Reviews: Jugra Promo 01 no comments

JUGRA

1. The front man of the band and I got acquainted via Facebook and he then emailed me the promo of his band, Jugra, for us to review in the Bullet Belt. I have heard of the name of the band before but I have never got the time to check them out. Thankfully the band were kind enough to send me the promo.

2. Being a history buff myself, I was first attracted to the name of the band. Jugra is a name of a historical place here in Malaysia. Well, lets get down to business. Jugra is a three piece band hailing from Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The band consists of Daeng Andika on guitars and vocals, Daeng Kepalang on bass and vocals and Daeng Lumania on drums. If I got my facts correct, Daeng Andika is also the same person behind Singhasari, one of the better new black metal band that got into my radar a couple of years ago. 

3. What about the music? The music is a weird mixture of street rock with black metal vocals, something that I am not that familiar with. I appreciate the effort in trying to be original though. The 3 track promo started with an ambient intro of Malay traditional instrumentation, something I am quite familiar with since I used to follow my late grandfather to events playing these type of instrumentation, in my younger days. 

4. The guitars were high on the mix, something that I can really appreciate. The bass were audible while drums were losing the bass drum sound. Over all, the actual songs that were featured in the promo have that thick street rock vibe. Its like listening to 4 Skins or The Oppressed but with black metal vocals. No, this is not Black And Roll or is it? I dont know, I can not really make them out. But I guess it is safe to say that this is the closest thing you that can get here as far as Black And Roll goes. Awesome. 

Bands : Malapetaka no comments

Malapetaka

1. The band emailed me some information about the band the other day. Today I went and pay their facebook page a visit out of curiosity and I was immediately intrigued, first by the awesome logo, next by the proposed artwork for their debut release and later, although a bit mildly at that particular moment, by their music. Malapetaka is a new four piece Death Thrash band from the ever so muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The component of the band comprised of Ashok on the guitar, Alias on bass, Boon on vocals and Azmer on drums.

2. What I love about the band is that there are a few stints of originality stamped all over their songs especially on the leads department. You must give this band a listen to appreciate the solos. Javanese melody driven guitar solos, and that my friend is originality in my book. 

3. Some of you might give them a smirk for incorporating eastern metal influences in their music but ask yourself, are there any local bands that have ever managed to exploit the true depth and potential of eastern metal to its fullest since the As Sahar and Langsuyr days? The answer would be an obvious no.

4. Playing wise, I think they need to improve on the synchronicity of the guitars because, man its all over the place. The bass was a bit high and rumbling on the mix which is good, but the lack of uniformity in the riff department made the bass somewhat out of place. But the songs which I base my judgments on were from a three track demo and since its just a demo, I shall not give them a hard time about it. I can not wait for their EP. Labels out there, give this band a try.

5. Lend your support. Visit them now.

Malapetaka | Facebook 

Download : Maqabir - Cold, Blackness & Death (2013) no comments

Maqabir - Cold, Blackness & Death

Maqabir was formed somewhere in the end of the year 2012 with the release of their debut demo titled Danse Macabre. Maqabir is a solo project of its main mastermind, Nath. After the release of their debut, Maqabir began to release a few more titles in the form of Ars Moriend (EP 2013) "Maqbara" (Tape 2013) which was released by the Ukrainian label, Depressive Illusions Records, "Endless Darkness" (Unreleased Demo 2012), "In Memoriam" (Experimental LP 2013) along with a few Singles and unofficial release under their mighty bullet belt. 

Besides their official releases, Maqabir was also featured in various compilation in the likes of Pest Records Online Compilation Vol.13, Darkest Side of Life and Death, and Jericho Vol.13 - The Book Of Life. Musically, Maqabir plays Black Instru-Metal, Dark Ambient and the amalgamation of both, with darkness, depression and death as its main themes. According to Nath, this special promo "Cold, Blackness & Death" was released to promote and introduce the band through webzines, blogs and any other available cyber world channels.

Artist: Maqâbir
Title : Cold, Blackness & Death
Format: Digital Demo 2013, .mp3 128kbps
Label : Self-released
Length: 24:40 minutes

Tracks:
1. Cold Death of the Earth (demo version) - 4:28
2. Obscure Prevails - 4:00
3. Maqbara - 4:07
4. Ars Moriendi (demo version) - 5.36
5. Funeral Depression (demo version) - 6.29

Nath - all compositions, instruments, programming & recordings

Contact:
qabr2013@gmail.com
nath.maqabir@facebook.com

Website:
http://maqabir.blogspot.com
http://maqabir.bandcamp.com
http://soundcloud.com/maqabir
http://facebook.com/nath.maqabir
http://youtube.com/user/maqabirband

DOWNLOAD

Videos: Born In The Basement. no comments

Born In The Basement | 66 Minutes | Kundrat Productions | 2007

1. Being a fan of his work in Get Thrashed, I made it a mission to find out, and possibly get my filthy hands on any of Rat Skates other film works. Wish granted, I got Born In The Basement. What I loved about Get Thrashed was its total honesty and sincerity. You will get that sensation that the video was made out of his love for the music and none other. It all rolls down to this video that I am about to review, Born In The Basement. 

2. Born In The Basement is basically some type of a memoir of Skates time struggling keeping his band, the mighty Overkill, afloat, back in the 80s. I do not consider this a full fledged documentary about the band, even though the focal point of BITB revolved around Overkill. Like I said, it is more of a memoir with Rat Skates recalling war stories from his days in Overkill.

3. Overkill is a legendary Thrash Metal band hailing from New Jersey and for you who are not in the know, Skates was the bands original founder and drummer. Despite Skates resignation from the band due to exhaustion, the New Jersey wrecking crew soldiered on releasing albums after albums through out the year without ever compromising their sound one bit (unlike certain famous big four bands), and remained one of the best Thrash Metal band, unchallenged till this day.

4. My experience with Overkill is rather new. Despite very familiar with the status of the band being one of the earlier Thrash bands from the States, I never had the desire to check their music out. Not until I feasted my ears to their come back highly praised critically acclaimed album, Iron Bound, which was released back in 2009, I became an Overkill convert. Who is the best thrash metal vocalist of all time? No, not Mustaine nor Araya. Belladonna came close. Hetfield is lightyears away compared to the deafening howls of Bobby Blitz. That guy is a freaking monster.

5. Back on the video, BITB recalls the band in its earlier formative years, back when the band was still wearing ghoulish make up and scary vampire capes. Rat Skates would do anything and everything to make his band successful. Extravagant live shows, extravagant stage props, crazy DIY merchandising, the blood, the sweat and the fucking tears made you want to stand up and give five salutes to the man. It was all Skates.

6. The dedication that this man gave to the band, the amount of hard work that this man put into the band, were nothing less then phenomenal. It was really sad that he decided to give up the band after all the years he sacrificed for Overkill. 

7. If you love Overkill or Thrash Metal in general, then you should go out and find this documentary. If you are not a fan but would like to discover the secret to success as a musician in a band despised by the society, then you should also try and get this. 

Metal News Malaysia 2013 Vol 4: no comments

1. AKAGRISH, the Death Metal maniacs hailing for Kota Kinabalu, Sabahell, have already released their EP titled "Akagrish" through Evil Dead Production. The CD shall contain 7 corpse decapitating death metal tracks for you to bleed you ears with. A Bullet Belt review for this one is underway. For more information on how to get a copy of this CD, follow the following link.

AKAGRISH | Facebook

EVIL DEAD PROD | Facebook

2. MANTAK, another one of them Sabahells Black Metal elite, will be releasing their new CD under Hells Vomit in the near future. The proposed cover for the new CD, currently titled "Kult Rogolized" have already been published by the band. For more information on the new CD, visit.

MANTAK | Facebook

HELLS VOMIT PROD | Facebook

3. BESTIAL HORDE, The black thrash band from East Malaysia, have just rereleased their CD Nuclear Metal Lust via Norwegian underground label called Apocalyptic Empire records. The rerelease will be in 7" Vinyl format and print will be limited to 666 copies only. get yours now.

BESTIAL HORDE | Facebook

APOCALYPTIC EMPIRE | Website

4. BHIMIDHUKA PRODUCTION is an upcoming record independent record label from east coat Malaysia. The small label started off back in November last year and is eager to support local and asian bands. Local death and black metal bands, send in your demos. Do check out and support their releases as well. I love the name of the label. Just brilliant.

BHUMIDHUKA | Facebook

BHUMIDHUKA | Webstore

5. EVIL ROTTING ZINE, the premier metal zine from Singapore, now relocated to Malaysia, have just released and published their fourth issue after 13 years of silence. The first issue of the fanzine was released back in 1988 (I was still in my kindergarten uniform in 1988) and the year 1990, saw the released of their third and final issue. Now, the beast has arisen. The bands featured, among others, were Kathgor, Humiliation, Lavatory, Mantak and many more. Get a copy of Evil Rotting now to know more about South East Asian Metal. Contents are in english and itll cost you USD5 or EU5 or RM10 a pop. Contact them.

EVIL ROTTING ZINE | Facebook

Books: Undisputed - How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps. no comments

Undisputed - How to Become the World Champion In 1372 Easy Steps.

Title: Undisputed - How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps.
Authors: Chris Jericho & Peter Thomas Fornatale.
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing - 2011.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 429 Pages, RM 104.50, Kinokuniya Bookstore, Kuala Lumpur.

1. Chris Jericho? Was he not a WWE superstar wrestler? What the hell is he doing in The Bullet Belt? Is this blog turning into a wrestling blog now? Will we be reading about muscled men in spandex grappling each other with fancy moves now? What the fuck is this shit?

2. Yes, it is Chris Jericho and yes, I am reviewing his book. Yes, he is a WWE superstar wrestler and no this blog is not turning into a a wrestling blog. regarding the spandex thingy, well, aint all rock stars wore spandex back in 80s? Shut the fuck up and sit down.

3. I have decided to review Chris Jericho's Undisputed because, the book itself was basically a half wrestling memoir and half rock band biography. Thats why he is in here. And, Chris Jericho also happens to be one of my favorite wrestler off all time.

4. I am a big time wrestling fan. Not to fond of the current wrestling shows though. When I say wrestling, I meant the golden age of wrestling which was back in the mid 90s, when you still got WWF and WCW as two different entities battling for TV ratings night in night out. Remember the monday night wars? Okay, I suppose only the more hardcore fans would know about the war back in the 90s because to everybody else in Malaysia, it was just wrestling programs which was aired every thursday night at 11.00 pm.

5. The biggest kahuna of wrestling back then was Vince McMahon with his WWF (now WWE). With the entry of another kahuna in the form billionaire media mogul, Ted Turner and his revived WCW, McMahon back then faced a competition. Both companies aired their wrestling program at the same time on the same day. It was a gruesome battle which saw WWF won at the end, but not without an over 80 weeks of being ass whooped by WCW. Hell, I can write all night long about wrestling, but I think I should focus on reviewing the book for the moment.      

6. Undisputed was the follow up to his first critically acclaimed memoir, A Lion's Tale. I loved his first book so much that Ive read and re-read it more than 20 times, man. It's a fun read. When I was informed that Jericho will be releasing a follow up, I was super excited. I got the book a couple of days after the book was officially released. 

7. It was not really of that caliber of his first book, it was still a fun read. It was 429 page thick and was further divided into 47 chapters. These 47 chapters would further be divided into chapters for his wrestling tales and chapters for his musical ventures. For those not in the know, Jericho is the front man of Fozzy, a solid modern metal band that he formed with Rich Ward of that Stuck Mojo fame.

8. Stuck Mojo was one of my favorite band of all time. I was introduced to the band via their debut album, Snappin Necks which was released back in 1995. I believe, apart from Anthrax, Stuck Mojo really was the pioneer of Rap metal. The music was extremely heavy as fuck, the beats were catchy as hell and the raps were all over the place. Rich Ward, the guitarist of SM teaming with Jericho? Mind. Just. Blown.

9. Fozzy started out as a tribute band by the name of Fozzy Osbourne. The band got a record deal with Megaforce and released a couple of mediocre albums filled with covers. It was only when the band ditched the cover songs and their "gimmick" (Fozzy was a band from the States that got stuck in Japan while other bands ripped their songs and became successful for it, thus the covers that Fozzy were doing were actually their original songs previously stolen by other successful bands), that the band became more successful. 

10. I love Chris Jericho because he is one damn funny fella and this character translated well in his writing. The timing for the punch lines were spot on. A punch line time in a book? Crazy isn't it? I recommend this book. It might not be a top to bottom music, but you will have loads of fun reading it.  

Tribute: Jeff Hanneman. no comments

Thank you for the riffs, borther.

Metal News Malaysia 2013 vol 3: no comments

1. SINGHASARI, after being under the radar for quite a while since their last release, Kebangkitan Nusantara EP and Hikayat Dari Hujung Selatan Timur, back in 2010, the aforementioned Malaysian premier pagan black metal band will be releasing a four way split release with 3 bands from Germany, Mexico and Belarus. This will be extremely awesome. Contact the band via the following link for more information.
SINGHASARI | Facebook

2. KARAMAH, the long awaited project band from the infamous Wan Barchiel, the founder of the legendary Singaporean Black Metal band, As Sahar, will be releasing their debut mini album with the title, Huraish. Pre orders have now been opened to those who are interested to get a copy. Will the sound of the band be similar to As Sahar? Try them to find out.

ONE BARCHIEL | Facebook

3. HUMILIATION, Malaysian finest regiment of death metal assault team will be releasing their new album with Deeps End Records. The new album will go by the title of Turbulence From The Deep. The label had also gave out a full song tease in the form of Phosphorous Shell, one of the song featured in the new album for a free download. Pre order now!

DEEPSEND RECORDS | Facebook

DEEPSEND RECORDS | Website

4. ANTABOGA, one of the most exciting Malay Occult Black Metal band from Klang, Selangor, is set to release their new CD called Mayang Mistik. The CD will contain 10 songs and it will cost you around RM30 a piece. This CD will limited to 100 print only, so you better get your wallets and purse ready. This is the time to desecrate! Get in touch with band now!

ANTABOGA | Facebook

5. ANGUISH, Pahang's death metal merchants will be releasing their mini album, Abstract Decomposition soon. I will try and get more information on how to get your hands on the release. It will definitely be exciting. All hail Malaysian Death Metal!

ANGUISH | EncMetallum