Bands - Brabazom: no comments

Posted at 1:00 AM in


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

Rants - Metal : A Malaysian Headbangers journey part 1. 2 comments

Posted at 1:00 AM in

Metal : A Malaysian Headbangers Journey

I am writing this to the majestic compositions of Manowar 1988’s Kings of Metal galloping through the speakers bombarding my ears to kingdom come.

Actually being a metal head in Malaysia is not that bad of a deal if you don't mind being judged by the ever intolerant and ignorant society or getting caught wearing corpse paint while attending underground heavy metal concerts or getting your records seized by the custom officer from time to time. I have long accepted the fact that Heavy Metal was, is and always will be a tribal thing. Heavy Metal, this wonderful sick music, gave me some sense of pride, self empowerment and to a certain extent kept my head up high when life was being a hard on me. And one more thing, metal was never meant for fucking Ipods! My name is Hafeez and this is my story.

When I got my first dosage of heavy metal, I was about 13 years old. I think I have already written somewhere in here that I was introduced to heavy metal, not from any heavy metal uncles or any long haired heavy metal friends but from a shitty local tabloid called Harian Metro (a Malaysian daily metro; a still existing local shitty tabloid which regularly glorifies sex related “intelligence” as its major headline and from time to time launches crusades against heavy metal).

Before the life changing revelation, I was just your typical neighborhood adolescent nerd who would listen to whatever there was on the FM radio. Back in the early 90’s, although Hollywood rock, or glam metal or hair metal as some people would call it, was slowly losing its grip back in the United States due to the Seattle/Kurt Cobain’s phenomenon (read: grunge); here in Malaysia, Rock was fighting for her last few breaths against Rap music.

Behold! Its the dudes who ended the spandex phenomenon.

Despite of the matching jumpsuit and baggy pants wearing miggers (Malay niggaz haha) flooding and breakdancing all over the fucking dance floor worshipping their Kriss Krosses, MC Hammers and Vanilla Ices, there were still a couple of decent rock bands hitting the radios with a couple of slow rock numbers trying to relive their glory tight jaguar spandex days of the 80’s.

To be continued...

Rants - Depressive Black Metal? 1 comments

Posted at 11:37 PM in

I sure am not going to write anything on Depressive Black Metal. It is just that I am currently listening to some songs that I had composed for my own one man Depressive Black Metal band called Deep and nothing in this post will have anything to do with Depressive Black Metal except for this introductory paragraph. Nobody cares anyway. Bah!

I went web/blog hopping just now. Post metal monster, Isis broke up the other day which was a very big deal to a lot of people and I dont know why. I was never a fan of that band anyway although some of their slow churning sludgy gloomy songs were indeed quite compelling. Sludgy song rules!

Soulfly released another album? Sorry, am not interested. Cavalera Conspiracy rules!

My favorite vocodered singing progressive metal/"jazzy"death metal band Cynic will be releasing an EP titled "Re-Traced". According to Blabbermouth, it contains 4 reinterpretations of some of the songs in their 2009, quoting Metalsucks.net "now legendary" album "Traced In Air" and a new song called "Wheels Within Wheels". Somebody posted the song on Youtube and I cant wait for the next full lenght follow up. They are not using vocoders for that song but retained the falsetto vocals. Cynic rules!

Joey Belladonna will be re-joining Anthrax! He is my favorite Anthrax singer and man, that guy can really sing. I do not know what have happened to John Bush because when Dan Nelson was kicked out of the band, John Bush seemed to be the right person to man the vocals because i thought that Among The Living Belladonna-Anthrax reunion tour that they had in 2005-2007 was just a brief to-the-good-old-days tour. It would be exciting to listen to Belladonna on a new Anthrax song. Among The Living rules!

Korn got a new album? Fuck Korn!

Oh yeah, in case this blog do have any readers, i have scheduled some entries for this month. New entries will automatically be posted on all the dates which have even numbers in them (hahaha, call me an idiot but I really cant figure out what these dates were called). I will randomly post some new entries in between. Just like this one. I rule!

Worshippers.