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

Rants: Free Logo Designs for Metal bands. no comments

1. Drawing was one of my favorite past time when I was still a Kampung kid, growing up all innocent and unmetal back in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. I would draw comics, cartoons, action figures and what nots. and gave it out friends and families for free.  My 80 page brown exercise book that I would use for homework most of the time will always end up 70 pages short.

2. When I first started to flirt with heavy metal back in high school, I like to draw logos for imaginary bands.  I would design sleeves and make up song titles for my imaginary bands. I never took my logo designing skill seriously and it never went to any higher level, and university happens. Until a couple months ago when I started to draw logos for a couple of bands from all around the world for fun (well, at least at the moment, I dont think it will get to be THAT serious though), my fascination with logo designing rekindled.

3. For the local bands, if you think your current logo sucks and are in need of a new logo, then you can email me at benignism@yahoo.com and I will try and see if I can work my magic out for you and your band. Payments? Nah, I dont think I would need any payments at the moment, because if I were to take payments, if I were to charge you for the logos, that would mean I will have to pick the pesky aftersales responsibilities and shits, which I got no time for. But if you were to use the logo that I have designed for you, a couple of free CDs or Tshirts would do no harm. Hahaha.

4. Conditions: Your band must be a serious band (not just a weekend jam bands), with your own original songs with plans to release them in near future or at least, your band have already been playing gigs and shows. Not that I am picky (which I usually am) or something, but when you are doing free shits, you would want to expect that the free shits were utilised and appreciated. Jam bands dont bother wasting my time. Email me the details below:

1. Band name:
2. Genre:
3. From:
4. Preferred colour:
5. Other band logos that you like:
6. Website/Facebook/Bandcamp page: (no band page, no logo)

Email it to: benignism@yahoo.com

Some of the logos that were made by me, out of boredom.

Maqabir - Malaysian Atmospheric Black Metal

Mhourong - Malaysian Experimental Black Metal

Spectrelight Recordings - Canadian Based Label

Salvation Lies Within - Some metalcore band from UK or something

Filsufatia - Malaysian Depressive Melancholic Black Metal

For more samples of logos that were designed by me, click HERE.

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.