Start Talking

Start Talking is the debut album by Bulletrain, released on the 24th of October 2014. The fact that an album was on the way was first revealed on the band's MySpace page on the 6th of July 2010. The album was believed to be recorded and released in 2011  but since Robert Lindell left the band in February 2011 and due to the fact that Mattias Persson broke his arm in May 2011 the band decided to postpone the recordings. Instead they decided to start recording a third EP called What's Left Behind, which was later cancelled.

The first real sign that Start Talking was in the making occurred on the 4th of December 2010 when the songs "All for One", "Nothin' but Trouble" and "Start Talkin'" were announced. "Nothin' but Trouble" and "Start Talkin'" were recorded on the 8th of January 2011 and "All for One" was also recorded that very month. These were the last recordings with Lindell before he left the band the following month. On the 12th of May 2011 the song "Sixteen Seasons", which was considered for this album, was released and it featured the new singer Redas J. Davis.

On the 28th of September 2011 the band confirmed that What's Left Behind was to be recorded. On that day the band announced that they would start the recording of the EP on the 3rd of October 2011 and that Christofer Björck (keyboardist from the band Titan) would join them in the studio. The band also released the song "Sixteen Seasons" again that same day. Due to some unforeseen reasons the actual recording date of the EP was moved to the 10th of October. On that day the band also announced that they would work together with the producer Marcus Forsberg at Tweak Studios in Helsingborg. The recordings were put on hold for a couple of days, beginning on the 19th of October 2011, due to some unforseen circumstances involving a another setback for the band. This was the last official mentioning of What's Left Behind before the EP was cancelled. On the 31st of December 2011 Bulletrain announced that the recordings would be finished soon afterwards but it is uncertain whether they meant the recordings of the EP or the debut album. The recordings of Start Talking began towards the end of 2011.

On the 30th of January 2012 it was revealed that the band would release their debut album by themselves (previously the band was suppose to release the album through a sublabel to AOR Heaven, called Metal Heaven ). Other information that was also revealed was that the band was no longer to record in Polar Studios in Stockholm with Chris Laney but rather in Tweak Studios in Helsingborg with producers Christofer Björck and Marcus Forsberg. 25 songs were written for the album, with 13 of them thought to be included on the album. Bulletrain was finished with the drum recordings by the 12th of March 2012. The drums were being edited on the 23rd of March and the band was hoping to record the bass sound either during late March or early April. On the 17th of May Bulletrain was recording the bass and in late June the guitar sound was recorded. The band announced on the 11th of September 2012 that they had parted ways with Davis, who instead would focus on his new project called Big Time. Bulletrain also mentioned that they were halfway through the recording of their debut album but that they still missed the vocal part. In November 2012 the band continued working in the studio and they also recorded some acoustic guitar that month. On the 14th of April 2013 it was announced that Bulletrain would be back at Tweak Studios to listen through the recorded material and that they soon also would add the singing. On the 15th of June 2013 Bulletrain had their first live concert in over a year and it was held at The Tivoli in Helsingborg. During this concert the new singer Sebastian Sundberg and the new bass guitarist Niklas Månsson were present. On the 4th of December 2013 Bulletrain announced that in the coming week they would travel to Stockholm to meet the producer duo RamPac (Johan Ramström and Patrik Magnusson) and finish up Start Talking. The band started their recording on the 9th of December and it ended on the 14th of December. Some of the songs Bulletrain wrote just before they began the recordings were "Out of Control", "Start Talking" and "Nothing but Trouble". On the 31st of December 2013 Bulletrain announced that their debut album would be released during 2014. On the 16th of February 2014 the band announced that the album would be sent to mixing shortly after and on the 31st of May the same year Bulletrain wrote that their album is done and is ready to be released. On the 25th of August 2014 the band announced the name of the album together with a music video for the song "Out of Control", directed by Robin Jansson. The cover and samples of three songs, that were to be included on Start Talking, were announced on the 27th of August. The next day Bulletrain announced the release date of the album and on the 12th of September the site Melodicrock.com posted samples of every song from the album on their website.

Start Talking was released on the 24th of October and a release party was held at The Tivoli in Helsingborg the following day.

Track listing

 * 1) "Nothing but Trouble" – 3:22
 * 2) "All for One" – 4:33
 * 3) "Dark Days (Dark Nights)" – 4:21
 * 4) "From the Bottom of My Heart" – 3:15
 * 5) "Even with My Eyes Closed" – 4:01
 * 6) "Start Talking" – 3:35
 * 7) "Out of Control" – 3:17
 * 8) "Phantom Pain" – 2:47
 * 9) "Bad Blood (Out of Love)" – 5:56
 * 10) "Dicing with Death" – 2:52
 * 11) "Take Me to the Sun" – 4:24
 * 12) "Joanna's Secret" – 4:06

Alternative names for some of the songs

 * The song "Nothing but Trouble" was spelled "Nothin' but Trouble" at the time of its demo recording on the 8th of January 2011.
 * The song "Start Talking" was called "Start Talkin'" at the time of its demo recording on the 8th of January 2011.
 * The song "Phantom Pain" was called "Phantom Painny" at the time of its demo recording in January 2011.
 * The song "Bad Blood (Out of Love)" was spelled "Bad Blood (Outta Love)" at the time of its release on Johnny Gonebad on the 14th of July 2007.

Previous track listing
Bulletrain originally wanted the album to contain somewhere between 10–11 songs. The remaining 2–3 songs they recorded for the debut album would be released as bonus songs on the Japanese edition of the album, if such an edition was ever released.

A poll about which songs to put on the album was added to the band's website during the summer of 2010. The songs to choose from was as follows:

* Based on 231 votes, on the 19th of August 2010.



On the 26th of March 2012 Bulletrain uploaded a picture on Instagram with some of the tracks from the album and those mentioned were:
 * "All for One"
 * "Joanna's Secret"
 * "Nothin' but Trouble"
 * "Out of Control"
 * "Phantom Pain"
 * "Sixteen Seasons"
 * "Start Talkin'"

On a worksheet uploaded by the band on the 27th of September that year the following songs were mentioned:
 * "Take Me to the Sun"
 * "All for One"
 * "Start Talkin'"
 * "Sixteen Seasons"
 * "Nothin' but Trouble"
 * "—nder Season" (a song previously not mentioned)
 * "Bad Blood (Outta Love)"
 * "Bad Little Boy"
 * "Dicing with Death"
 * "Joanna's Secret"
 * "Even with My Eyes Closed"
 * "Out of Control"
 * "Phantom Pain"
 * "Eat Me Raw"

Reviews
Heavy Paradise selected Start Talking as the second best album in their year end list Melodic Awards for 2014 and the song "Phantom Pain" as the second best song in their year end list 10 Best Tracks of 2014.

Personnel

 * Sebastian Sundberg – vocals
 * Mattias Persson – lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboard, sound effects, editing
 * Robin Bengtsson – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
 * Niklas Månsson – bass guitar, backing vocals
 * Jonas Tillheden – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

 * Gustav Bergström – bass guitar on "From the Bottom of My Heart", "Out of Control" and "Phantom Pain"
 * Kalle Yttergren – backing vocals on "Dicing with Death" and "Joanna's Secret"
 * Bulletrain – producer
 * Marcus Forsberg – producer
 * RamPac – producer
 * Buster Odeholm – mixing, audio mastering