Bands: Ablasa. 4 comments

1- Ablasa is a black metal band from Kelantan and was formed somewhere in 2009. Apart from being a band under the banner of the mighty Kelantan Metal Army, not much information that I can dig from their Myspace page which was really unfortunate.

2- They got one song called Nar Is Thee (Fire Whispering) on their Myspace page that is worth checking and from my point of view, the song is decent, clean and melodic enough to my liking. I am attracted to the whispering vocals although I don't how that will make out with their live performances.

3- One thing though guys, put some information in your Myspace. Visit their Myspace to check out the song at www.myspace.com/ablasa666

New Song By IROTORI: no comments

Irotori in action

I have already posted a lengthy post on this young and talented progressive metal band from Kuala Lumpur. Their first song Winds of Pain they posted last year stormed my nerves like nobody's business. While browsing the youtube recently, I just learned that they have recorded a second song and i can get enough of the song, damn it. The second song was called Vitreous minus the vocals. Wow! just fucking wow! I loved the vocals they did in Winds of Pain and i guess if the vocals were added into Vitreous, it shall definitely be a complete headbanging masterpiece since the vocals had this grim quality that may put fucking Abbath into the fucking gallows. If there are any international record labels out there who wants a good investment then you should definitely check this band out. I have already got people from as far as Germany asking about them. Highly recommended!

Listen to IROTORI - Vitreous.
Previous post on IROTORI.

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.

Bands - Death Story: no comments

I am currently listening to Vociferation Eternity – Meadows Yearn. Fuck yeah.

DEATH STORY

Death Story is a death metal band hailing from the royal city of Kuala Kangsar, Perak, Malaysia. First of all I must say that I like the simple and memory friendly moniker. I like the visible logo too. It reminds me of Septic Death and I do not know why.

This five piece death ripping band plays stripped down straight forward death metal, the sort of death metal that I personally favored. Started off as a jam band in 2002 covering songs from bands in the likes of Hypocrisy and Therion, the band later evolved into this unit of death metal deadly assassins (so death metal) with one demo under their metal belts fittingly titled “Endless Stories of Death” which was on the rampage in 2008.

There were 5 songs available for preview on their Myspace page, one of which was a one minute acoustic intro I guess and I do believe that most of the songs were taken from their debut 2008 demo.

Death Story

I love the fact that the songs sounded organic and simple, maybe due to the fact it was only a demo. In terms of the songs, straight forward death metal meant that there were neither of those ultra technical riffs nor those ultra hyper blast beasts that would end up confusing the listeners and making emo boys vomit blood. All you got were these plentiful chunks of gritty and straight forward dark and deathly riffs through out the 3 minute period of each of the songs, headbangable mid tempo drums with a few blast beats here and there just to keep things interesting.

The bass was audible enough in the mix and it managed to hold the whole structure of their songs to be quite solid and heavy despite of the gritty guitar sound. I was quite annoyed with the vocals though, I honestly believe that the vocal effects were unnecessary and the vocalist should concentrate on producing traditional brutal death growls and extreme high pitch shrieks. For a demo I guess the production of this demo was quite ok although it could have been better.

Death Story: Harryat – vocals, Lord Raven – Guitar, Eibon – Guitar, Amygoth – Bass and Mme – Drums.

Death Story Myspace

Bands - Akhnakh 1 comments

AKHNAKH

Akhnakh is a five piece melodic death metal band from Ipoh Perak. Citing Amorphis, Sentenced, Dissection and Shadows Fall as their influences, the listeners might have some idea of what to expect from Akhnakh. The band was formed in 2004, and being a band from the mighty Ipoh, I do believe that these guys have a reputation to live up to since Ipoh had been known since the early days as the breeding ground for local extreme metal heavyweights in the likes of the mighty Brain Dead, Vociferation Eternity, Langsuyr, Necrotic Chaos, and Hayagriva just to name a few.

I have always been rather fond of Ipoh. I would usually go there four or five times in a year and would always find it funny and amusing that Ipoh townsmen would normally have myriad kinds of fried rice for breakfast, the kinds of which the KLites would usually have for dinner. They got a thing going on down there in Ipoh with their Ipoh Metal Militia thingy and all of the above mentioned bands were either originators or instigators commanding godly respect in the league of their own.

Judging from the three songs available in their Myspace page, musically, Akhnakh seems quite promising if you are looking for your typical one-lead-guitar-riffing-through-a-structure-of-chords melodic death metal with a few chunk of heavy metal here and there. My only complaint was the vocal and the guitar solo department.

I was never really a fan of those choking core growls that were neither brutal nor horrifying. It was too monotonous. Unfortunately the vocalist seems to be having a hard time catching up with the tempo of the songs, something that I could not really tolerate because it would just spoils the whole song, not to mention my mood. The guitar solo was done half heartedly, that I can tell.

It is quite normal for the local bands to produce their songs themselves rather than having an actual producer with them in the studio, which is for me is quite an unhealthy prcatice since band members have the tendency to get themselves immunized of the mistakes or glitches that would sometime (most of the time) result in fatal.

Having a producer in the studio can actually help you a lot in terms of identifying mistakes in the production and giving a breath of fresh air in to the creativity department. Financing a producer, however, was always the main problem with most of these bands, not to mention that there are only a few producers nowadays who produce metal anyway.

I honestly do hope that these guys can produce better songs in the future since they have already got a few releases under their belt since the inception of the band anyway. Akhnakh is Ajak – vocals, Amzar – Guitar, Abe – Bass, Nan – Drums and Soll – Guitars.

AKHNAKH on MySpace

Bands - Ghastly Of Gill no comments

I am currently listening to Entombed - Clandestine. Fuck yeah!

GHASTLY OF GILL

I like the name of this band; it has a nice ring to it. Having said that, Ghastly of Gill, according to the depiction written about the band in their MySpace page, plays melodic black + death metal, hailing from Pulau Pinang, the pearl of the orient, located to the north of Malaysia.

The band itself is not really new to the scene and has been around since the year 2000, recorded a four track demo which never had the chance to see the light of day, was invited to contribute a song for local compilation arranged by one of the most prominent local record label at that time, Psychic Scream Entertainment which also was never released, before breaking up in 2004. The band was reformed in 2006 with an almost entirely new line up and a new headquarter, Shah Alam Selangor.

There are 3 songs uploaded in their MySpace page. Although the sound quality was a bit sub par and the solo was a little bit everywhere and the notes were like all over the place, evidently in the track “The Tyrannical”, the riffs were not as bad and headband friendly in most of the chops. I honestly think that, musically, the band gave the monotonous Malaysian Metal scene a breath of fresh air. The band even added layers of synths appending a really dark and gloomy atmosphere to the chaotic, frequent tempo changing songs that they’ve had, reminded me of another local death metal band called Mandatory.

I personally liked Damnation of Eternity. A decent black metal-isque track with crazy tempo changes. Kudos to the drummer. Even though I love the addition of the keyboards but I sincerely think that keyboard players in general should really crack their heads once in a while and come up with better ways to utilize the keyboard sound. I am really tired and exhausted of listening to the same Dimmu+Cradle orchestraic synths and to that typical classical piano riff that you would find in almost every melodic black metal song there is nowadays.

The problem with the Malaysian heavy metal scene is that you can not earn a good living with music except if you are involved in the music production business. Even that doesn’t guarantee you a decent meal on the table. At the end of the day, music would only be considered a side project for some, rather than being the primary. This usually led to bands breaking up, talents being unpolished so on and so forth.

What ever it is, Ghastly of Gill is a band worth supporting and I hope they will write more songs in the future. Ghastly of Gill’s current line up is: Jepp – Vocals, Aizad – Drums, Isey – Bass, Menn – Guitars and Fuad – Guitars.

Ghastly of Gill on MySpace

Bands - Irotori: 5 comments

I have been browsing the net again keeping my eyes and ears open for any talented Malaysian metal bands in the rough. Lo, seek and I shall find and look what have I found. I kept my ears opened every now and then for the bands with promising skills on their respective instruments. It is not just about promoting Malaysian bands; it is also about promoting the quality of Malaysian instrumentalists. Behold.

IROTORI

Wow! Irotori is one promising melodic death metal band ever to come out from the muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. First of all I have to admit that I was totally captivated by the vocals when I first listened to their song “Winds of Pain” on youtube. The singer’s high pitch black metal-isque growl has that robust grimness quality and it was executed perfectly by the vocalist.

In that one song alone featured an impressive three sets of vocal styles; the high pitch growls for the main verses, harmonized clear vocals for the choruses and some angry hardcore screams at the end. The brilliantly constructed flow of emotion was all over the place. Well done. Yeah, everybody can do multiple styles of vocals but how many have you heard doing it nowadays?

As a drummer myself, the first thing that I would try and appreciate when I listen to a particular song was the drums. I can seriously say that I felt that the drummer had fun recording his part, flawless tempo changes showing the faultless musicianship of the drummer, executed beautifully through the song.

3 second after the drum intro, waves of keyboard riffs, which was a bit high in the mix, were thrown into the song giving the listeners some ideas on what will they be getting next. Needless to say that guitar parts, although unfortunately were a bit low in the mix, were also beautifully done. The band even gave a few slots here and there for the low end guy to show off some of his skills behind the four strings. A perfect song indeed.

I felt the sincerity in the song and I have nothing but positive words for this band. I highly recommend this band. Try and give them a listen, they will blow you away with their powerful brand of melodic death metal. Untowardly, my review was only based on one song, the only song they had on youtube as well as on their myspace. Hopefully we can here more songs from them soon.

IROTORI MySpace

Bands - Vermillion: no comments

Due to my hectic day job, I totally forgot about this one interview request that I had made to this one nasty melodic death metal band called Vermillion. Do you want a Gothenberg sound and worship the ground In Flames walked? Have you been dreaming about Angela Gossow (archenemy) tearing your ears lobes lately? Have you been wanking off a centerfold poster of Jessica Alba lately? Then I give you Vermillion that has nothing to do with Jessica Alba.

VERMILLION

Vermillion is a talented 5 piece melodic metal band from the muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur. Nothing new there except for the fact that this is an all girl band. Nothing new there either. What ever!

Besides the talented Singaporean thrashers, Tormentress, and another local thrashers, Shewolves, I have to say that I have got to tip my hat to Vermillion for doing what they are doing. I am very impressed with the hair rising Gossowic vocals though. Extremely brutal. Even to the extent of being so much better than some of the wimpy growls from a number of our glorified local male metal core vocalists ever had nowadays. Another female growler that had me impressed with her growling skills is that girl from Predicate Not Define, couldn’t really remember her name though.

Musically, there is nothing complex nor impressive about the songs (2 to be exact) uploaded on their MySpace page, but I honestly do believe that within time they will be able to polish their instrumental skills giving all the other bands a long and tiring run for their money. The solos were mediocre in my book. Well at least she can damn solo. Haha. Even the drummer can drum better than me for God sake. One thing though, wipe out the core elements, go for pure death metal next time ladies. That would be a shocker.

Maybe the local heavy metal gig promoters should open their eyes and arms for this young and rising band. Put their name on the bill for the next metal camp 4 gig next year. Get them out off the lame metal core circle more often. Those wimps does not deserve Vermillion. We do. Haha.

Judging from the gig lists on their MySpace, I have got to say that these girls have been marking their territories all over the place, which is very good. Obviously they have been very busy gigging since 2008 with up to 20 performances under their belt. Impressive for a three year stint of gigging and I hope we will see more of them in the future.

Vermillion is Aca on vocals, Hana on lead guitar, Yaz on rhythm guitar, Syahnaz on bass and Alie on Drums.

VERMILLION MySpace

Bands - Brabazom: no comments

I have just finished doing my daily routine of religiously scouring the internet for any unknown Malaysian heavy metal bands that I would probably want to feature in this blog in the near future. I have made my search very specific this time around and for today’s session, Black Metal. I got it in the form of this one talented band from Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia, called Brabazom.

BRABAZOM

Brabazom is a six piece melodic black metal band that you would really want to pay attention to. From the songs uploaded in the band’s MySpage page (which I do believe were hauled out from their unveiling debut, a 3 track demo CD entitled Beast of Mortality which was released in 2009), I can tip my hat (my favorite phrase these days) to the execution of (thy unholy) instrument department, something, besides ear ringing melodies, that I have learnt to appreciate these days. A not so bad playing I must say.

The accumulation of the keyboard riffs and layers really adds some weight to the melodies and especially to the atmosphere of the songs. They totally have the ears for nice catchy melodies which I tend to concede and acknowledge. I would really like to hear more of that hopefully soon.

The band was formed in 2006 in Penang with the hideously ugly Brabazom Corpse as their first true moniker (haha). In 2009 being as self sufficient as they were, a three track demo was released in the form of Beast of Mortality. You will find some Hecate Enthroned in there, some later Dimmu in there and even some shades of As Sahar (a much glorified Singaporean/Malaysian black metal legend) were thrown in as well, especially during the slower parts where the band lets his keyboard player do his thing.

I am not going to tell anyone to be original because the fact is everybody have already done almost everything and finding the remaining portion of that almost would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I truly that this band would sharpen their musicianship skills, produce more listenable songs, throw in some more memorable lines, play some more gigs and finally write a thesis on what makes a good song good. I’ll give you a hint: Memorable hooks. Try and give this talented band a sincere listen, you wont waste a dime.

BRABAZOM MySpace

Bands - Zarquum: 1 comments

As usual, there I was minding my own business within the unknown realm of cyberspace, browsing and peeping through some local Malaysian heavy metal band’s MySpace page, trying to sniff what were they up to these days, when I came across with quite a few stunning new bands (well, at least for me) which I think deserves more exposure than Lars Ulrich’s snare sound in St Anger. I Shall first start with this band.

ZARQUUM

At first glance I thought this was a Black Metal band due to its Black Metal-isque name. Then I listened to the songs uploaded and end up asking myself, what kind of Black Metal is this? Zarquum turns out to be a Death Metal band hailing from the muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur. Well, don’t blame me for associating them with Black Metal since the name Zarquum itself means The Fruit of Hell in Arabic. Arabic name? The Fruit of Hell? Its got to be a black metal band. Haha. Well, that was just me being stereotypical.

All bullshits aside, Zarquum plays a very well played technical death metal in the veins of Arsis or Necrophagia maybe. Well, I am not that good in providing references anyway. Seriously, you should give this band a try. The guitars were crunchy enough for my ears, with double guitar riff attacks here and there and not to mention the shreds were like all over the place which reminds me of that French technical band, Gorod. The timing and the tempo changes of the two songs uploaded on their Myspace were unbelievable. It was like jumping on a trampoline on a bad acid trip.

I’ll tip my hat for the solos. Very well played, sirs. The vocals were the typical dual growls and high pitch screams. Nothing can be wrong there. I hear some synths too. Maybe it was added to add some gloominess into the song. Guess what? It worked. My only complaint? Vary the licks.

Give this band a chance to develop and I am very sure that they can be the Malaysian answer to Arsis. Even with the current state of the production quality of Malaysian studios, I can honestly say that these talented guys will give Gorod a run for their money. Try and give the songs a proper listen and tell me what you think. Oh ya, the band is preparing to release a split with another local melodic death metal heroes called Goda, another band worth mentioning band from Shah Alam, Selangor.

Zarquum is Lord Nafkhatul Faza (Vocal) Sir Farex (Guitar) JY (Guitar) and Ajan (Bass).

ZARQUUM MySpace

Bands - Hayagriva 3 comments

It has been a while since I left this blog without any updates what so ever. Day jobs consumed me and most of my time. Since I am still in my holidays, I guess I can spare a couple of seconds and write something on this blog. You can also safely say that this particular post is guilt ridden because it is guilt ridden, thanks to the lack of time in my department. Oh ya, above is an old picture of the band. But I am so in love with that picture I decided I wanna immortalize it here.

I have been trying to get a hold of this one particular hardworking band for months and finally to get some answers from the main man behind the band, Mr.Mantheravatee, the guitarist, was a definite relief. The in depth answers that Mantheravatee gave me made the wait a definite worthwhile. Another noteworthy Malaysian Black Horde.

Hayagriva is another great band originating from the breeding ground of all things heavy, the heavy metal land of Ipoh Perak, one of the two strongholds for heavy metal scene in Malaysia back in the days and the other one, being the unholy muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur. Playing what they called as Dark Shadow Metal, the music was basically melodic and atmospheric Black Metal with synths and keyboards for a much more melodious soundscape. What are the criteria for Shadow Metal? That, you have to ask them personally.

Being one of the most prominent bands in the Malaysian Metal circuit nowadays, Hayagriva is without a doubt one of the most hard-working band there is to have came out from the outskirts of Malaysia. Formed way back in the 90’s Hayagriva marched through as one of the few surviving Black Metal outfits that managed to battle through after the nasty media turmoil that shook the very core of all Malaysian heavy metal lovers with the banning of all things black, to an extent that you can get caught just for wearing a black shirt. To be honest I thought I would never be able to see another Black Metal band again.

Hayagriva first started off with a demo under its belt called The Lord of Never Ending Wrath (which is also the literal meaning of Hayagriva) which was released in 1995. Impressed with the demo, Ultra Hingax Productions (a local metal label) offered to release their debut EP entitled Silverian’s Art (Elegy Domain) which was later released in 1997. In 1998, teaming up with another cherished south eastern metal barbaric tyrant in the form of As Sahar, they released a split tape entitled Beyond Firmament. It took a few numbers of years before another new record from Hayagriva saw the light of day.

In the mean time, when I thought all Malaysian Black Metal bands died out from the first assault against Black Metal by the press and later by the government, Hayagriva was actually busy with their gigs and tours promoting their brand of music. By 2005, Hayagriva was already in the studio writing for their debut full length assault in the form of an album called Red Heaven. It took 2 years before the album was finally released and this was due to the second assault against Black Metal, the shifting of their studio and related issues pertaining to the line up of the band. The news of the new album quickly shook the dry Heavy Metal scene.

Red Heaven was a desecrating release indeed. Atmospheric and melodic with the proper and full utilization of the keyboards in creating a bigger and wider landscape around the melodic guitar riffs, Hayagriva soldiered on with the brand they called Shadow Metal. Although in my personal view, there are plenty of spaces filled with single riffs which would sound more melodic and in fact better if it were properly harmonized.

But I guess my prayers were answered when a few sample riffs for the new album were aired in a pre production clip they got on Youtube demonstrated a much more melodic guitar riffs. I did made known my fascination with the riffs.

To support the release of Red Heaven, Hayagriva occupied their time with gigs and the responses they got from the live crowd were nothing but positive including the crowd in Indonesia when they played in Surabaya and the heavy metal fans in Thailand when they played for them in Bangkok.

Even without the support of a Major label, Hayagriva managed to sell 1000 copies of Red Heaven, a figure that they can brag about judging from the poor buying rate due to the rampant downloading activities nowadays. It also shows that there are at least 1000 loyal Hayagriva fans that would support them no matter what.

The next album will be released early next year. I would like to see them on an intense tour around south east Asia. A talented band indeed thus we shall wait for the wrath of Hayagriva!

Bands - Black Abyss: 7 comments

My favorite sub-genre of Heavy Metal music is with out any shadow of a doubt would be Black Metal. The most controversial and the most terrifying form of heavy metal there is. It felt closer due to the gloomy and melancholic atmosphere that I tend to appreciate so much besides certainly being able to relate to its palpable constituent of self empowerment echoing through the prominent utilizations of the corpse paints, bullet belts and spikes. Terrifying but enchantingly autonomous.

One of Malaysia’s most assiduous Black Metal regiment was this band called Black Abyss. Despite the simple and memorizable name that the band opted to use as a moniker, it also gives you an idea about the music they play; straight to your face raw and deep rooting black fucking metal.

I personally am very idyllic to witness the continuing existence and the survival of Black Metal bands in Malaysia. This was despite the burdening pressure and constant prejudicial scorns from both the fearful society and the powers that be upon the music, to the extent of the outright banning of the music a few years ago. At one point, I even thought that I will never be able to see another Malaysian Black Metal band again. I was so wrong. Malaysian Black Metal survived. Thank God for that (Oh, the irony. Haha)

Black Abyss is a black metal assault team hailing from Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, playing black metal in the veins of Burzum and Darkthrone except Black Abyss tends to go faster. The band also put forward one local Black Metal band, Bazzah as one of their favorites. Bazzah’s album Death Is All I See was one of those sought after rare oriental Black Metal gems from Malaysia, popular due to the fact that it was told that a huge amount of the album were seized and burned by the Malaysian authority during the government’s crusade against Black Metal back in those days. Bazzah gained cult status shortly after that.


According to Impaler, the band’s drummer, Black Abyss, formerly known as Goatvomit, was founded in 2003 as a guitarist and drummer duo band. It was only in 2006 that Black Abyss finally managed to secure a stable and steady line up to record their eponymous debut, When Sky Comes Black demo.

For a Malaysian band playing evil music in a country where all things black were despised and cursed to die, being able to sell and clear out 500 copies of compact discs containing 3 goat worshipping hell plundering black metal tracks, in my opinion deserves a bragging right and Black Abyss did just that.

The “When Sky Comes Black” demo received mainly positive reviews from all over the world especially from those lurking fanatic black metal fans from China, Sweden, Colombia, Singapore and United States. One review mentioned that the sound quality of “When Sky Comes Black” demo was so well polished for a black metal band that it would be a minor obstacle for the more primitive black metal fans to enjoy, an indication that sound quality was an important and fundamental substance to each and every one of the talented gentlemen behind Black Abyss.

Black Abyss have been playing gigs and shows to support the demo and one of the highlight was when they were given the opportunity to open for As Sahar, one of the most renowned and celebrated black metal band in Malaysia during the latter’s showcase a few months ago to support the release of their latest album. As a new and upcoming assault regiment war fronting the Malaysian black metal battle horde (I love using all these cool black metal phrases), the fans have been more than eager to support this talented band.

All their sweat, blood and hard work in putting out and promoting “When Sky Comes Black” finally pays off when Black Abyss was offered a record deal by two prominent black metal labels expressing their interest to release future materials by Black Abyss, one from Sweden and the other being Funeral Moonlight Productions, a dedicated pure underground black metal label hailing from Shanghai, China, with China’s own highly acclaimed depressive black metal band Original Sin in the label’s band roster. Funeral Moonlight Production will be distributing the debut full length of Black Abyss. The album entitled Funeralchrist, which will be released somewhere in December this year, will, hopefully, provide international exposure and worldwide recognition for Black Abyss thus once again putting Malaysian Black Metal on the map.

Besides the full length under Funeral Moonlight Production, Black Abyss will be involved and participating in numerous split projects and one of the projects being a split cassette release with Thailand speed raw black metal, Plaguebringer under Hellhouse productions. Another split cassette release with a Columbian raw black metal band, Tzelmoth, will also be released somewhere in September this year under Florida’s Lux Ferre Records. A four way split release under local’s Kvlt666 Production are also on its way subject for release by the end of this year. I guess it will be a very busy year for Black Abyss.

I do believe that this hard working band have what it takes to succeed. Feel free to visit Black Abyss and taste the conquering assault and triumphant sound of Malaysian Black Metal under the deathly siege of conservatism and narrow mindedness of Malaysia. Black Abyss current line up consist of Abyssic War on vocals and Guitars, Impaler on drums, Mordhthurnum on bass and Nershymn on guitars.

Black Abyss Myspace page:
www.myspace.com/stigamatacrush

Bands - Wabak 5 comments

Wabak is a Malay word for plague and I do believe that they have the potential to evolve into one mammoth plague if they can figure out the correct ingredient and formula that they wanted to employ for their music. Wabak is a heavy metal band hailing from Banting, Selangor, Malaysia. I have to say that the lead guitarist can really execute his instrument judging from the Youtube clip I saw of them, although the songs on their Myspace page were far from impressive, well, at least to my ears they were not. Maybe I was expecting crazy note progressions and killer complex riffs from a band of heavy metal musician that have a John Peter Petrucci playing lead in it.

I have personally informed the band of my distastes of the melodies constructed for their vocals. I was utterly awed with the vocalist’s competence to get in contact with all that bloodcurdling high note screams, but melody wise, nothing out of the vocals stuck in my head. It was just sheer high note screams and that was it. The vocal melodies on the song, take Blindness Heart for example, had no more than 3 notes on a single bar. Yes I am no position to judge since I myself am not a qualified musician but hell I can still make a distinction between what’s listenable and what’s not. Maybe I was expecting good sappy but hummable melodies from a band that have a Michael freaking Kiske singing their songs. Sigh.

Apart from that I honestly believe that Wabak can still cut out as a decent Malaysian heavy metal band if they can give a little bit more effort on writing better songs with better riffs and strong melodies for the vocals. I was also informed by their axeman, Mr.Fuzzlee, that Wabak is currently writing and compiling original materials for their upcoming debut album. Wabak consist of Shah on the vocals, Fuzzlee on the guitar, Hanif on the guitar and Mizi on the bass. I hope these guys can decorate their repertoire and gain more experience as a good live band by playing more and more gigs in the future. It is hard to get gigs in Malaysia, if you got one, take it.

Get in touch with this band through their Myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/metalkronik

Bands - Imperial 3 comments

It has been quite a while since my first post about Malaysian bands. I have been in contact with quite a few highly potential bands for a feature post in this small timer blog and hopefully, with my endless devotion in promoting this blog, The Bullet Belt can compose, at least, an undersized scrap of contribution and input in promoting these bands featured in this blog in the future. There are plans for a wider scale promotion that have been flying in and out of my mind for quite a while, but I am still trying to sort things out and in time needed to stretch out these strategies upfront for the approvals of the bands respectively. I am calling it, Tali Pinggang Peluru Presents (malay for The Bullet Belt Presents). Fingers crossed.

So, what do we have here? The second band that I deem fit for a feature post in this blog is this one band called Imperial. Imperial is, well, at least for me although denied by the band’s founding member, primary songwriter and guitarist, Mr.Zarim, in an interview I made with him recently, a Black Metal band from Kuala Lumpur, the heart and focal point of Malaysia. Imperial is no new comer to the local metal scene. Started way back in 1993 with a demo entitled “Enslave” released in 1994. Heavily influenced by Scandinavian bands in the likes of Darkthrone, Samael and yes, Emperor, the band marched through 1995 with another demo entitled “Emperor of The Hordes”. Wow! Enslaved and Emperor would be so proud. “Emperor of The Horde” established Imperial as one of the many prominent Black Metal outfit hailing from the center of the Kuala Lumpur city in the instance of Aradia and Misantrope. Emperors in their own distinctive metal league.

The band played a number of gigs through out the country and was in the midst of preparing for the recording of their debut EP which was set for release, I believe somewhere in 1999 or 2000 under a local label called DreamWorldDecay, when the band faced internal and external conflicts and problems which resulted in the quitting of one of its founding member. Sadly, even though some of the new songs were already recorded, the EP idea was scrapped.

The band soldiered on and played their last show somewhere in 2001 before Imperial was officially put under and indefinite hiatus. The bands members concentrated on other normal commitments, the same normal commitments that usually become the main reason for the hindrance of progress of bands in Malaysia, like day jobs and families, sometimes or most of the time would lead to the disbandment and death of bands.

After 7 years of hibernating, the band members decided to reactivate the dragon and put forward their passion for music once again with the tying knot in the form of Imperial brotherhood. The new era of Imperial was celebrated and officialized with the release of their promo single entitled the Imm… oh, wait. No it is the “The Conqueror” this time. Haha, The single was released by Astral Lore Productions, one of the few remaining local labels who have stayed enthused in championing local black metal bands in Malaysia. The single was released in 2008. The debut album is currently in plans and the recording session is due to begin somewhere around august. Will the title of their new album contain the name of another scandanavian band? That would be the million dollar question. Immortal, Darkthrone and Satyricon will definitely be on the edge of their seats from now on. Haha.

Judging from the arrangement of The Conqueror, Imperial is set to rest on the formula of atmospheric, technical and progressive songs and the debut album, I believe, will contain strong feel for the atmosphere since synth will be fully utilized by the band. I have to suggest that this upcoming album should be a must for all heavy metal fans world wide for a dip and taste of Malaysian Progressive Black Metal, if labelling is inevitable, well, at least according to me. Again, this is a must for the fans of the later music of Emperor and Enslaved. The current line up of the band is composed of Zarim on guitars and Synths, Zam on vocals and bass, Jon on bass and second guitars and G-knight on the drums and percussions.

You can reach the Imperial Battlefront on their MySpace page
www.myspace.com/imperialbattlefront

Bands - Filsufatia: 5 comments

Would it make me a self boasting basket case for writing about my own band? I love writing and I love reading my own writings. I have always been my own blog audience. Although, this blog was created for one straightforward reason; so that I can write something about Zubirun and Qharinth, I still need to consume and utilize these empty spaces, at least for the time being, before I have enough materials to write about the above mentioned bands. Until then, I shall write what ever I deem fit for The Bullet Belt.

Filsufatia is my one man band and it has been in existence for quite a while now. If my memory served me correctly, I formed Filsufatia out of boredom, as a bedroom band project, somewhere later in 2004. It all started when I first managed to get my hands on this one cool home studio software called Fruity Loops Studio. Well, it is not until later that I found out that I could actually utilize this loop program to create heavy metal. I started using Fruity Loops Studio since 2003. Back in those days, it was all about RnB and Hip Hop music (hell, I still do the normal music arrangements once in a while). One fine day, I found out that there were some of the loops available in the program resembled the sound of a distorted electric guitar and if utilized and mixed properly, I can actually emulate the sound of a real band. I kind of freaked out. To cut the story short, the rest was history.

I always wanted to be in a metal band because there were always a plentiful of crazy riffs and melodies flying in and out of my head. I have been in a number of bands before but they were either punk, hardcore or pop and never metal. The satisfaction of playing live instruments was there but not in terms of the need to express my heavy metal creativity and originality. I need an outlet to express this fervor for grunting vocals, orchestral arrangements, haunting chapels, dark riffs and corpse paints, thus the formation of Filsufatia as a foundation to gratify my metallic lust and growling desires was the most perfect venue. It was the best venue for me because using computer programs would mean I can continue doing this on my own without the need to go through the painstaking task to recruit band members and when ever I feel like I want to compose songs, I just turn on the computer.

I have been releasing demos every year since 2006 and it was loads of fun reading comments and feedbacks, be it negative or positive, from those who have been kind enough to spend their precious time listening to my music. You can always sell tons and tons of records and get a huge paycheck for your work, but at the end of the day I personally believe that the best accolade for a musician is when people tend to appreciate and value his works.

Orchestrated under the influences of three legendary home grown bands in the likes of Sil Khannaz, As Sahar and Riusgnal, I do believe that, with the right formula and ingredients, local bands can be as much as fundamental as any metal bands coming from the outskirt of Europe, United States or the isle of Great Britain. Originality is and has always been the key for any local bands to smell the scent of success. For instance, I am still in awe each and every time I put on Pendita Gila. One word that I can use to describe that record is precision. The riffs were very much haunting, mind sticking, awkwardly groovy and the fact that they used a drum machine made the record even more defined and original than any other metal records available during that time, locally or internationally.

As for As Sahar and Riusgnal, it was the idea that made them into icons. The music was a beautiful amalgamation of brutality and straight forward melodies, although not as original but it was the fact that both of these bands introduced the idea of incorporating Malay occultism and mysticism in their lyrics with heavy metal that had made them into pioneering bands. It was really an eye opener and it caught my attention. It was from the brilliant and luminous idea of these bands that made the music eventually evolved into a whole new heavy metal genre, what is now called Eastern metal. That’s originality my friends. I even dare to say that it was the idea to incorporate Ulek Mayang into thrash metal that made Cromok ever so popular with the Australian Metal crowd back in the late 80s. Rather than turning to Lavey’s Satanic Bible for lyrics, you can always turn to your own backyard.

With Filsufatia, originality is still way ahead of me. I am still struggling to capture the grandiose of heavy metal music but who knows maybe after a while, after I have exhausted all these crazy riffs inside my head, I will finally be able to see a point where I can be original with my music.

Filsufatia on MySpace.