My Only Shelter is the 1st studio album by Darkhaus. It was released on 22 November 2013.
Production
In April 2011, when Gary Meskil had some spare time in his schedule, he contacted Rupert Keplinger to get together for a week of writing and see what would happen. From this session, the duo wrote 5 tracks. These were Break Down the Walls, Breaking the Silence, Son of a Gun, Angelina, and Hurts Like Hell.
The album was recorded in multiple studios all over the world:
- Vocals were recorded in Gary Meskil's home in Sarasota, Florida.
- All instruments were recorded in Rupert's studio in Hamburg, Germany.
- Drums were recorded in Paul Keller's old studio in Bielefeld, Germany.
- Mixing and mastering occurred in different studios in Hamburg, Germany.
The album had been 80% written over the course of 3-4 sessions.
Rupert and Gary recorded 3 demos for the band before any of the other members had joined. The remaining tracks would be recorded with Marshall Stephens and Paul Keller joining over time. Gary Meskil recorded vocals for every track, keeping in mind that there would be a replacement singer eventually.
As of March 2012, 12 tracks had been completed for the album. Once Kenny Hanlon had joined the project, he brought in 2 songs of his own. Life Worth Living and Apostle.
A few days before Kenny's audition for the band, the final non-Kenny written songs for the album had been completed. These songs were Ghost and Grace Divine.
Promotion
The first ever mention of a project by the name of Darkhaus came from a 28 April 2012 Facebook post from Paul. The post mentions that it's the first day of Darkhaus, which hints at these being the first recording sessions as a full band, rather than the demos that were seemingly done before Kenny's joining.This is backed up by Rupert name-dropping the band for the first time on his website , in an update covering March/April of 2012, mentioning vocal recordings and finishing of the album.
The official Darkhaus Facebook page made its first post in October 2012, announcing that the album is in its final mix.
Darkhaus made numerous social media posts teasing the creation of My Only Shelter. These are listed below:
31 March 2013: Darkhaus Facebook post .
3 April 2013: Darkhaus Facebook post .
11 April 2013: Darkhaus Facebook post .
In March 2013, the band shared some photos of the band recording the album in various locations. These are listed below:
Kenny , Rupert , Gary , Marshall , Paul
3 videos were uploaded to official YouTube channels showcasing snippets of tracks on the album. These are listed below:
- 12 April 2013: Don't Close Your Eyes, Ghost, Our Time, Grace Divine, and Breaking the Silence. The video also contains a quote from Eisbrecher's Noel Pix. "The most promising newcomer is Darkhaus. The band will certainly be very big. I'm convinced of that"'.
- 31 October 2013: Drive and Break Down the Walls.
- 4 November 2013: Hour of Need and Angelina.
On 4 May 2013, a preview of the band was uploaded to the official Darkhaus Youtube Channel . The preview uses an altered instrumental of Life Worth Living and teases an album release time window. Fall 2013.
On 23 May 2013, a post on the official Darkhaus Facebook page said that artwork and a potential title had been found for the album.
On 14 August 2013, a Facebook post was made simply stating that the band was quietly busy while getting all upcoming album and touring preparations accomplished.
On 27 August 2013, the release dates and artwork were announced publicly for the first time in a post from the official Darkhaus Facebook page .
On 8 November 2013, the French radio station United Rock Nations played the track Grace Divine in full for the very first time publicly.
On 15 November 2013, the entire album was available on Soundcloud for a limited time.
Tracklist
Formats
CD - Jewelcase
Germany - 1 disc, 16 base tracks.