The Bullet Belt

Band - Filsufatia - RegretMMXV [2015]

2015-06-13T13:44:00.001+08:00

Filsufatia - RegretMMXV

You can now stream Filsufatia's new demo titled RegretMMXV here: https://filsufatia.bandcamp.com/album/regretmmxv

The demo contains 8 full length tracks including three re-recorded tracks from the bands debut demo titled The Euphony of Regression, which was originally released in 2006 while the remainder are new tracks recorded for the demo.

RegretMMXV marked the 10 year anniversary of the one man band. Filsufatia plays Melancholic Atmospheric Instrumental Black Metal exclusively and hails from the bleak shores of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Review - HEGYRA - Reenactment [2015]

2015-05-04T11:25:00.002+08:00

HEGYRA - Reenactment (2015)

1. Hegyra is not a newcomer in the local heavy metal scene. The band was formed way back in 2001 with one EP, Indelible Imprint, which was released in 2003, under the bands bullet belt. Now its 2015 and they are back with another opus in the form of a 5 song self released EP called Reenactment. Why it took them so long to release another material? I dont know.

2. Having said that, I gotta be honest here that I am not that familiar with the band or the bands previous work. I think I might have stumbled or heard about the band somewhere back in the day. Most probably back when I used to prowl Myspace in the look out for bands to feature in TheBulletBelt (those days were long gone though). Oh well.

3. I was actually approached by the band wanting to give me a promo/media copy of the CD. Being the good natured supportive guy that I am, I offered to buy it instead. You know, a proviso that if I end up not reviewing the CD, I wouldnt feel so bad about it. Haha.

4. When I first listened to the single, Until The End, on youtube, I was a bit skeptical with their Melodic Death Metal claim. I guess, the clean singing and the squeaky clean sound production threw me off balance a bit. Not another one those deathcore douchebags claiming to play "real metal" for credibility. But after a careful (and repeated) listening session (in order to write this review), there was indeed no metalcore bullcrap with this one what so ever. Thank you God.Thank you Hegyra.

5. Most of the tracks in Reenactment opened with decent Gothenberg style hooks which remained prevalent through out each and every song. That Soilwork/In Flames/At The Gates influences is extremely heavy in this EP. I have also detected a bit of Anthrax fun moshy thrash riff in the fourth track, Until The End, which was also the main single. It shows that it's not all Gothenberg up in this joint.

6. The vocals were that of a high pitch shriek, a little bit of deep growls here and there and a little bit of clean singing for some of the choruses. The clean singing harmonies were pitch perfect. My favorite track would be The Pain, which was short and on point. I am glad that there are no clean singing in this one.

7. Not saying that I am not a fan of clean singing, because I am, provided that its the right type of voice, the right type of melodies and in a correct type of music (Daarchlea did a good job with this). Melodic Death Metal is just not the type of music that bands should experiment with wimpy clean singing, in my opinion. Then again, that is just my personal taste.

8. If I am tasked to describe their type of music according to my ears, I would say Hegyra plays progressive melodic death metal. The guitar sound is clean. Maybe a little bit too clean for my taste. The riffs were decently Gothenberg enough for those who like this type of music. It just lacks the twin harmonic guitar attack to make it 100% Gothenberg.

9. The solos were okay, I guess. Some were melodic and some were a bit what-the-hell-was-he-thinking-when-he-played-that-Kirk Hammetty guitar solos that doesnt really contribute much to the department of being memorable. But then again, that is based on my personal taste. Some of you out there might end up liking it. Kirk Hammet was only good when Cliff Burton wrote his solos for him anyways.

10. The bass were too low in the mix. Either the bass gelled to much to the riffs or the guitar mix just overpowered the bass mix, either way, it is just unfortunate that I could not really hear the bass. Not saying that it's not there, its just too low. The drums sound was too clean and too clean. When you emphasis too much on the perfection of the sound, the human element of the playing would just went out and lost. Too bad.

11. This is release is not that bad. It's listenable. You just gotta let it creep into you with time. I disliked the EP on my first listen but now, I think, I can appreciate the EP for what it is. A good and solid melodic death metal music. Let us hope that the next release would be a little bit more loose and organic. Oh, guys, lose the clean singing and the crabcore guitarist stand in the video. Haha.

No! Just no!

12. For more info on how to purchase Reenactment, you can visit Hegyra at https://www.facebook.com/hegyra

Video - Filsufatia - Est Heres Ad Infinitum

2015-05-01T22:56:00.001+08:00

We have uploaded the first song from Malaysian one man depressive black metal band, Filsufatia. The song, Est Heres Ad Infinitum (the Heir to the Neverending) was taken from the bands upcoming demo, RegretMMXV which is set to release by the end of this year. RegretMMXV is a reworked, rearranged and rerecorded songs from the band's debut demo, Euphony of Regression, which was released back in 2006. The demo will also contain new songs including a new intro, a piano interlude and an outro. You can download the original Est Heres Ad Infinitum below.

DOWNLOAD

Visit Filsufatia at www.facebook.com/filsufatia

Download - Filsufatia - Echoes of the Yonder (2010)

2015-04-26T01:03:00.000+08:00

Filsufatia - Echoes of the Yonder [2010]

Back in 2010, after the release of Immortalis in 2009, Filsufatia ventured forward with its flirtations with atmospheric and depressive black metal with the release of another demo in that vein, Echoes of the Yonder. Thinking that the moniker, Filsufatia (a distortion of the word the philosopher in arabic), was a bit overly dramatic and compliment very little to the new direction of the band, Deep (the man behind Filsufatia) opted to use his name instead. The band was called Deep for a couple of months and the demo was then released as a split under a local net lable, Hellkult Propaganda, with another local band, Animist, later in 2010. When the band changed it's name back to Filsufatia, the demo was rereleased as Echoes of the Yonder in that same year. This demo is now being redistributed for those who never got the chance to experience the evolution of the band. Enjoy.

DOWNLOAD

Download - Filsufatia - Immortalis (2009)

2015-04-13T16:50:00.003+08:00


Filsufatia - Immortalis [2009]

Filsufatia is an Atmospheric Melancholic Depressive Instrumental Black Metal one man band hailing from the cold and bleak shores of Malaysia. The band was formed back in 2005 as a bedroom project of it's prolific creator, Deep, playing mainly experimental symphonic extreme metal with 3 demos in the span of 3 years before dwelling into the further melancholic desolating obscurity of Depressive Black Metal. This demo is now being redistributed for those who never got the chance to experience the gradual progression of the band. Get in touch with the band via www.facebook.com/filsufatia

DOWNLOAD

Reviews - MALAPETAKA - Anthem of Annihilation [2015]

2015-04-11T17:24:00.002+08:00

MALAPETAKA - Anthem of Annihilation (2015)

Happy new year! It's 2015. Well it's 4 months too late I guess, but damn it, it's better late than never. The last update was way back in September, 2014. Well, who cares. Nobody reads this blog anyway. Well, except me from time to time. Having said that, it feels good to write something in here. Even if it's once every full moon.

So what's up? Malapetaka is up. This awesome death thrash band from Kuala Lumpur is at it again with a brand new 4 song EP titled Anthem of Annihilation. I have always been a fan of this band since their first demo, which was reviewed somewhere in this blog. Even though I have not been too kind with my review of their debut release, I have always followed their progress via their facebook page.

2014 saw the band hitting the stages with vengeance, playing local shows here and there and then went abroad to play in Nepal and India, damaging the ears of Indian and Nepalese metalheads with much gusto and wrath. At the end of 2014, some pictures were posted on their facebook page signalling a new record was in progress.

Anthem of Annihilation is a suiting title for this 4 song self released EP. The first song is called Ascendancy of Terror, clocking in at 6 minutes and 52 seconds. The track opened with the sounds from a battlefield, setting the sinister mood for the 6 minutes terror . The lead guitar intro was a few milliseconds off of the tempo though. There was an old megadeth vibe within the riff of the first verse. the solos were very very good here and then mid way through the song their nusantara influence kicked in in high gear.

The second song is Kejahilan Minda. A rerecorded track from their first demo. The nusantara/javanese influence in this one is extremely heavy. It's another brutal track. A slight setback for me regarding this song was the phrasing and timing of the vocals, which sometimes sounded a little bit off here and there. This usually happens when you got too long a lyric, and tried to fit all of the words in the verse. But that minor setback, does not in anyway take away the sheer brutality of the song. With a "growl along" chorus, I can see that this song be THE track for Malapetaka.

The third song was the song that was teased before the band put out the record officially. I was so impressed with Anthem of Annihilation, the song. The old Floridian death metal vibe is thick in this one. It had even made me think whether the band had changed it's course from their nusantara influenced death thrash to total death metal. Wait for the breakdown at 1:57. Heavy and brutal. The double lead in this one was just out of this world. There were also a bit of Gothenberg riffs being thrown in there as well. Excellent headbangable track through and through.

The fourth song is called Infernal Deconstruction and it started with an atmospheric serunai and rebab (malay traditional trumpet and skindrum respectively) sound. This song clocked in at 5 minutes and 45 second. Complete annihilation of eardrums. The center piece of this track is definitely its lyrics. Could have passed for any Cannibal Corpses lyrics anytime.

My favorite track would definitely be the third track, Anthem of Annihilation. It was the shortest track on the EP but it got everything that I loved about Malapetaka. Crazy ass solos, heavy midtempo breakdowns, dual harmonic riffages and you still get to experience that Malapetaka original nusantara sound. The lyrical theme for the song suited the track extremely well.

When I first got to listen to the promo track, the first thing that caught my little ears was the quality of the sound. The sound in this EP is a huge huge step forward compared to the dry sound of the debut. The guitars were heavy and perfectly mixed. The bass were audible enough for me to enjoy and the vocals were perfectly mixed in between. And then there was the drums. Oh my, where should I start with the drums? I loved the drum mix.

In my previous review, I commented that the drum playing were a bit off and unimaginative but knowing the fact that Naji (the drummer) joined the band several months before they went into the studio to record the demo, I toned down my comment and suggested that naji should be given more time to gel with the band and brush up his strokes. Guess what, in this EP, Naji owned every piece of the songs. Showing off his tremendous skills tearing apart the drum set and blasting double bass like nobodys business. More power to you Naji. Older metal guys, get your daughters to marry this guy, quick!

Awesome, awesome release. Recommended.

Get a copy of Malapetaka - Anthem of Annihilation by communicating directly with the band via their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/malapetaka.kl. Labels, get in touch with the boys, organizers, get your stages open for them. Thats an order.

*Nusantara - the Malayan archipelago. Nusantara sound refers to sounds influenced by the myriad traditional Malayan-Javanese cultural music mainly coming from Malaysia and Indonesia.

Reviews - DAARCHLEA - Suns [2014]

2014-09-30T12:04:00.002+08:00

DAARCHLEA - Suns (2014)

As most of you might know by now, I rarely update my blog nowadays. I have succumbed to the hectic schedule of life and could no longer pay attention to this blog. The last past was way back in 2013 for god sake.

Having said that, the other day, I managed to get my hands on Daarchlea's full lenght debut titled Suns and holy crap, was I in for a bloody surprise. First of all, I have to make it clear that I have an uncontrollable intolerance for metalcore, deathcore and all that modern metal crap. Nothings wrong with the music, its just not my cup of tea. When I was active promoting Malaysian Metal a couple of years back, I never gave those local bands that, unfortunately, fell under the metalcore banner, anytime of day, because, you know, why should I? And back then, to my ears, Daarchela fell under that banner. I ignored them. I hated their old kelawar/butterfly from afar logo too. Hahaha

A couple of moons recently, a metal blogger friend of mine asked me to go and check the band out. I hesitated because, you know, Daarchlea was a typical deathcore band so why should I. Haha. A few weeks later, I stumbled with the bands new ambigram logo. I sensed something different in the air. Just for the sake of it, I went and liked their facebook page and cought wind that the band was writing and recording Suns, their full lenght debut. They put up a teaser and guess what, it sounded heavy, scary and dark. The type of sound that can give you nightmares. So, yeah, I kinda anticipated the album, just to see how it would turn out at the end.

Theyve finally released the album a couple of weeks ago and I finally managed to get my hand of them yesterday. Holy fucking crap, the album is brilliant. I cannot stop shaking my head while blasting the album full blast on my way to work. This is just brilliant. Everything, from the song writing to the music production were top notch. I said to myself, I gotta update my blog and talk about this album. This needs to go huge. Fucking huge.

Daarchlea is a blackened deathcore band hailing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Suns, their highly anticipated (and rightfully so) debut album, contains 10 songs. There are Dusk/Midian era Cradle of Flth evilness in there, some Dimmu Borgirs, Deathcult Armageddon epic clean singing in there (to me, the whole album sounded like a 30 minute extension of Progenies, with less orchestra) and in some songs, you will find the presence of Norwegian black metal style riffs were thrown in as well.

Everything is top notch, especially the sound. The guitars were heavy, crunchy and with the right amount of warmth. The drums (which im always particular of) was brilliantly mixed, the snare sound was magnificent (woody, the way I like it) while the toms and bassdrums were perfectly mixed. Decent solos here and there and lastly the star of them all, the keyboards. Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. On top of it all, the vocals. You got the typical low growls and high pith shrieks and the clean singing. The vocals can sing. The harmonies were pitch perfect.

I have to applaud the music arrangement, dude. Kudos to the band for crafting the songs beautifully. Trust me, this will end up being an instant classic. This is a sublime album. If I were to define this album with only one word, that word would be SINISTER. Fucking SINISTER. Get this album, support the band, tell everybody about them. This is a local product thats worth your support. The band needs to push this album for international circulation, like big time. Daarchlea, bloody hell.

Contact the band via their facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/daarchleaofficial.

Review: Malapetaka - 2013 Demo.

2013-10-19T12:17:00.002+08:00

KL Death Thrashers, Malapetaka. (credit to owner of photo)

1. Malapetaka is a four piece death thrash band hailing from Kuala Lumpur and this is a review for their much anticipated 2013 death thrashing demo. I have written about them previously and there was also a cool interview with their frontman Ah Boon and Guitarist Ashok, somewhere in this blog. Check that interview out to find out more about this young talented band.

2. I really love this band and shall give them as much support as I could but I am not going to hold back any punches when it comes to reviews. Having said that, lets move on to the demo tracks. The demo contains 5 decent death thrashing songs including an intro. The guitars were a bit light weight for my liking but I dont really mind that as long as I can listen to their notes. The riffs were extravagant and plentiful. Kudos for that. The solos are original (heavy translation of Malaysian/Indonesian ethnic sound through a distortion) and executed with perfection. Its kind of weird but tolerable.

3. The bass sound were too low in the mix and its barely audible. That made metal their sound a bit dry. If the bass was audible, I believe it can add more dimensions to their songs since Ash's works on the riffs have already been good, with an audible bass, good can be elevated to bad ass.

4. Now, the drums. Man, where should I start with the drums. Being a drum enthusiast myself, the first thing that can affect my attitude towards any metal albums, would always be the drum mix. As much as I love the band, I can not bear to tolerate the drum mix in this demo. The sound was extremely dry, lack of reverb with a plenty amount of unnecessary feeback on the snares. It does not help that it was also quite high in the mix.

5. Stroke wise, I believe it can be better, because, to my puny little ears, the drum department lacked the groove and swing, two ingredients that are required to keep any good songs intact. The drum fills were extremely awkward and timing were a bit off here and there. Fills were meant to be bridges connecting different parts of a song, so when the fills were off beat, it may affect the whole song, the riffs and the vocals.

6. But I was also made to understand that drummer, Mr. Naji was recruited a couple months before the band entered the studio to record this demo. Give him more time to perfect his skills and in no time I honestly believe that he can be an incredible asset to the band. There were a few spots here and there where he showed real skills holding down the intense beats. More power to you, Mr. Naji and maybe more double paddle next time? Haha.

7. The vocals? Boon did a good job managing the vocals.It was high in the mix. But my only problem with the vocals were the off beat/tempo phrasing in some part of their songs. Properly timing and phrasing your words/vocals in perfect sequence with the tempo/beat is very very important because the failure to do so will affect the groove of a song. I believe the use of metronome would do the trick next time fellas. But being the vocalist, you got no other choice but to develop your own sense of tempo/groove. Having your own sense of tempo will also help you when ever you got a broken monitor for your live shows. I believe that can be done with more time and experience.

8. What ever it is, the band is still worth supporting. They are hardworking and friendly. I hope to see them more on the live stages, so organizers? Wutcha waitin for?

Rants: Updates.

2013-09-11T12:54:00.001+08:00

Hello, Malaysian metalheads. How are you these days? How was Metallica? How was the opening band? Did you manage to record their performance and upload it on youtube? Haha. Fun and jokes aside, I would like to apoligize for the lack of updates these days. Life has been quite hectic these days.

But fear not, I will be writing some reviews later on since I got my hands on a number of awesome local releases that I feel I need to promote and expose. Some of them were sent by the band and some of them, I bought. So expect machine guns of reviews for the next couple of posts.

I am also in the midst of interviewing a couple of bands that everybody should listen to. Wait for that one as well. In the mean time, for the local metalheads, keep your head abreast with news and updates on the local metal scene via these dedicated blogs listed below:

www.ekstrim.blogspot.com

www.dissectingtheeuphony.blogspot.com

I will do a round up for more news, later. Probably I will angkut the news from these blogs anyway. LOL. So enjoy you weekdays and see you just in a little bit. All hail the Malaysian Metal scene. Kita metal terus (move forward and metal)!

Rants: Between Rock N Roll and Ideologies.

2013-08-31T10:00:00.000+08:00

I have been in love with this one particular local band for years and it was only recently that I learned that that particular band embraced Nazism. In fact, I think, it was only last year that this same band made quite a ruckus by making their stand obvious by playing in all national socialist show somewhere in Kuala Lumpur. Some prominent figures in the scene wrote and expressed their disgust about the whole racket and some made attempts to disassociate themselves with a couple of music blogs who promoted the gig.

Being an ardent fan of their music (and for quite some time too), what am I suppose to do? Should I stop supporting the band? Should I stop listening to their records? Should I stop supporting their music? Should I refrain myself from wanting to go and see their live shows? Should I stop buying their demos and compact discs? Is this not a pretty intricate dilemma? Caught between you love for music and being steadfast with your political philosophy? It is and it sucks.

Would you want to take that risk of being labeled a Nazi Sympathizer and continue supporting the band? Or should you stay firm to your political philosophy and severe your psychological ties with your favorite band? To what extent will you compromise a conflicting ideology? How far should you go in being firm with your personal position against certain prejudicial school of thoughts, philosophies and ideas? Wow. That escalated fast, didn’t it? From simple pleasure of listening to songs and rock n roll to heedful warfare of philosophies and ideologies.

Nazi (or national socialist as some these bands like to refer themselves as) bands are just some of the obvious and easier examples to look at and since this is Malaysia, I shall write this article in the context of Malaysian underground scene with Malaysian problems and hopefully with Malaysian solutions. Bear in mind that this article will not be about the idea itself because I bet you have read tons and tons of material on it before. The issue that I am going to deal with right now is the dilemma of being caught between music and philosophy (a great title for a doctorate thesis, if I can say so myself).

It is rather an interesting subject if I may say so and I bet not many of us today had gave it much of a thought. Partly, because we have moved away, past those days where personal political thoughts were carefully scrutinized, judged and acted upon. Gone were those days of spreading boycott flyers and strenuous ideological fights. Everything is a bit toned down nowadays. Bands can express their prejudicial thoughts freely and without fear of being boycotted.

The idea to write this article came when I was browsing the APN (Anarcho-Punk.net) forum. There was this one thread where some people in the forum were calling for a boycott against the legendary Scottish punk band, The Exploited, for being a Nazi sympathy band. They had all these pictures of Wattie Buchan, the lead singer of The Exploited doing sieg heils (the Nazi salute), hanging out with the members of an alleged Nazi band called Haggard and for having a swastika tattoo on one of his shoulders.

Various members from both bands came into forum and started to defend themselves and refuting all the allegations made against their respective bands. Well, since anarchists can sometime be a bunch of nasty and uptight ideological militants, all rebuttals and confutations made by the members of the bands, fell on deaf ears. As much as it had been an interesting thread to read and to laugh at (because both sides end up acting like a bunch of retarded assholes), the more I went down the thread, the more disgusted I became.

For starters, I am not a big fan of The Exploited but I loved their music and I find their music to be interesting and appealing to my ever demanding metallic ears. There are a bunch of bands out there that managed to blend the fierceness and fury of Punk Rock with the sheer heaviness of Thrash Metal (Stormtroopers of Death would first come to mind), but only a few were as good and as consistent as The Exploited. So let say, the lead vocalist is a Neo Nazi whereas I am not just an anti Nazi punk rocker but also a fan of their work, what should I do? If you are in my spot, what would you do?

At what point a person will be considered a supporter (or a sympathizer) of a certain ideology? What is sympathy, anyway? At what point will a simple chord and a string of melodies be political and ideological? Should music and politics be separated? I know that there are growing debates, forums and discussions being held out there regarding this particular issue and the arguments posed but either school of thoughts had no better sense then the other.

Ponder the above issues for a bit and let us go back the questions I posed in the first few paragraphs of this article. It is not a rhetorical question posed for the sake of argument. It is a real dilemma and I bet, it is a dilemma faced not by just me, but I reckon, by a whole bunch of others too. The difference is most of them would rather listen and buy records secretly then finding a way around the dilemma and be at peace with it, once and for all. I can tell you one thing; it sucks to be stuck in the middle of a music and principle quandary like this.

Even though I have always been obdurate and firm with my attitude with the idea that the enjoyment of music and politics should be distinguished, it is still a mind boggling predicament for some nonetheless. As for my stand? A good music is a good music regardless of personal politics and I will not deny myself good music. I champion the separatist school of thought. There you go, out in the open. I would rather go and listen to a good right wing black metal band than a horrible shitty sounding anarcho punk band. Music quality wise, I would choose Burzum’s Aske over Flux of Pink Indians’s Strive To Survive For The Least Suffering Possible in anytime of a day.

Don’t get me all wrong though. I am not saying that we should not use music to convey our message. The connection of music and politics goes way, way back since time immemorial. The main reason being that music is one of the better medium to spread awareness and wipe out ignorance. Hell, the whole Hardcore Punk movement was developed from the idea of politics in rock n roll.

Yes, I champion separatism but I still think that a line must be drawn somewhere, the question is where? When would simple acts of loving and being a fan of a band becomes promoting the band and championing their cause and when will promoting the music becomes promoting the ideology? This is to me, the most difficult question to answer.

To me, becoming a fan of band for their music does not necessarily mean that you are sympathizing or agreeing to their personal politics. I emphasis “does not necessarily” because there are people out there who worshipped bands like Anti Flag, Against Me or NOFX for their political stand and activism but some, like me, loved them to death for the simple fact that these bands played good and fun rock n roll music.

Before any of your judgmental fucks start to judge me, let me make myself clear that I am against all form of prejudicial beliefs and I will never ever tolerate actions based on racial, sexual or religious prejudice and such twisted thoughts have no place in this blog. But I am also not an advocate of ideological prejudice either. Certain thoughts or ideas may lead to certain actions that may or may not be harmful to men. Xenophobic thoughts may lead to xenophobic actions. It is a psychological disease. But I detest fighting fire with fire.

To me, turning our backs on them will not solve anything and being confrontational does not necessarily mean that one must include insults and shouting. As we all know, racial, sexual and religious discrimination originated from ignorance (was that an insult I just read? Haha). It is the main culprit, that ignorance. It is from ignorance that would later give birth to hatred. It is easy to hate something that you do not understand. Ignorance is bliss they say, yes but hatred is not. Ignorance could and should not be fought by ignoring, thus the reason why turning our backs would not solve anything even though ignorance is not an easy adversary to annihilate.

Ignoring a wound might not be the best cure. It might heal and it might not. What happen when a wound goes unattended? It will become infected and end up being contagious. An infected little wound on your knee may cause the whole body to suffer including the hands that refused to treat it. Racism, sexism and bigotry are all like those little wounds on your knees. The best treatment for these wounds is by wrapping them with a nice warm bandage of awareness and a couple drops of consciousness.

Turning our backs on them would shut down possible forums for discussion and illumination. Boycott is not an answer either. It will only give ignorance more room to breath, bread and multiply. I believe in the softer approach of befriending, communicating and spreading awareness but then, I again had to acknowledge that ignorance, paired with arrogance, is a goliath of an issue. Then again, to each his own ways.

As far as the music goes, for me, if it’s good then its good, and if it’s not then down the shitter you go. Period. But giving a thumb up to a musically awesome Nazi band? Is that not a blasphemous sin of being a Neo Nazi sympathizer? Again, how does one becomes a sympathizer anyway? How does loving a good rock n roll song becomes a secret little nod to the rocker’s politics? To me, it doesn’t. I guess I’m a bit secular when it comes to chords and politics.

My way of looking at things, especially regarding this issue might not sit well with politically correct scene purists and I am okay with that. I am still learning and I yearn to be corrected. Although my writings tended to be a little bit preachy, it was never my intention to preach. I am just sharing my thoughts based on my current state of mind and I am always open for suggestions, opinions and enlightenments. Maybe, you can go and grab a pen and write your own thoughts about it. Cheers.

Download: Filsufatia - The Grand Eulogy Demo [2013]

2013-08-24T21:55:00.003+08:00

Band: Filsufatia
Title: The Grand Eulogy
Year: 2013
Label: Self Release
Size: 46.1 MB
Bitrate: 320kbps
Genre: Melancholic Black Metal/Instrumental
Country: Malaysia
web: www.facebook.com/filsufatia

Song list:

1. Fallen Leaves (intro) - 2:27
2. The Grand Eulogy (Welcome Home) - 6:15
3. In December (The Final Chapter) - 8:37
4. Laverne (A Million Miles Nowhere) - 7:17

DOWNLOAD

Reviews: The Non Metal Reviews Vol 2

2013-07-22T10:00:00.000+08:00

PEREK KASI GEREK –Cynically Fast Runaway CD (2011)

Nincompoops Kids Records

When I got the CD, there was a stern warning on the sleeve stating that the CD contains non breakdown riffing, I immediately thanked God. This band is from Sungai Petani playing fun thrashy hardcore punk schooling everybody not to take everything so seriously all the time and this 11 track of a CD is fucking amazing. I love the clear sound and the attitude. Its fun, crazy sometimes retarded but without spoiling the sound. The lyrics dealt with hilarious topics, from poking fun at Straight Edgers to Gudang Garam cigarettes, Japanese cartoons and a fat boy. Yes, you read that correctly. A fat boy. Contact the band via www.myspace.com/pxkxg

ALWAYS LAST – Antidotes CD (2009)

Nervhous Records | Piss Art Records | Embrace Records

I am way behind in keeping track with the latest local releases. This one was released back in 2009. Always Last plays fast and highly infectious sing-along fat wreck chords punk rock and this is one awesome release. Containing 15 songs including an outro, this CD is total value for money. It came with a nice booklet for the brilliant lyrics too. The first song, I was chilled to the bones with the Queen-esque operatic harmonies; I knew I was in for a good treat and I was not dissapointed. The sound quality was top notch on par with the band’s brilliant song writing and arrangements. Shout out to the drummer for the awesome footwork. One word, brilliant. My favorite song? The semi acoustic track number 13, Aaina Kameilia (the aftermath). Wait, there’s a hidden acoustic track? Fuck you Always Last, for writing such a beautiful song. Email the band at wearealwayslast@gmail.com

CARBON 4’TEEN/T.I.M – Cto-Soldier And The Promise Land Split (2010)

Red Ink Entertainment | Piss Art Records

Carbon 4’Teen is a punk band from Pontian, Johor playing fast melodic punk rock while T.I.M is a band from the muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur playing this weird hybrid of technical metal and jazzy punk rock with the virtuosity of Japanese visual kei guitarists. Yes, weird and I totally dig T.I.M. The CD contains 10 songs with each band contributing 5 songs each. I am really im pressed with T.I.M actually. The songs were really, really well written and the guitarist really shreds on the 6 strings. The drums were obviously programmed but that does not hinder my enjoyment at all even though I usually despise drum machines. I guess, it would all depend on how you arrange your songs and man, T.I.M really did it for me. All I could think of was this awesome blend of the complexity of jazz and the ferocious speed of punk and the sheer heaviness of metal. Did I mention that the singer can really sing? Yes, the guy can really sing. I recommend this because you really need to listen to T.I.M. This is fucking outside the box man. Awesome! Contact the band via carbon4teen@yahoo.co.uk and akmalhishan@gmail.com

PUSHER – Our Beloved City of the Dead CD (2010)

Knot Records

Pusher is a renowned punk band from Shah Alam playing this politically charged punk rock with plentiful flavor of reggae all over the place. This CD contains 9 songs including a bonus track taken from their 1999 demo. I am not really a fan of the Clash but the sound quality on this CD is pretty awesome. You got the 70’s buzzsaw guitars and the distorted crunchy rhythm well mixed and balanced. The bass was audible while the drums were clean, clear and crispy and this was done without losing that raw, organic snare and bass drum sound that I loved so much. Music wise, it took me a little while to get used to it though. Maybe I am too used to all those MTV punk sound to really appreciate the sheer brilliance of this piece of music. My lost though. Contact the band via www.facebook.com/pusher or knot_records@yahoo.com

Interview: Nekrad.

2013-07-15T10:00:00.000+08:00

[TBB] Greetings. Can you please introduce yourself to the readers.

[Lufias] Greetings and hail. I am Lufias, lead vocal of Malaysia's extreme gothic band, Nekrad.

[Lycan] I am Lycan, permanent keys for Nekrad.

[TBB] Can you please give a brief history on how Nekrad was formed?

[Lufias] Nekrad was formed in 1999/2000, somewhere after "most of" the lineup were done with schooling. The founder of Nekrad, Deq Schizorenzo, was at that time jobless and still not going to continue his further studies. He met Lycan Cloudygate, who then plays lead guitar ( now the permanent keyboardist ), and they started talking about forming a Gothic and Melodic based metal band influenced by the known ugly and filthy U.K band Cradle of Filth, supported by some other bands which at that time were the top notch bands in melodic and technical element influenced in their musical arrangements such as Dimmu Borgir, Agathodaimon, Children of Bodom and Nightwish.

At the same time, Auks and Mancer who were among the closest friend with Deq were excited to play in the band as a bassist and fill the drum post. They started to practice somewhere in mid 1999 I guess. Afterward, I finished my studies, and worked as a part timer in a studio in Ipoh. I accidentally met Deq when they came in for practice in that studio. We were from the same school but was in different grades. At first, I just wondered why they didn't have a vocalist whilst the music were pretty kind to listen to. I then joined them and made up words by screaming and growling. Unexpectedly they liked it. we kept changing the keyboardist since every time we went for practices, there was no keyboard. And the keyboard parts in "Realms of Darkness" were recorded separately. Its too long aye? Hahahahahaa thats the point when Nekrad started.

[TBB] The idea of spelling Darken backwards was awesome but why Nekrad? Were there any other reasons why the band stuck with that name? Were there any other names used before?

[Lufias] The name was 110% inverted from the word DARKEN and it also represents one of the characters in the mythical epic TV series 'Cave of the Golden Roses'. An evil male witch-doctor. Anyway anyhow, its only Nekrad and no any other name being used. Stuck??? what the hell on earth jesus christ shitting for????? We like the name and pretty sure its more darken then 'darken itself'. dont u like it? hahahahahahaha [Its an awesome name - ED]

[Lycan] Yup,that part of Nekrad's brief history,and why Nekrad? Ewrmm,in my point of view,as common Nekrad is backward darken, its symbolizes of mirror, as we see a mirror, we see ourselves yet its not us, its the other dimension of us. A mirror just used to face ourselves, to confront what we desire and find out who we really look, hehehe. And why backward darken? In dark we all be prepared, the universe was formed just from nothing, a blast of big bang, things then started to form, its what science said, not me. Yet the idea, from darkness, where light arise, and all color of beauty were created. In coincidence all purpose mingling, sharing and life begun, and death end, creation continues, hehehe. Dark energy is somehow so mysterious. Its out of logic and its hidden, waiting to be discovered. It's like an imagination. We cant prove it, yet we all can feel it. Thus I agreed to name this band, Nekrad, and I concur what Lufias said just now that the origin of our name came from a character from The Cave Of The Golden Roses trilogy. I just feel that its more than that. To me, its not a coincidence, its a purpose.

[TBB] What about the line up. Who is in the band right now? Do you still keep in touch with any previous members of the band?

[Lufias] The current line-up are Lufias (gallery of serpentine and succubus throat), Belial ( 6 strings of nocturnal necromancy), Nero (4 pinky-pinky bloody veins), Lycan (keys to the world behind sight!) and Majestic (thunderblasts from the northern grim). Of course I still keep in touch with the old line-up. Since Lycan is still in the band. Deq have always been together with me working on the song compositions and Nekrad artworks. Auks is pretty busy with his death metal band but we frequently meet in local gigs somehow.

[Lycan] Yeah, I keep in touch in telephatic ways, haha. To us, once a comrade, always a comrade, hehehe, we all shall meet again right? Because from one to many to one again.

[TBB] In your own words, if you were an outsider, from listening to Nekrad, how would you define their sound? Any influences?

lufias - sounds? its changes by time.. and depends on their producer. its not always constant at 1 identity yet and thats what they need to recover. but as for live performance.. more they undergone for gigs and event the more tougher the identity in term of sound they gain. so.. call us if u are interested!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA am i still outsiders?

lycan - For sure we all also a listener,and as we all know,music is universal,yet not all ears can comprehend too much kind of genres,so in law of attraction,we play what we like to hear...About a question if I an outsider? I might be not listen to this kind of music,because this music just attracted those who insider,music is a language that who understand it can reply it and in my view,there is no outsider when we like what others presented,in delivered music is about wave influences mind...Thats why we called all our supporters that enjoy with our music is Nekrademus,because there are no outsider when we understand what we hear...Its an answer from me.......savvy,ahaks...

5. Back in 1999, Nekrad released its debut demo called The Realm of Darkness. Can you please tell the readers about the demo? Is it still available? If its not, would you consider rereleasing it for those who never got the chance to experience it?

lufias - the realm of darkness consist of 4 dark raw track recorded live and DIY. its been release in cassete format and only 200 copy available. most of the song such as lycanthropy massive invades and tranquility beyond disharmony which is appear in Dragonia Pegaso is taken and arrange by putting a new hades breath in it. and the other 2 song which is dragonism his feel and vampiric idealogy and principal will be fit in our next coming album nekradvaganza, the only thing is the 2 song will be with new name, new lyrics its the only music structure are similarly the same like the original one.dragonism his feel will be renamed to "1 little 2 little devil" and vapiric ideology and principal will be "old lucifer had a farm!". about the availability of Realm of darkness.. ermmm lets make it this way.., who still have the cassete and if its in good condition.. i am willingly to pay up to RM200.00 to buy it. hahahahaahahahahaha.. no.. we dont have anymore of that release.. in some cases.. we might interested to rerecord it back.. following the original of it.. still thinking on how we can achieve it.. whatever it is thank you for those who support the realms of darkness!!

lycan - If I not mistakes in myspace our comrade yet i still dont know who have put our songs there http://www.myspace.com/nekrad666/music/songs/vampire-idealogy-principles-20119090....Readest can experience it there,i just advice,its not what we meant to be,but its the effort we can do at that time ya,hahahahaha...As Lufias have mention that we already bring it forward in split and our soon release album that songs will be there,if readest like to do comparison,you are welcome to do that,what ever you all said,its what you all are anyway,ahaks....

6. And then after that, the band went on a long hiatus. What was the reason for the long hiatus and what was the reason for you to reactivate the band? Hows the reaction from the local metalheads so far?

lufias - I like to say thats not only rely on 1 reason. there is couple of reason lead to where we need to be in a long hiatus. an issue of black metal that raise is affected us too, since some folks are thinking we are somekind one of black metal serenades. clearly we are more into gothic but in some reason might be due to the raw guitar sound thats make we been labeled as black metal. its a dark time for us anyway.. and i think its not only us, some other bands too.other thing is such as lack of commitment especially to their vocalist, its me.. hahahahaa.. other bandmates like to change their musical appearance.. i still remember at that time linkin park is on the move. and they intended to play such somewhat linkin park did.. i think thats another reason we can take into account.. some more.. i cant recall back. Let me take you Back to end of 2011, i attended metal event somewhere in ipoh, and the sensations come back, i keep remeber the feel to be on stage, delivering feels of gothic itself to the metalhead downthere. another reason to do a comeback is, i am intended to improve my vocal technic, in other words i need such an activity in regarding with music. start to gather material for it. look for someone that have an ability in doing recording and all other work for the release. once i had a recorded material in hand than start to gathers lineup. i would like to thank you Mr. Jadam because he is among the people who realize nekrad comeback. others than that is Dark-e who are too humble to offer doing a split.

lyccan -Yup,I agree with Lufias and I like to add something,in celestial work,i don't know what will happen,in prediction,we just can do our best,and by history I learn and see how this coincidence just a great picture to imagine,we start at time of dragon year in chinese zodiac,and we comeback also in dragon year again.....hahahahahahaha....Yup,its look mean nothing,yet why is that aite?ahaks...And for this 2nd comeback,in my heart,in full gratitude that a sacrificed and a good leader ship that Lufias bring to all of us to do what we like,to me thanks not enough for him,he has a vision for Nekrad,he do a lot of hardwork and as for me,i love to express myself with music,with this teamwork we make it in this league of metal......About the reaction of metalhead,its a bridge for us and them to coloured our scene,we enjoyed what we do,so they enjoyed with us,yup,its a moment to remember anyway when everytime we performed,we can saw a lot of metalhead energy clinging and we all feel good by that,yeay....

7. Dragonia Pegaso was an ultimate come back release. How do you feel about the release and how was the feedback so far? How many copies were sold, if you dont mind me asking. Why was it released as a split (with Vociferation Eternity) instead of an album of its own?

lufias - i feel the same like u.. ultimate release.. hahahaha as vociferation eternity is gthering with us. as for now there is a lot of positive and negative feedback, we sum it all and take it as the concern for us to do more better in future. yes, as an early plan to release an EP. but at the same times voci is also plan to release an ep, so instead of releasing 1 single product we admire to just straight compile it and release as a split. 1000 copy printed, few more left.

lycan - we love to collaborate with our friends,what i feel about it,its feel like having a baby,its excited to name,to nurture,to have time with,and what important to me,its a gud work to be done,why not doing it?hehe...

8. I read somewhere in your facebook page that Nekrad is currently in the studios recording new songs. What are the songs for and hows the current progress of the session? Can the metalfans expect something new added to the new songs?

lufias - we are planning for a full-length album this year. consisting of 10 brand new freaks extreme gothic opus and 1 re-record versions of tranquility beyond disharmony ( appear in dragonia pegaso ). as for now we are almost at the end stage. mixing are in progress as Dark-e ( vociferation eternity / silkhannaz/died / dissectomy ) is on the move of it, next is mastering session. what i can tell its a lot of changes and differences in term of musically and lyrically. its more gothic 'friendly' song and only listeners can judge it. as for us, we enjoying creating our material, so we are excluded to judge our own style and idea. also we are working on a project for a compilation from ipoh, and split EP with band from Kuala Lumpur and i still need to keep that as secret which band they are.

lycan - I love do magic,yet i can't do one,hahahahaha,and i doing it as not telling it now,its surprise it,hahahahaha...It is in process,and its feel good to doing it....Ewrmm,expectation? Tune yourself with our tune,so what will you have is goose bumps,hahahahahaha....

9. Can we expect a new release from the band this year? Maybe you can drop a hint or two in regards to that and how can the metal fans get in touch with the band?

lufias - yes, nekradvaganza album should be planned to release as earliest on june 2013. will keep you guys updated on the exact date of release. 9 new song, 1 cover song and tranquility beyond disharmony re-record versions. for sure song such as twinkle twinkle little scar and raging war and despair will be in there too.

lycan - welcome to be Nekrademus,yeay...

10. Last words to the readers?

lufias - last but not least, i would like to thanks to all listeners, supporters, haters, commenters, friend and family. appreciate what you did!! thanks to you too for the interview. HAIL NEKRADEMUS!

lycan - Thanks for this interview,and to the readers,when you read this,you already have a vibe with us,and when you have a vibe,you are in tune with us,thanks for that energy you bring to yourself and us,HAILZ NEKRADEMUS!

Reviews: The Non Metal Reviews Vol.1

2013-07-08T10:00:00.001+08:00

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.

2013-07-01T10:00:00.000+08:00

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.

2013-06-24T05:16:00.000+08:00

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.

2013-06-17T10:00:00.001+08:00

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:

Band name:
Genre:
From:
Preferred colour:
Other band logos that you like:
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.

2013-06-10T10:00:00.000+08:00

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.

Books: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

2013-06-03T10:00:00.000+08:00

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

Title: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.
Authors: Joel McIver.
Publisher: Omnibus Press. - 2011
Additional Information: Paperback, 402 Pages, RM 8.00, Big Bad Wolf Bookfest.

1. This is the book detailing the history, the highs and lows of the worldly recognized grand daddy of heavy metal, the grand daddy of them all, Black Sabbath. Whether you are fan or you are not a fan of the band, if you consider yourself a metal fan, you must know this name, Black Sabbath. If you dont, then you should jump off a bridge and die a metal sinner.

2. Well, metal sinner or not, I have to admit that I am not really a big fan of the band. I understood and acknowledge their massive contribution to metal, they pioneered the damn music, how much more big of a contribution you need? But again, the same as my relation with KISS, being a newer generation of metal fans, with sets of ideas on how my metal should sound like, the sludgy and doomy type of proto-metal of the early Sabbath were really not my cup of tea.

3. Having said that, I am still in the midst of slowly introducing myself to the sound of Black Sabbath and what a better way to assist my journey then with a copy of this biography, authored by my favorite metal biographer and archivist of all time, Mr. Joel McIver. To be honest, I picked up this book specifically because it was written by McIver. If it was by another author, I would just leave it there, untouched, uninterested.

4. At the first instance I knew it was written by McIver, I picked it up straight away. Well, I was at a bookfest at 2.00 AM in the morning and the book was only for a measly RM8.00, it was a bloody no brainer. Well, despite its being dirt cheap and all, I still stress that the main factor I bought this book was McIver.

5. Whats all this fuss about McIver? Well, first of all I have already bought 3 of his other books namely the Metallica autobio (which I just found out that I have yet to write about), the Slayer autobio and the Cliff Burton autobio, so I basically knew what am I getting myself into. One other thing, I once received an email from the guy thanking me about the reviews, so I got no other choice but to give high praise about the guy. He personally emailed me, godammit!

6. This book is 402 page thick, which were divided into 3 parts. These parts, each one for a different era of the band was further divided into 31 chapters in the typical McIver fashion, according to the years and phase of the band. The details were extremely grim and your head will explode due to over excess of information, which is why I like and appreciate McIver's work so much. If I were to write a book about the history of Cromok (Malaysian Thrash Metal legend, whether you like it or not, yes you, I am looking at you, Mr.You know who you are), it shall be in this exact style.

7. The book touched on the early formative years of the band with the infamous Ozzy Osbourne, the inevitable split between the two, the Dio years as well as other singers trying hard to fill the unfillable (if there is such a word) shoes of Ozzy and Dio, rotating number of drummers and bass players, the entering and outing of Bill Ward, the release of "other" Black Sabbath albums, up to the year 2011.

8. It turns out that this review was really about McIver then Black Sabbath, is it not? Well, if you are a fan of the band, the you must pick this one up since it is a very good read with a lot of information about the greatest metal band of all time, Black fuckin Sabbath.

Reviews: Jugra Promo 01

2013-05-27T10:00:00.001+08:00

JUGRA

1. The front man of the band and I got acquainted via Facebook and he then emailed me the promo of his band, Jugra, for us to review in the Bullet Belt. I have heard of the name of the band before but I have never got the time to check them out. Thankfully the band were kind enough to send me the promo.

2. Being a history buff myself, I was first attracted to the name of the band. Jugra is a name of a historical place here in Malaysia. Well, lets get down to business. Jugra is a three piece band hailing from Petaling Jaya, Selangor. The band consists of Daeng Andika on guitars and vocals, Daeng Kepalang on bass and vocals and Daeng Lumania on drums. If I got my facts correct, Daeng Andika is also the same person behind Singhasari, one of the better new black metal band that got into my radar a couple of years ago.

3. What about the music? The music is a weird mixture of street rock with black metal vocals, something that I am not that familiar with. I appreciate the effort in trying to be original though. The 3 track promo started with an ambient intro of Malay traditional instrumentation, something I am quite familiar with since I used to follow my late grandfather to events playing these type of instrumentation, in my younger days.

4. The guitars were high on the mix, something that I can really appreciate. The bass were audible while drums were losing the bass drum sound. Over all, the actual songs that were featured in the promo have that thick street rock vibe. Its like listening to 4 Skins or The Oppressed but with black metal vocals. No, this is not Black And Roll or is it? I dont know, I can not really make them out. But I guess it is safe to say that this is the closest thing you that can get here as far as Black And Roll goes. Awesome.

Bands : Malapetaka

2013-05-20T10:00:00.001+08:00

Malapetaka

1. The band emailed me some information about the band the other day. Today I went and pay their facebook page a visit out of curiosity and I was immediately intrigued, first by the awesome logo, next by the proposed artwork for their debut release and later, although a bit mildly at that particular moment, by their music. Malapetaka is a new four piece Death Thrash band from the ever so muddy banks of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The component of the band comprised of Ashok on the guitar, Alias on bass, Boon on vocals and Azmer on drums.

2. What I love about the band is that there are a few stints of originality stamped all over their songs especially on the leads department. You must give this band a listen to appreciate the solos. Javanese melody driven guitar solos, and that my friend is originality in my book.

3. Some of you might give them a smirk for incorporating eastern metal influences in their music but ask yourself, are there any local bands that have ever managed to exploit the true depth and potential of eastern metal to its fullest since the As Sahar and Langsuyr days? The answer would be an obvious no.

4. Playing wise, I think they need to improve on the synchronicity of the guitars because, man its all over the place. The bass was a bit high and rumbling on the mix which is good, but the lack of uniformity in the riff department made the bass somewhat out of place. But the songs which I base my judgments on were from a three track demo and since its just a demo, I shall not give them a hard time about it. I can not wait for their EP. Labels out there, give this band a try.

5. Lend your support. Visit them now.

Malapetaka | Facebook

Download : Maqabir - Cold, Blackness & Death (2013)

2013-05-15T14:16:00.000+08:00

Maqabir - Cold, Blackness & Death

Maqabir was formed somewhere in the end of the year 2012 with the release of their debut demo titled Danse Macabre. Maqabir is a solo project of its main mastermind, Nath. After the release of their debut, Maqabir began to release a few more titles in the form of Ars Moriend (EP 2013) "Maqbara" (Tape 2013) which was released by the Ukrainian label, Depressive Illusions Records, "Endless Darkness" (Unreleased Demo 2012), "In Memoriam" (Experimental LP 2013) along with a few Singles and unofficial release under their mighty bullet belt.

Besides their official releases, Maqabir was also featured in various compilation in the likes of Pest Records Online Compilation Vol.13, Darkest Side of Life and Death, and Jericho Vol.13 - The Book Of Life. Musically, Maqabir plays Black Instru-Metal, Dark Ambient and the amalgamation of both, with darkness, depression and death as its main themes. According to Nath, this special promo "Cold, Blackness & Death" was released to promote and introduce the band through webzines, blogs and any other available cyber world channels.

Artist: Maqâbir
Title : Cold, Blackness & Death
Format: Digital Demo 2013, .mp3 128kbps
Label : Self-released
Length: 24:40 minutes

Tracks:
1. Cold Death of the Earth (demo version) - 4:28
2. Obscure Prevails - 4:00
3. Maqbara - 4:07
4. Ars Moriendi (demo version) - 5.36
5. Funeral Depression (demo version) - 6.29

Nath - all compositions, instruments, programming & recordings

Contact:
qabr2013@gmail.com
nath.maqabir@facebook.com

Website:
http://maqabir.blogspot.com
http://maqabir.bandcamp.com
http://soundcloud.com/maqabir
http://facebook.com/nath.maqabir
http://youtube.com/user/maqabirband

DOWNLOAD

Videos: Born In The Basement.

2013-05-13T10:00:00.000+08:00

Born In The Basement | 66 Minutes | Kundrat Productions | 2007

1. Being a fan of his work in Get Thrashed, I made it a mission to find out, and possibly get my filthy hands on any of Rat Skates other film works. Wish granted, I got Born In The Basement. What I loved about Get Thrashed was its total honesty and sincerity. You will get that sensation that the video was made out of his love for the music and none other. It all rolls down to this video that I am about to review, Born In The Basement.

2. Born In The Basement is basically some type of a memoir of Skates time struggling keeping his band, the mighty Overkill, afloat, back in the 80s. I do not consider this a full fledged documentary about the band, even though the focal point of BITB revolved around Overkill. Like I said, it is more of a memoir with Rat Skates recalling war stories from his days in Overkill.

3. Overkill is a legendary Thrash Metal band hailing from New Jersey and for you who are not in the know, Skates was the bands original founder and drummer. Despite Skates resignation from the band due to exhaustion, the New Jersey wrecking crew soldiered on releasing albums after albums through out the year without ever compromising their sound one bit (unlike certain famous big four bands), and remained one of the best Thrash Metal band, unchallenged till this day.

4. My experience with Overkill is rather new. Despite very familiar with the status of the band being one of the earlier Thrash bands from the States, I never had the desire to check their music out. Not until I feasted my ears to their come back highly praised critically acclaimed album, Iron Bound, which was released back in 2009, I became an Overkill convert. Who is the best thrash metal vocalist of all time? No, not Mustaine nor Araya. Belladonna came close. Hetfield is lightyears away compared to the deafening howls of Bobby Blitz. That guy is a freaking monster.

5. Back on the video, BITB recalls the band in its earlier formative years, back when the band was still wearing ghoulish make up and scary vampire capes. Rat Skates would do anything and everything to make his band successful. Extravagant live shows, extravagant stage props, crazy DIY merchandising, the blood, the sweat and the fucking tears made you want to stand up and give five salutes to the man. It was all Skates.

6. The dedication that this man gave to the band, the amount of hard work that this man put into the band, were nothing less then phenomenal. It was really sad that he decided to give up the band after all the years he sacrificed for Overkill.

7. If you love Overkill or Thrash Metal in general, then you should go out and find this documentary. If you are not a fan but would like to discover the secret to success as a musician in a band despised by the society, then you should also try and get this.

Metal News Malaysia 2013 Vol 4:

2013-05-09T13:40:00.000+08:00

1. AKAGRISH, the Death Metal maniacs hailing for Kota Kinabalu, Sabahell, have already released their EP titled "Akagrish" through Evil Dead Production. The CD shall contain 7 corpse decapitating death metal tracks for you to bleed you ears with. A Bullet Belt review for this one is underway. For more information on how to get a copy of this CD, follow the following link.

AKAGRISH | Facebook

EVIL DEAD PROD | Facebook

2. MANTAK, another one of them Sabahells Black Metal elite, will be releasing their new CD under Hells Vomit in the near future. The proposed cover for the new CD, currently titled "Kult Rogolized" have already been published by the band. For more information on the new CD, visit.

MANTAK | Facebook

HELLS VOMIT PROD | Facebook

3. BESTIAL HORDE, The black thrash band from East Malaysia, have just rereleased their CD Nuclear Metal Lust via Norwegian underground label called Apocalyptic Empire records. The rerelease will be in 7" Vinyl format and print will be limited to 666 copies only. get yours now.

BESTIAL HORDE | Facebook

APOCALYPTIC EMPIRE | Website

4. BHIMIDHUKA PRODUCTION is an upcoming record independent record label from east coat Malaysia. The small label started off back in November last year and is eager to support local and asian bands. Local death and black metal bands, send in your demos. Do check out and support their releases as well. I love the name of the label. Just brilliant.

BHUMIDHUKA | Facebook

BHUMIDHUKA | Webstore

5. EVIL ROTTING ZINE, the premier metal zine from Singapore, now relocated to Malaysia, have just released and published their fourth issue after 13 years of silence. The first issue of the fanzine was released back in 1988 (I was still in my kindergarten uniform in 1988) and the year 1990, saw the released of their third and final issue. Now, the beast has arisen. The bands featured, among others, were Kathgor, Humiliation, Lavatory, Mantak and many more. Get a copy of Evil Rotting now to know more about South East Asian Metal. Contents are in english and itll cost you USD5 or EU5 or RM10 a pop. Contact them.

EVIL ROTTING ZINE | Facebook

Books: Undisputed - How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps.

2013-05-06T10:00:00.000+08:00

Undisputed - How to Become the World Champion In 1372 Easy Steps.

Title: Undisputed - How To Become The World Champion In 1,372 Easy Steps.
Authors: Chris Jericho & Peter Thomas Fornatale.
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing - 2011.
Additional Information: Hardcover, 429 Pages, RM 104.50, Kinokuniya Bookstore, Kuala Lumpur.

1. Chris Jericho? Was he not a WWE superstar wrestler? What the hell is he doing in The Bullet Belt? Is this blog turning into a wrestling blog now? Will we be reading about muscled men in spandex grappling each other with fancy moves now? What the fuck is this shit?

2. Yes, it is Chris Jericho and yes, I am reviewing his book. Yes, he is a WWE superstar wrestler and no this blog is not turning into a a wrestling blog. regarding the spandex thingy, well, aint all rock stars wore spandex back in 80s? Shut the fuck up and sit down.

3. I have decided to review Chris Jericho's Undisputed because, the book itself was basically a half wrestling memoir and half rock band biography. Thats why he is in here. And, Chris Jericho also happens to be one of my favorite wrestler off all time.

4. I am a big time wrestling fan. Not to fond of the current wrestling shows though. When I say wrestling, I meant the golden age of wrestling which was back in the mid 90s, when you still got WWF and WCW as two different entities battling for TV ratings night in night out. Remember the monday night wars? Okay, I suppose only the more hardcore fans would know about the war back in the 90s because to everybody else in Malaysia, it was just wrestling programs which was aired every thursday night at 11.00 pm.

5. The biggest kahuna of wrestling back then was Vince McMahon with his WWF (now WWE). With the entry of another kahuna in the form billionaire media mogul, Ted Turner and his revived WCW, McMahon back then faced a competition. Both companies aired their wrestling program at the same time on the same day. It was a gruesome battle which saw WWF won at the end, but not without an over 80 weeks of being ass whooped by WCW. Hell, I can write all night long about wrestling, but I think I should focus on reviewing the book for the moment.

6. Undisputed was the follow up to his first critically acclaimed memoir, A Lion's Tale. I loved his first book so much that Ive read and re-read it more than 20 times, man. It's a fun read. When I was informed that Jericho will be releasing a follow up, I was super excited. I got the book a couple of days after the book was officially released.

7. It was not really of that caliber of his first book, it was still a fun read. It was 429 page thick and was further divided into 47 chapters. These 47 chapters would further be divided into chapters for his wrestling tales and chapters for his musical ventures. For those not in the know, Jericho is the front man of Fozzy, a solid modern metal band that he formed with Rich Ward of that Stuck Mojo fame.

8. Stuck Mojo was one of my favorite band of all time. I was introduced to the band via their debut album, Snappin Necks which was released back in 1995. I believe, apart from Anthrax, Stuck Mojo really was the pioneer of Rap metal. The music was extremely heavy as fuck, the beats were catchy as hell and the raps were all over the place. Rich Ward, the guitarist of SM teaming with Jericho? Mind. Just. Blown.

9. Fozzy started out as a tribute band by the name of Fozzy Osbourne. The band got a record deal with Megaforce and released a couple of mediocre albums filled with covers. It was only when the band ditched the cover songs and their "gimmick" (Fozzy was a band from the States that got stuck in Japan while other bands ripped their songs and became successful for it, thus the covers that Fozzy were doing were actually their original songs previously stolen by other successful bands), that the band became more successful.

10. I love Chris Jericho because he is one damn funny fella and this character translated well in his writing. The timing for the punch lines were spot on. A punch line time in a book? Crazy isn't it? I recommend this book. It might not be a top to bottom music, but you will have loads of fun reading it.