An Abbotsford musician recently returned from attending a music school in Memphis, Tennessee, and has since released a solo album.
Liam Pasiciel, 20, attended Visible Music College for a year, majoring in guitar. He said he learned many things there, including how to play different genres such as jazz and pop.
During his studies there, he decided to release a solo album based on his love of power metal.
Pasiciel, who started playing guitar when he was 11, said he was first drawn to that genre when he started taking lessons at the age of 14.
“My instructor was really into this symphonic metal band from Finland called Nightwish, He started teaching me how to learn Nightwish songs by ear,” Pasiciel said.
He said he had never played that type of music before and, at first, it felt “super weird,” but he soon developed a fascination with it.
“My passion for symphonic metal grew and grew, and then I discovered power metal, which triggered a passion to really focus on honing my guitar-playing,” Pasiciel said.
At the age of 16, he decided to pursue music as a career.
He said he was the only one at college who was into power metal, and he decided to make his own album, playing piano, lead and bass guitar, as well as singing.
The result was his “band” Magnesium releasing the album Forging the Armory, available on all streaming music platforms.
Pasiciel said the album is a combination of his own style with influences from bands such as Sabaton, ReinXeed, Children of Bodom, and others.
“The whole process took me just over three months, which is an extremely short period of time to release an LP, but I managed to get it done with the support of my friends and family,” he said.
Pasiciel hopes to eventually develop Magnesium into a full band. He is now working on more music, with a dream of one day becoming the lead guitarist of a metal band.
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