Videos: Grindcore - 85 Minutes of Brutal Heavy Music. no comments

Grindcore: 85 Minutes of brutal Heavy Metal | 85 minutes | Unknown | 2003 (posibbly 1990-1991)

1. I have to make one thing clear. I watched this documentary on Youtube and I was not able to find who or what company produced this documentary. Although the name of the video is Grindcore, there were only 2 grindcore bands featured in the documentary, which was a bit frustrating since I was hoping to dig more into the origins of the grindcore scene.

2. Beside Napalm Death and Carcass, being the only two aforementioned grindcore bands featured in the video, other bands were from a mish mash variety of genres. So calling this video, Grindcore: 85 Minutes of Brutal Heavy Music, was a little bit misleading. Well, of course you will get the guys from Napalm Death, Carcass and a few other individuals having a go at explaining the music, it does not give that much information.

3. Having said that, despite the misleading title, this documentary was a fun documentary to watch. Some of the now known bands featured in the video, among others, were Napalm Death, Carcass, Morbid Angel, Paradise Lost, Godflesh and Bolt Thrower. Others that were quite new to me, among others were Prophecy of Doom, Nocturnus, Cerebral Fix and Vengeance Rising.

4. One individual gave an explanation on defining grindcore as “Death Metal with a thoughtful edge”. Well, to me grindcore is an amalgamation of Metal and US Hardcore Punk. Its like having some heavy metal musician having a go at playing hardcore punk music. Cross over and Grindcore came out from that womb. Thus the reason why it was widely known as grindcore and not grind metal. The heaviness and virtuosity came from Metal while the speed and politically conscious lyrics came from Hardcore Punk.

5. Why was the music played at supersonic speed? It all boiled down to the wanting to create the utmost extreme, utmost heaviest, fastest music ever. Thrash Metal took heavy metal and turned up the BPMs. Grindcore took Thrash Metal, mix it with Hardcore Punk and went speed of light. I believe this was also the reason why most Grindcore music was minimal and punkish. The lesser notes you got to hit, the easier for you to go for the speed.

6. I was also got hooked with a couple of bands through this documentary. For example, now I know Cerebral Fix, a thrashy death metal band from Birmingham, with 4 albums under their bullet belts, and I have been banging their albums through the speakers on daily basis now. Their bass player, Frank Healy (who previously played guitars for Napalm Death) went on to join Benediction after the Cerebral Fix broke up. Nocturnus, for example, played this weird technical death metal (shreds and all) with some nasty psychedelic keyboard shit, and it was extremely mind blowing. Vengeance Rising was a Christian Death Metal band. Wait.. what?

7. What confuses me the most was the year this video got released. Everywhere on the internet, the video was stated as being released in 2003. But the style and quality of the videos were very much early 90s. And I was right. I truly believe that the video was shot somewhere between 1990 and 1991 since Cerebral Fix broke up in 1993. Their song which was featured in the video was from their second album, which was released in 1990.

8. You can watch this on Youtube. Its fun and who knows, you might get into one or two bands that you never heard of before.  

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. 

Videos: Black Metal Satanica. no comments

Black Metal Satanica | 80 Minutes | Doom Films Production | 2008

1. Black Metal Satanica is a documentary about, well, satanic Black Metal. The focus point is Scandinavian Black Metal, mainly Swedish. It starts with a few musicians giving a brief run through on Norse mythology, the history of the vikings and their uncompromising attitude toward Christianity, which was allegedly the rooting puzzle in answering the question why Black Metal was and still are so popular in Scandinavia.

2. To be honest, its a little bit cheesy for my liking. Everything in the documentary are nothing new to me. Their hatred towards Christianity, Norse mythology, Satanism, you know, the whole nine yards. I was expecting something different or at least something new.

3. The production was a bit gloomy and dark. Certain individuals giving interviews in the dark and all, and I was like, come on. Enough with that dark imagery and go straight to the music. Nobody gives a shit about your "darkness". 

4. Some of the interviewees, like Bjorn Almar, gave decent interviews and some were meh. I believe this was due to the fact that some of the individuals had to answer questions in english, it was a bit difficult to really make out what they were actually saying. 

5. Being a Swedish produced documentary, the documentary gave emphasis on the influence of Swedish black metal personalities, for example, highlighting Dead and the importance of his recruitment into Mayhem as being the focal point of the wave turning of Black Metal. I would rather have the documentary put more emphasis on Quarthon and Bathory instead, if they really wanted to highlight influential Swedish figures.

6. The documentary also touched on the evil acts that have been associated with Black Metal in the instance of grave desecration, church burnings and what not. And I was like, come on. And when you thought it would not get more funnier, you will also have a Blair Witch Project like segment where the crew was interviewing this one mysterious figure (so mysterious that they had to distort his voice) about grave desecration and all that pure evil stuff, and then the lights went out, they heard a bang and the mysterious person just vanished into thin air. The crew then went into some jungle to look for him. What the fuck? The comedy just wrote itself.  

7. The narrators. Oh man, do not get me started with the bloody narrators. They were trying too hard to sound evil and creepy and it ended out being funny as hell. The narratives were poorly written and was clearly written to spook everybody. And Euronymous? The grandfather of Black Metal? Really? It was called the second wave of black metal for a reason, asshole. How can he be a grandfather, if he was not from the first wave of Black Metal? If it were all up to me, that title would go to Quarthon. And Troll metal? What the fuck is a Troll Metal?

8. Well, this is just a poor poor production. But you can try and watch this video for the Blair Witch part. Hilarious. Sometime, I often wondered why nobody even tried to elaborate the character of its music instead of just focusing on the controversies and image. Why black metal sounded the way in it sounded. Why that particular chords or that particular progression. Anybody up to the challenge?     

Videos: Once Upon A Time In Norway no comments

Once Upon A Time In Norway | 6o Minutes | Grenzelos Production | 2007

1. Once Upon A Time In Norway - The History of Mayhem and the Rise of Norwegian Black Metal, is basically a documentary aiming focus on the most notorious Norwegian black metal band of all time, the self proclaimed leader of the second wave of Scandinavian Black Metal elite, the infamous, the notorious, Mayhem.

2. This documentary is basically the most comprehensive record on the subject of Mayhem up to the event that made them, their music and their country world famous, straight from the horse’s mouth, from the members and former members of the band. You’ll have in depth interviews with Manheim (drums), Messiah (vocals), Necrobutcher (bass) (all three were from the first line up of the band together with Destructor, later known as Euronymous) and the whole other lots related to the band.

3. The documentary kicked off with an audio statement made by Count Grishnack justifying his infamous  criminal act of killing Mayhem’s guitarist, Euronymous back in 1993. Basically with that, I have already managed to perceive where would the climax of this documentary be. With Mayhem being the main subject matter, I don’t really blame the producers of this video for this easy let down. It is also funny that with that, I was also able to guess that this documentary would not give length to the post murder Mayhem.

4. You will be able to learn about the history of the band, through the tongues of Necro, Manheim and the gang as they recounts the idealism and philosophy behind the band and its music back in their early formative years and how they plot for world domination way before they even got a song to their name. A serious marketing strategy there, if you want to learn a thing or two.

5. It is also revealing to note how Satanism (the idea not really the cult) and politics influenced the development of the band in their earlier years, especially left wing politics in the likes of communism (Leninism and Stalinism) and how Euronymous and Manheim were so into communism. Euro went to the extent of being a card carrying member of a local communist party.

6. I love the fact that they organized the film into segments. You will have segments in the likes of history, politics, underground, dead, church burnings and so forth depending on the focus of the particular part of the documentary. So the build up was bits by bit which was very good for me. And of course, the main course would be Grishnack, the murders and the existence of the notorious Inner Circle.

7. I read from the internet that there are a few people out there complaining that this documentary lacked depth for failing to really elaborate on the reason why the Norwegian Black Metal scene existed in the first place, comparing it to Until The Light Take Us. Now, thats too far, blasphemous even. 

8. Well, I have to disagree. This is a very very good documentary and light years away from UTLTU. UTLTU was a horrendous piece of crap. Information were provided everywhere by everyone. You just need to know how to piece up the puzzles. Well, if that does not convince you, at least this video does not have a tap dancing clown doing head bangs and pumping metal horns, all over the fucking floor.

9. In all honesty, I love this documentary. It was professionally produced and very well written and organized. If you worship Mayhem and black metal, then you should go out and get (download) this. Oh, one more thing, this documentary is in Norwegian. Unless you are proficient in the language, I would suggest you make sure that the subtitles are available.  

Videos - Until The Light Takes Us: 5 comments

Until The Light Takes Us, Audrey Ewell & Aaron Aites.

I have managed to watch this yesterday and as a huge fan of documentary flicks and black metal music in general, I was quite disappointed with how "Until The Light Takes Us" turned out to be. In fact when I first heard the rumors about the making of this documentary a couple of years before its actual production, I was quite reserved as to how they're going to pull this off. Disappointed but I think I kind of saw that was coming.

I must admit that I am not really a big fan of the earlier Norwegian black metal music due to lack of exposure and to the fact that I could not really bring myself to tolerate with the lo-fi sound production, the gritty cold sound opted and championed by most of the bands from that era, although I have to say that I have always been a snotty fan of Immortal and the earlier stuff by Emperor. I have always been fascinated with the controversies though, thus the reason why I’ve made myself endure this time consuming piece of frog crap.

The phase was too sluggish. There were quite a number of scenes which I regard as absolutely unnecessary, absolute waste of time and contributed absolutely nothing to content of the documentary. For example, the part where they filmed the mighty Fenriz in a black metal art exhibition or the part where they filmed Frost doing some silly pantomime while cutting himself open and shocked some Greek teenage emo girls.

Do not miss the part where they found a crazy hobo, dressed that poor fucker with a leather jacket, corpse paint and all, and filmed that buffon doing a tap dance routine to a gothic score, headbang, metal horns and all. What does that got to do with black metal? I have no fucking idea.

Basically, UTLTU is a documentary about the Norwegian Black Metal music scene, its history and its world renowned notoriety. If you are fascinated with the myriads of myths behind that celebrated scene, you might want to check this out just for fun. But if you are looking for in depth researches and investigations, I would simply recommend you to go and read Lord of Chaos.

Well, for a kick, you will be able to see Abbath and Demonaz, a whole chunk of Fenriz, a whole chunk Varg Vikernes, Some chunk of Frost, Hellhammer, Garm, Faust and some other names you might recognize. Dont forget Tony the tap dancing black metal clown.

Videos - Sil Khannaz Rockumentari: 1 comments

The first of its kind, finally a (local made) documentary about a local Malaysian underground death metal band and the mighty Sil Khannaz was without any doubt a well deserving and document worthy band in my book. Sil Khannaz is one of the more popular and well recognized death metal bands in the local heavy metal circuit today and one of the few bands (the only?) who stuck with their guns from day one against the neverending assaults from the government, media and the society since the 90’s.

Having formed way back in the 80s somewhere in the gloomy land called Perlis, a small state located in the northern part of Malaysia, Sil Khannaz had evolved (and is still evolving I guess) from playing thrash covers to straight no bullshit death metal in their early demos and debut album titled Conception of Madness, progressive death metal in their controversial Gerbang Kayangan album and melodic death metal in their latest album Berdiri Antara Panji-Panji.

This 2005 documentary was produced by Nebiula Production, the bands’ own independent record label and it mainly contains music videos, early concerts and interviews with the members of the band, the fans and a number of local veteran heavy metal enthusiasts illustrating the colorful history of the band and its undeniable influence to the local death metal scene and Malaysian metal as a whole.

Unfortunately the narration and the interviews were all conducted in the Malay language since I think it was only targeting the local market and was not really meant for an international release except to a few neighbouring Malay speaking countries in the likes of Indonesia and Singapore.

The only frustration I had was that it did not include any interviews from any former members of the band from the earlier version of the band except for an undersized and brief commentary from their previous guitar who played the guitars in their highly acclaimed debut album. Apart from that slight disappointment, this video was a decent documentary of the band. A must for every Sil Khannaz fans.

Videos - Anvil: The Story of Anvil: no comments

Gosh, I have been so busy I totally forgot to update this blog. For this entry, it is going to be a short one. The other day, I received an email from Simon Owens of Bloggasm, ushering me about this yet to be released 2008 documentary by Davis Guggenheim, who directed Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth for those who don’t know him. The documentary revolved around three greater than great guitarists, all three well known for their fondness of conducting weird and bizarre experimentations with their respective guitar sounds, all three were from three different eras of rock n roll, getting themselves cramped into a garage somewhere to talk about guitars, its unique sounds and their journeys in trying to get the guitar sounds that they have always wanted for their respective bands. It’s a must watch for those who are passionate about their guitars. It might get loud dude. Thank you, Simon.

Enough with the introduction let us go straight to the main content of today’s entry. I reviewed the book in my previous entry, now it is time to review the actual video. Anvil:The Story of Anvil is basically a documentary depicting the trials and tribulations faced by a forgotten Canadian Heavy Metal band comprised of two childhood friends, singer and lead guitarist, Lips and drummer, Robbo, in accomplishing their teenage dream to someday become rock stars. The book was like a more meticulous, prolonged and detailed excerpts of the video, so on the whole, what you got in the book is basically how it was in the video, except you will be getting a more thorough, detailed and comprehensive chronicle about Anvil in its earlier formation, the struggling years and their victory in Japan from the book. But still, the video was a fun watch.

The movie was directed by Sacha Gervasi who wrote Tom Hank's The Terminal. Gervasi was a friend they met while they were on tour back in the 80's.

There was this one part in the movie where Anvil was set to play at Metal Festival somewhere in Sweden, we can see Lips running around like a little kid trying to greet heavy metal personalities that he idolized and knew. Some of them didnt even know who he was. He was just like an innocent little boy running for Ozzy Osbourne for autographs.

Japan has always be a point of fascination to me for their fanatical fans, not to mention that it has the second largest music industry in the world, hot on the heels of good ol’ Uncle Sam. Note this all you heavy metal bands in Malaysia, if you really want to get rich with your unique music, try and get a distribution deal from any heavy metal record labels up there in Japan.

It was a good movie. I have to admit though that through out the whole This Is Anvil, I chocked in tears. You got to see it for youself to experience it.

Videos - Metal : A headbanger’s Journey: 1 comments

Metal : A headbanger’s Journey, Banger Productions, 2005.

I know it is kind of late to write down a review about this incredible documentary. I watched this one last year and that is kind of late too taking into account that the documentary was released way back in 2005. Where the hell was I in 2005? What ever it is, I have to say that this is the documentary that everyone should spend some time watching to really understand what heavy metal is really all about. Either for those who long to appreciate and value the history and origin of this wonderful music we call heavy metal, or for those who, out of innocent curiosity, wanted to read through real reason why it had such an immense or superlative cultural impact on its devoted listeners, this is the documentary that will explain and answer some of your questions.

The video follows Sam Dunn, a devoted metal listener and a Canadian anthropologist turn film director, on a journey to all the significant places through out the globe, England and Norway for instance, both remain closely significant to the birth of New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the second wave of the Satanic Black Metal respectively, while dictating the origins of the music, the musicians and its cultural impact on youths to the viewers.

The video was neatly divided into several parts and primary contents where Dunn would help and introduce to the viewers to the inside world of heavy metal, step by step. I enjoyed the segments and it appears to me that the video was produced as a very much viewer friendly documentary by manipulating the easiest but the most effective and best ways, the mechanism to reach for the curious cats out there who really wanted to understand heavy metal, without just vomiting the superiority of the music all at one go. Dunn and his team really do want to edify and educate rather than doing a one off shot documentary with crappy contents and footage quality. It was this quality and dedication that impressed Iron Maiden, whose singer Bruce Dickinson also appeared in the documentary, so much that they invited Dunn and his crew to film the mighty Maiden on tour. The film was later produced and released as Iron Maiden: Flight 666.

There was also this chart on the evolution of Heavy Metal that really made me fascinated. The chart explained how heavy metal evolved from Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple to Dio, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest to Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth to Mayhem, Darkthrone and Immortal so on so forth. Dunn and his team also released another documentary called Global Metal in 2007 as a follow up. I shall write a late review on that video too. This is recommended to all you Malaysian Heavy Metal enthusiasts out there.

While I was writing this entry, i listened to the newest album by a Greece melancholic and depressive Black Metal band called Sad, entitled Enlightened by Darkness. Really sets the mood. Haha.

Videos - Get Thrashed : The Story of Thrash Metal: 5 comments

Get Thrashed : The Story of Thrash Metal, Saigon 1515 Productions, 2008.

I have just finished watching this one great documentary on Thrash Metal, and it was a fun watch indeed. Get Thrashed explored the birth and origin of the Thrash Metal music, it talked about various prominent and influential bands, Metallica and Megadeth just to name a few, during that era that have helped shape the music and the entire movement and discussed further about various Thrash Metal scene from all over the world. 9jmix4w2pr

Like most of the documentaries out there, Get Thrashed contained loads of interviews and numerous video clips from old shows from the 80’s and early 90’s. What is Thrash Metal without the mention of the big five (big four to some)? The prominent bands featured at length were for example, the band who brought the genre to worldwide attention and the one responsible for the movement in the first place, Metallica, check, the band who elevated the genre into a higher level of phenomenal superhuman technicality with a display of callous ingenuity in songwriting, Megadeth, check, the pioneering and very much influential Exodus, check, the band who resorted to shock value, inspired a couple of other heavy metal subgenres and lifted the music to another level of superhuman intensity and velocity, Slayer, check, and the band who popularized experimentations in the genre, Anthrax, check. All the big five were deeply discussed and elaborated, don’t worry. The mention of Suicidal Tendencies and Pantera can be considered as a bonus.

The documentary also took a peak into the equally important Thrash Metal scene from all over the world, especially German and Brazil. What is Thrash Metal with out the mention of its Germanic extension, the Teutonic Thrash and its close cousin the Brazilian Thrash Metal. Bands like the mighty Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Sepultura and SarcoFago were equally important in contributing to the mass appeal of the movement back in the 80’s.

The height of the documentary for me was always with the Dave Mustaine of Megadeth interview. No matter how arrogant Mustaine appeared to be, to the extent that he claimed James Hetfield of Metallica and Kerry King of Slayer were the extension of his style and play, which for me is quite true, Mustaines crazy songwriting skills, is and will always be indisputable. The first two of Megadeth albums, Killing is My Business… and Business is Good and Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying?, will always be thrash metal classics alongside Metallica’s Kill Em All, Slayer’s Show No Mercy and Exodus’s Bonded by Blood.

This is a very good video and I recommend this one to those who would like to know the history of the music that they listen to.