet retain the melodic element. I went into it planning to record a doomier album but it didn't really turn out that way. As with "Good News" the track Inquisitor was developed from ideas i had on tape from some time in the early 90's. Its an extreme song but to my ears fits well on Corruption. Disorder was the first track i recorded for the abandoned Trilogy sessions. I basically started recording it straight after Corruption was finished.

In Ruins (2008)

Tracklist:

Prelude To Ruin/Requiem II
Journeys End
In Ruins
Damnation
Blood Cross/Into Darkness
In Ruins (original version-Bonus Track)

In Ruins was originally released as  double cd. I was never happy with the original version of In Ruins (the song) so i redid the whole thing except for the guitar solo section. Retrospectively i quite like it, but at the time small inconsistancies with the drum timings in the verses annoyed the crap out of me. Requiem II is a song built around the drumbeat for the bonus track on the second disc (Suicidal Slayer). I never really felt that my drumming did justice to Suicidal Slayer so i scrapped it and composed Requiem II over the drumbeat.

In Ruins II (2008)

Tracklist:

The Descent
Burning Man
The Fall
The Gift/Aftermath
Suicidal Slayer (Bonus Track)

Disc II of the original In Ruins. The whole of the In Ruins project was a very long and tortuous process and the result is a mixture of quite a few styles. The first two tracks i recorded were The Fall and Suicidal Slayer and i think that they are more in the style of The Red Sea recordings. Overall though i think In Ruins is my favourite Rote Mare demo although it turned out quite different then i had originally envisaged.

The Red Sea II (aka The Red Sea Bonus Disc-2007)

Tracklist:

Crossroads
Devotion
The Liar
Nothing

The Red Sea II was intended as a bonus disc for The Red Sea. It contains two re-recorded American Terrorist tracks (Crossroads & Nothing). They are recorded in a lower key than the original versions.

The Red Sea (2006)

Tracklist:

The Red Sea
The Weight
Slow Fade
A New Dawn

Funeral Songs II (2006)

Tracklist:

Altar Of Greed
The Ride
Funeral Song
The Well Of Sorrows

Funeral Songs became Funeral Songs II when i added real drums for the previously programmed drums. A small clumsy section in Altar Of Greed was removed when i added the real drums but other than that the rest of the music and vocals remained unchanged.

American Terrorist (2005)

Tracklist:

Crossroads
Sinking Ships
The Thief
American Terrorist
A Guide To Self Destruction
Nothing...
Good News For Modern Man (Bonus Track)

American Terrorist was recorded using programmed drums. Good News was recorded for and included on the original Funeral Songs which also used programmed drums. I later added real drums to Funeral Songs renaming it Funeral Songs II and dropping Good News. Good News is actually a song i wrote in the early 90's which i revived for Rote Mare. I took particularly nasty lines from various psalms and compiled them into a lyric.