Cursed Be is the musical project of he who is known as Vortigern and... well, it's just Vortigern for now, but Vort is working on a few other slackers to get them to participate. Vortigern is a software engineer in Columbus, Ohio, in what once was the good ol' US of A. He has been working at creating music in various capacities since 1985-ish. If one wanted some amusement one could dig up some of Vortigern's music from around that time. It was also around that time that Vortigern discovered Slayer, and in an instant of recognition, Vortigern discovered who he was, and, obviously, what kind of music he liked. At the age of 35, it's starting to look like the people who have always told Vortigern he'd eventually grow out of metal are giving up.
Vortigern has played keyboard and/or piano at about a kindergarden level since sometime in the 80s. Realizing he lacked any talent whatsoever at the keyboard, Vortigern switched his primary instrument to drums. He found that he had a good deal of natural ability, which he was able to hone quickly. At the time he left for college, vortigern called himself a drummer, and a keyboard, bass and guitar
owner. In college, Vortigern had his first "drummer's epiphany" -- that moment when the drummer stops playing, stands up and shouts "I can play anything! I just think it and my hands and feet play it!" This unfortunately happened right before he was forced to take a hiatus from playing for a while. As a result, there was a second such epiphany while jamming with a rock band in grad school. There was again a significant gap in Vortigern's playing when he left grad school, got a haircut and a real job. Vortigern did not pick up drumming again until he finally bought a house in the freaking middle of nowhere in Ohio.
This new location promised ample opportunity to fool around with music in the basement, and so, armed with a new guitar, Vortigern endeavored to actually learn how to play for a change. Sometime during his years of absence from playing music, Vortigern's fingers had changed and he found that he did in fact have some ability with the guitar, bass and keyboard. This quickly went from interest to obsession, and Vortigern found himself in the basement for several hours a night, practicing away.
This practice naturally turned to songwriting, and the obsession turned from basic skills to songwriting skills. This is what Vortigern is doing today, and this is what Cursed Be represents... Vortigern's exploration of music.
This music is made for Vortigern's own enjoyment, however he is happy to share it with whatever dark souls may find this. Vortigern has sworn a pledge in blood never to attempt to profit from his music, and neither will you. Vortigern will come after you if you attempt to betray the brotherhood of blood by stealing any of this music for your own profit. Listen, copy, share, cover as you like, but don't make any money from it beyond paid gigs, and Vortigern will be pleased.
Ok, I have lots of stuff, so I'll just try to cover the principal things.
Abstract Pagan Prototype #007 guitar - easily the most amazing guitar I've ever touched.
2007 BC Rich WMD Warbeast guitar - BCRich is making some VERY nice neck-through guitars these days.
2004 BC Rich NJ series Warlock guitar with Speedloader trem
ESP B-155 5-string bass
Washburn ABT bass
Ludwig 8-piece drum kit with power toms and a deep Remo pre-tuned snare. Lots of Zildjian and Paiste cymbals.
Roland M-BD1 Bass and drums module -- good sampled drum sounds... marginal sampled bass sounds
Roland SH-32 -- (digital) analog modeling synth module
Siel DK-70 -- old digitally-controlled analog synth
Technics SX-k700 -- rompler primarily designed for consumer market.
Kawai K1m -- good pad synth module
Crate TDP preamp -- single 12ax7 tube preamp
Crate XLP preamp -- solid state preamp with a surprisingly good sound
Peavey 6505+ Stack
Alesis Quadraverb
Alesis Quadraverb 2
Digitech DSP-128
Crate EQ -- amazingly good eq; has XLR, 1/4" and RCA ins and outs.
BBE 362 -- if you don't have one of these, you need to get one
BBE Sonic Stomp
MXR M-135 Smart Gate
Akai MG-1214 recording console
Panasonic SV-3700 DAT Deck
TOA 12-channel mixer amp
Peavey 4-channel mixer amp
TAMA electric drums
TAMA techstar drum brain
Pearl electric drums
Pearl drum synthesizer
Rocktron Zombie distortion pedal
