Bands - Master Jedi Promo Review: 2 comments

I got the package today. I would like to Thank Bentara for sending me a copy of the promo. Bentara, formerly known as Batara Guru, was the founder and the original guitarist of the now legendary black death metal band, Langsuyr, a celebrated band in the local metal circle, renowned for co founding a new sub genre for extreme metal, the eastern metal. The band pioneered the incorporation of Malay folklores, myths and mysticism into heavy metal particularly Black Metal, which at that time gave a gasp of inspiring breath of fresh air to the Malaysian Metal, even just for a short period of time.

Bentara quits Langsuyr in the midst of the production of their second full length and went on to venture new projects of his own and this one man band called Bentara was one of it.

The promo contains 3 riffy black metal-isque tracks. “Penasaran”, “Master Jedi” and “Jebat”. The sound was extremely horrible to my ears. The guitars were muddy and raw due to the unmastered home production and I never fancied drum machines either. The vocals were high in the mix and it was repulsive. Bentara was like trying to sound extreme in his singing but at the same time suppressing his voice so that he would not make too much noise and disturb his household.

Among other things that abhorred me were the lyrics. To be honest, I never thought that I would see the day to hear the word Chewbacca in a metal song. That made my day. Attracted? No. Possibility of thinking that the song was recorded as a joke? Yes. All in all, 12 minutes of agony.

Now, having said that, I think the sound quality should be extremely enhanced. You have to understand that it would be normal if a raw black metal band sounds like a raw black metal band which is ugly and hideous because that’s how they were suppose to sound. But the sound of the promo will left people confused. Why does it have to sound like that? Charging people money for it is out of the question in my honest opinion.

I loved the harmonic riffs because in a way it reminds me of Langsuyr’s dark and long swirling riffs. But the guitar sound should be more comprehensible and maybe a little bit of sharpness thrown in would not harm anyone. Maybe more on the trebly sound rather then the bassy tone which were neither extreme nor heavy.

Lose the drum machines or at least get a compatible drum fonts software like EZ Drummer (Drummer from Hell Kit) for FlStudio or the drum RSE2 for Guitar Pro. But sometimes it is not really about the sound of the drum machine; it’s how you arrange it. I love how Sil Khannaz manipulated the drum machine in their Pendita Gila EP. It all goes down to the compatibility of the drum machine sound with the music because to me drum machines would be far more appropriate to enhance the groove rather than being the back bone of a song, especially metal songs.

With regard to the vocals, I suggest that Bentara try using vocal effects because, man you sounded horrible. As for the lyrics, I know that you are trying something new which is good but sometimes the listeners need time to adapt and figure out what is going on with the lyrics and most of the time they do not have the time to be patient.

In general, people will only listen to what they want to listen and Metal fans, whether we like it or not, are like the people in general, they have expectations, favorites and personal preferences and I doubt that they prefer to listen to metal songs about Pokemons.

Visit Bentara at his blog to get the information on how you can get a copy of this promo. Support your local metal music. The contents were my honest opinion and opinions may differ. Experience it yourself.