Rants - Obssessive Compulsive Disorder. no comments

Rants, rants and more rants. While I am writing this, I am feasting my ear holes with Nebiras 1996’s cult EP, Into The Medieval Cults. One of the best and finer Malaysian black metal releases from the 90s in my book. The band gained local notoriety when it was acknowledged by Darkthrone way back in the early 90s when the band was considered to be a brother band to its Norwegian counterpart. Fenriz even dedicated a poem for the band. So sweet of him that Fenriz. I remember dedicating the lyrics of Langsuyr’s Tangisan Embun Pagi to my now ex-girlfriend back in high school. Talking about being unoriginal. Haha.

But all jokes aside, for an unknown Malaysian (back in 1992-93, with the absence of Internet and all, I don’t even think anybody knew where Malaysia was located, so much so if they even knew the existence of the country so to speak) band to get that kind (or somekind maybe) of a blessing from the head quarter up north was enough to give them a right to brag. And brag they did. What ever it is, Nebiras was without a doubt, one of the most prolific band out of the shores of Malaysia. I’ll tip my hat to that.

Well, basically I am not really going to talk about Nebiras. This post is essentially dedicated to my hectic life. Not that I have ceased being hectic, it’s just that I think I have not been able to give this blog the attention that it deserves. It became worse with me knowing the fact that I had started this blog to promote Malaysian local heavy metal scene. I have not been very faithful to that cause I guess.

I hope you will like the new minimalist lay out. I almost wanted to start a new blog just because of the decrease of my fascination with the old template but I figured out that rather than I waste the contents that Ive already written for The Bullet Belt, it would be much easier to adopt a new look. Well, that was just me being me. Obsessive compulsive disorder. No, it’s not a title from an early Carcass song. It’s a symptom of being unable to tolerate and comprehend anything unorganized and out of order.

I chose the simplest template (actually it was one of the default templates in blogger. Minima Lefty if I am not mistaken), used my inferior knowledge of template scripting to edit the HTML settings in order to quash the ugly boarders for the Blog title, fixed the sidebars so that it would align to my right rather then the ugly original left, edit some colors and voila! There you have it. The new simple look for The Bullet belt.

And what has all that got to do with Malaysian metal? Nothing.

Rants - Back From The Dead. 2 comments

Wow. How long has it been since the last post? I have been editing and re-editing this page for the past couple of hours. Nobody is reading it anyway so i might as well re-kick start this blog with this short post. Hopefully we (i) will be seeing more new posts after this.

AJAL

I went myspace strolling just now and found out that that this potential Thrashy Black Metal band had already released their debut 4 track demo neatly and appropriately titled "Ajal Tiba Bila Seruan Menjelma" with the help of a local label called Malaysia The Darkness Production. Ajal or simply "death" in malay, was consumated into existence somewhere in 2008 and playing raw thrashy black metal is their game. I liked the songs but I think the lead guitarist needs to brush up on the solos. Being raw does not mean that you are allowed to go off key. Try and give these fellas a chance by visiting their myspace.

AJAL MySpace

SILENT DEATH

The Malaysian Death Metal veterans! Apart from a few other worth mentioning bands in the likes of Brain Dead, Sil Khannaz, Nebiras and Suffercation, Silent Death was the ultimate (and penultimate) death metal band that helped shape the landscape of Malaysian Metal Scene back in the early 90s. I was in contact with the main man of the band, Mr.Stone, through Facebook because I was buying a Silent Death shirt which I wore it like it was nobody's business. They are currently in studios recording the follow up to the awesome 1997 "Break The Silence" EP and I cant wait.

SILENT DEATH FaceBook
SILENT DEATH MySpace


ARADIA

The return of the Warlords after 10 years of seclusion. Hailing from the muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur, Aradia was one of the worthy fews, alongside Cryptic Malediction, Ravenlord and Imperial, forefronting the Kuala Lumpur metal scene back in the days. Following the return from their 10 year hiatus, the mighty Aradia had successfully executed 10 majestic songs.. ehem, hymns, which was recently released as "Draconis Eulogy". Judging from the songs uploaded in their Myspace, I gotta say that the production was top notch. The multi layered guitars were crazy and melodic, not to mention a bit "clean". I really liked the effect that they have used for the vocals. It gave the vocals an evil and twisted sound. Gotta go and buy this one.

ARADIA MySpace
ARADIA FaceBook

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!