Videos: Grindcore - 85 Minutes of Brutal Heavy Music. no comments

Grindcore: 85 Minutes of brutal Heavy Metal | 85 minutes | Unknown | 2003 (posibbly 1990-1991)

1. I have to make one thing clear. I watched this documentary on Youtube and I was not able to find who or what company produced this documentary. Although the name of the video is Grindcore, there were only 2 grindcore bands featured in the documentary, which was a bit frustrating since I was hoping to dig more into the origins of the grindcore scene.

2. Beside Napalm Death and Carcass, being the only two aforementioned grindcore bands featured in the video, other bands were from a mish mash variety of genres. So calling this video, Grindcore: 85 Minutes of Brutal Heavy Music, was a little bit misleading. Well, of course you will get the guys from Napalm Death, Carcass and a few other individuals having a go at explaining the music, it does not give that much information.

3. Having said that, despite the misleading title, this documentary was a fun documentary to watch. Some of the now known bands featured in the video, among others, were Napalm Death, Carcass, Morbid Angel, Paradise Lost, Godflesh and Bolt Thrower. Others that were quite new to me, among others were Prophecy of Doom, Nocturnus, Cerebral Fix and Vengeance Rising.

4. One individual gave an explanation on defining grindcore as “Death Metal with a thoughtful edge”. Well, to me grindcore is an amalgamation of Metal and US Hardcore Punk. Its like having some heavy metal musician having a go at playing hardcore punk music. Cross over and Grindcore came out from that womb. Thus the reason why it was widely known as grindcore and not grind metal. The heaviness and virtuosity came from Metal while the speed and politically conscious lyrics came from Hardcore Punk.

5. Why was the music played at supersonic speed? It all boiled down to the wanting to create the utmost extreme, utmost heaviest, fastest music ever. Thrash Metal took heavy metal and turned up the BPMs. Grindcore took Thrash Metal, mix it with Hardcore Punk and went speed of light. I believe this was also the reason why most Grindcore music was minimal and punkish. The lesser notes you got to hit, the easier for you to go for the speed.

6. I was also got hooked with a couple of bands through this documentary. For example, now I know Cerebral Fix, a thrashy death metal band from Birmingham, with 4 albums under their bullet belts, and I have been banging their albums through the speakers on daily basis now. Their bass player, Frank Healy (who previously played guitars for Napalm Death) went on to join Benediction after the Cerebral Fix broke up. Nocturnus, for example, played this weird technical death metal (shreds and all) with some nasty psychedelic keyboard shit, and it was extremely mind blowing. Vengeance Rising was a Christian Death Metal band. Wait.. what?

7. What confuses me the most was the year this video got released. Everywhere on the internet, the video was stated as being released in 2003. But the style and quality of the videos were very much early 90s. And I was right. I truly believe that the video was shot somewhere between 1990 and 1991 since Cerebral Fix broke up in 1993. Their song which was featured in the video was from their second album, which was released in 1990.

8. You can watch this on Youtube. Its fun and who knows, you might get into one or two bands that you never heard of before.  

Books: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 2 comments

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Title: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
Authors: Joel McIver.
Publisher: Omnibus Press. - 2011
Additional Information: Paperback, 402 Pages, RM 8.00, Big Bad Wolf Bookfest.

1. This is the book detailing the history, the highs and lows of the worldly recognized grand daddy of heavy metal, the grand daddy of them all, Black Sabbath. Whether you are fan or you are not a fan of the band, if you consider yourself a metal fan, you must know this name, Black Sabbath. If you dont, then you should jump off a bridge and die a metal sinner.

2. Well, metal sinner or not, I have to admit that I am not really a big fan of the band. I understood and acknowledge their massive contribution to metal, they pioneered the damn music, how much more big of a contribution you need? But again, the same as my relation with KISS, being a newer generation of metal fans, with sets of ideas on how my metal should sound like, the sludgy and doomy type of proto-metal of the early Sabbath were really not my cup of tea.

3. Having said that, I am still in the midst of slowly introducing myself to the sound of Black Sabbath and what a better way to assist my journey then with a copy of this biography, authored by my favorite metal biographer and archivist of all time, Mr. Joel McIver. To be honest, I picked up this book specifically because it was written by McIver. If it was by another author, I would just leave it there, untouched, uninterested.

4. At the first instance I knew it was written by McIver, I picked it up straight away. Well, I was at a bookfest at 2.00 AM in the morning and the book was only for a measly RM8.00, it was a bloody no brainer. Well, despite its being dirt cheap and all, I still stress that the main factor I bought this book was McIver. 

5. Whats all this fuss about McIver? Well, first of all I have already bought 3 of his other books namely the Metallica autobio (which I just found out that I have yet to write about), the Slayer autobio and the Cliff Burton autobio, so I basically knew what am I getting myself into. One other thing, I once received an email from the guy thanking me about the reviews, so I got no other choice but to give high praise about the guy. He personally emailed me, godammit!

6. This book is 402 page thick, which were divided into 3 parts. These parts, each one for a different era of the band was further divided into 31 chapters in the typical McIver fashion, according to the years and phase of the band. The details were extremely grim and your head will explode due to over excess of information, which is why I like and appreciate McIver's work so much. If I were to write a book about the history of Cromok (Malaysian Thrash Metal legend, whether you like it or not, yes you, I am looking at you, Mr.You know who you are), it shall be in this exact style.

7. The book touched on the early formative years of the band with the infamous Ozzy Osbourne, the inevitable split between the two, the Dio years as well as other singers trying hard to fill the unfillable (if there is such a word) shoes of Ozzy and Dio, rotating number of drummers and bass players, the entering and outing of Bill Ward, the release of "other" Black Sabbath albums, up to the year 2011.

8. It turns out that this review was really about McIver then Black Sabbath, is it not? Well, if you are a fan of the band, the you must pick this one up since it is a very good read with a lot of information about the greatest metal band of all time, Black fuckin Sabbath. 

Reviews: Jugra Promo 01 no comments

JUGRA

1. The front man of the band and I got acquainted via Facebook and he then emailed me the promo of his band, Jugra, for us to review in the Bullet Belt. I have heard of the name of the band before but I have never got the time to check them out. Thankfully the band were kind enough to send me the promo.

2. Being a history buff myself, I was first attracted to the name of the band. Jugra is a name of a historical place here in Malaysia. Well, lets get down to business. Jugra is a three piece band hailing from Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The band consists of Daeng Andika on guitars and vocals, Daeng Kepalang on bass and vocals and Daeng Lumania on drums. If I got my facts correct, Daeng Andika is also the same person behind Singhasari, one of the better new black metal band that got into my radar a couple of years ago. 

3. What about the music? The music is a weird mixture of street rock with black metal vocals, something that I am not that familiar with. I appreciate the effort in trying to be original though. The 3 track promo started with an ambient intro of Malay traditional instrumentation, something I am quite familiar with since I used to follow my late grandfather to events playing these type of instrumentation, in my younger days. 

4. The guitars were high on the mix, something that I can really appreciate. The bass were audible while drums were losing the bass drum sound. Over all, the actual songs that were featured in the promo have that thick street rock vibe. Its like listening to 4 Skins or The Oppressed but with black metal vocals. No, this is not Black And Roll or is it? I dont know, I can not really make them out. But I guess it is safe to say that this is the closest thing you that can get here as far as Black And Roll goes. Awesome.