THE ESSENESS PROJECT ALBUM PRESS RELEASE

[Steve Smyth]

Hi Everyone,

Here's the news everyone's been waiting for!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 31ST, 2007

THE ESSENESS PROJECT TO RELEASE DEBUT ALBUM NOVEMBER 5TH, 2007.

The man behind this exciting new album project,guitarist Steve Smyth (Nevermore, Dragonlord, Testament, Vicious Rumors) is no newcomer in the metal music or shred guitar world, first being tipped for the top in Shrapnel Records president Mike Varney’s “Hometown Heroes” column in the October 1993 issue of Guitar World magazine.

A four year tenure as lead/rhythm guitarist with Bay Area power metallers Vicious Rumors started in 1995. During this time, Smyth contributed to two well received albums; 1996’s Something Burning, and 1998’s Cyberchrist (both released by Massacre Records), and toured extensively in the USA and Europe in support of both albums.

Then in 1999, Smyth began a four and a half year touring stint with Bay Area thrash metal legends Testament, touring the world in support of The Gathering album and then the First Strike Still Deadly album, playing to nearly 500,000 satisfied fans.

During this time Steve also helped form the lineup of Testament guitarist/founder Eric Peterson’s black metal side project, Dragonlord. Two succussful albums followed over the next four years: Rapture (Spitfire Records, 2001) and Black Wings of Destiny (Escapi Music, 2005).

Smyth spent late 2003 touring the world with Nevermore, the well respected underground progressive metal band, in support of their album Enemies of Reality. In 2004, Smyth was invited to become part of the band’s permanent line-up, leading to the critically acclaimed album, This Godless Endeavor (Century Media, 2005), the band’s sixth full length, which featured several songs penned by Steve. A world tour followed, which saw the band play the first Gigantour, the brainchild of Megadeth mainman Dave Mustaine, and a headlining tour of Europe, as well as countless support tours.

Fate intervened when in 2006 Smyth was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease. He completed Nevermore’s 2006 US tour with Arch Enemy and Chimaira, but as kidney failure neared, Smyth found himself unable to play the U.S. support tour with In Flames, as he began treatment for his illness. During this time of treatment and subsequent recovery, as Smyth states, he found “the time, inspiration, and fire, to finish this album to the absolute best of my ability, and finally enter the realm of instrumental music, something I had wanted to do for a long time.”

“This is certainly a different path I find myself going down, more in the area of progressive rock territory,” Smyth continued. The twelve songs( all produced and engineered by Smyth) are a collaboration between Smyth and his old friend and former bandmate, Steve Hoffman, a well respected classical and jazz musician, bass teacher and instructional author in Northern California. Smyth: “For this debut, Steve [Hoffman] and I went for more of a “soundscape” type atmosphere, rather than focus purely on the shred factor. We wanted to focus on the song, not merely use this as a vehicle for shredding over.” They also knew they wanted the best when it came to a percussionist.

Enter drummer extraordinaire Atma Anur. Best known in the “shred guitar” circles as the man who drummed on countless legendary Shrapnel Records releases, Atma appears as special guest drummer on The EssenEss Project debut. Cacophony (Speed Metal Symphony), Jason Becker (Perpetual Burn), Greg Howe (debut), Ritchie Kotzen and Tony MacAlpine are just a few of the many influential and cutting edge guitarists and musicians Atma has worked with in the past.

“We were absolutely excited when we confirmed Atma to drum on this album,” says Smyth, adding, “Steve Hoffman and I both grew up listening to Atma, and his absolutely insane progressive and innovative style. We had always hoped we might get the opportunity to work with him one day, and now it’s happened.”

Recording largely on their own, Steve Smyth and Steve Hoffman, or “Ess en Ess”, take you on a 70+ minute journey through sonic landscapes that range from wildly progressive metal riffing, to experimental rock breaks, through to jazz fusion, with a whole host of other musical influences not normally associated with rock/metal, being stirred into the musical melting pot. “We’re both into a lot of different types of music, and wanted to get as much variety into each song, in as tasteful a manner as possible,” says Smyth. One listen to this incredibly ambitious debut, will tell you they’ve hit their mark..

While Steve Smyth assumed the role of engineer, and makes his producing debut with this album, this album has also benefited from the invaluable input of two illustrious individuals on the production side of the music world.

The album was mixed by Kent Matcke (Metallica, Joe Satriani, Sammy Hagar) at his Pro Music Studios, and mastered by the one and only John Cuniberti (Joe Satriani, George Lynch, Michael Manring producer) at the world famous Plant Studios, all complemented by the excellent artwork from artist Asgeir Mickelson. These selections were no accident. “We knew we wanted the best for this album, and I think we got some of the best, most experienced ears and eyes in the business in Kent, John and Asgeir!” says Smyth.

Due for release November 5th, 2007 through Steve Smyth’s own Two Louder Music label, The EssenEss Project will take you on a journey through many highly varied, mood driven, and action packed songs. Through their brand of instrumental progressive rock, they aim to bring melody, musical diversity, groove, and shred, back to instrumental music.

World-wide CD release: November 5th, 2007, available exclusively through Two Louder Music

World-wide download release: November 5th, 2007,via iTunes and all major digital retailers.

www.theessenessproject.com


For now, you can preorder through CD Baby!


http://cdbaby.com/cd/essenessproject


More news to follow in the next few days for ordering info through us. Stay tuned!

[JBroll]

Consider it preordered.

Jeff

[flying_whale]

Originally Posted by JBroll

Consider it preordered.

Jeff

in the next few days i will preorder it too!
btw, i forgot to mention that the sound clips are really awesome! good job steve!

[carvedones]

This is great news. Today i got Testaments live in london dvd (new for 10 bucks) a peavey rockmaster preamp and now finally a release date for this!!!
Man i love taking sick days!!!

[B Lopez]

Nice, the date is MUCH sooner than I expected too. I think I'll order via iTunes then since I'm an impatient bastard.

Originally Posted by carvedones

This is great news. Today i got Testaments live in london dvd (new for 10 bucks) a peavey rockmaster preamp and now finally a release date for this!!!
Man i love taking sick days!!!

Best. DVD. Ever.

[RaferMadness]

OH HELL YEAH!

[kmanick]

cool!
I'll definitely be grabbing a copy of this one.
Congrats Steve!

[flying_whale]

hey steve, will this hit the stores soon after November 5th? I mean will i be able to find it at lets say Silver Platters sometime in November? My parents are really anal about ordering stuff online.

[B Lopez]

Well, I played it through and it was pretty cool. "Just When You Think..." is my fav so far.

[Steve Smyth]

Originally Posted by flying_whale

hey steve, will this hit the stores soon after November 5th? I mean will i be able to find it at lets say Silver Platters sometime in November? My parents are really anal about ordering stuff online.

Hey Paul,

Thanks for reminding me!

Check my post on ordering info from us directly.

[JBroll]

Originally Posted by CDBaby

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with
sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure
it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over
the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money
can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party
marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of
Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in
our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, November 7th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our
wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all
exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

...

What the fuck?

Jeff

[Steve Smyth]

Originally Posted by JBroll

...

What the fuck?

Jeff

Jesus, and I thought YOUR POSTS were demented and funny! Looks like you've got competition buddy!

Hey be sure to let us know here, there, and everywhere, your op's on the album when you get it please.

[JBroll]

Guys, let me know if you get that same message... that's a little weird...

Jeff

[flying_whale]

damn, that even beats the neverboard on a good day, go CD baby!
And yes, i agree with Steve on this one, your posts are demented!:P:P

[JBroll]

Just be glad I haven't experimented with hallucinogens... yet.

Please tell me I'm not the only one to get this message...

Jeff

[Steve Smyth]

[quote=JBroll;6683006]"Just be glad I haven't experimented with hallucinogens... yet."

That would scare me!

"Please tell me I'm not the only one to get this message..."



I'm curious to know if anyone else gets this as well.....

[B Lopez]

I got the same one or something similar to that last time I ordered from them.

They'll even send a follow up to make sure everything was ok.