Covers - Cromok's Forever In Time: no comments

One of the first few heavy metal records that I bought when I was still a younger version of me was this record of a local thrash metal legend called Cromok. I was caught awed when I first knew of the band and later on succumbed to the beauty of the oriental melodies neatly incorporated in every thrash metallic notes, chords and riffs in each and every song in this album. Mesmerizing. The album was released in 1993 by EMI.

Cromok was considered by many local metal heads as a legendary band in its own right. The band was formed in the late 1987 when all the founding members were still these four young long haired foreign students struggling to survive Australia. The good ol’ down under. By time, they have harvested a huge underground following and gained reputation and respect as the most popular Asian Thrash Metal band amongst the blond underground Australian head bangers at that time. They were so popular; to an extent the band was offered an opening slot for a Motorhead concert when Lemmy Kilmister and co was touring the country. The gig was unfortunately turned down by the band.

Enough about the band let us now examine the artwork. The cover depicted the head of a metal unicorn in its entire splendor. The unicorn has been a known trademark for the band since day one and appeared on the entire discography of the band except for one record which was Engraved in Eternity, a best of compilation released in 2003. I think it was indeed a very creative attempt to amalgamate the element of mysticism (unicorn being a mystic and mythical animal) and heavy metal (the metallic clad). To say that the artist envisioned an amalgamation between east and west would be a bit far fetched since I can’t really remember seeing unicorns being popularized as icons in any local myth or mystic tales.

It was rather odd to have a unicorn as a mascot since most of the Thrash Metal bands from that particular era, what more playing that type of music, were more keen towards explicit, horrific and sometime shocking images to embellish their record. The use of unicorns would give an impression that this was a tame band, although I have to admit that the band’s first record, Image of Purity which was released in 1991, was rather atrocious and ferocious in its own right compared to the songs available in Forever In Time. Maybe it suits the style, I don’t know. But still, it was one of the best cover for a local band, it is still is.

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

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.