You can hear the song here.
It goes back to 1994. So let’s go back.
At this time i had fully immersed “Images and Words” from Dream Theater and “Exit Stage Left” by Rush. I had just purchased the whole Kansas catalog on vinyl for $3 an album from a second hand record shop.
On top of that, i was still listening to “Somewhere In Time” from Iron Maiden, “Rust In Peace” and “Countdown To Exitinction” by Megadeth, along with “Slave To The Grind” from Skid Row and of course, the Metallica self titled album.
And i wanted to write a long progressive rock. So i did. The first version was 17 minutes long. It was a riff-a-thon. It didn’t have any sort of structure, but man it sounded progressive.
I fined tuned it, made some edits and re-arranged certain sections and the song was suddenly 11 minutes long. And yet it still felt progressive.
When i say the word progressive, I see it as the opposite of mainstream. It doesnt have to be complicated time signatures to be classed as progressive. Just different from what is popular.
To me songs like “Hallowed Be Thy Name” are progressive. It’s all in 4/4 but it has tempo changes, different movements and a unique song structure that has no actual Chorus. And it is Maiden’s biggest song and a clear fan favourite.
For recording “Doomsday Clock”, I started with the 11 minute version, however after doing rough guitars, I decided I wanted to go back to the original vision of a 7 part song, with each part being a song on its own.
It also helped when I opened up my Display Book, I had all the notes and riff ideas from the original 1994 version, so the planning job started to become easy.
Part 1 is all instrumental, like an overture. It has the musical themes and elements that you will hear in the other parts as they come out over the next few years.
Enjoy.
Free Spirits Rising 