Top 5 Most Influential Malaysian Metal Album of All Time : HERRIOT - Celestial Obelisk 2 comments

Besides being influenced, most of the time, musically and rarely, attitude wise by international heavy metal bands from all around the world, there were a few heavy metal records of diverse genre, which in my book, that can be considered as highly influential towards the development of the Malaysian heavy metal scene in general. It was these heavy metal masterpieces that, in my opinion, helped develop and mold the Malaysian heavy metal scene to be what it is today. Opinion may vary, but this is my list of top 5 most influential Malaysian heavy metal record. We start with number 5:

HERRIOT - Celestial Obelisk

Try and ask any Malaysian Metalcore bands nowadays what their influenced are, amongst all that crappy American new wave of heavy metal bands in the likes of Lamb of God, Avenged Sevenfold and what not, they will definitely mention Herriot, a local melodic death metal hero that may had been born in a wrong country, as one of their main influence. Celestial Obelisk EP was one of the most important heavy metal album in Malaysia, introducing Gothenberg melodic death metal to the local audience. As any In Flames, Dark Tranquility or Soilwork earlier albums, this 4 song EP was filled with dual guitar harmonies and innocent crunchy riffs scattered all over the place, while the vocals delivers a passionate and angry wrathful screaming growls. A hell of a release.

Bands: Goda / Zarquum Split Tape. 1 comments

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1- I used to review and promote Zarquum here in this blog. And when was that? Last year. You can go and read the entry HERE. Well, after one year long over fucking due, they have finally able to release the split that I was talking about in my previous post about them. 

2- For your information, Zarquum (Technical Death Metal) and GODA (melodic death metal) consists mainly the same key individuals. Most probably wanting to try something new and different with each band, i guess. But it's worth the try man. I have always been impressed with Zarquum anyway.

3- What ever it is, the split release is called The Cryptic Aesthetic and it contains 6 songs, 3 from each bands respectively. If you are interested (and you should), do not hesitate to drop a bomb at farbeyondz@gmail.com or SMS to 016-8563002 to find out how to obtain a copy of the split.

Books: Hello Me Meet The Real Me: Mustaine - A Life in Metal. 3 comments

Hello Me Meet The Real Me: Mustaine - A Life in Metal by Dave Mustaine and Joe Layden.

Title: Hello Me Meet The Real Me: Mustaine - A Life in Metal
Authors: Dave Mustaine & Joe Layden.
Publisher: Harper Collins Publishing.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 346 Pages, RM 96.90, Kinokuniya Bookstore Kuala Lumpur.

1- I was super excited when I first heard that Mustaine will be writing and releasing his memoir and when it was released, I waited patiently for the book to hit the local shelves. When it did, I went to my favorite bookstore to purchase a copy of the book just to find out that it was sold out. Fuck! I guess Malaysians love their Megadeth. I got my copy only a few weeks later. It was never too late to enjoy a good dose of Dave Mustaine's arrogance in my book.

2- Let us move on to the contents of the book. It was written from a first person point of view thus you will have Mustaine narrating everything from top to bottom. The contents were divided into 17 chapters with the first two dealt with his background, his family and his early interest in music and guitar. 3 chapters were dedicated to his life when he was in Metallica and eventually ended up until he was booted out from the band. The rest of the book was about his revenge seeking in the form of Megadeth, rotating band members and his drug addiction.

3- Reading the book (and a couple more books on the history of hard rock and heavy metal) and from being an avid fan for so long, I just could not help but summarize that with out Mustaine, thrash metal would not be as it is today. Everybody recognize that the genre was pioneered by Metallica and of course there were more than a dozen guitar virtuosos that came after him in the likes of Scott Ian of Anthrax and Kerry King of Slayer, but it was Mustaine's furious guitar playing in No Life Till Leather that molded the basic template for thrash riffs in the 80's.

4- This is definitely a must.