Queensryche Cover

It’s been a long 2 days. Went in the studio yesterday to record the Queensryche cover “take hold of the flame.” It came out really well and I’m very pleased with how it turned out. However, I’ll leave that up to you to decide. You can check it out on my profile here or at http://myspace.com/jasonrusso

I wanted to do a song that paid tribute to true Metal Gods, a song that got me into metal into the first place, & would be a real challenge vocally. I figured Take Hold of the Flame would be perfect.
I’ll have more info during the week about the song, & why I did it but I want to give special thanks to everyone who helped me make this recording happen.
Jim Bihary. (Drummer from Darkling) called me the night before and told me he was really nervous about screwing up. I told him I had the utmost confidence in him. Well, he did the drums in one take with a flawless tempo!
On lead guitars I had Jesse Benker from Herod. I had asked him to spice up the solo from the original version and he came up with (on the spot) this incredible solo! Jesse also helped me with the backing gang vocals. You’ll here “take hold” and that is Jesse and I in the background.
Mike (half ass) Cunningham played rhythm guitars with razor sharp precision. I knew this guy for some time and had no idea he was so talented. Awesome job Mike, thanks for doing this and I’m honored to have you on the recording!
On Bass I don’t know his last name (yet) I had a 19 year old young man named Seth. He’s never been in a studio before; pretty sure he hasn’t even played out either. I’m happy to break him in first on some old school metal! I was so impressed when I first heard this guy play bass. He came down to the studio & laid it down no sweat, as if he was a seasoned veteran. Thank you Seth, you have a bright future with music!
I was fortunate enough to get to work with Doug White who did (no surprise) the best job. I also need to point out that Doug did the guitar squeal in the beginning of the song. Doug is an amazing engineer who won’t treat a major label musician any different then a small potatoes guy like me.
I’m very proud of my performance but I definitely had a lot of help! So enjoy, and stay tuned for more heavy metal in the future!