Other elements of open-mic settings, that we used, are longer outs, improvised solos and "guesswork" - by looking at other band members to figure out when to move into the next sections.

Genre: Hardcore Punk

Most Significant Piece: Their 1982 album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing

Other factors: Punk beliefs and ideologies that resonate with me

Artist: Suicidal Tendancies

Genre: Crossover Thrash

Most Significant Piece: Join The Army, 1987

Other factors: Blend of punk and thrash metal that directly influences my writing in Hatebomb

• Present two tracks which celebrate your emerging USP and musical influences.  

• Produce programme notes that highlight your musical influences, and how the tracks relate to your artistic identity.  

• Document and evidence your track preparation, the processes you employed, and the progression of your project.

For my DAW, I think I will submit another original track: Disorder, also by Hatebomb.

I find that my USP is that I merge the two genres to appeal to more audiences rather than consistently appearing in just one sub-genre.

I used Moises to separate the drum track from the original recording.

Next week I plan to finish the guitar and start on vocal tracking

This was Niall Wilson's LPA. I had to practice speed across strings, right and left-hand muting, and complicated time signatures, such as 5/8 and 7/8 for this piece.

It challenged me as this is not a track in my usual comfort zone (jazz-fusion is a genre I rarely practice) but it definitely helped me improve in areas I felt less confident in (changing time signatures, mostly).

This was Josh Connor's LPA. This track also challenged me as I had to practice right and left-hand coordination at a high BPM, along with triplets and tremolo picking, and complex fills that move all the way along the fretboard.

One of the key features of this track, for me, was making sure all of the bass lines were kept exactly in time with the kick drum. The original recording is played extremely tightly and I feel I did a good job emulating that with the drummer.

Microphone: Shure SM58

Guitar: ESP LTD-EX 50

Solo (Played by Billy Bray): Jackson JS32 King V

Amp: Amped - Roots Plugin

Bass: Ibanez GSR200 GIO

Bass Amp: Tech 21 SansAmp Programmable Bass Driver DI

Drums: Used 'Moises' AI software to take the drums from the original recording.

This was my Live Performance Assessment (LPA).

I composed my own solo in place of the one on the original recording. This was because Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath plays different variations of this solo when they play this song live. I used the same scale of Butler and similar techniques - hammer ons, bends, trills - but also brought in my own influence - chords and fills - in order to show my originality.

This track challenged me in the sense that I don't normally play finger style, however I wanted to emulate Butler's tone. Additionally, the fills during the guitar solos were tough due to string-skipping and high BPM. This song pushed me to practice my left-hand stamina lots.

Overall, I feel proud of my performance.