Cryoshock: The self-titled debut EP

The songwriting for this our fledgling epos started the day we rehearsed for the first time. The songs were written in late 2015 and early 2016. At first we made two preproduction recordings at home. Just really rough mixes, to hear what we sounded like. Then, after rehearsing some more, we felt somewhat ready, so we booked a couple of days of studio time in studio Bloodshed, the home studio of Jimmy Lundqvist and his death metal squad Entrails. This was in July of 2016, so it was pretty damn hot, both outside and in the studio, at least for Sweden. The recording process was smooth, so there's not much to report from it.

After recording was finished, a period of editing, mixing and mastering followed. A lot of hours of trial and error was invested in the sound, since we had to learn most of it from scratch. Especially all the digital tools that are used nowadays. But eventually the sound came out roughly as we wanted it, so we were happy and went on to the next step.

Now, you might think that the next step would be to send out the songs to record labels, or to print CD:s. But the problem was, we still hadn't managed to agree on a band name. This took quite some time, but after many discarded suggestions and some heated arguments we finally agreed to call ourselves Cryoshock. On a sidenote, this backwards approach is the reason why none of the songs on the EP are in line with the cold cryonic theme that developed later. But a metal band isn't a metal band without a logo. And our friend Matt Odette, known from Boston's goregrind death metallists Cynicism had an old friend working as a graphical designer, which fit our purpose perfectly. Our only requirement was that the logo should be readable. Conor Fitzgerald created a logo that we liked, and finally we could proceed. But with the band name finally set, and a logo to go with it, we just didn't have the energy to start discussing a name for the release, so we just decided to use the name Cryoshock for that as well.

We recruited a talented local artist to create a cover artwork for the release, but since we didn't really have a budget to pay him properly, he wasn't really motivated to put in the time and effort, so that venture eventually just fizzled out and was forgotten. About six months had now passed since the recording was finished, and we were getting impatient. Finally we just created a cover ourselves that we found acceptable, put together a layout, and sent it all for pressing. And the final result is what are you now, hopefully, holding in your hand.

Some CD:s were sold, some were handed out here and there, some were sent to metal reviewers etc. just to spread the music as much as possible. We also published the release online on all imaginable platforms, so it's readily available to anyone who has a moment to spare.