Interview: Wynken Delirium. no comments

I present to you my interview with Wynken Delirium. A local band from the sourthern state of Johor, Malaysia, playing sludge/metal with oriental touch for your eargasmic Malaysian heavy metal experience. I am not really a big fan of sludge nor doom but citing the inclusion of the elements of nusantara (the malay archipelago) in metal never fails to get my attention. I have  listened to a couple of raw tracks uploaded by the band via their facebook page and found myself bobbing to their mystical tunes. 

Their vocalist got one helluva voice, that I got to tell you. In the interview, i kept referring to their debut album when in fact they are currently putting finishing touches on their second. It was a silly mistake on my part. The debut was released in 2009 called The Alchemy of the World. One thing that I appreciate is the effort to make it as professional as possible and with Wynken Delirium (referred to WD in the interview therein), I got everything from band photo, logos, presskit, tour dates and everything a writer would have wanted to write their piece. I appreciate that very much. Please contact and support the band. Therefor I give you the inteview:

Assalamualaikum bro... my name is Benign Nor Hafeez and I write for The Bullet Belt blog, a local kecil kecilan blog promoting local acts. would you mind answering a cupla questions for my blog?

Waalaikumsalam wrb. Yes sure we are honoured and humbled by your interest to interview Wynken Delirium.

Hello, how are you and may I know who is answering the interview?

Alhamdulillah we are doing great and we are fine. My name is Harris and i am the bass player for Wynken Delirium also I manage the band. I also run the label known as THE FOUR HORSEMEN or TFHM. 

Can you tell us a brief history of Wynken Delirium? Why Wynken Delirium?

Wynken Delirium started as Gobling way back in 2004 and when Gobling disbanded, Zaihas (guitarist) and me (harris) were looking around for same minded soul to move forward with a new band. Came along, Ajax (vocalist) and he brought along Fad (drums) and Andak (guitar). After few practice, Andak felt that the music was not suitable and what he was looking for. he left and Shah (guitar) join. This lasted for 2 years. After that, Shah and Fad when out to concentrate on their grindcore band and we recruited Yan (drums) and Zam (guitar). This current set up has been going on for 4 years. 

Musically, Zaihas started back in the 90's in central market. He was in Elizabeth Arden, Slum Scum and many more bands along the way. Harris was from the Penang scene and played bass for My Pet Alien. Ajax, Zam and Yan were from the Johor scene and with different background. Drastic changes in term of the personnel in the band, thus the name change from Gobling to Wynken Delirium.

Wynken Delirium was derived from the combination of Wynken, Blyken and Nod, a children poem and Wynken actually referring to the eyes. Delirium was taken from a poem written by Arthur Rimbaud, The 7th Delirium. Combination of both word meant like what we see, think and ponders. In short, its the world through our eyes. We are not young man anymore, so sometimes we can be very observant and we would like to give our 2 cent worth on it. Some of the guys in the band have been in the scene since the 90's and we have seen the scene transform and seen many genre changes along the way. What we wanted to do with Wynken Delirium was to make good music, metal music and still not forgetting our roots. We are Malaysian and we are Asian too. We have various background, interest and we think, we don't have to be fast to be heavy, hence the tag line LEMBAB & BEGHAT came around. Since our love of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppellin , grunge music, rock and other forms of metal music, its tends to be "rojak" in our song structure. Its a lot of element in our songs. That comes from the diverse background musically of each band member.

Wynken Delirium

Ive read in your facebook page that WD plays sludge with oriental/nusantara flavour which is quite a unique amalgamation by itself. Can you please give a thorough overview in regards to your music? 

Sludge is a mix of doom and hardcore. Our music revolve around being heavy and mid tempo. We love Black Sabbath as much as we love Sepultura, Pantera and we listen to Lamb of God too. So its kinda mix in the song writing. Practically, we wrote metal music which have dirty metal vibe, a pinch of hardcore spirit and tonnes of groove laden riff. That practically sums up Wynken Delirium music. We also have , Saron and Gong , a traditional music equipment used in gamelan. That is incorporated in our performance and music.
The oriental/nusantara sound come from incorporating the Sundanese, Balinese, zapin, joget melodies into our song. We believe tat we should not forget our roots at any time. We are Malaysian and we have rich culture. It comes from the South East Asian influences also as we tend to blend it up. Our region shared a lot of similarities musically with Indonesia. Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and we have rich sound. If Sepultura did it with their Brazilian heritage, we should do be proud of our own heritage.
What do you hear when you listen to Wynken Delirium, I hope everyone can hear a good metal song with good grooves and musicianship, great lyrics which has meaning and also realize that, its different from any other band. 

Let me impress you with my vast knowledge on sludge metal. St Vitus played sludge right? haha Ok Ok.. I am not really a big fan of sludge but what band would you recommend me if I were to ask you for recommendations? Fans of what band do you think would be interested to check WD out?

Hahahaha St Vitus is more doom metal band i guess (there goes my vast knowledge on sludge, hahaha-ED). Sludge band.. you might want to check Eyehategod, Down, Kingdom of Sorrow and you can check out bands that comes out from NOLA ( New Orleans metal Scene) and also Georgia Metal scene such as Kylesa, Zoroaster, Baroness and few more great groove laden band. When you think of Sludge, its about metal with heavy influence of Sabbath, Southern sound and hardcore style singing. Fast, angry and never forget the groove. Hahaha. You can wikipedia search for sludge metal and see what that is all about. Nowadays its much easier comparing to the early days in the 90's as its depend mostly on zine.
WD is not so trendy so we are not sure whether we have fans. We do have friends. I believe we make new friends after every shows, cuz most of the people who came and watch WD perform are not sure what to expect. You will get good show, hopefully good music and a great performance whether its in front of 2000 people, 200 people, 20 people or 2 people and that is a promise. 

WD love to perform in shows that is consider not our type of music. We love the challenge to convince this new music lovers to alternative metal music that exist in our scene. We love to add colour in that mix. It would be fun. 

WD have played all over Malaysia and all across the neighbouring region. Hows the reception so far? Care to tell us about your touring history? How can organizers book you for shows?

Alhamdulillah, TFHM as a label has organised many shows throughout Malaysia. Not only for WD but also featuring bands that is working together with TFHM such as Atrocious, Scent of Carnage, Kolbenfaust, Maosun, Predicate Not Defined, Controlled Issues, D.I.E and Sacwrath. So we have tour under Dredging The Sludge Tour, Tyranny of Eight Tour and many events and shows. The reception so far has been great, alhamdulillah. We are doing more tours for 2012 such as

Trudging Through Tradition Philippines : 23 Feb 2012 - 27 Feb 2012 ( details as attached flyers)

24 Feb - Headstock Bar, Marikina City, The Philippines25 Feb - Inggos Gril, Malate City, The Philippines

26 Feb - Red Capz Resto, Paranaque City, The Philippines

26 Feb - Amnesia Bar, Laguna, The Philippines

* Yes.. that is 2 shows on 26 Feb

TFHM Revolution Tour 2012 : 1 June 2012 - 3 June 2012

1 June - Embrace Hall, Skudai, Johor

2 June - Soundmaker Hall, Penang

3 June - Batu Gajah, Perak

We are also performing in many other events. Do check our FB for the details. the address are as below

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wynken-Delirium/175349005854882

If any organiser would love to have WD on their shows, they can get us on

email : saronproduction@hotmail.com or
Telephone : Harris @ 016 718 2694

You are currently in the studio finishing your full length debut. I heard that one of the most prolific producer in the local entertainment industry is helping you out with the mixes. How did Mr.Roslan Aziz came on board? Hows the experience so far?
On the album matter, may I correct you a bit on it. Its not our début album, actually its our second album. Its title THE OPINIONS and its in the mixing process (aarrrggh...thats embarassing, sorry guys for not doing a better research before sending the interview-ED). We should see its ready by March and after that off to Crystal Mastering Studio in Australia for the final mastering. The album contains 12 songs, that has been written over the years and this round we have better equipment recording it and all of us used BUGERA Heads for our equipment. Zaihas and Zam used BUGERA 333 Guitar head and a Marshall 4x12 cabs. Harris used BUGERA 5500 bass head with a Hartke HyDrive 4x10 bass cabs. All recording of guitar and vocals was at Zaihas home studio. Only the drums were recorded at our friends studio in Gelang Patah.
How does Abg Roslan Aziz came on board. We met him few years back with our first album, that time we did everything ourselves. Then from talking to him, he did propose to us in our next album, he is interested to work on it. So once, we finished recording, Zaihas got in touch with Abg Roslan Aziz again. Working with him and his sound engineer, Hafizz at Tune Studio in Klang, its just awesome. Great studio, great equipment and the most important things is great engineers. We got what we want in term of the sound and direction of the album. he has been very vocal and yet very understanding in our need to maintain our sound and vibe on the album.
What we believe is, every band that wanted to produce an album and sell it, has to produce the best album so it's worth the money for people to purchase it. We are very critical in that manner. We want people who bought it, feels like its a good album. We will be going again into Tune Studio sometime soon to record a special project for a Vinyl EP. We have about 5 songs ready which was not put into the 2nd album. In short, workign with Tune Studio with Abg Roslan Aziz and Hafizz has been great and we have more coming soon on more projects involving them.

What can the fans expect from your debut album?
What to expect from the 2nd Album ; THE OPINIONS; great grooving metal music with dirty vibe, a lot of headbanging riff and we hope to bring this album out to the world and hopefully get it recognise for some good festival oversea. InsyaAllah.
We hope the Malaysian metal crowd would give it a listen and like what we wrote and recorded. If it can make us get a good Million dollar deal, its even better. Its everyone dream I guess.

I guess thats all... any last word for The Bullet Belt blog readers? I hope this will not be the last word between us and the friends that we have. We hope and thank you for the continuous support and time to interview us and put us in your blog. Keep up the good work. We appreciate the opportunity given to us and hopefully to see you in one of our shows soon.
To all our friends and scene lovers, Malaysian band are as good and as talented. believe in yourselves, believe in your music and we can do this.
Support our independent DIY music scene. 

--- Thank you Mr.Haris for your prompt and friendly reply. Do keep in touch with this band via:

Wynken Delirium | MySpace

Wynken Delirium | Blog

Wynken Delirium | Facebook

Wynken Delirium | ReverbNation 

Wynken Delirium | Youtube

Review: ZARQUUM/GODA - The Cryptic Aesthetic Split CD no comments

ZARQUUM/GODA - The Cryptic Aesthetic Split

1. I got the CD for quite sometime now. Basically this split CD, which was released by Demigod Records showcased 2 worthy bands from two not so different sub-genres. Both Zarquum and Goda played death metal while the former preferred the brutal and technical brand, the later opted the more melodic approach but both bands still retained the level of aggression and madness quite well equally. Six tracks altogether with three songs each.

2. Let us start with Zarquum. Again, I have written something about them earlier. Three songs were offered and I enjoyed all three of them with track number 2 being my favorite. There are a couple of riffs that I liked in that song and I personally adored the keyboard/synth layer in the later stage of the song. There were a lot of  notes being thrown around to highlight the brutal and technical aggression, the solos were sick although I have to say that that kind of solos were not really my cup of tea. 

3. Despite the songs were well arranged, the rhythm guitars were a bit too trebly thus killing the sense of heaviness and crunch for the songs. Maybe it was intended to sound that way, I do not know but having the vocals go through some type of distortion does not help to ease the shear blister that my ears had to go through. Sometime it sounded like it was recorded inside a wooden box with the third song by Zarquum, Fana, being the best example. The drum and bass (almost non existent) parts were low in the mix thus making the songs very guitar driven. The drums does not give you any room to breath, like, at all. 

4. Goda or Genocide Overkill Destruction Annihilation played the brand of death metal that is more friendly to my ears. Heavy and groove driven, the elements in a death metal record that I personally appreciate and love. The guitar sounded heavy and crispy as fuck with decent solos here and there. Guitar harmonies were beautifully placed. The rhythm parts on the left pan were equally balanced with the lead guitars on the right and I love the beautifully panned mix (not in that order for some songs). It felt organic.  

5. The bass is there but again, too low in the mix for my taste and for me to fully appreciate. I guess if they can put up the bass higher in the mix it would provide a heavier and groovier sound and that would definitely help expanding the sound of the songs a little bit more, not to mention that it will also help highlight the drum department. The drums, execution wise, were excellent. The mix were sometimes balanced between the sheer heaviness of the rhythm section and the vocals, although at times I have to say that the snare sound would seem a bit lost every time the vocals came attacking. 

6. I have to praise the song structures for Goda especially in Sakhnat Ainulbanat, the last song on the CD There were a lot of parts that would make your head automatically bang. I guess the main culprit should be pointed to the extensive palm muted riff exercises through out the song while some thrash riffs were included to destroy the crowd, if performed live.

7. Out of these two good bands, I have to prefer Goda over Zarquum simply due to the fact that my ears were more equipped for the melodic and groovier stuff, but tastes and preferences may vary. Both are good in what they do. A good split release indeed. 

Review: AJAL - Odd Oracle. no comments

1. I guess each and every time I post a new entry for this wretched blog, I need to start with "wow, it has been a while since I update this blog". And a while it has been indeed. But I need to keep this blog going since I still owe a friend of mine a blog post for his band. I contemplated switching the contents of this blog from english to Malay but looking at the number of visits I got, I guess I will stick with english for the time being. Lets get down to business. I am going to review Ajal's Odd Circle.

AJAL - Odd Oracle Demo 2010

2. I think I have written something about Ajal in a previous post somewhere before but that was merely to introduce the band to you. Here it is the 2010 demo called Odd Oracle.

4. Judging from the sound from the CD, Ajal plays decent thrash metal with whispery black metal vocals. Most of the songs, well all of the songs started with excerpts from movies or news. The crashing thunderous first chord for the first song and the fourth song came complete with out-of-tune introductory solos. A few seconds later, your typical thrash chops and riffs came galloping down. 

5- The sound of the guitar is way too murky for my taste. The bass is non existent thus making the whole damn CD felt too percussive. The solo. Man, where should I start with the solos. I was having an extremely difficult time swallowing the solos. Way out of tune and the notes were all over the place. The soloist obviously was not prepared to do the record. Dude, word of advice, plan your solos properly before you record. 

6- All in all. The stuff is pretty much decent with a couple of highlights on the riff department here and there but the solos really killed everything for me. Kudos to the drummer for trying his hard to hold the songs in place. As much as I tried to appreciate the vocals, but feline shrieks does not sit well with my ears. Sorry.