League of Legends Band Pentakill - Smite & Ignite Ft. Jorn Lande, ZP Theart, and more

[Hemi-Powered Drone]

So in League of Legends, there's a group of skins for some of the characters called Pentakill, that is supposed to be the most successful and only metal band in the universe of the game. The champion that is the "lead singer" of the group, Karthus, is getting a rework, and part of that was updating his Pentakill skin, with new quotes for the Pentakill skin done by Jorn Lande.

Check out the first two minutes of this to hear

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fv0d7fiNj0

Then a couple nights ago, Riot posted this song on their Youtube page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUiOylPbfV0

It was confirmed by Praeco, the music director and head composer for Riot, that the vocals were indeed done by Jorn Lande, of Masterplan, Avantasia, Ark, and many others. They also put up a website for the band and announced that a full album would be released on June 3rd, with Praeco and the German Community Manager both confirming that the album would be released free digitally, as well as on services like Spotify, and that a physical copy would be coming out soon™. A track list was later found on a Canadian site for preorder, but it was later taken down.

• Lightbringer (Lightbringer) 4:56
• Deathfire Grasp 4:00
• Ohmwrecker 5:18
• Last Whisper 3:37
• The Hex Core 4:33
• The Prophecy 0:47
• Thornmail 3:43
• Orb of Winter 3:31

All of the songs are named after items in the game, save for the Prophecy, the preview of which made it seem to be just a spoken word intro.



Then, today, another track was released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be1waE9myCU

This one was confirmed to have vocals from ZP Theart, formerly of Dragonforce. It is also believed by many people that the track Last Whisper also has vocals from Theart.

When the other video was uploaded, Riot Germany uploaded the incorrect track, Ohmwrecker, it was swiftly taken down, but people had already snatched up the track, so Riot ended up releasing it officially anyway. This one is fairly different than the other two, being an instrument track that is rather djenty. It was confirmed on Reddit that the keyboard/synth on this track was done by Derek Sherinian.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcihD7tyPvM&feature=youtu.be

It's also believed that M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold is on other tracks on the album, at least from the previews that had been up.

I think this is pretty interesting, it's legitimate metal, not just something cheesy and full of league puns. Apparently some people wanted that, but I rather like this, it doesn't feel like they're making forced references and this music could probably stand on its own without the boost that Riot gives it. I'm really excited for the album, it being League related is kind of inconsequential, the music is pretty damn good!

EDIT - It's been a while since I was last here, can you not embed Youtube videos anymore?

 

[sicnarf]

Previews here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Kc-lpHa6E8

 

[The Hiryuu]

I've never played the game, but that instrumental song with Derek Sherinian is pretty cool.

 

[Praeco]

... And I'm even here on the forums.

If you have any questions in regards to the album, ask away.

 

[jvms]

... And I'm even here on the forums.

If you have any questions in regards to the album, ask away.

Awesome! Any 7 strings being used? What tunning are the songs? Do you have any other project besides this one? Oh, and gear used pl0x, make us nerds jelly!

 

[Hemi-Powered Drone]

... And I'm even here on the forums.

If you have any questions in regards to the album, ask away.

Holy shit, I can't say that I'm really all that surprised, but holy shit!

How long were you guys working on the album, I gotta say it seemed to come out of nowhere, especially since Light Bringer got uploaded at like 9:00 PM EST or something like that.

Did you have a stern talking to the artists about having Morde have a bass, sort of, in the art? The strings are thin like guitar strings but I think I only count 4 or 5. I honestly didn't care much until people started freaking out that now Pentakill has two bass players and that Sona is playing a lap steel guitar. I don't know how exactly they're getting the ideas.

 

[Enselmis]

Dota 2 > League of Legends

 

[Hemi-Powered Drone]

Dota 2 > League of Legends

That's all a matter of opinion, really, they have a few similarities but many differences, they'll appeal to different people. I mean, I like both, prefer League though, and can say that the experience playing them is completely different.

 

[Praeco]

Awesome! Any 7 strings being used? What tunning are the songs? Do you have any other project besides this one? Oh, and gear used pl0x, make us nerds jelly!

Yeah in terms of guitars, we recorded nearly everything on a standard Ibanez S7521QM(a lot of the rhythm guitars) and a Marty Siggery 7-string with Bareknuckles(Solos). Bass is a Tobias bass, not sure which model, have had it for a long time.

Guitars are Tuned to drop A mostly, except for Lightbringer guitars tuned to standard B.

Gear is just Guitar > UA Preamp > RME MADi card. All amps/sounds are freeware guitar amp plugins.

 

[kaaka]

So a siggery guitar is connected to League of Legends, cool. I will definitely check this out.

 

[Hemi-Powered Drone]

Yeah in terms of guitars, we recorded nearly everything on a standard Ibanez S7521QM(a lot of the rhythm guitars) and a Marty Siggery 7-string with Bareknuckles(Solos). Bass is a Tobias bass, not sure which model, have had it for a long time.

Guitars are Tuned to drop A mostly, except for Lightbringer guitars tuned to standard B.

Gear is just Guitar > UA Preamp > RME MADi card. All amps/sounds are freeware guitar amp plugins.

Did you do the guitars or did you hire musicians for that as well?

 

[Praeco]

Did you do the guitars or did you hire musicians for that as well?

Guitars, Bass as well was writing the songs musically and lyrically was all done by Riot Games employees, including myself.

 

[Forkface]

holy shit, those two songs are epic stuff. I am genuinely excited for this

ps. I really need to buy the rest of the pentakill skins I have yorick and modekaiser already.

 

[ProtoShredanoid]

Hey dudes, I work with Praeco and did a bunch of guitars on the album . I can answer questions on technique and theory, or aliens and outer space..... or just nerd out on guitar stuff.

Now get back to practicing that Phrygian mode!

 

[jvms]

Hey dudes, I work with Praeco and did a bunch of guitars on the album . I can answer questions on technique and theory, or aliens and outer space..... or just nerd out on guitar stuff.

Now get back to practicing that Phrygian mode!

Awesome! What amp modeler did you guys use? What made you use a computer modeler instead of a higher end modeler like an Axe/Eleven/POD or even amps? Also, how the hell did you get such a nice tone from a computer modeler (and kudos for not drowning yourselves in gain)? Also, what was it like composing and recording with Derek? He's a ....ing legend!

Oh, and give us some tabs, I'd love to learn the songs. And tell us your names and if you have any other musical projects, I'd really like to check them out!

 

[Forkface]

After listening to the album, I can't think of a better way to spend my money than buying an official tab book, make it happen!!!

oh, and congrats on the album, its amazing work indeed

 

[Hemi-Powered Drone]

Seriously, the album is free but holy shit I'd pay money for this. That was a fantastic album.

To people that haven't download it yet - Pentakill | Smite and Ignite

 

[ferret]

It's up on Spotify now too.

 

[Praeco]

Awesome! What amp modeler did you guys use? What made you use a computer modeler instead of a higher end modeler like an Axe/Eleven/POD or even amps? Also, how the hell did you get such a nice tone from a computer modeler (and kudos for not drowning yourselves in gain)? Also, what was it like composing and recording with Derek? He's a ....ing legend!

Oh, and give us some tabs, I'd love to learn the songs. And tell us your names and if you have any other musical projects, I'd really like to check them out!

guitar amps are the lepou plugins, with a mesa boogie IR after it - and all sorts of EQs and compressors, of course.

we simply did not have any real amps at the time, and we're also both of the digital generation, so using plugins kinda just made sense. and yes, we like to use less gain rather than too much.

working with derek was pretty nuts. very relaxed guy, very humble, just wants to help make some awesome music. was very cool. drums were played by gregg bissonette, which was equally astonishing. we wrote pretty much all the drum parts, and not only did he play them all perfectly within an hour or so, but added some accents and/or slight adjustments that really made them "click" - learned a ton.

 

[Hemi-Powered Drone]

we wrote pretty much all the drum parts, and not only did he play them all perfectly within an hour or so, but added some accents and/or slight adjustments that really made them "click" - learned a ton.

Was that how the writing process went with the other guest musicians?