Bands: Razed. no comments

Razed

1. It has been a while since I do a band feature here in The Bullet Belt. I blame Myspace for that. But when each and every time I came across a good band that writes good music, which is not that often nowadays (I guess being a bit older made me a bit more picky about the type and the quality of metal I listen to), my fingers would itch to write about it. The same reason why I am writing about this band. Razed.

2. The band, hailing from Bangsar/Shah Alam, was formed back in 2008 and consists of Danial on Bass, Adam Shahir on Drums, Amy on vocals and Raz Azraai on guitars. I came across Razed while I was browsing for cool band logos in Encyclopaedia Metallum. It was not their logo that drew me to them though, since their logo was too simple for my liking, it was their genre. The band was described as a hard rock band, so I was keen to give them a try. Luckily I found some of their tracks on youtube.

3. The tracks which was uploaded by the band themselves were taken from their 2011 EP titled Faith & Victory. The EP contains 6 tracks of pure heavy metal and hard rock awesomeness. I have to admit that I am not a big fan of Hard Rock, but I appreciate properly written songs. I am impressed with the arrangements especially the riffs and solos, nothing short of virtuosity there.  The vocals were impressive too. The drums were not something that you can call extremely technical, but it compliments the arrangement for each of their songs.

4. Music wise, its heavy, its rocking and its fucking groovy (which is always an A point in my book). There was a southern rock edge to it. Its like Pantera (The Great Southern Trendkill album Pantera) with a Phil Anselmo high notes and James Hetfield gruff barks hybrid (the Black album Hetfield) singing. You should try this one. Get in touch with the band.

LATEST UPDATE:

i. Well, when you got a latest update section for a fresh post, it is obvious that you got some of the infos about the band slightly wrong. Well, I have been in contact with the main man behind the band, Raz, and he managed to fill me in with the latest development of the band. The current line of the band is Raz - guitars, Aidil - Drums, Gurdev - vocals and Danial - Bass.

ii. Oh yeah, one more thing. They dont play southern-esque heavy metal anymore. Based on the new song which was released recently, the band made a 90 degree turn towards technical death metal. Yes. You read that right. Technical fuckin' Death Metal.

iii. The new song, Silver Kiss, was a pretty decent death metal track. You can try and give it a go HERE. The vocals were pretty good. The drums were superb. The riffs were tight as fuck but it lacked the swinging headbangable groove that made 90s death metal so enjoyable to us all. But thats just my personal preference.

iv. Thats the thing with modern death metal bands nowadays. Too much emphasis on technicalities. The other day, I tried browsing for new death metal bands and all I got were these complicated, technical and brutal death metal bands. I wish we could all just go back to the time when death metal was simple, when it was all about 3 riffs and tight groove sections. Nowadays bands are trying to put 132 riffs and 21 tempo changes in a song. I guess I am a bit carried away here. Haha.

v. What ever it is, Razed is a very potential band that you need to check out. Technical or no technical, at least its death metal and not another fucking metalcore band. Haha.

Razed | Facebook

  

Videos: Once Upon A Time In Norway no comments

Once Upon A Time In Norway | 6o Minutes | Grenzelos Production | 2007

1. Once Upon A Time In Norway - The History of Mayhem and the Rise of Norwegian Black Metal, is basically a documentary aiming focus on the most notorious Norwegian black metal band of all time, the self proclaimed leader of the second wave of Scandinavian Black Metal elite, the infamous, the notorious, Mayhem.

2. This documentary is basically the most comprehensive record on the subject of Mayhem up to the event that made them, their music and their country world famous, straight from the horse’s mouth, from the members and former members of the band. You’ll have in depth interviews with Manheim (drums), Messiah (vocals), Necrobutcher (bass) (all three were from the first line up of the band together with Destructor, later known as Euronymous) and the whole other lots related to the band.

3. The documentary kicked off with an audio statement made by Count Grishnack justifying his infamous  criminal act of killing Mayhem’s guitarist, Euronymous back in 1993. Basically with that, I have already managed to perceive where would the climax of this documentary be. With Mayhem being the main subject matter, I don’t really blame the producers of this video for this easy let down. It is also funny that with that, I was also able to guess that this documentary would not give length to the post murder Mayhem.

4. You will be able to learn about the history of the band, through the tongues of Necro, Manheim and the gang as they recounts the idealism and philosophy behind the band and its music back in their early formative years and how they plot for world domination way before they even got a song to their name. A serious marketing strategy there, if you want to learn a thing or two.

5. It is also revealing to note how Satanism (the idea not really the cult) and politics influenced the development of the band in their earlier years, especially left wing politics in the likes of communism (Leninism and Stalinism) and how Euronymous and Manheim were so into communism. Euro went to the extent of being a card carrying member of a local communist party.

6. I love the fact that they organized the film into segments. You will have segments in the likes of history, politics, underground, dead, church burnings and so forth depending on the focus of the particular part of the documentary. So the build up was bits by bit which was very good for me. And of course, the main course would be Grishnack, the murders and the existence of the notorious Inner Circle.

7. I read from the internet that there are a few people out there complaining that this documentary lacked depth for failing to really elaborate on the reason why the Norwegian Black Metal scene existed in the first place, comparing it to Until The Light Take Us. Now, thats too far, blasphemous even. 

8. Well, I have to disagree. This is a very very good documentary and light years away from UTLTU. UTLTU was a horrendous piece of crap. Information were provided everywhere by everyone. You just need to know how to piece up the puzzles. Well, if that does not convince you, at least this video does not have a tap dancing clown doing head bangs and pumping metal horns, all over the fucking floor.

9. In all honesty, I love this documentary. It was professionally produced and very well written and organized. If you worship Mayhem and black metal, then you should go out and get (download) this. Oh, one more thing, this documentary is in Norwegian. Unless you are proficient in the language, I would suggest you make sure that the subtitles are available.  

Releases: Filsufatia/Twilight Fauna split release. no comments

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