Reviews: The Non Metal Reviews Vol.1 no comments

DISASTER FUNHOUSE / HOODED - Split (2012)

Alternative Label/Distribution | Ancaman Production | Quiet Still Dead Records

The only reason why I bought this CD was Disaster Funhouse, a local household name in Malaysian HC scene, making a comeback after God knows how many years of hiatus. Boy, was I in for a treat, Disaster Funhouse did not disappoint. This CD contains 13 songs with Hooded, an excellent HC band from Bandung, Indonesia, contributing 7 songs while the remaining 6 were contributed by Disaster Funhouse. Hooded played angry, old school with a bit of touch of modern HC while DF maintained their signature NYHC Warzone-esque brand of HC. Heavy, fast, straight to your face old School HC, the way it should be played. According to the sleeve, the songs which were featured in this CD were recorded way back in 2004. I do not know why, DF chose not to release this fine piece of music back then, but I am glad they chose to release it anyway. It came with a nice gatefold sleeve and a lyric sheet, complete with English explanations about each of the songs featured. Highly recommended. Email the labels at: ancamanfanzine@yahoo.com or anakmuda@gmail.com or quietstilldeadrecords@yahoo.com

THE EVERYDAY – Globalisasi Retromodlist CD (?)

Youth Culture Records

Retro rock. The one band that came to mind when I first listened to this 4 piece of a band is The Times, especially the lazy vocal parts. The lyrics were a bit cheesy, not really to my liking, although the music is moderately decent. Oh, one more thing, get a real drummer, boys. 

BACTERIOSTATIC - Demo (2012)

Self released

Bacteriostatic ia a new three piece melodic punk rock outfit from Kulai, Johor. This demo contains 8 highly infectious and well written melodic punk rock tunes. The lyrics mostly talks about friendship, trendies and humanity. The quality of the sound is decent, with the bass is high on the mix while the drums were a bit at the back. I can barely listen to the sound of the bass drums. But all in all, this band has a high sense of melody that I can tell. The CDR demo came with a lyric sheet. Email the band at d_maggot_crusher@yahoo.com.my 

SOUL SAVIOR - Punk My Ride CD (2010)

Nervhous Records

This CD was released in 2010 so it is quite an old release. First look at the band’s logo I seriously thought that this was a heavy/power metal band or some shit, but no, Soul Savior is a chilled out melodic punk rock band from Patin rock city of Temerloh Pahang. Less the vocals, the band plays this chilled out punk rock tunes in the veins of NOFX, Propagandhi and Bad Religion. I kept mentioning chilled out, right? That was due to the way the singer sang their songs; chilled and relaxed, despite the fast and energetic blistering punk rock music that he is singing to. Kind of like Chris Cornell. The CD contains 8 highly melodic ear candies with lyrics about having fun and poetic interpretation of life with little pokes on modern day ideological nonsense here and there. Seriously, I had fun reading the lyrics. The words crafted for Running Out of Life and Romanticizing the Revolution were some deep and heavy poetic shits, man. The sound quality is very good even though the bass is barely audible. Maybe a couple of notch up on the treble knot would do the trick. The guitars were clean despite the never ending buzzsaw activities through out the CD. This CD is enjoyable. One listen and I am already humming the riffs. If you like MTV Punk rock, then you will want to give this band a listen. Contact the band at www.facebook.com/soulsavior

Books: Iron Maiden In The Studio - The Stories Behind Every Album. no comments

Iron Maiden In The Studio - The Stories Behind Every Album.

Title: Iron Maiden In The Studio - The Stories Behind Every Album.
Authors: Jake Brown
Publisher: John Blake Publishing - 2011.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 235 Pages, RM 89.90, Kinokuniya Bookstore Kuala Lumpur.

1. Iron Maiden is one of the most successful metal band of all time. The influence that these old geezers managed to spread was beyond boundaries. I bought this book because its a book about Iron Maiden, I would be crazy to pass this on.

2. My first experience with Iron Maiden was when I was still schooling. I was still learning the ropes about what metal was all about. A fellow metalhead classmate dubbed me a compilation tape consisting of bands that I should pay attention to. I got my first dose of Carcass from that old tape, and of course Iron Maiden. What better ways to be introduced to Maiden, if not with Run To The Hills?

3. Known for being extremely melodic, cheesy catchy twin guitar leads, the infamous galloping rhythm sections, 5 octave craze by their frontman/airplane pilot and sing along choruses to top it all, Iron Maiden sure knew how to make our heads bang to the max. 

4. As the title of the book clarified, this book was about war stories behind each and every Maiden album, from the first self titled debut back in 1980 to the latest album, The Final Frontier which was released back in 2010. 

5. The 235 page thick book was divided into 16 chapters, one for every album, with the sixteenth chapter was dedicated to Eddie, the long time mascot of Maiden. Overall, the book dug the idea, the core and the in depth elaboration about each and every album and songs released by the band. You know, who wrote what and why. All that mumbo jumbos that only their hardcore fans would be able to appreciate.

6. Be very cautious though that this book is not an autobiography of the band but it would suit well as an additional read to any Maiden autobiography that you got in your collection. 

Interviews: Malapetaka. no comments

I wrote about them a couple of weeks ago, and here you have it, the interview that I made with them. I got Boon, the vocalist and Ashok, the guitarist of Kuala Lumpur Death Thrash metal band, Malapetaka to answer a few questions about the band. Well, I guess I am easily excited about new Malaysian bands coming out of the woodwork, playing heavy metal. So please, read through to learn more about Malapetaka, the newest inclusion to the Malaysian regiment of heavy metal band.

[TBB] Hello brothers, can you please let the readers know who is currently answering the question?

First of all, thank you brother, for giving us this interview. Hail to all our brothers and sisters in metal, this is vocalist, Boon and guitarist, Ashok here, from Malapetaka. 

[TBB] Can you please give a brief detail about the history and formation of the band? Who is the current line up?

[Boon] The band started late in 2009, with Abu (former rhythm guitarist) and Ashok (current main guitar) wanting to form a band, together, they recruited me, Boon as the vocalist, Alias as the bassist, and finally Azmer as the drummer.

[Ashok] We started because of our great appreciation for metal in general. And we have come a long way from covering our favourite metal songs to creating our own songs, sadly Abu left due to personal reason, but we are still going strong, learning and improving. For the passion, For Metal \m/

[TBB] Why Malapetaka? What does the name mean to you? Its sounds pretty metal though (laughs). I love the logo. Who made it?

[Boon] Thanks, haha, There were lots of suggestion that we came up with when it comes to name, but when Ashok suggested Malapetaka, it just sounds right to us. From calamity, rises devastation, from disaster rises suffering. Its origin, from sanskrit pronounced as mahā-pātaka, defines it as "the resultant actions of greatly sinful activities". 

[Ashok] I work as a designer when I'm not raping the guitar, so it was inevitably designed by myself, haha.

[TBB] Can you tell the readers more about the type of music that you play. Its death thrash right? Can you name any influences?

[Boon] In essence we are playing death thrash nusantara. Our riffs and drums are very thrash and death influenced, while we still managed to mix some nusantara sounds into it. We are still experimenting with new ideas to deliver our songs so keep a lookout. 

[Ashok] Some of our influences collectively are Kreator, Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Death, Metallica, Napalm Death, Nile, Cromok, Terrorizer, Opeth and more.

[TBB] Malapetaka released a 3 track promo. Can you tell us more about the promo? Is it still available?

[Boon] The current 3 track promo is still available on our facebook page for download. The 3 tracks are 1.Purity in calamity (instrumental) 2. Malapetaka 3. Manmade Prophecy. 

[TBB] I like the structure of the songs in the promo but the guitar playing was not as tight as Ive hoped for. It lacked synchronicity in the doubling department. Are you satisfied with the promo?

[Ashok] It was a first time experience for us to do a recording and we opted for live recording due to budget. Myself personally think we could do a lot better and for our next recording we would be more prepared as we somewhat know the drill now ;)

[Boon] Overall, we did try our best, but we will still keep on practicing hard and experimenting to deliver the best to our listeners. 

[TBB] I have to give you kudos for the solos. Its kinda weird at first listening to a Malaysian traditional melody made into a metal solo, but I guess its an attempt to be original, something that I can appreciate. Who came up with the idea to put that kind of solos into the song? Will we be getting a lot more of that in the future release?

[Boon] Haha! Thanks again, that was very sharp of you to notice it.

[Ashok] Yes it's our humble attempt to inject something that we could differentiate our style. I didn't want our band to be just another thrash band. For example if you see how chuck's (Death) solos, one could never decipher what goes through his mind as he makes these solos and that my friends is simply what makes it unique as hell. Initially I got the ideas by listening to a handful of traditional tunes not just from Malaysia but even from Indonesia and also bands like Nile, Melechesh, Sil Khannaz etc who has been doing this for many years now. And yes, there's more to come from us! Haha

[TBB] I was made to understand that you will be entering the studio to record your first full length. Any new updates that you would like to share? How many song will Malapetaka record?

[Boon] Its not actually full length, but a proper demo, which consists of 5 songs which we have finalized so far: 1. Purity in Calamity 2. Malapetaka 3. Manmade Prophecy 4. Death Desensitized 5. Kejahilan Minda.

[Ashok] There is however a whole lot more songs coming up in the making. We hope to find a deal with this demo which would allow us to do a proper full length in the future.

[TBB] Has the band been getting exposures through gigs? How many gig have you guys played so far? How can a promoter contact Malapetaka if they were to invite you to perform?

[Boon] We have only performed in 1 gig so far. haha. Our debut performance was at H2H gig in Heartshape Studio, and of course we would love to perform live more. 

[Ashok] yup we are definitely looking forward to play more shows. Please get in touch with us via email: malapetaka.kl@gmail.com or just give us a shout through our FB: www.facebook.com/malapetaka.kl

[TBB] Any last word for the readers of the Bullet Belt Blog and the Malaysian Metal scene in general?

[Ashok] Thank you Hafeez for the spotlight, keep up the metal flame and metal spirit on. Hails!

[Boon] For the Bullet Belt Blog readers thank you for the support! We hope to see you soon at our shows! \m/ and do keep a watch out for us, because Malapetaka comes without warning!

So, there you have it. All you need to know about Malapetaka. Promoters, please contact them if you are interested to get them to play at your shows. And labels out there, please feel free to drop them a line. Malaysian death metal at its finest. Give a listen to their promo tracks:

Malapetaka : Purity in Calamity & Malapetaka (Demo) 
Malapetaka : Man Made Prophecy