Update: Medlins Cloak and an open doorway to the Stargazer.

Image Info: An image I took wearing Medlins Cloak while collecting rocks for an empty castle.

It’s Friday in Late October. I’ll be carving something up very soon but first I’m tracking a storm over BOK. The white stuff. Nothing would please me more than to stay cozy in my lower tower and continue down the rivers end, but I have a very important meeting with some very old friends in the hills that can not wait.

A few little updates:

The Novel. It was nice to put up a few pages this week… Klipso and Europa certainly came to life from a highway thought to a reality of sorts. So many ideas came from my recent pilgrimage. I connected a lot of dots for the novel during my time in the white forest. Soon you’ll hear about Master Medlin Kilwaughter and his Face Shifting Cloak, a rather genius piece of hardware, that may or may not come in handy for Mr Hadder. I'll say May. We’ll see what my time on white mountain will reveal. I’ve added the field notes page now and it's nice to see it all there… it’s taking shape. A story for the ages. I’m actually rather excited myself to see what happens next. A good sign that your answering the call, I find anyway.

Stargazer Music Video: The Music Video is now on the front page. It’s unlisted for now, but I’ll be working with a promotional company to give it some wings, so to say, in the coming weeks and months… to me personally it's just a tiny puzzle piece in a much bigger picture and goal that I see coming into focus... I don't have much expectation attached to the release of it... especially in this world of fake everything... I'm a realist, you don't plunge into the work on a cover song to arguably one of the best obscurely cult classic 9 minute heavy metal songs in 2021 without having realistic expectations.... and without doing it for reasons far beyond expectations.. once the art is done I tend to move on to new art... for now a simple doorway to it is on the Hadder front page. It might change a little in time… but it’s alive and free now for the eyes of the world. A pointy needle in a new England farm yard haystack with a single doorway to it for now. Back to the pile of odd puzzle pieces I go.

Music: I’m yet to get a vocal session in for “Hell Fall” since my return from the white forest. I’m guessing just one or 2 vocal days should close that track out as it’s like 90% complete. I’ll post it as soon as it’s done. The stargazer took a bit longer than I anticipated due to some electrical storms in the city. "Rivers End" is now in full recording mode, all vocals and keys and harmonies are completed, just writing the music now… which tends to happen quickly once I sit with my fender. If I could guess I would say 3 weeks based on what I learned from City Of Fire.… yeh, that sounds good all things considered. And of course, I’ll be releasing things on my way down that river. Lord skinny, you’ll like that one. The Rock king is waiting till one of these two tracks is completed. That’s enough work to keep me busy till turkey day. Zabble is planning a big gathering this year. How fun.

Website: It’s not final yet, but I’m seriously considering keeping all things Hadder related only on www.diamondshadder.com, rather than putting things on this site and that site and here and there…. It seems like building floors and rafters on my own foundation just makes way more sense to me, rather than spending fruitless time directing people to other places. After all, it’s not hard to find me if you’re really looking. We’ll see how that starts taking shape in the coming months. I’m still thinking about how that will play out. Lastly, the new search function is working quite well on the website. Try it out… amazing how that works. My dear Mrs Soundcloud was first on my list to be deleted... it felt really good to do that last night. My music feels home now... and my home is here.

Finally, it’s great to be back and it’s nice to see my dreams becoming a reality. A justice league gathering of sorts is just on the horizon now, with a complete list of characters all tapping on the wooden doorway as of late to a dream beyond a dream. Room #408. That’s the number on the door, I saw it 5 years ago in a dream, thanks… Mr evermore. Now I know. Happy holidays to all and to all a good October night.

-j

#diamondshadder #johnevermore #heavymetal #musicupdate #website #sacredplaces #pilgrimage #stargazer #novel #update #klipso #europa #kilwaughter #medlinscloak

Rivers End

I just thought I would share the lyrics to Rivers End today, a new song which is up on the board this late October and should be released in the coming weeks along with a carved pumpkin or two. I often have visions of a waterway... and a boat... and so it comes through in various forms of art that I create. There were a lot of puzzles to solve in this poem and I recall a few major breakthroughs, both on the word side of things and the vocal tracking side of things. Sometimes it looks like things come together quickly, but really some things are years in the making and I carry those images and memories with me... so is a dream... I wish you all could see what I see when I hear this but maybe you can draw your own images as it goes by and imagine your own boat and destination in time. Maybe it will inspire you to draw the picture of your dreams on whatever canvas you like. That's all I really hope for, as I was inspired myself to do such things so long ago.. to paint.. and to sail my own ship.

I don't expect to see a completed version of this before the "Hell Fall" track is done and released, but it's up on the board and I've already started writing guitars to it while sitting by the fire. One more update tomorrow before I take a short leave for some white mountain adventures where I hope to shoot some video and talk to some old friends. Sail away.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/77466a_145b8317197843dbaa3b68c5367d99c5/360p/mp4/file.mp4

Video Info: Some vocals and keys from the opening sequence of "Rivers End" played along to some random video footage I liked. The beginning was intended to have guitars playing the musical movement under the vocals but I did some piano a few nights ago and kind of liked the idea... we'll see how it plays out once the heavy stuff is done. I've written some guitars to this passage as well, but who knows, time will tell.

"Rivers End"

Did you find a touch of heaven out beyond the silver line?

Is it really what you dreamed of?

or was it only in your mind?

Did you hide away from glory?

Just because you need a friend.

Do you believe there’s something magic… in the end?

It’s hard to believe we’re forever

It’s sad think you know it all

what a shame we play the game at all

oh somewhere past the end it all begins again

Go see the man..

At the rivers end

On a slave ship, sailing off the edge

Cast away as if, you’ll soon forget

But it’s a long way, past the tree that marks the final turn

Oh what a mystery this is

without an answer to the call

Another lie without a why

Are we really here at all

Make it worth the fear!

Oh what a tale they tell us all

As we ride blindly into the falls

I know it’s hard to believe we’re forever

It’s sad to think you know it all

it’s a gift we play the game at all

Oh somewhere past the end it all begins again

Go when you can…

DOWN!!!!

Dive Dive Dive

Into the holy waters

Run Run Run

As fast as you can.. away from here

Maybe you’ve seen the end of the stream.. and heard the voices in the falls

And met the witch at the only mountain rising up from it all

Oh somewhere down at the rivers end

I can show you where it all began

Oh down at the rivers end!!!

Down!

Dive Dive Dive

Just leave it behind

Ride Ride Ride

The wind to the falls

Maybe you’ve seen the end of the stream.. and heard the voices in the falls

And met the witch at the only mountain rising up from it all

Oh somewhere down at the rivers end

I can show you where it all began

Oh down at the rivers end!!!

-evermore

#riversend #diamondshadder #johnevermore #heavymetal #lyrics #newsong #visions #sacredplaces

Klipso: From death comes life.

Field Notes from Diamonds Hadder: On the topic of Klipso and the Paper Cage.

When I arrived at Kilwaughter Castle I was young and always felt out of place… a stranger of sorts amongst the things and people I encountered. Zabble did his best over the years to make me feel normal and blend into the crowds but it was obvious that I didn’t view the world through the same eyes as everyone else, no pun intended. There was a lot of confusion and misunderstood pain in me… a longing and yearning to understand why I was who I was and where I came from. I seemed to find solace in the gardens of Kilwaughter… often crawling out of bed in the wee hours of the night with Ezra and sneaking out to the Klipso ponds on the northern side of the gardens. Many a night we sat there with the frogs and dragonflies under the stars and I seemed to enjoy that… it calmed me anyway. I’ve always had a connection with the animals around the castle and it’s obvious to me that I could pick up on something about them… almost sense their feelings and thoughts. I can’t explain it but it was always evident to me. It might sound strange, but I took a liking to a frog that made a strange humming sound, similar to the Warmoths hum. In time I began mimicking the sound and it seemed to calm my temper and give me a little taste of peace. I think he liked it too as we would go back and forth humming as though we were talking about a million different things about our day. For years this was a weekly routine with me and Ezra and my little garden friend.

One day while returning from town with Zabble I happen to notice a large flock of Emperor geese roaming the gardens in quite a frantic stir. Emperor geese are not really something you see on the grounds and I thought it rather odd… so I decided to investigate… upon reaching the Klipso ponds I felt a strange emptiness…. The Klipso Pads were tattered and sunken and everything was destroyed… still wet Emperor footprints were everywhere as though they had quite the feast… all frogs were missing and most likely eaten. In the background I could see and hear the emperors hissing and squaking defiantly on the garden grasses… with fat bellies. It seems silly now, but at the time, I had a rather touching connection to that frog. I cursed the geese of course and tried to convince Zabble that we have them for dinner… a thought that Zabble did not find very amusing. I cried a few nights but came to terms with it as a 6 year old must. For the first several weeks following the incident.. Me and Ezra returned to the Klipso ponds each night thinking maybe my little friend might be there humming to me but he never appeared again. This was the first real connection I had to the gardens and it was hard on me to think it gone. As a young child that connection and time represented so much more to me… it was a safe place where me and Ezra didn’t have to try to fit in and it was a relationship that although might seem insignificant to most, as a 6 years old, it was everything to me. And so I learned that things come and go and that the time you do have, well, you should cherish it when you can with who you can.

One day a few months later, on the 7th anniversary of me arriving at Kilwaughter, Zabble called me into his chambers and presented me with a gift. I thought it be just another silly scroll, as he seems to think I enjoy reading about spells as much as he does. I do not. He laid a paper down on the table and then backed away…. With a silly grin…. I was expecting perhaps there was more to the package but he just sat there grinning… he seemed rather pleased by himself and I think maybe he was looking for a pat on the back… We both sat there for minutes in silence till I finally said,….. “and?”

His grin suddenly lost its curl as he looked at the paper in wonder.…. And then quite suddenly there was a pencil drawing of water on the page… although the water was moving…. How strange and bizarre …. and lily pads drifted by as though drawn in real life but moving…. and Vern Dragon flies.... How astonishing I thought…. An animated paper world of its own…. A pond…

"How amazing Master Zabble! Thank you!" I said, "How on earth did you do that?"

“That’s not all Little Hadder, keep looking”.

No sooner than the words left his lips a tiny pair of eyes poked out from the pencil water line… penciled eyes from a frog… my frog or one that looked just like him of course…

“Dear Lord Master Zabble.. what have you done?"

As I finished my sentence the frog jumped from the paper and onto the desk… the pencil lines turned to color and flesh and bone… or at least the appearance of it… making a illusionary watery mess of the desk and Zabbles scrolls… which sent him into a frantic reflexive paper rescue mission. Ezra turned her head to the side as though she was confused but somehow working out what she was seeing… her ears perked up as well.. if she could speak, she would be saying “What the?” and then boom, the frog leapt over her snout back into the paper in a big pencil lined splash. She nearly fell on the floor trying to escape it’s launch only to quickly gather herself and start smelling the paper to investigate… with a few grumble grumbles and small moans and grunts as if to say “Do it again, do it again!!”.

“What is this I said?”

“Little Hadder, I made this for you… to remind you that although we lose things in life… the memory of them never dies and with a little magic and wonder you can always call upon that place that gave you joy and hope. It’s my gift to you now. A little familiar friend to hum with forever. Death is just a silly made up word Little Hadder, the memories we have are alive and well but simply in between time and space. I hope you remember that. Far less important things have decided the fate of the world Mr Hadder. I lost a few grey hairs with that spell… but I thought it would serve you well someday. It could and it just might save your life.”

Zabble had a strange smirk cross his lips as he said this, tapping his head, which usually implies something that only he understands.

“I don’t know what to say, what an amazing gift Zabble, Thank you, I suppose I’ll call him Klipso.”

I rolled up the paper and took it to my room and that night me and Ezra listened to it hum while we fell asleep… I drifted off to... “It might save your life…. It might save your life“ … that Zabble, always so dramatic.

PS. Off topic: If your still here… there might be a preliminary video on the front page for the Stargazer song… maybe.

#klipso #diamondshadder #evermore #hadderuniverse #zabble #fieldnotes #erza #klipsoponds #zabblegifts #emperorgeese #theearlyyears #kilwaughter #papercage #thepremonition