Alice Cooper - Pick up the bones - v1.0

This song is not a figment of the imagination of a deranged soul but it's based on brutal real life events from the Bosnian War. While I do like the sound of this song, it wasn't on the top of my list to record given how creepy its lyrics are. The needless war from the Ukraine got me thinking of this song. Then some of the misinformed and ignorant friends and relatives that live in the nearby countries changed my thinking and I felt the need to record it.

Vocals

Among the first explorations of distorted vocals was Alice Cooper's. I worked with my vocal coach to produce a voice that's not harmful for my vocal folds. I did several iterations of the performance even after I did its video recording. That's why there are occasional timing mismatches.

Lead guitar

A modern guitar with a low action allowed me to play more easily the faster paced licks of this song. With the Floyd Rose style tremolo bridge I could add a gentle vibrato. I tried learning the original guitar solo but I couldn't find a good tab and I didn't want to reverse engineer it. So, in the end, having been inspired by another YouTuber's performance and advice, I decided to semi-improvise it. I had a couple of takes but the second one was pretty much the better one. Most importantly I kept the guitar in standard tuning because on a Floyd Rose a retuning would have been a lengthy adventure.

Acoustic guitars

This song is full of 7 string guitars and this one has a downtuned one. For a while I contemplated buying one but I realized that one of the reasons I have a Variax guitar is because its ability to change the pitches of the electric string sounds. I switched to the "m3 DOWN" major thirds digital retuning (Db Gb BE Ab Db).

I recorded two takes and, since they sounded decently correct and in time, I just panned them left and right and applied different effects.

Rhythm guitar

Another track with the digitally downtuned Variax, this time set to digital baritone tuning (B E A D F# B) matching the lower 6 strings of a 7 string. It's my first metal rhythm recording and it's not as tight as it should be.

Drums

The drums don't have fancy patterns, just a solid heavy rhythm with some fills. The timing I got could still be improved despite some MIDI corrections.

Bass

Since I needed to reach a low B pitch, I purchased a slightly war-beaten 5 string bass guitar that I fixed up with paint and some parts. There doesn't seem to be Variax bass guitar. That being said, the vibrations of a thick B string are impressive.

Keyboard pad

I went through my Massive X library and found some good patches that seemed suitable to recreate the gloomy ambience of the song's intro and outro. I settled on the "Not Scary" patch.

Misc

The photo is from the Auckland War Memorial in New Zealand.