Videos - Sil Khannaz Rockumentari: 1 comments

The first of its kind, finally a (local made) documentary about a local Malaysian underground death metal band and the mighty Sil Khannaz was without any doubt a well deserving and document worthy band in my book. Sil Khannaz is one of the more popular and well recognized death metal bands in the local heavy metal circuit today and one of the few bands (the only?) who stuck with their guns from day one against the neverending assaults from the government, media and the society since the 90’s.

Having formed way back in the 80s somewhere in the gloomy land called Perlis, a small state located in the northern part of Malaysia, Sil Khannaz had evolved (and is still evolving I guess) from playing thrash covers to straight no bullshit death metal in their early demos and debut album titled Conception of Madness, progressive death metal in their controversial Gerbang Kayangan album and melodic death metal in their latest album Berdiri Antara Panji-Panji.

This 2005 documentary was produced by Nebiula Production, the bands’ own independent record label and it mainly contains music videos, early concerts and interviews with the members of the band, the fans and a number of local veteran heavy metal enthusiasts illustrating the colorful history of the band and its undeniable influence to the local death metal scene and Malaysian metal as a whole.

Unfortunately the narration and the interviews were all conducted in the Malay language since I think it was only targeting the local market and was not really meant for an international release except to a few neighbouring Malay speaking countries in the likes of Indonesia and Singapore.

The only frustration I had was that it did not include any interviews from any former members of the band from the earlier version of the band except for an undersized and brief commentary from their previous guitar who played the guitars in their highly acclaimed debut album. Apart from that slight disappointment, this video was a decent documentary of the band. A must for every Sil Khannaz fans.

Bands - Vermillion: no comments

Due to my hectic day job, I totally forgot about this one interview request that I had made to this one nasty melodic death metal band called Vermillion. Do you want a Gothenberg sound and worship the ground In Flames walked? Have you been dreaming about Angela Gossow (archenemy) tearing your ears lobes lately? Have you been wanking off a centerfold poster of Jessica Alba lately? Then I give you Vermillion that has nothing to do with Jessica Alba.

VERMILLION

Vermillion is a talented 5 piece melodic metal band from the muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur. Nothing new there except for the fact that this is an all girl band. Nothing new there either. What ever!

Besides the talented Singaporean thrashers, Tormentress, and another local thrashers, Shewolves, I have to say that I have got to tip my hat to Vermillion for doing what they are doing. I am very impressed with the hair rising Gossowic vocals though. Extremely brutal. Even to the extent of being so much better than some of the wimpy growls from a number of our glorified local male metal core vocalists ever had nowadays. Another female growler that had me impressed with her growling skills is that girl from Predicate Not Define, couldn’t really remember her name though.

Musically, there is nothing complex nor impressive about the songs (2 to be exact) uploaded on their MySpace page, but I honestly do believe that within time they will be able to polish their instrumental skills giving all the other bands a long and tiring run for their money. The solos were mediocre in my book. Well at least she can damn solo. Haha. Even the drummer can drum better than me for God sake. One thing though, wipe out the core elements, go for pure death metal next time ladies. That would be a shocker.

Maybe the local heavy metal gig promoters should open their eyes and arms for this young and rising band. Put their name on the bill for the next metal camp 4 gig next year. Get them out off the lame metal core circle more often. Those wimps does not deserve Vermillion. We do. Haha.

Judging from the gig lists on their MySpace, I have got to say that these girls have been marking their territories all over the place, which is very good. Obviously they have been very busy gigging since 2008 with up to 20 performances under their belt. Impressive for a three year stint of gigging and I hope we will see more of them in the future.

Vermillion is Aca on vocals, Hana on lead guitar, Yaz on rhythm guitar, Syahnaz on bass and Alie on Drums.

VERMILLION MySpace

Bands - Brabazom: no comments

I have just finished doing my daily routine of religiously scouring the internet for any unknown Malaysian heavy metal bands that I would probably want to feature in this blog in the near future. I have made my search very specific this time around and for today’s session, Black Metal. I got it in the form of this one talented band from Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia, called Brabazom.

BRABAZOM

Brabazom is a six piece melodic black metal band that you would really want to pay attention to. From the songs uploaded in the band’s MySpage page (which I do believe were hauled out from their unveiling debut, a 3 track demo CD entitled Beast of Mortality which was released in 2009), I can tip my hat (my favorite phrase these days) to the execution of (thy unholy) instrument department, something, besides ear ringing melodies, that I have learnt to appreciate these days. A not so bad playing I must say.

The accumulation of the keyboard riffs and layers really adds some weight to the melodies and especially to the atmosphere of the songs. They totally have the ears for nice catchy melodies which I tend to concede and acknowledge. I would really like to hear more of that hopefully soon.

The band was formed in 2006 in Penang with the hideously ugly Brabazom Corpse as their first true moniker (haha). In 2009 being as self sufficient as they were, a three track demo was released in the form of Beast of Mortality. You will find some Hecate Enthroned in there, some later Dimmu in there and even some shades of As Sahar (a much glorified Singaporean/Malaysian black metal legend) were thrown in as well, especially during the slower parts where the band lets his keyboard player do his thing.

I am not going to tell anyone to be original because the fact is everybody have already done almost everything and finding the remaining portion of that almost would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I truly that this band would sharpen their musicianship skills, produce more listenable songs, throw in some more memorable lines, play some more gigs and finally write a thesis on what makes a good song good. I’ll give you a hint: Memorable hooks. Try and give this talented band a sincere listen, you wont waste a dime.

BRABAZOM MySpace