Bands - Hayagriva 3 comments

It has been a while since I left this blog without any updates what so ever. Day jobs consumed me and most of my time. Since I am still in my holidays, I guess I can spare a couple of seconds and write something on this blog. You can also safely say that this particular post is guilt ridden because it is guilt ridden, thanks to the lack of time in my department. Oh ya, above is an old picture of the band. But I am so in love with that picture I decided I wanna immortalize it here.

I have been trying to get a hold of this one particular hardworking band for months and finally to get some answers from the main man behind the band, Mr.Mantheravatee, the guitarist, was a definite relief. The in depth answers that Mantheravatee gave me made the wait a definite worthwhile. Another noteworthy Malaysian Black Horde.

Hayagriva is another great band originating from the breeding ground of all things heavy, the heavy metal land of Ipoh Perak, one of the two strongholds for heavy metal scene in Malaysia back in the days and the other one, being the unholy muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur. Playing what they called as Dark Shadow Metal, the music was basically melodic and atmospheric Black Metal with synths and keyboards for a much more melodious soundscape. What are the criteria for Shadow Metal? That, you have to ask them personally.

Being one of the most prominent bands in the Malaysian Metal circuit nowadays, Hayagriva is without a doubt one of the most hard-working band there is to have came out from the outskirts of Malaysia. Formed way back in the 90’s Hayagriva marched through as one of the few surviving Black Metal outfits that managed to battle through after the nasty media turmoil that shook the very core of all Malaysian heavy metal lovers with the banning of all things black, to an extent that you can get caught just for wearing a black shirt. To be honest I thought I would never be able to see another Black Metal band again.

Hayagriva first started off with a demo under its belt called The Lord of Never Ending Wrath (which is also the literal meaning of Hayagriva) which was released in 1995. Impressed with the demo, Ultra Hingax Productions (a local metal label) offered to release their debut EP entitled Silverian’s Art (Elegy Domain) which was later released in 1997. In 1998, teaming up with another cherished south eastern metal barbaric tyrant in the form of As Sahar, they released a split tape entitled Beyond Firmament. It took a few numbers of years before another new record from Hayagriva saw the light of day.

In the mean time, when I thought all Malaysian Black Metal bands died out from the first assault against Black Metal by the press and later by the government, Hayagriva was actually busy with their gigs and tours promoting their brand of music. By 2005, Hayagriva was already in the studio writing for their debut full length assault in the form of an album called Red Heaven. It took 2 years before the album was finally released and this was due to the second assault against Black Metal, the shifting of their studio and related issues pertaining to the line up of the band. The news of the new album quickly shook the dry Heavy Metal scene.

Red Heaven was a desecrating release indeed. Atmospheric and melodic with the proper and full utilization of the keyboards in creating a bigger and wider landscape around the melodic guitar riffs, Hayagriva soldiered on with the brand they called Shadow Metal. Although in my personal view, there are plenty of spaces filled with single riffs which would sound more melodic and in fact better if it were properly harmonized.

But I guess my prayers were answered when a few sample riffs for the new album were aired in a pre production clip they got on Youtube demonstrated a much more melodic guitar riffs. I did made known my fascination with the riffs.

To support the release of Red Heaven, Hayagriva occupied their time with gigs and the responses they got from the live crowd were nothing but positive including the crowd in Indonesia when they played in Surabaya and the heavy metal fans in Thailand when they played for them in Bangkok.

Even without the support of a Major label, Hayagriva managed to sell 1000 copies of Red Heaven, a figure that they can brag about judging from the poor buying rate due to the rampant downloading activities nowadays. It also shows that there are at least 1000 loyal Hayagriva fans that would support them no matter what.

The next album will be released early next year. I would like to see them on an intense tour around south east Asia. A talented band indeed thus we shall wait for the wrath of Hayagriva!

Bands - Black Abyss: 7 comments

My favorite sub-genre of Heavy Metal music is with out any shadow of a doubt would be Black Metal. The most controversial and the most terrifying form of heavy metal there is. It felt closer due to the gloomy and melancholic atmosphere that I tend to appreciate so much besides certainly being able to relate to its palpable constituent of self empowerment echoing through the prominent utilizations of the corpse paints, bullet belts and spikes. Terrifying but enchantingly autonomous.

One of Malaysia’s most assiduous Black Metal regiment was this band called Black Abyss. Despite the simple and memorizable name that the band opted to use as a moniker, it also gives you an idea about the music they play; straight to your face raw and deep rooting black fucking metal.

I personally am very idyllic to witness the continuing existence and the survival of Black Metal bands in Malaysia. This was despite the burdening pressure and constant prejudicial scorns from both the fearful society and the powers that be upon the music, to the extent of the outright banning of the music a few years ago. At one point, I even thought that I will never be able to see another Malaysian Black Metal band again. I was so wrong. Malaysian Black Metal survived. Thank God for that (Oh, the irony. Haha)

Black Abyss is a black metal assault team hailing from Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, playing black metal in the veins of Burzum and Darkthrone except Black Abyss tends to go faster. The band also put forward one local Black Metal band, Bazzah as one of their favorites. Bazzah’s album Death Is All I See was one of those sought after rare oriental Black Metal gems from Malaysia, popular due to the fact that it was told that a huge amount of the album were seized and burned by the Malaysian authority during the government’s crusade against Black Metal back in those days. Bazzah gained cult status shortly after that.


According to Impaler, the band’s drummer, Black Abyss, formerly known as Goatvomit, was founded in 2003 as a guitarist and drummer duo band. It was only in 2006 that Black Abyss finally managed to secure a stable and steady line up to record their eponymous debut, When Sky Comes Black demo.

For a Malaysian band playing evil music in a country where all things black were despised and cursed to die, being able to sell and clear out 500 copies of compact discs containing 3 goat worshipping hell plundering black metal tracks, in my opinion deserves a bragging right and Black Abyss did just that.

The “When Sky Comes Black” demo received mainly positive reviews from all over the world especially from those lurking fanatic black metal fans from China, Sweden, Colombia, Singapore and United States. One review mentioned that the sound quality of “When Sky Comes Black” demo was so well polished for a black metal band that it would be a minor obstacle for the more primitive black metal fans to enjoy, an indication that sound quality was an important and fundamental substance to each and every one of the talented gentlemen behind Black Abyss.

Black Abyss have been playing gigs and shows to support the demo and one of the highlight was when they were given the opportunity to open for As Sahar, one of the most renowned and celebrated black metal band in Malaysia during the latter’s showcase a few months ago to support the release of their latest album. As a new and upcoming assault regiment war fronting the Malaysian black metal battle horde (I love using all these cool black metal phrases), the fans have been more than eager to support this talented band.

All their sweat, blood and hard work in putting out and promoting “When Sky Comes Black” finally pays off when Black Abyss was offered a record deal by two prominent black metal labels expressing their interest to release future materials by Black Abyss, one from Sweden and the other being Funeral Moonlight Productions, a dedicated pure underground black metal label hailing from Shanghai, China, with China’s own highly acclaimed depressive black metal band Original Sin in the label’s band roster. Funeral Moonlight Production will be distributing the debut full length of Black Abyss. The album entitled Funeralchrist, which will be released somewhere in December this year, will, hopefully, provide international exposure and worldwide recognition for Black Abyss thus once again putting Malaysian Black Metal on the map.

Besides the full length under Funeral Moonlight Production, Black Abyss will be involved and participating in numerous split projects and one of the projects being a split cassette release with Thailand speed raw black metal, Plaguebringer under Hellhouse productions. Another split cassette release with a Columbian raw black metal band, Tzelmoth, will also be released somewhere in September this year under Florida’s Lux Ferre Records. A four way split release under local’s Kvlt666 Production are also on its way subject for release by the end of this year. I guess it will be a very busy year for Black Abyss.

I do believe that this hard working band have what it takes to succeed. Feel free to visit Black Abyss and taste the conquering assault and triumphant sound of Malaysian Black Metal under the deathly siege of conservatism and narrow mindedness of Malaysia. Black Abyss current line up consist of Abyssic War on vocals and Guitars, Impaler on drums, Mordhthurnum on bass and Nershymn on guitars.

Black Abyss Myspace page:
www.myspace.com/stigamatacrush

Covers - Cromok's Forever In Time: no comments

One of the first few heavy metal records that I bought when I was still a younger version of me was this record of a local thrash metal legend called Cromok. I was caught awed when I first knew of the band and later on succumbed to the beauty of the oriental melodies neatly incorporated in every thrash metallic notes, chords and riffs in each and every song in this album. Mesmerizing. The album was released in 1993 by EMI.

Cromok was considered by many local metal heads as a legendary band in its own right. The band was formed in the late 1987 when all the founding members were still these four young long haired foreign students struggling to survive Australia. The good ol’ down under. By time, they have harvested a huge underground following and gained reputation and respect as the most popular Asian Thrash Metal band amongst the blond underground Australian head bangers at that time. They were so popular; to an extent the band was offered an opening slot for a Motorhead concert when Lemmy Kilmister and co was touring the country. The gig was unfortunately turned down by the band.

Enough about the band let us now examine the artwork. The cover depicted the head of a metal unicorn in its entire splendor. The unicorn has been a known trademark for the band since day one and appeared on the entire discography of the band except for one record which was Engraved in Eternity, a best of compilation released in 2003. I think it was indeed a very creative attempt to amalgamate the element of mysticism (unicorn being a mystic and mythical animal) and heavy metal (the metallic clad). To say that the artist envisioned an amalgamation between east and west would be a bit far fetched since I can’t really remember seeing unicorns being popularized as icons in any local myth or mystic tales.

It was rather odd to have a unicorn as a mascot since most of the Thrash Metal bands from that particular era, what more playing that type of music, were more keen towards explicit, horrific and sometime shocking images to embellish their record. The use of unicorns would give an impression that this was a tame band, although I have to admit that the band’s first record, Image of Purity which was released in 1991, was rather atrocious and ferocious in its own right compared to the songs available in Forever In Time. Maybe it suits the style, I don’t know. But still, it was one of the best cover for a local band, it is still is.