Studio Chapter 5: Metal XOR-A

There was a big change in the fall of 1994, Jason and a friend moved into a rental house together. Although Circle IX Studio was only five minutes from the rental house, it was too inconvenient to record music. So it was decided to build a studio in the basement of the rental house and move the equipment from Circle IX Studio to the new studio.

In early January of 1995, the basement was cleaned out and names were considered as the Studio was designed and built. BlakMetal X-OR Studio was an early choice. But by the end of January it was known as Metal XOR Studio, or MXOR for short.

On January 17, the first plywood was cut. The walls were framed and shelves were added for specific equipment. And the power was run. The new studio was progressing very well.

Then February 5 was the first Isthmus jam. The video of the session shows Harry and Jason playing in the unfinished studio, the walls were still just framed and not all of the equipment had been moved in yet. But the jam was successful enough to lead to the first Isthmus album, Electric Field Donut.

Two weeks later on February 19, the final pieces of music gear were installed and the Studio was complete. The first song worked on in the new Metal XOR Studio was called "Bacon". It was music written to accompany a video of a new surgery technique (being demonstrated on a pig body). The song was started on February 20 and finally finished and recorded on February 26.

Other than that special project, the first song recorded that appeared on a Studio album was "Happy Little Squirrel" recorded on March 4. It was recorded by Jason and Jimmy and would end up on their debut ORC album Purging the Great Abyss in 1999.

The last song recorded in this version of the Studio was on October 24, 1995, and was originally titled "Nine Days Wondering". The song was later renamed "At the Last" and appeared at the end of the NueroMud album Nine Days Wonder, which got its title from the original name of this song.

On October 30, 1995, the Studio was moved from the basement up to a ground level bedroom. There were two reasons for the move. The first being the fact that the basement was more damp than expected and it was starting to affect the equipment and recordings. The second was the purchase of the Studio's first computer program to control the MIDI equipment. And since the computer was upstairs in the bedroom, the Studio had to move.

So after eight months, MXOR-A was finished. The Studio moved upstairs and became MXOR-B.

No albums were released under the MXOR-A label. But songs were recorded that would end up on the aforementioned Purging the Great Abyss and Nine Days Wonder albums. There were also a few NueroMorgue songs recorded that have yet to appear on an album.

This period of the Studio's history lasted from February 1995 to October 1995.