Covers - Langsuyr's The Eastern Cruelty: 3 comments

Hey, I am definitely getting the hang of doing this cover review series. Thank you MetalMark for this awesome inspiration. When I first had the idea to do this cover reviews series, there were a few album covers that flew straight into my head and made its way straight into my best album covers top ten list and this was one of them. Langsuyr’s The Eastern Cruelty EP cover which was released by Nebiula Production in 1996.

I was still a very naïve and young aspired metal head back when I first discovered this album in its cassette format on a shelve in a record store somewhere, and I have made it a mission to go and get this album. Why? Because I was attracted to the killer and evil cover artwork. Langsuyr is a Black Death metal band hailing from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia and one of the earlier bands whose music prototyped a whole new genre, the Eastern Metal. Eastern Metal basically was heavy metal, usually black metal with the incorporation of Malay occult and mystical theme usually lyrically and rarely image. It may sound a bit trendy today to have occult and mystical Malay poems as lyrics, but back then it was a very unique and original phenomenon. The name Langsuyr or langsuir was taken from the name of the deadliest banshee, the deadliest version of the numerous versions of Malay female vampires available in the Malay folklore.

If my memory serves me correctly, the artwork was drawn by the band’s drummer at that time and the logo was designed by the guitarist. I have to prefer the logo on this release compared to their original logo on their first demo or any of their later releases. The Eastern Cruelty logo depicted the name of the band covered in flames. I loved the details and for me it has a very evil, wicked and eastern black magical atmosphere.

Let us examine the cover. The cover consists of the image of a seven headed dragon most probably as a reverence to one of their songs included in the EP entitled The Seven Headed Dragon of Pelangi. Pelangi is a Malay word for the rainbow. In the middle of the chaotic swerves and swirls of the dragon’s heads, sits a menacing looking female figure with a sinister grin which I believe to be a Malay female shaman. This was due to her being drawn holding an incense tray with her left hand in a position to cast a spell. It could have been the lady langsuir herself. Notice the long, sharp and disturbing fingernails?

I adored every bit of details available in this artwork. It seems that the dragon drawing and the female figure drawing were actually two pieces of artwork pasted together. Note the white line outlining the female figure? Although another explanation would explicate that the method of outlining a figure in an artwork is actually normal in order to highlight a particular character. Fair enough. Although I am no expert in art and the quality of an artwork, I would really like to believe that the whole The Eastern Cruelty artwork was drawn using colored pencils. The precision is excruciatingly well decorated. This cover will always be one of the best decorated album cover in my view.

Get in touch with Langsuyr:
www.myspace.com/langsuyrband

Covers - Claw's Summoning The Darkness: no comments

One of my favorite blog is MetalMark. I enjoyed reading his thoughts and personal views on all things metal. There is this one column in his blog that I enjoyed reading called Clash of the Album Covers, where MetalMark would post two or more album covers and later let his readers choose and decide their preference. It was fun reading the hilarious and side-splitting comments from his readers and MetalMark would occasionally give his own personal views and favorites. I decided to put out something similar but it would not be another Clash of the Album Covers rip off. It would be much more comparable to what MetalMark and his friends were doing in A Whole Lotta Album Covers, but since The Bullet Belt will only be concentrating on Malaysian Heavy Metal scene, it is obvious that I will only write about Malaysian Metal album covers. This will be fun I hope.

I shall start with Claw’s Summoning the Darkness 2009 demo cover. Claw is a promising grim and raw black metal band from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In Malaysia, this grim and raw type black metal sound is popularly known and labeled as Black Metal Hutan. Hutan is a malay word for forest. The sound was so grim, raw and primitive it must have been recorded primitively in some deep jungle some where, thus the term Forest Black Metal. Hey, that might just have been a new unique genre there if the bands could just throw in some unique trademarks. Well, as for the band, they have managed to release two well received demos and a four way split tape in 2008 since their inception into blasphemy in 2004. Summoning the Darkness was their most recent demo released through the dedicated Morbid Invasion Records. Some native tribesman out there in the deepest jungle, who must have engineered the demo, must have been really proud.

I personally loved the new Claw logo. I personally think that it caught the grimness of the band. It’s definitely eviler and desecrating compared to the old 2007 logo. The old logo reminded me of a logo used by a death metal band from South America, unfortunately I forgot the name of the band. The fact that the logo was nicely designed in symmetry and was colored white rather than the typical black, made it more captivating, if I may say so. Let us examine the picture on the cover. The cover depicted a grayscale photo of a dusky, foggy and yet very icy mountain top complete with its dry and rather pale forestry gloominess. The fact that the mountain was kind of covered with snow was a bit a turning off switch for me since there are no icy mountains in Malaysia. Or is it me being bad in geography? This is not Norway mates. Again, this was also, to my eyes, a perfect illustration and representation of the band’s style of music. The cover was indeed very atmospheric. The perfect mishmash of dark, cold and gloomy atmosphere made it to be as one of the most perfect album cover in 2009, well at least for me if we were to exclude the snow.

Get in touch with Claw: http://claw-kvlt.blogspot.com/

Bands - Imperial 3 comments

It has been quite a while since my first post about Malaysian bands. I have been in contact with quite a few highly potential bands for a feature post in this small timer blog and hopefully, with my endless devotion in promoting this blog, The Bullet Belt can compose, at least, an undersized scrap of contribution and input in promoting these bands featured in this blog in the future. There are plans for a wider scale promotion that have been flying in and out of my mind for quite a while, but I am still trying to sort things out and in time needed to stretch out these strategies upfront for the approvals of the bands respectively. I am calling it, Tali Pinggang Peluru Presents (malay for The Bullet Belt Presents). Fingers crossed.

So, what do we have here? The second band that I deem fit for a feature post in this blog is this one band called Imperial. Imperial is, well, at least for me although denied by the band’s founding member, primary songwriter and guitarist, Mr.Zarim, in an interview I made with him recently, a Black Metal band from Kuala Lumpur, the heart and focal point of Malaysia. Imperial is no new comer to the local metal scene. Started way back in 1993 with a demo entitled “Enslave” released in 1994. Heavily influenced by Scandinavian bands in the likes of Darkthrone, Samael and yes, Emperor, the band marched through 1995 with another demo entitled “Emperor of The Hordes”. Wow! Enslaved and Emperor would be so proud. “Emperor of The Horde” established Imperial as one of the many prominent Black Metal outfit hailing from the center of the Kuala Lumpur city in the instance of Aradia and Misantrope. Emperors in their own distinctive metal league.

The band played a number of gigs through out the country and was in the midst of preparing for the recording of their debut EP which was set for release, I believe somewhere in 1999 or 2000 under a local label called DreamWorldDecay, when the band faced internal and external conflicts and problems which resulted in the quitting of one of its founding member. Sadly, even though some of the new songs were already recorded, the EP idea was scrapped.

The band soldiered on and played their last show somewhere in 2001 before Imperial was officially put under and indefinite hiatus. The bands members concentrated on other normal commitments, the same normal commitments that usually become the main reason for the hindrance of progress of bands in Malaysia, like day jobs and families, sometimes or most of the time would lead to the disbandment and death of bands.

After 7 years of hibernating, the band members decided to reactivate the dragon and put forward their passion for music once again with the tying knot in the form of Imperial brotherhood. The new era of Imperial was celebrated and officialized with the release of their promo single entitled the Imm… oh, wait. No it is the “The Conqueror” this time. Haha, The single was released by Astral Lore Productions, one of the few remaining local labels who have stayed enthused in championing local black metal bands in Malaysia. The single was released in 2008. The debut album is currently in plans and the recording session is due to begin somewhere around august. Will the title of their new album contain the name of another scandanavian band? That would be the million dollar question. Immortal, Darkthrone and Satyricon will definitely be on the edge of their seats from now on. Haha.

Judging from the arrangement of The Conqueror, Imperial is set to rest on the formula of atmospheric, technical and progressive songs and the debut album, I believe, will contain strong feel for the atmosphere since synth will be fully utilized by the band. I have to suggest that this upcoming album should be a must for all heavy metal fans world wide for a dip and taste of Malaysian Progressive Black Metal, if labelling is inevitable, well, at least according to me. Again, this is a must for the fans of the later music of Emperor and Enslaved. The current line up of the band is composed of Zarim on guitars and Synths, Zam on vocals and bass, Jon on bass and second guitars and G-knight on the drums and percussions.

You can reach the Imperial Battlefront on their MySpace page
www.myspace.com/imperialbattlefront