Tiktaalika
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Tiktaalika is the debut solo album by British guitarist Charlie Griffiths. It was released through InsideOut Music
on 17 June 2022. The album is Griffiths' first musical venture outside of Haken since playing with Anchorhead in 2008-2009.
The album was initially teased on 2 Feb 2021 in a video of him playing an exerpt of the song's title track. The album's first single, "Arctic Cemetary" would release the following year on 8 April 2022, followed by the album's title track "Tiktaalika" on 4 May 2022 and "Luminous Beings" on 6 June 2022. On 31 May 2022, Griffiths stated in an interview that a follow up album was in the works. On 1 November 2022, the opening to the fictitious "Timmy Taalik's Time Time" was released as a single. Basis
In his initial album announcement, Griffiths described Tiktaalika as "the world's first palaeontology-based progressive metal album." The album takes its name from the Tiktaalik,
the common ancestor of all vertebrate life on land.
Tiktaalika was written entirely on a 6-string guitar as opposed to an 8-string, often used in the writing and recording of Haken material. According to Griffiths, none of the album's material was re-used from Haken demos and were all written directly for the album. Griffiths spoke about the production of the music videos in a May 2022 interview, stating: "I bought a green screen for a tenner and somebody kindly gave me some lights so I could film some stuff at home at a decent quality. Dan is an amazingly versatile artist and the drawings he made of Timmy Taalik are just beautiful - he's a character we've both bonded with! We basically wanted to create a kids TV show and we ended up with 'Timmy Taalik's Time Time', which I also wrote a theme tune for, which is probably my favourite thing I've written!" Tracklist |
| Pos. | Song Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Total Length: | 52:35 | |
| 1. | "Prehistoric Prelude" | 2:14 |
| 2. | "Arctic Cemetary" | 6:06 |
| 3. | "Luminous Beings" | 5:57 |
| 4. | "In Alluvium" | 8:13 |
| 5. | "Dead in the Water" | 8:45 |
| 6. | "Digging Deeper" | 4:31 |
| 7. | "Tiktaalika" | 8:34 |
| 8. | "Crawl Walk Run" | 5:06 |
| 9. | "Under Polaris" | 3:06 |
Personnel
Musicians
- Charlie Griffiths - guitar
- Darby Todd - drums
- Jordan Rudess - keyboards
- Rob Townsend - saxophone
- Tommy Giles Rogers - vocals
- Danïel de Jongh - vocals
- Vladimir Lalić - vocals
Production and Design
- Adam "Nolly" Getgood - mixing
- Ermin Hamidovic - mastering
- Dan Goldsworthy - artwork
Quotes
"When I first heard of a 'Tiktaalik', I remember thinking it was a pretty metal word and it's always been in the back of my mind to do something with 'Tiktaalika'."
-Charlie Griffiths
Trivia
- In the album's music videos, the album is provided with a mascot named "Timmy Taalik," the fictional host of a children's cartoon.
Links
| Tiktaalika |
|---|
 |
| Studio album by Charlie Griffiths |
| Released | 17 June 2022 |
| Recorded | 2020-2022 |
| Genre | Progressive metal, Thrash metal, Technical death metal |
| Length | 52:35 |
| Label | InsideOut Music |
| Charlie Griffiths Chronology |
| Tiktaalika (2022) |
| "Timmy Taalik," the mascot character of the fictional children's cartoon "Timmy Taalik's Time Time" created for the music videos. |