Down with the 'Death'ly Pschedelia

Yeah , that was the exact feeling when i heard Cynic's 'Focus' . I've heard it a few times earlier, but this time it was beautiful, amazing and spectacular...totally mind-blowing. It was like I was lost in some kind of a beautiful world. And death metal bringing out this kind of effect was truely unique. The cover of Focus makes one feel, as though lost in some kind of a trance. Well no wonder the music had the same effect on me. The artwork precisely described the music. I've got only one album of Cynic, but after this album, I would try to get hold of some more. The growls along with some 'chant'ly kind of voice giving backing vocals sent me through the dizzy lanes with colours changing every now and then. The feeling was wonderful. One should listen to this album to know what i exactly mean. I dont know much abt the band or the members, but now i am gonna read up on them. Its really strange that jus one Good album in a band's career makes all the fans retrospect their earlier work, which if they dint get a break would've gone un-noticed. Who would have heard of earlier works by Edge of Sanity before Crimson, who heard of Nile's works before Black Seeds of Vengeance ... many such examples can be quoted within 25 years of metal. They are so many bands that do amazing work but are not known to everyone. Hence i request all the metal-heads to give these new and up-coming bands a chance, listen to their music and 'if' done well spread the word around. Untill you come across such a band , keep listening to metal and listen to 'Focus' for sure :)

mvikred

I took a nice little break after my exams. All I've been doing in smoke and listen to metal (and ofcourse, get drunk every night). I've been playing Sadus, Kataklysm and The Crown repeatedly like a fuckin retard. Sadus for those of you who don't know is the band of the almighty Steve DiGiorgio. That was before he started recording with Death and others. If you are into thrash metal, you will love this album. Needless to say, the bass on this album stands out. I love the album. Hope to get hold of more Sadus albums.

Kataklysm is one of those insane Canadian bands. Canadians are really mad aren't they? Strapping Young Lad, Cryptopsy, Rush are the ones that come to my mind immediately. Anyway Kataklysm is a very neat death metal band. The drummer is frighteningly fast. Is he fucking machine gun or what? The vocals are pretty ok and the guitarist churns out good riffs. One thing that I didn't like about the album "Serenity in Fire" is that there are absolutely no guitar solos. But the band fucking destroys because of the drummer. Overall, its a must check out band.

And finally The Crown! One more Crown album on my list. First it was "Deathrace King" . Now its "Hell is Here". Groovy death metal with amazing guitar and drum work. Any metalhead will love it.

Green Carnation

Have you ever heard about this band ?? . If you did, then i'm sure you wouldve also heard about their album called "Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness" . So whats special about this album. For starters, this amazing album has one song, and one song that lasts for 60 mins. Its the best Prog metal i've heard after Edge of Sanity's Crimson(Its the best...40 mins of pure bliss). Green Carnation is not metal exactly, its basically more on the heavy rock side, but few of their albums have a metal touch , especially this album has double bass rippin the speakers a no. of times. Though not really heavy like the death metal double bass, but , something jus enough to give it a heavy feel at the right moment. The song starts of with cries of a baby, and some avantegarde sounds which take one into a world of trance. This is as though the song is speaking to the listener. Setting the mood for the next 60 minutes to come. The next hour, is a scintillating ride on the rollercoster of the writer's emotions. He talks abt the weak , the strong , death, life and many philosophical doubts that linger in every humans head. Its more like a battle between hope and disappointment. The song ends with a rhetorical question, where he says

"If what I wrote was real
Could I then a God be?
Would what I see
Then be part of reality?
Would I then reach divine entity?"

The song has all the elements for a top notch, progressive metal song. The song has flute going on somewhere in between, a female vox which brings out sadness to perfection. Change of timing, melody, and one important thing for me especially was that the music changed according the mood of the lyrics. This especially has its effect when one sings along the lyrics. Trust me , its a journey you would nver regret. Once 60 minutes are over, you wonder how time has passed by. How come one hour jus slipped through as though it were 5 mins. Thats the effect of this song. I get lost in the song so much, that time blurs out of my senses every time i listen to this album. The bottom line being , this album is a MUST for any progressive metal fan (atleast someone who seriously thinks he/she is)

It feels like this song has a heart and brain of its own, it will interact with you on a personal scale. It's fucking hypnotic ppl. Dont believe me... then you should try it yourself. Go grab this album !!!

mvikred

I'm backkkk

I totally forgot abt posting here after my exams. But the latest news is that i started my drumming classes and i hope to get better once these classes are done. I am all enthu now and mostly i would be playing some nice stuff next sem. So sridhar , be ready dude :) . wats on my playlist ? , well ..... now i am listening to dark tranquillity's "The Mind's I" . A very good listen. Nothing spectacular , but a nice listen once in a while. Drudkh's The Swan Road has been growing on me. So is Mastodon's EP "Lifesblood" and their album "Leviathon" . Mastodon is very different from other bands. Got to know that , they define the genre - noisecore , along with The Dillinger Escape Plan and few other bands. Mastodon has killer riffs with some really intricate drum work by bran dailor. Yeah .... intricate, thts wat i said. Intricate cuz his rolls are so fast , and almost no roll is repeated in one song. Its like , his hands are moving all the time , there is no simple roll in any of mastodons songs that i;ve heard till date. enuf said abt mastodon, now i'm listening to morbid angel's blessed are the sick :) ... a classic death metal album. cya guys later.

Book of Saturday

Got hold of Tommy finally and gave it a few listens. The song "Sparks" is stuck in my head. Especially the part where John Entwistle starts his crazy bass line. Apart from The Who, I've been listening to some of my favourites like King Crimson and CCR. I think CCR and King Crimson are two highly underrated bands. These guys made some amazing music. CCR is the funkiest rock and roll band I've ever heard. Their riffs are just too cool. They were probably one of the earliest "jam" bands. Who can ever forget their classic jam on "Heard it through a grapevine"?! John Fogerty's vocals are just awesome.

And coming to King Crimson, this band is the best prog-funk-psychedelia combination ever. Its definitely one of the most innovative bands ever. All the members of the band amazing at what they do. Robert Fripp's riffs are crazy. There are just too many good songs to mention any one. Some of my favs would be Cat Food, Dinosaur, 21st Century Schizoid Man, Walk on Air, Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream.

The Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) is another band that I've been hooked to for a couple of days. Their music is mostly hardcore with lots of jazz thrown in. This is the first hardcore band that I've liked so much. My earlier attempts to "like" a very famous hardcore band, Orchid, failed miserably. I didn't understand what the hell these guys were doing. But then there's a time when the band or the music just clicks with you. DEP is not another average run of the mill handcore act. For starters, these guys are incredibly talented. I've been listening to two of their EPs. The first one is called "Under the running board". The EP consists of 3 songs clocking 7 mins 33 secs in total! All 3 songs are brilliant and the album leaves you exhausted at the end of the 7 mins 33 secs. I think less is more in this kind of metal. Mastodon's EP Lifesblood did the same exact thing to me. Its like a mind blowing hailstorm which makes you want to listen to the album again and again and again! The second EP titled "Irony is a dead scene" has the eccentric Mike Patton (of Faith No More) on vocals. He is one of my favourite vocalists. This guy comes a close second to Devin Townsend in the "most insane musician awards" :) Just listen to any of his records with Fantomas, Tomahawk or Mr. Bungle and you'll go bonkers. Too bad Patton didn't stick around with DEP for their later albums. The jazzy breakdowns in all their songs make the music very interesting. Anyway be sure to check out these three bands and I'll be back with info about more bands that no one wants to listen to :D

Six Songs

I've been to these six songs over and over for the whole of last week. What they have in common is hard to explain, so I won't even try. Figure it out for yourself :P

.1. Harsh Kale feat. Ustad Zakir Hussain - Milan. This has to be the best fusion song I've ever heard and it's all the more better because most of it is based on the tabla, flute and drums (accompanied by lots of other instruments). The song is slow, but it's energy is amazingly contagious! I couldn't help trying to make a silly and corny story out of it, so I did. It's about this fellow in jail who escapes and all to meet his girlfriend. No one's sad even when he's in jail, everyone's just hopeful and not happy then. When they meet, they have everything (i.e. each other) and they run away to settle down in Sikkim.

.2. Dr. Alban - It's My Life. This is a GOD song!! The story: A girl running away from home to do her own thing (whatever it is). The scene is at the railway station when she's about to get into the train. Instead of everything being sad, the sun is rising and "It's my life" is playing :)

.3. Judas Priest - Breakign the Law. The ultimate rebellion song! The instruments get along together well to bring out rebellion with "hypnotic cool". The video's extremely funny with everyone looking like cartoon characters. The song is amazing anyway.

.4. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger. Now why would I say anything about this song? Anyone who's ever seen Rocky when he's training will know the song. If you're feeling down and need inspiration, this song is what you've got to listen to so it'll all be okay.

.5. Dido - White Flag. Her voice is good and there's lots of feeling in the song. The lyrics are very nice too in their own way.

.6. Gary Jules - Mad World. People who've seen Donnie Darko will relate to this song better. It's the song that plays at the end of the movie. It fits in perfectly even though it wasn' t meant to be in the movie and was actually the second choice (U2's MLK was first). The lyrics are amazing and you can fee the amused sort of frustration in the singer's voice.

Ok, this post turned out to be much more pointless than I thought. Sorry :P

The Crown

I've been spending a lot of time posting on this blog lately. This time its about an other Swedish death metal band called the "The Crown". Their album "Deathrace King" grows on me everytime I play it. Its definitely one of the catchiest death metal records of all time. I've heard a lot of people call their music "Death Rock". People have written about their obvious Motorhead influences. Well, I haven't really heard Motorhead, but I think I'm gonna have to start. Coming back to The Crown, their riffs are too catchy. With classic heavy metal solos and very good vocal performace by Johan Lindstrand. I think all those guys who hate/are afraid of/don't care for death metal would do good by listening to this band. A lot of the music on this album is more like heavy metal than death metal, except for the vocals though. I was searching for some album reviews on the net, and found this interview of their bassist on metalstorm. An excerpt from the interview:


10: According to your personal experience, what would you advise a young band that is just starting in metal music?

Quit! It is not worth it! This is only for those who HAVE to do it. For the possessed who have no other choice or option...and they do not take advice.


Wow! That was interesting. Anyway, I got hold of 2 other albums of this band. But this album is so catchy and it won't leave me...

Storm

I've been writing code ..well, atleast trying to write code for about 10 hours. All the while I had Devin Townsend's Accelerated Evolution playing in the background. I've heard the album a few times before but today it really kicked me! Hence the post. I'm a big fan of his other projects Ocean Machine and Strapping Young Lad. Its very difficult to pin this kind of music to a particular genre. It has elements of rock, prog, metal and techno music. If you are a Strapping Young Lad fan, then you'd be utterly surprised at how different Devin's other side projects are. Devin's voice is excellent throughout the album. In fact, sometimes I feel that this guy has the most powerful voice in the realm of rock and metal. The only other vocalists that I can thnk of, with such commanding voices are Chuck Schuldiner, Phil Anselmo, James Maynard Keenan and probably Eddie Vedder. If there was such a thing as "the most insane voice ever" award, it would go to Devin anyday. (I love giving these awards for some reason :) He sings beautifully along with the music and suddenly double bass kicks in and Devin goes berserk, after a few seconds everything is pleasant again! The music is almost surreal. This is not the kinda music that you'd want to sit down and analyze. This isn't even the kinda music that has cool guitar leads and drum work. Its really emotional music. You can hear it in Devin's voice and in the melodies. It might take a while to start liking the music. Needless to say, this music is not for everybody.

OPETH

GOD

Deliverance >>> GOD

My Arms , Your Hearse >>>> GOD

Blackwater Park >>> GOD

Morningrise >>> GOD

Damnation >>> GOD ; In My time of Need >>> GOD GOD GOD !!!

Ghost Reveries >>> GOD

Melody, Lyrics >>> GOD

Martin Lopez >>> GOD

Micheal Akerfeldt >>> SUPERGOD

OPETH >>> GOD

I've been listening to this band a lot recently and one word that keeps coming to my mind all the time is 'GOD'

Listen to them first and then comment.

mvikred

Fever Dog

Watched the movie "Almost Famous" for the 4th time last weekend. Crazy movie. My rock n roll spirit is back again! The Stillwater song "Fever Dog" is stuck in my head. Love the vocals and the riff and the intro. A fuckin cool song! Pearl Jam's McCready played the guitar in the movie. For one full day, I heard just Led Zeppelin and Hendrix. I so desperately wanted to listen to Tommy, but couldn't get hold of it. I love the scene where young William takes out the record of Tommy and finds a note in it which says "Listen to Tommy with a candle burning, you will see your future".
Today, I watched "Atom Heart Mother - The Ultimate Critical Review". More Floyd. Looks like Floyd had done everything way before their time. Ron Geesin is the mastermind behind all the weird stuff that you hear on Atom Heart Mother. For some reason, his name does not appear on the disc's credits. This post is more like a movie review. Anyway, saw this other movie last weekend. Its called "Dead Man" starring Johnny Depp. The movie was awesome but what was more awesomeo was the guitar playing in the background in all the scenes. All throughout the movie I was thinking that the scene wouldn't be the same without the guitar. Later I found out that Neil Young played the guitar. Neat! Enough of rock n roll. Back in the Opeth mode. Listening to Blackwater Park. Hail Satan!

Pelican

This is a recent discovery. About a month back, I downloaded a couple of albums of this band called Pelican. I had obviously read the reviews of the band before downloading the albums. I always do. And I always make sure that I read lots of them, because I believe that I can trust the collective opinion of 10 reviews. Anyway, one of the two albums is a self-titled EP and the other is a full length album titled "Australasia".

To start with, there are no vocals on the album! Its all instrumental. I was initially very unsure of what kind of stuff to expect. Because instrumental metal albums come by very rarely (I'm not talking of the Malmsteen types here) I thought I'd try this out. And it turned out to be one of the most innovative bands I've ever heard. They don't have lightning fast leads. Infact, they don't have any guitar leads on their songs. Neither do they have amazing drum work. But what they do have in all their songs can't be put into words! Its beautiful heavy, downtuned, crunching guitar riffs. Some of the most mesmerizing riffs I've ever heard. Yeah thats the word! Mesmerizing. I've hrd the two albums countless times until now. And everytime I listen to the songs, get lost. I have visions of ships, oceans, far away lands, wars and giants! Brilliant stuff.

Now thanks to reddy's 2 day subscription to rapidshare, I could get hold of a couple of albums of this band called Isis, pioneers of this kind of music. These guys have vocals though. I can't wait to listen to the new stuff, but I'm still hooked to Pelican. I'm alone in my wing, almost everyone's at home. And my speakers are blaring Pelican. Its an awesome feeling :)

Do you know wat Dweeb Metal is ??

Surprised ?? ... Even i was sometime back when i came across this site , which claims the origin for this new subgenre of metal. So what exactly is Dweeb Metal. It's defined by the website as

'It is progressive / symphonic / avant-garde gothic / black / death metal, particularly heavy, melodic and with female vocals. My two all time favorite bands in these genres are Lacrimosa and Tristania. Some other favorites include (in alphabetical order) After Forever, Arcturus, Artrosis, Devil Doll, Dreams of Sanity, Finntroll, Forgotten Silence, Golden Dawn, Hollenthon, Nightwish and The Sins of Thy Beloved.'


If u read a bit on the website , that this name came on the perpetual motion message board cuz this person called Chris Mictchell (the person who named this metal) posts a lot on that board on the kind of music mentioned above, with the username 'dweeb'


Wierd isnt it ? ... Crazy ppl naming more genres as though we needed more :)

crazy crazy ......... super crazy

mvikred

Scariest Song

I dont know how many of you actually have one...................I am listening to Cannibal Corpse right now. I mean I really dont get it ? , why do these people actually write about such gore stuff. If you look at them as not a gore metal band by excluding their lyrical content rom the songs, Cannibal Corpse is one helluva band. They write such gruesome stuff that it totally freaks me out everytime i muster courage to read their lyrics to a new song. Now i dont read their lyrics, but i just listen to their music.

Infact because of their lyrical content they have been banned in many countries from performing, printing lyrics or even displaying cover images of their albums. Now, coming back to scariest song i've heard. Its a song written by Cannibal Corpse from the album 'The Bleeding' called 'She asked for it'. If u have the courge to experience the feel of it then go ahead and read it . It makes u feel like you are a Murderer, committing that act as you read. The music blends in well with the lyrics giving it that horrifying aura. Most of their songs have lyrics talking about killing, blood, and stuff which everyone would feel disgusted to even talk abt. Few of their other songs are titled as 'I cum blood', 'Fucked with a knife', etc . This band featured live in the movie Ace Ventura : Pet Detective. I actually have to watch this movie again , jus to make sure they are actually there in the movie cuz I dont remember seeing them. And another surprising fact is that Cannibal Corpse is Jim Carrey's Favourite band.And he wanted them in the movie. Can u believe that ? :P

Many people mistake their gore lyrics and the style of vocals to these people being big time suckers at music. Even most of the avid heavy metal fans , who listen to Maiden , Metallica etc dont tend to like these ppl , jus cuz they portray obscene stuff and talk abt the darker aspects of life. But if u look at them as musicians, every single one of them is talented to the highest level. And the music they make, sounds amazingly melodious at times. Their music is very complex and technical in most of the songs(all the instruments).

I dont know why i wrote so much about Cannibal Corpse , when actually i should be talking abt scary songs. There are many other songs , which need not necessarily be scary due to the lyrical content, but give an eerie feel with its music. There are few songs by Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath , names of which i cant recall right now :D, scared the shit outta me wen i first heard them. But after listenin to bands like Canibal Corpse , Carcass , Anal Cunt, Anal Blast... all those songs (by Floyd and Sabbath) look like gnomes(silly and small ... what a wierd comparision).

Anyways, I am sitting at home right now hoping to have fun for the next week. Dont worry, Sridhar and Pritam i'll try to get some grub.

Cya later , But please do mention your scariest song in the comments ... i've very curious to know :)

mvikred

Fav longest songs

I said I'll post later. But what the hell, couldn't resist :) I'll try and write about the songs which clock over 10 minutes. And this post could be looong.

Where do I start? So many out there. I think its easist to start with the ones that started it all. Pink Floyd. If someone asked me which one of the Floyd albums I liked the most, I wouldn't be able to answer. As I said earlier in one of my comments, it'd be a tie between The Animals, Wish you were here, The Dark side of the moon and The Wall. WYWH wins hands down when it comes to the length of the compositions. Shine on you crazy Diamond features the band in all their glory. Their ability to compose these psychedelic melodies is simply unparalleled. And one such melody which lasts for 13 freaking minutes is pure bliss.

My next favourite would be Opeth. These guys have done it all, from releasing some of the heaviest albums of all time to creating something as beautiful as Damnation (which has only clean vocals and clean guitars). If you aren't familiar with this band, this is how their albums are usually structured.. they have released 8 albums and just one (Damnation) clocks less than an hour. And the average length of each song (I'm guessing) is definitely around the 10 min mark. "The Night and the silent water" (11 mins), "Black Rose Immortal" (20 mins), "Blackwater park" (12 mins) and many others are not just songs, they are mind-expanding epics.

Next "The Doors" comes to my mind. Who hasn't heard the genius of Jim Morrison in songs like "The End" and "When the music's over"? Of course, I'm coming to Porcupine Tree next. This band is the modern day Floyd for me. Some of their songs (read "Voyage 34", which has 4 songs each clocking 13,17,19,13 mins) could be shamelessly Floyd-ish. But who cares! The band has moved on and went on to create some of the most trippy music ever. The band is experimenting more and more with each new release. Steven Wilson (vocals/guitar/effects/etc) is just God. The most trippy bass-lines award goes to this band! With the most laid-back and spaced-out jams, you wouldn't need a joint to get high, believe me. Their songs "Russia on Ice", "The Sky moves sideways" prove this!

Would you believe me if I told you that there's a math-metal/neo-thrash/whatever-the-hell band that made a song 21 mins long? The band's called Meshuggah and the album's called "I". Its pure chaos from the word go. Some of the most insane music to be ever recorded! I totally agree that this is not a band meant for everybody to appreciate, but once you connect with their music, its a whole different play ground with just one player in it... Meshuggah. These guys from Sweden are just mad. I can imagine them going into the studio for recording "I" telling each other, "lets kick the ass of every other band that ever existed" :) If you have any doubts on how talented these people are, I'd just quote Mr. Lombardo of Slayer say Tomas Haake is the best drummer in the world currently and if that doesn't mean nothing to you, go eat your shorts. And the "most extreme music with almost no vocals" award goes to Thordendal's side project "Fredrik Thordendal's Special Defects".

There are some more bands on my mind right now, like Edge of Sanity and Green Carnation who have released single-song albums of lengths 41 and 61 mins respectively. I can just go on and on about Edge of Sanity (the band's name is so perfect!), but I'd just suggest you to get hold of the fucking album and a beer. Make sure no one's watching, close the door, switch of the lights and thrash around like a mad dog until you fall asleep.

2112

Rush - 2112.

This isn't going to be a long post. I'm not sorry and I'm guessing you aren't wiping away your tears either :P

The song, not the album, is what I'm talking about. 20+ minutes of Godgiri is what 2112 is about. There's a silly science fiction story that the song is supposed to talk about, something about some priests taking over the world blah blah blah. That's not important. What is important, is that, without really knowing any of the details of the story, you still get a feel of what's happening while listening to the song! The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth.

The song is of course, by Rush, so everyone plays whatever they play amazingly well and with clinical precision! That's what I sometimes dislike about progressive rock: the fact that they're so intent on technical brilliance that they lose sight of the feel of the song. 2112, however is a happy exception to that rule, with music that....oh wait, I've already told you about the feel.

Neil Peart is the only band member whose name I remember. He's the drummer, by the way. Supposedly one of the best drummers in the world and famous for matching the guitar note to note (so to speak), he seems to do infinitely tricky things with the drumset through the course of the song. Jacob's Ladder, with it's unusual count in the second half of the song, is another song where you can see Peart's GodGiri.

The bass is also God! I'd been told (even before I began to notice bass in songs) that Rush's bassist was one of the best ever and with this song, you can atleast see that he's eligible for the title. The keyboard and the guitar are both too cool, creating the whole sci-fi atmosphere better than any words that Asimov ever wrote ;)

I just read on wikipedia that Neil Peart wrote this song. Drummers are too cool!

So here is the Title bar Mr. Sridhar

How i wish i cud get high and fucking head bang , but cant do it .... if i'd try that right now then the floor wud be a mess, all thanks to my leaking nose . This fucking cold is not letting me do anything. Not even letting me type this fucking blog with both my fucking hands. Ok enuf abt my frustration now. Lets jus move onto music, the main reason for this blog and blah blah blah( I know that u guys know that this is a place for music .. blah blah blah).. damn i'm so sick . seriously i am sick . I know i'm pakaoing u ppl , so now i'll actually move onto music

Now as Sridhar mentioned , I was totally hooked onto Atheist for the last week. If u chk my scrobbler page then u wud see that i have been listening a lot of Atheist. Now apart from Unquesitonable Presence, I have been listenign to a lot of other stuff. Let's now pick one band , that most of them wudnt know abt ...... Aeon and their album 'Bleeding The False' is one of the most brutal and fast paced album i have heard in the recent times. The lyrics though arent very intellectual and dont contain a deeper meaning. But the music is good.They have amazing riffs for few songs and the drumming..... the drumming needs a special mention. I dont know the name of the drummer , but I did read his interview and trust me this dude is amazingly fast. Almost all the songs in this album have blast beats for like 99% of the time. Now that doesnt mean that this guy has loads of talent. But one thing this guy surely has is stamina and energy , to keep going at the the same tempo for 3 mins in a 3:30 song.

Since I anyways spoke abt drummers , let me clarify few doubts of pritam. I am no master of drums , so i might be wrong also but i am gonna write here wat i know . People might correct me in the comments section. Infact it wud be better if commented. Anyways, off beat is somethign that is not done usually or rather in a conventional pattern. Now suppose u r playing a snare on the 3rd beat in ur normal 4 by 4 pattern. Now in an offbeat , play the snare on the 4th beat. This is the basic off beat(I think:D ). But this can be done in a no. of variations and can bring out a cool effect. Especially wen chords change in a song , we can use these off beats to give it that little spice. Now , wat exactly are odd time signatures. Everyone gets confused with this. Even i used to and maybe i still am . But wat i know as of now is wat i am gonna talk abt. Odd timing is something that is not 4x4 or 8x8. Odd timing can be a 6x8 , 5x8 , 23x16, 13x16 and the permutations nd combinations can be infinite. So wat exactly do u mean by 5x8. Its simple , u r playing 5 beats in a normal 8 beat staff(8x8 has 8 beats in 8 beats) so this is wat odd time signature means. The bands that use this a lot are The Dream Theater, Meshuggah( A lot ) and sometimes even Death. Let me give an example. Try listening to Meshuggah's New Millenium Cyanide Christ. This song is the pinacle of odd time signatures, the best there is , and was composed by Tomaas Haake(Meshuggah Drummer... and my GOD :D) . He goes 4x4 on hands and goest 23x16 on legs for 5 bars and 13x16 on one bar. It sums up to 128 beats which equals 16 beats on 8x8 timing. This is totally a genius way to structure a song and to even physically cross the barriers of independence is a step higher. Thats abt Odd time signatures Pritam. Wat am i learning now ? ... i'd be lucky if i got time to even have a look at the drum kit man. I dont get time to practice. But at the moment , i am practicing the rudiments . The double stroke roll, the paradiddle and the flam. Along with that i am doing few of the double bass excercises. My stamina has increased right now . I can presently do a continuous double bass beat for 2 mins. But still it has to be increased. And then it is obvious that i have to also get better at hand work. Will take time. But i hope that i do it as soon as i can.

Lets get back to music. Apart from Aeon , i have also heard black water park by Opeth and the Mantle by Agalloch. Cant stop loving these songs, no matter how many times number of times i hear them. The mantle is so soothing, and Opeth bring out the best in music , in melody , in lyrics , in everything. The songs bleak , the leper affinity , dirge for november jus lift my heart to the blissful state where i can completely forget all the worries in this wretched place called IIT. Ive got one more friend of mine hooked onto Opeth. They are like magnet, once u listen to them , u r compelled to listen to them again and again and again .. and it never stops.

Chimaira ... have u heard abt this band ? .. EVER ?? common guys its an amzing band. Its a metalcore outfit from US of A. I was listening to their album called Chimaira(a self titled album). They have their own feel to all the songs, which marks the uniqueness of the band. The songs , nothing remains, comatose , salvation .. all are so well strutured with the right mix of rage , anger and frustration.


Well after a fucked day with labs and 2 quizzes the only thing i look froward to is, to listen to music once i get back to my room. It feels so good. Right now i'm listening to Aeon - Bow Your Head . I've also found this amazing black metal band called Abigor. And there are many other bands that need a mention , but if i write everything now , then there wud be nothing left for next time. I'll keep adding more , as an when i find something interesting. Untill then ...... Arrghhhh ... jus FUCK OFF

mvikred

I think reddy (being the head moderator and all) hasn't turned on the subject line thingy. Anyway, my computer has been down for like a week and its been awesome! I didn't download any new music and waste an entire week. Now its back up again, so..

Anyway, I haven't heard any new music in a long time except for this band called Atheist, about which Reddy has already posted. Before that for a week or so, I was hooked to this album called "Pleasure to Kill" by Kreator. Kreator is a thrash metal monster from Germany. Pleasure to Kill (PTK) was released in 1986, the same year in which Slayer's "Reign in Blood" and Metallica's "Master of Puppets" were released! And believe me, PTK is no lesser than the aforementioned albums. A killer album with no fillers :) Its again a riff galore! And many wild guitar solos thrown in here and there. Of late I have observed that its not the guitar solos that draw me to a band's music, but its the riffs. For example, bands like Mastodon and Tool that rarely have a real guitar "solo" have left an everlasting impression on me. Anyway, back to the topic! If you want a sample of the band, check out the song "Riot of Violence".

I haven't met too many people who are into Kreator. And all of you reading this posting, even if you are remotely interested in Thrash, (even if you are just into Metallica :D) please go listen to Kreator. And while you are at it, check out their album called "Extreme Aggression", one of my all time fav metal album. Who knows, may be it will open up a whole new world of metal for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kinks

Looks like no band is as simple as they seem! :) What I formed my opinions from must have been the beginnings, and now that I've read about them, listening to their Greatest Hits is a whole new experience. It's easy to see which songs came later and which came earlier. You can actually see (figuratively speaking of course, since what you're doing is hearing) the changing feel and focus of the band with the changing times.

Of course, changing sounds for a band is not something new, but it's always interesting! Especially when band members change and (I'm guessing) the record company forces the band to maintain some semblance of it's original sound even though the musicians are different!

One band that truly grew with the times is U2!! Listen to October, Joshua Tree, then listen to Achtung Baby, then to Pop and then to All That You Can't Leave Behind and you'll see what I'm talking about. Ok Fine! I know you've heard all their songs before. I just can't stop talking about them because they're my favourite band!

And one band that had these discontinuous jumps in their music was Pink Floyd. I am a sincere believer of the fact that Pink Floyd is what Syd Barrett and Roger Waters made it. David Gilmour for sure was a great singer, great guitarist, a great songwriter, and a great composer. But he wasn't Pink Floyd. And that's that.

I've started rambling again! Shit, I can't stop writing about music once I start. Now, I want to start writing about Dream Theater and Rush and my strong opinions of Progressive Rock! Next post maybe ;)

Oh haan, the song that's stood out this time around:

Stevie Nicks - Edge of Seventeen. This is from the School of Rock soundtrack. I just love the drums and the energy that this song has. It's not that kind of song, I know, but I actually feel like throwing things when I hear this song! It's the ideal song for a lesbian pillow fight video!

Why doesn't this thing allow me to name my entry? Where's the good old Subject line? I tell you, this new generation of blogs...it's just not the same anymore!

So, what have I - the cool dude drummer who's trying to figure out how to hold his sticks (puns absolutely unintentional!) - been listening to in the last few (two?) days? Hold your breath...The Kinks! And Ray Charles of course! There's this song in the Ray Charles Ultimate Hits 1 collection "What I'd say Parts 1 and 2", the beginning of which, sounds hauntingly similar to "Break on Through"! I was reading about the Doors and seems they lifted music from a Kinks song also for one of their songs :O

Who cares? The Doors were God anyway!

So, getting back to Kinks (The Kinks?) They're this old band, a little older than the Doors, were famous and all at the time Jim Morrison was going mad. They have well, a unique sound, that seems to capture the general madness and rebellion of the sixties, put it through a goodness filter, and thus get a cheerful, rocky rolly sound that now old men who lived in those times can listen to and feel good about themselves.

It might be unfair to talk about them in terms of other bands, but I can't help noticing that their sound's like a Led Zeppier version of the Beatles sound. I can make out that there's something different about the way that the guitars are played. The bass, the lead and rhythm (Rhythm doesn't have any vowels!) all seem to be.......Kinky, in a cheerful way.

Their Greatest Hits, atleast doesn't have any slow songs and they seem like this band that had concerts where people were jumping about and shaking their long hair, but weren't taking drugs and had probably taken permission from their parents to come. Do you get what I'm saying?

Now my favourite part, The Drums. The drummer has his own style, like most drummers do. And his style is good, like most drummers' styles. To put it in a cliched sort of way, he's unique, just like everyone else ;)

Reddy or Nikhil, please explain to me what going offbeat (on purpose) is. What are odd time signatures? Nothing seems odd or a signature in any song I hear even if I read on the net that this song has an odd time signature! Preferably, write a post about it, one of you! Also include things that you've been learning now so that I can get a few new things to do! :)

This thing hasn't asked me for a subject (first time on blogger, sorry :P), so if there's no subject, anyone who gives me cold coffee will get my heartfelt appreciation.

Anyway, down (up, I mean) to business.

I sure hope there isn't a barrier on the genre of music that I have to write about, because I'm going to write about Ray Charles! I'm not going to google, read articles on the net or anything, just writing as I listen to Disc 1 of the ultimate hits collection! So, since I don't know anything about vocal range, song structure__________(add technical terms here and tell me what they mean too), what you can expect is a very long post, with no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience...I will dispense this post now.

Ray Charles:

The vocals : GOD! His voice is so perfectly suited for each song on the album! I can't wait to hear more. And then more! Maybe I'll watch the movie. I've heard it has amazing music.

The Drums : This is the first time that I've paid attention to the drums for something so jazzy, gospelly (whatever it was that he sang) for a long stretch of time. The drumming is good, of course, but what I actually want to say is that it's different! The parts of the drumset are used so differently than in Rock! I can see all of you shaking your heads saying "Duh!", but I can't wait to get back to the music room and try to figure out something on my own. As of now, if (when, I mean ;) )I become the world's best drummer, articles about me should include the fact that "I was influenced by various stlyes, ranging from jazz to fusion to what not". Maybe I should write the article myself.

The other instruments : I love the sound of the bass guitar. So I was looking out for that too. And again, I wasnt' disappointed. I don't know what it is, exactly, but the whole way the bass lins are put in seems different. Don't say "Duh!". The guitar, piano are all good in all their individual ways.

But for me, the drums and vocals take it all away. The vocals, because they're God, and the drums, because they're drums. So that was Ray Charles from me for you. But Since I'm already on a roll (I don't want to stop), here's a few songs that have stood out from everything I've heard in the last few weeks:

.1. Oasis - Don't Look Back in Anger. Nice song, that's all. The drums in this song are happy in the background for the most part, and that's good :)

.2. Pearl Jam - Elderly Women Behind the Counter in a Small Town (or soemthing like that). The song has a nice feel, and very nice lyrics. And oh, in case you didn't know, Eddie Vedder sings in it too. He's a good vocalist :P

.3. Judas Priest - Beyond the Realms of Death. This is by far the best Judas Priest song I've ever heard! Both the leads are awesome! The drumming is so cool! Especially in the first lead, when the bell (cow-bell?) is used. Again, I can't wait to get to the music room to try it out!

.4. Neil Young - Cortez the Killer. This - even though it seems like the kind of song you play in the background when you're doing other things - has got to be one of the best songs I've ever heard! Let me put it this way...if I made a top 100 list, this is one of the 500 that would surely be in it! The whole feel of the song is so cool, the guitars, the drums, the that, the this all add up. So when he says Cortez came "dancing across the water", you can actually picture it!

.5. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven. I just think that this song should be there in every Good Songs list anyone creates :D

I noticed that of the four contributors to this blog, three are drummers (Yes! I call myself a drummer. Whether I can actually manage a beat of any consequence is an irrelevant matter :P) and one is a bass guitarist. Drummers are so cool! Bass guitarists are also nice, though.

Long time .... but it was only because i was swamped with too much of academic work. Though i was stuffed to the brim with work , i did have time to listen to decent amount of music. And i did find one new band, lucky me that i was able to get hands on it. Its an awesome band named, Atheist. I heard their album , 'Unquestionable Presence'. The music is actually very unconventional, with odd song structures. But technically very high quality of music was made for this album. They fall under technical death metal, the genre's forefathers being Death. I found few elements in Atheist's music matching to Death's music . No wonder I like both of them . Though i have heard only 2 bands in the Technical Death metal, i have taken a special liking towards this genre. Another band that Sridhar gave me was Pestilence fron New Zealand. I havent had the time to listen to them, but they fall under Technical Death Metal too. Will listen to them in the near future. Today I was listening to Individual Thought Patterns by Death. I should tell u , it is by all means one of Death's top masterpieces(all albums by Death are Masterpieces of Death Metal) . Gene Hoglan is relentless on the skins. He is simply amazing. His double bass patterns are totally mind blowing. I, being a drummer myself , was paying special attention to the drumming part and it was top notch drumming. It was awesome , super awesome. I first heard hoglan on Symbolic, and from the moment i heard Crystal Mountain , Gene Hoglan was right up there , at the very top, he became my drumming god at that very moment. I wanted to listen to more of Hoglan, go crazy head banging every time i heard one of his songs. Then I started listening to Strapping Young Lad's Alien. And then i heard another song that blew me off my feet the very first time. My all time fav song called 'Love ?' . This song is not only highly energetic drumming wise , but also has an energy a level higher cuz of Devin Townsend. His voice and Hoglan's insane double bass , made me go crazy every single time i heard that song. And even till this day , 5 months after i first heard "Love?", i go crazy wen i play that song. If you are a worshipper , then u gotta know the origins of ur god. So I went on to find out about Hoglan's very first band which was a thrash metal outfit called Dark Angel. Heard their album , Darkness Descends , which was a sensation back in the 80s wen it was released. Still considered as the best thrash metal album along the lines of Reign in Blood(Slayer) and Master Of Puppets(Metallica). Dark Angel was an oldschool thrash metal band , but listening to them you can listen to a young Hoglan drumming religiously at high tempos. Through Dark Angel he changed from a simple fast, thrash metal drummer to a terrific , insane drummer that he is now. He is 3(jus a figure i came up with:P , he might be faster than that) times faster on double bass now , compared to wat he was on Darkness Descends. Jus a piece of info, Hoglan is known for practicing double bass with weights on his legs, and thats the reason , he is the one of the fastest drummer around. For a guy who started out being a rodie with Dave Lombardo , he has reached hieghts that any amatuer drummer(like me) would always dream of. I only wish i wud someday be half of wat he is right now.

Albums to listen to , to admire Gene Hoglans Insane Drumming :

• Symbolic by Death
• ITP by Death
• All albums by SYL(full time member of the band)
• All albums by Dark Angel(full time member untill they disbanded)
• The Devin Townsend Band(Side project of Dein Townsend)
  

I have to get back to my busy life tomorrow morning. I jus wish this night was as long as it can ever be :)

Anyways , cya soon and I hope that the other contributors post something atleast once for a change

mvikred

Mastodon. Doesn't the name sound heavy and imposing? Well, their music is all that and more. They are a bunch of insane musicians. First, I heard their 5 song EP titled Lifesblood and fell in love with the music. Its very difficult to define their genre. Its like Tool meets Sabbath meets Slayer meets Alice in Chains. I was immediately searching for their other albums. Got hold of Leviathan and Remission and there's no going back! You get lost in a world of infinite riffs and beautiful drum work. The drummer, Brann Dailor is brilliant. One of the best drummers I've heard. If you are into metal, you would do good to go listen to this band.

Was listening to Meshuggah the other day. I was completely immersed in their music and suddenely this question came up in my head. Something that made me think for quite some time. Me and my loser buddy Sridhar discussed abt this topic over beer at Aura's , which by the way is a nice place. And the question, which i think wouldve come to every music fanatic , is " Where will all the Technical Brilliance of the musicians and music eventually end up" . How wud metal be in the Future? .
Lets analyse the evolution of metal or music chronologically. It started off with soft stuff , then violins and pianos and jazz and blues. And after that came the wave of gospel RnB , and then came Rock n Roll. Then came Rock , which evolved into metal, which again had its subgenres.I really cant talk abt how each genre evolved over time. I wud briefly, mind u briefly talk abt how Metal has evolved. Well metal came in the form of Black Sabbath, considered till date as the Grandfathers of Metal. They were the pioneers in the down tuned guitars, screechy vocals and evil lyrics.Metal was heavier than rock. Black Sabbath is a band that one can never forget, cuz its cuz of them we have metal today. Sabbath had got in faster drum fills, harder beats, and more usage of cymbals.
Next came in the NWOBHM. Iron Maiden , Judas Priest, Manowar and many other bands. They took metal to one level higher , by making guitars faster, and drums louder and rolls and fills even faster. The consequence was that , the world had heavier music. And day by day the no. of fans for this heavy, heart thumping music increased. Then came in another breed of musicians, who took the heaviness and the technical abilities of musicians one more notch up. Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax - the big four as called by the metal historians , which brought in speed , and a lot of it infact along with double bass which made it the heaviest music. This made ppl go even madder. This music gave birth to terms like Headbanging and Moshing. Heaviness was defined by these bands. Running parallel to the Bay Area Thrash scene was the Florida Death metal scene and Norwegian(Scandinavian) Black Metal. Leading the way were bands like Death, Morbid Angel, Possessed in Death Metal and Mayhem, Emporer in Black Metal. All these bands were writing songs that were at the pinnacle of the music thoery. The speed was there , the artisian finis was there , and the heaviness was never ignored or compromised. Later came many other genres which are children of these Thrash and Death , but all had the heaviness and the quality intact.This was wat ppl thought was the end of metal. Then in 92 came out pantera, with their album Cowboys from Hell and blew the whole world away. They sounded diff, nothing similar to the death or thrash metal. They had their own sound and formed their own army of fans in the latter years. Dimebag Darrel was doing awesome stuff on the guitar which ppl never saw and expected. And in mid 90s started the Guttenberg Scene in Sweden. A new Breed of metal started there. Keepign the Heaviness and speed intact, they added melody and made a distinctive sound of their own. InFlames, Dark Tranquility are some notable bands.
After this came another band which brought heaviness a new meaning. MESHUGGAH. The band is better known for their odd time signatures. Leaving out the technical aspects these guys sound brilliantly heavy.This is where we are. We know how the music has grown over the ages.Technically and also decibel wise. Another 30 yrs down the lane, how wud it be ? Would we still be playing music like Meshuggah or Maiden or Sabbath. Or would it be heavier than wat we are listening to right now. Will it be more advanced technically. New music thoeries evolving? So many questions in head. But in the end , all i can say is , IT DOESNT MATTER. But I can tell u guys for sure is that , jus listen to music , keep listening to Metal and the spirit of Metal shall show us the way in the times to come. For now , forget all the bull shit, and headbang and mosh day in and day out.

METAL RULES \m/

mvikred

Hmmm .... Once again , I am successful in posting here pretty late. But Hey i've got reasons u see . I was sooo busy that i cud hardly have time to write a post on this dumb ass blog. jus kiddin .. this aint dumb-ass. But part of the reason why I was busy is cuz we conducted a Workshop. Which we called as RAW. Rock Appreciation Workshop. Pretty jazzy name eh ? . So wat did we exactly do in this workshop. We kinda gave an insight to the uninitiated abt how wonderful this world of rock and metal is. KP and Dos , talked untill Sabbath and thn Sridhar and me spoke . The idea was to chronologically introduce the noobs to metal and heavy rock. With some good visual slides and some amazingly rare videos , we made a terrific impact on the 'interested' crowd. I from the stage cud hear the oohs and aahs of amusement wen we showed them few rare concert videos. With Sumit doing the compgiri and also the publicity and other management stuff for this Workshop we ended up putting on one HELLUVA show. Way to go guys. And the next one in line is the Jazz workshop.
Recently I've been introduced to this band called Chimaira . A metalcore band from USA. In their album Impossibility of Reasons there exists this amazing track called Cleansation. Its amazing , musically and every other aspect . This song is so amazing that every time i listen to it , i wanna listen to it more. Their other songs are kick ass too. Salvation , Lazarus , Comatose. All are great songs. Holy Moses. I guess most of them wudve never heard of that band. Thats a crazy , motherfucking , kick ass thrash band , from ....... I dont give a shit. Their album Qualm of Siam , is a sexy album . Necropolice the openign track has an awesome pace and feel. All the other songs that follow are awesome too.
Untill today i only heard napalm death on vids , and tht too bad quality. Never heard their albums. But today i happened to listen to their album called Enemy of the Music Business. Its ana amazing album. And i believe now that Napalm Death is an amazing band. The drummer is like amazingly fast. The fastest one i've heard. Sometimes i feel he is faster than Gene Hoglan. Well listne to them sometime. Thats all I guess. Jus completed Listening to In Flames - Jester Race. A Classic Metal Album. Will never get bored listening to it.

Thats it for now . Will write more next time .

Adios

mvikred

My crazy ride with Slayer started with Show No Mercy. If you haven't yet heard it, then please listen to it, come back and read the rest of this post! The next Slayer album I heard was Reign in Blood, which by many is considered to be the loudest and the heaviest album to be ever recorded. And believe me, it IS, no second thoughts. Its a hellride that lasts just under 30 mins. Raining Blood has to be one of the best closing tracks ever written. And my most recent Slayer discovery is "Seasons in the abyss". Containing classics like War Ensemble, Dead Skin Mask, Hallowed Point and not to mention the legendary title track. Even though there are a lot of albums on the Slayer catalogue that I haven't yet heard, I'm in no hurry. I want to savor each track of the feast!

Over Kill - Relix IV



One more album to add to the collection. This album sounds really good. I am listening to it right now. Will give a more detailed review and info abt this album later.

Well , sridhar is a big sucker , so he aint writing much here or anywhere else. Well Life's really busy these days with lotsa assignments and labs, but there is always time for music. Cuz music is the one which calms my nerves down. I've heard a few new bands recently , just briefly. Theory in Practice , Sodom and Possessed. All are absolutely awesome. I in particular liked TOP. Sodom is a typical thrash band from Germany, quick , fast , tight and awesome. They are in the same league as Slayer . They have also been in the Thrash Metal Scene along with Slayer from the early 80's . Ive jus got hold of Darkness Descends by Dark Angel . I am waiting to listening to that album . Mainly cuz of Hoglan's drumming. Cant get hold of Control Denied's albums. Jus curious how Chuck wud be like doing Power Metal.

Well , i'll write more later.

And yeah , pretty soon there will be a new contributor . U'll know his name soon :)

Adios

I'm just linking a posting on my blog here..Its about Independence Rock 2005 getting cancelled.
The saddest thing to have happened to Indian Rock. To add to the already sad state of affairs..

http://esridhar.blogspot.com/2005/09/wake-up.html#comments

Something i wrote

Something i wrote

verse 1
----------
A heaven that doesnt exist,
Cuz this wolrd is a living hell ,
All the evil this earth consists,
Makes us wanna jump in the well

So.....

Chorus:
----------
Be good my dear friend
Untill this wretched place ends
Never knowing y we r born
Only seeing this world being torn



verse2
---------
corruption at its peak
feeding on the innocent with its beak
justice , so forlorn
I was dead b4 i was born

So....



So....

Chorus X 2
----------------

(whispering)

Be good my dear friend
Try untill your end
So this world , one day , will bend

(fade out)

This is something I saw on Deaths Website... an Interview of Chuck by Grind Zone Dater 10-1998

=====================================================================

Surviving in the merciless world of music business ain't easy, but when you join tenacity and lot of class you can overcome even the most extreme difficulties: Chuck Schuldiner has lots of class and tenacity, so don't be surprised that we find him again leading the legendary Death, ready to prove that passion for music is stronger than all those goddamn marketing laws that rule our daily living! 'The Sound Of Perseverance' is the title of the new album. Melodic, powerful and technical like never before, Chuck has presented it in a preview to our Cristiano Bianchi…

If persistence had a name, it would be surely Chuck Schuldiner! In the music business it is hard to find another person who demonstrated so much devotion to his own creation (Death) and to the metal cause. Much has been written about Mr. Schuldiner, and most of it negative, showing that, maybe, no one (fans apart) ever really cared to comprehend how much this ingenius artist wanted to convey in all these years. To this Floridian boy who plays guitar divinely, trends and compromises always meant nothing, and we know all too well how such an attitude can cause troubles for those who are looking to lead the shabby rock 'bandwagon' towards lands ruled by 'Godmoney.' They called him 'dictator', labelled him stubborn, and lately they even accused of going insane, leaving death metal to play power, which is currently considered trendy now. How much bullshit… Fortunately, Chuck has always remained quiet, very down-to-earth and maintained one obvious goal: to give to his own fans a new record, better than the one before. The target was hit perfectly with 'The Sound Of Perseverance', the seventh studio-album by Death. Offspring of a new line-up (Richard Christy on drums, Shannon Hamm on second guitar and Scott Clendenin on bass) and of fresh deal with the respected Nuclear Blast, and with little delay in time-table, Chuck contacts me by phone and shows from the very beginning the willingness to have a nice chat…

So, to start, would you like to make clear all that happened around Death in the period after 'Symbolic' tour?
"Well, in short, at the end of that tour I decided to take a break to reflect, so that I could comprehend what was the best to do with Death: I want to say explicitly that I never thought of splitting the band up, I just felt the need to…pull the plug for a while. The misunderstandings with Roadrunner had already become incurable and it made no sense to continue collaborating with a label that no longer believed in the band: so I decided to take up an old idea I had some time ago, which was to create a band that was not so different from what Death already play, but with the difference of having a classic metal singer (Rob Halford/Bruce Dickinson style) behind the microphone…"

So were all the rumours about your 'conversion' to Helloween-like heavy-power metal false?
"I never said I wanted to play power metal or even 'alternative' music, like I read in some magazine! Control Denied (this is the side band's name) was born of the same spirit that generated Death and took the same energy, the same use of guitars, the same attitude: the only difference is having a singer, that, sings instead of screaming or growling. Besides, while I was dedicating myself to this new project, I always kept on writing new material for Death and from this too you can clearly understand that I was never meant to give up the project that gave me so much satisfaction in my decade-plus career. What I really wanted was to take the time needed to lead Death to a further evolutionary level: our fans always appreciated the fact that every album contained something more than the previous one, and with 'The Sound Of Perseverance' it's the same too. We know there is a lot of people out there still eager to listen to our music and, personally, I think this is the right moment to get back on the scene with a new record."

And what will happen to Control Denied?
"Definitely will be out an album for this project too, but surely we'll not return to the studio before having finished the supporting tour of 'The Sound Of Perseverance': the tracks for Control Denied album are already done, the band is almost the same (except, obviously, for the singer), so as soon as we'll have a couple of free weeks we'll record everything."

In a recent interview, Steve DiGiorgio (the phenomenal bass player of Sadus, ex Death) nearly took for granted his presence at the recording of "Symbolic's" successor, and then nothing happened. Were the many commitments of your bands to prevent the reformation of the great 'Individual' line-up (which included the amazing Gene Hoglan too) or was it something else?
"Unfortunately our obligations and deadlines would not to allow us to play together again: I saw Steve recently and he'd have been very happy to give his class and technique again to Death, yet for reasons outside of our control it was impossible. However Steve will remain my favorite bass player, besides a very dear friend of mine! The same is true for Gene: last time we met was during Dynamo festival…Gene is really a super-busy person: his note-book is full of obligations from now up till 2005, so there was no possibility to do again something together this time."

Because you couldn't count on Gene Hoglan, you did well to replace him with a drummer who didn't let him be missed: but can you tell me where you found such a technical 'monster' like Richard Christy?
"I was really lucky to find a guy like him, wasn't I? I remember I met him in a store: we were both leafing through some magazines and common friends introduced us to each other. He told me he was a great Death fan, and naturally I was happy about this, though at that time I was nearly totally concentrated on Control Denied project: on that occasion we chatted a bit and it finished there. Then I met him again at a party and we made our acquaintance a bit deeper: he confirmed his passion for albums such as 'Human' and 'Individual Thought Patterns', he told me he was a drummer and wanted me to consider him when we began auditions for the new Death drummer. I thought it over for a while and then, considering the boy was nice and seemed self-confident, I called him and invited him to the studio for a rehearsal: in the executions of 'Suicide Machine' and 'Overactive Imagination' he was absolutely superlative and I was really impressed by that performance. It did not seem possible to me to have found a person who saw things with my same point of view and that, at the same time, was gifted by an instrumental technique close to perfection: hey man, yes, he was just the man I was searching for!"

Let's begin to talk about new disk: it is for sure the most complex and, at the same time, melodic work Death ever recorded…
"I totally agree with your statement, also because the perfect mix between technique and melody was just what I wanted to achieve with 'The Sound Of Perseverance': in some way, this album is the natural synthesis between 'Individual Thought Patterns', for feeling, and 'Symbolic', for songwriting's aggression. Beyond, this time we recorded faster than we ever did in the past, so that to catch the spontaneity of songs…"

Your way of singing too has changed a bit and your voice sounds less guttural and eviler…
"It's true, but if you think it over well, for some mysterious reason my way of singing has always been changing album by album: for 'The Sound Of Perseverance' I wanted to use a vocal style more…cleaner and so I concentrated principally on high tunes, leaving a bit the old grunts! To be honest, the change was a lot more natural than it seems, also because when I sing I try to express the vibe I feel in a certain moment, without caring too much about what we can call 'vocal technique': in fact, my way of singing is very instictive, sometimes primitive, and definitely I'll never win a prize for my singing qualities! Ah ah!"

Do you feel more at your ease behind the microphone now?
"Well, I'd say yes…as far as you can feel at your ease screaming like a madman! Ha! This way of singing is really exhausting and it's not easy to always be extreme: but this is what fans expect from Death's singer…guys want to hear me scream, scream, and scream more, and I try to please them…"

Are the album lyrics still dealing with themes linked to reality surrounding us?
"Yes, like on 'Individual…' and 'Symbolic', it's still daily living at the center of my lyrics: the last three Death albums were centered on one great theme, human life. Everybody has dreams and alternate moments of happiness and periods of distress and this is what I talk about in my lyrics: emotions, joy, injustice, sorrow…"

Where did you get the idea of covering 'Painkiller' (Judas Priest) for the cd? Was it originally considered for the Control Denied album?
"Well…we began to play 'Painkiller' almost as a joke, during rehearsal: personally, the Judas record from which that song is taken is absolutely one of my favorites, because it is one of the most aggressive and progressive works ever done by the historical English band. That song has the same elements which characterize the music of Death: power, aggression and melody. In the beginning we thought to use it as bonus track only for the Japanese market, but in the end of recording we realized that was really good and so we decided to include it in the final track-list. It was really funny to play the part of Rob Halford! Ha ha!"

How did you get a deal with Nuclear Blast?
"After I broke with Roadrunner I swore to myself that I would never sign a deal with a label that was not totally busy promoting true metal and Nuclear Blast just works to this direction. I was tired of dealing with people not believing 100% in this kind of music and I didn't want Death's new album to suffer the risk of scarce support, like what happened for 'Symbolic': Roadrunner preferred to center its energies to promote Type O Negative and Korn clones, but that one is not heavy metal! With the guys at Nuclear Blast it was a near instant agreement, because they know who Death are and don't need someone explaining to them that we play metal!"

Do you like the contemporary metal scene?
"As far as I can see, in Europe and Japan, there's still a good thriving of groups and the audience at gigs hasn't diminished: the States, on the contrary, at least at this moment, don't seem very receptive to heavy music…Probably because the current scene lacks originality: quality isn't missing, but innovative bands are few, on the contrary, it seems that new groups are inspired by glorious early 80s' bands rather than by contemporary productions. Yet this is understandable, 'cause the so called 'godfathers' of metal had all their own definite and original style: Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica, Slayer, Venom, Mercyful Fate, Raven, Anvil were (and still are) gifted by great creativity and strong personality, so it's normal that still today are teaching to new acts. A thing I can't stand in the scene now is all those stupid categories in which they try to lock bands up! Who is allowed to decide what an artist has to do? Why should I not to write melodic music? Perhaps because I'm the guitarist of Death? Guys, metal is metal and stop! Categories have always been an instrument to divide, while we have to try to stay unified to keep on listening to what we like! Metal is power, aggression, speed and melody, those are the elements characterizing Death's music as well as Maiden or Mercyful Fate!"

Personally, I always thought an open mind is a fundamental feature to comprehend every form of art, but unfortunately the media in general seem to go to the opposite way…
"And it's just this the real problem of the scene! In short, MTV says metal ain't cool, right? But when you talk about Korn or Type O Negative things are totally different! These groups enjoy incredible radio airplay, not to mention the broadcasting of their videos…that's something strange! I sincerely hope that heavy promotion organized by Nuclear Blast for the American market can give metal its longed-for offspring. I'd like very much to walk through the streets of New York and hear enthusiastic comments about new records by Meshuggah, Hammerfall, Primal Fear and, of course, Death! Yes, I'd like it very much…"

What are your three favorite ever metal records?
"Without any doubt, my favorite is definitely Iron Maiden's 'The Number Of The Beast'…a real classic! Then I'd say Mecyful Fate's 'Melissa', Exciter's 'Heavy Metal Maniac', Metallica's 'Kill'Em All', and Slayer's 'Show No Mercy'…uhm…they're five, is it ok all the same?

Yes, this time we'll make an exception…
"Ok, ha ha! Well, you see, there would be at least the same number to remember, yet these five are definitely those ones that strongly influenced my fate…metal fate!"

And now a banal question: do you think 'The Sound Of Perseverance' is the best record ever made by Death?
"Well, I hope so, though I have to admit 'Individual Thought Patterns' has been up till now the most important cd in my career…In short, I think I can clearly say that latest three Death records represent the best I could ever express myself artistically: in the future I hope there will be even better moments"

What does it mean to Chuck Schuldiner to be still 'on the road' after all these years and after all the controversy in which you were involved against your will?
"To me this is really a great accomplishment, something to be proud of: it's true, there were unhappy moments, but music gave me immense satisfaction anyway! This is a job I love and I always wanted to do, without feeling the need to follow the latest trends and never giving up on doing things my own way…I never liked safe and certain things, because when you play metal there's never anything certain…and I play heavy metal!"

Before ending, do you want to leave a message to your Italian fans, if possible making an appointment for next Death coming to Italy?
"With pleasure! The last concert we played in Italy was fuckin' incredible, so much so that I still talk about it! I'd like to take this chance to thank all those who were that night at Rainbow in Milan, hoping that next date will be as special as that one! About the new tour, we'll start in Greece in the end of September, so I think in the beginning of October we'll be on to you…don't miss it!"

=====================================================================================

RIP CHUCK

Ahhhh .. my neck still pains from yesterdays show. Yeah ... I'm talking about MOSH MANIA 05 . It was one killer show. After a long time , i really enjoyed a gig. It was one wild show. There were atleast 200 odd crowd gathered in the basketball courts of the Goregaon Sports Club in Malad. Though its pretty far away from the main city, the distance jus couldnot keep these crazy metalheads frmo coming and headbang till their necks came off. It was very surprising a fairly good number of females in the show. The fact that females in India are listening to METAL surprises me. The sound was awesome , the best in my opinion after Mood I. The location was a novel idea , which was awesome. And the bands ... awesome awesome. The lineup was total kick ass. The bands lived up to the expectations of the crowd. HFC took the honours of starting the gig. But unfortunately , me and sridhar were outside jus hanging out so that we wud enter once the osund check was done. Unfortunately , HFC was playing their song set. So we basically missed HFC. But i got their EP "Thank You Come Again" . Get one urself, if not for the music jus for supporting India Rock Scene. When me and sridhar entered Sceptre started playing. They played their originals , "Nuclear" is one of them which i really like. They were tight, fast and hard. They were totally on par with any major thrash metal band in the world. Awesome band. It was my first Sceptre gig. And i really love them. Sridhar also got a tee of Sceptre. And the best part of Sceptre's song was their Slayer Medley.They started off with Angel of Death , mixed it and blended it with Seasons in the Abyss(one of my all time Slayer fav) and ended it with Raining Blood from the album Reign in Blood. That was one awesome medley. It was perfectly done and the crowd loved it. They moshed , headbanged and the atmosphere was totally wild. This gig was sponsered by 3 g service and Mumbai Mirror. It was well publicised for a rock show. Vijay Nair did a great job. Thts the way to go. Sceptre had a distince Slayer feel to their voice and solos. Their originals sounded more or less like another Slayer song. Thats a compliiment for an up-coming Indian Band :D.
Then came Themclones. Another awesome band. They were more like a punk metal band. Their originals were more Limp Bizkit and Korn like. It was clear that RATM has a big influence on this band. The band was tight, and kicked ass. The vocalists attitude was great. And lead guitarist was at ease with morello's leads. They played covers of "Killing in the name of", "Guerilla Radio" and "Wake Up" . The crowd went wild for all their songs , covers and their originals. Thats Themclones in action for u. Next came the much awaited band . Apna idhar ka band.... Aamchi Mubaiyya waala. Thats wat P-Man from PDV had to say wen the band came onto the stage. Or something like that. This is one wild band. A sexy awesome and a band that i got hooked onto for the past 3 days. Their debut album "Compose .. Oppose .. Dispose" is awesome. Pradeep with his growls sets the stage on fire and brings our pure rage in the crowd. Well this band made Mosh Mania a real MOSH MANIA. They made every fucking metal head present there head bang. They were brutal, they were fast ad they showed pure aggression. It was surely my best band for the evening. What more can i say about a band that most of them alread know about. I dont know the name of the drummer of PDV. But trust me , he was fast , he was good , he was awesome. He was double bass drumming like a pro. And he was very fast on the snare. This was an awesome band. They played their originals from their Debut. They played "Gutterment" and "Absurd"(My fav) and some more originals. But every single track brought the house down. I really am falling short of words to explain how awestruck I was when i heard this band play. I have become a pdv fan. And I would like to see a Sceptre Album sometime. Hope they release some album soon. And after PDV came ZERO followed by Pentagram. I dont wanna write anything abt Zero as , mumbai already heard a lot of Zero and the play the same set of songs almost every gig. They dont change their song set. But this time they played a couple of songs from their new album, whose name i was not interested in finding out. And man , i dont wanna start abusing Pentagram , this page wudnt be sufficient for me to fill up. I hate that band. and i hate that Vishal Motherfucker. Guess wat happened, the crowed started abusing Vishal and that retarded fuck , threw the mic into the crowd and that started a fight , and out of nowhere cops came and there was a lathi charge. The cops were all over the place. A bad ending to such an awesome evening. And my hate for Pentagram is increasing Day by day. The next gig on the cards is I-Rock. I am really looking forward to the first day. The line up is awesome. I dont wanna see pentagram at irock too. I hate them... goddammit. Cartman would say it better than me, He'd surely hate them. So lets wait till I-rock , get our necks back in Good Condition, so we can fucking head bang again. HEAR METAL, EAT METAL, LIVE METAL.

Thats me @ MOSH MANIA ... Sorry sridhar dint take a pic of u man , will do it next time :D . I was too lost in MUSIC

Yeah srisdhar, Pantera kicks ass man . Anyday, anytime. If we can enjoy songs which were made 15 yrs back then they are surely something. I have the same respect for Death too. Chuck Shudleiner. Awesome Vox man. Gene Hoglan was better than any drummer when he played in symbolic. He was totally awesome. Symbolic is one album that impressed me the most when it comes to Hoglan's drumming. He is my god. I shall worship him. I wish so much, if i jus had a poster of this guy. I wanna listen to dark angel man. He played in that band b4 death. SYL is ofcourse very good. But i also wanna listen to Dark Angel. If u guys havent heard Death , then i strongly recommend u to start ur death metal experience with Death. The pioneers in Death Metal. I've also been listening to Morbid Angel, and Lamb of God , Dark Tranquility , Overkill and Soilwork. All if them have impressed me. I would like to listen to more of their albums. Well i havent talked abt Meshuggah yet. I am a die hard Meshuggah. I dont know wat is there in Sweden , but it produces the best metal acts today. Meshuggah , Dark Tranquility , Soilwork , and many more are from Swedes. They are jus awesome. I cant start with Meshuggah. Sridhar will have a lot to say abt Meshuggah. For now , i have added a link on the right tool bar to a website called The Metal Observer. Please visit that website. They have many interviews and reviews. U can read and know more abt each album and band. We shall keep adding more stuff as we go on. I hope that people who visit here leave their comments behind. Jus so that we know more stuff and have a discussion abt some interesting stuff. Well get hold of the music of the bands I have mentioned and start ur Death Metal experience today. I'll tell u , its a wonderful experience. Adios for now.





Soilwork








Meshuggah
mvikred

Cold beer and Pantera! What else could you want in life?! One of our many listening/video watching sessions we had a couple of days back. Watching Pantera performing live (im saying watching them on tv! i'll go fucking crazy if i see them "live") is such an adrenaline rush! One of the heaviest bands of all time.. Dimebag owns and Phil Anselmo can kick the living hell out of us. With Vinnie Paul on the drums and Rex Brown on the bass, its one of the heaviest outfits ever, probably only next to Slayer. Such aggression, such groove and to top it all, the lyrics. If you haven't heard this band and you call yourselves a metal fan, go die! Fuckin Hostile!

OK , here is one more band , i've been listening to . I got my hands only on one of their album , but they kick ass in that album. Devin Townsend is awesome. His vocals are jus too good. And My new Drumming God , Gene Hoglan . He is jus too much. I jus adore his drumming. He is ex- Dark Angel and ex- Death drummer. And he is jus too good. He is my god now. If i think abt drumming , the ultimate wud be to be atleast half of wat he is. Which i think is also a difficult task. So the band for todays post is SYL. And the album ive been listening to is Alien. It is a kick ass album , with heavy riffs yet melodic, some hardcore double bass drumming. My favs are "Love ? " , "Skeksis" , "Shine" , "Possessions" and "Two Weeks" and "zen " too :)

Its 2 am , and i really wanna sleep . But i thought i'd write something here , b4 i dozed off. I am sick right now and i have a sore throat , but that dint stop me from screaming at the top of my voice to Pantera's cover of Black Sabbath's Electric Funeral. I've been listening to a lot of Pantera lately. My playlist only has the complete discography of Pantera , Meshuggah's Chaosphere nd Nothing and Death's Symbolic and leprosy. These 3 bands kick ass. And they are jus awesome. I've been loving Pantera a lot , especially their albums "Cowboys From Hell" , "Vulgar Display of Power" and "Re-inventing the Steel" . My favs by Pantera are Mouth for War , Domination , Cowboys from hell , Cemetary Gates , This Love , Walk , Message in Blood . And i also like every other song of theirs. There is also a song called Zero Tolerance and Crystal Mountain which are also my favs. This has been a really good listening experience to me. I have been listening to high class music , technically , to be more precise. I mean awesome tap solos , to the most complicated drum rolls and the very odd time signatures. All these are a good things for an aspiring musician like me. I am sure i can never reach that spot ( where i really wish i was ) , but as a student i can always enjoy the music and keep learning with every song. So today's blog is Jus for PANTERA :) ..... PANTERA KICKS ASS

Hmmmmm , I'm lazy to write abt the Mikanos gig now , so i'm gonna ditch it.. I'm listening to Meshuggah right now. They are an amazing band. The tap solos , the arbit , wierd but techinically difficult drumming ... they have everything. And their songs are good. One awesome band. U Ppl should listen to it. Its actually amazing. I am also listening to Opeth and Death now. And there is this particular song called Zero Tolerance in Death's album called Symbolic. Aaaah , as i write this blog , it's raining. It hasnt rained for the past 4 days and now atlast it did. And its pretty heavy. It'll cool down a bit. Waiting for someone to come back to Mumbai. Everyone is coming back from their Interns now. I will not be alone now. Summer was interesting and at the same time was boring at times. The Bangalore trip was worth every penny spent. I had fever wen i was there , but i took tabs and somehow managed to enjoy every second. Went pubbing , had a lot of beer , head banged a lot. I expecially liked Styx a lot. It played the kind of music , i really enjoyed. Heavy metal, Thrash , Speed Metal. I had also gone to Pecos , which played Rock n Roll .. more artists like Floyd , Hendrix, The rolling stones , the who, zappa and other slow stuff. And after coming back to mumbai , i went to this gig at mikanos , and trust me it sucked big time. I hated Pentagram. I was not able to get the Debut EP of Helga's Funk Castle. I'll get hold of it somehow. I like HFC's vox attitude. Sid , who is also a drummer for Zero , now the veteran band in mumbai . Every other person has got bored of ZERO. They are good for sure , but nothin great. They havent released their new album for more than 2 yrs now. Their last album i think was called Hook and it was nice. Nice solos by mendosa . He was the one who gave the band , the best band status in Mumbai. But otherwise they are jus ok . Bobby , the bassist is also good. Now with Samuel Joseph as the lead guitarist ( as Hagrid left to New Zealand) nothing can be said abt the bands future. There is one thing that i have observed. I have seen Zero play in mumbai for the past 2.5 yrs and every show they have played their originals , which is a good thing , but they are only playing their songs , and the same ones. Its like they are not experimenting, or giving their fans something new. I guess everyone hates them now. Anyways , i'm looking forward to this show coming up which has Naked Earth . And i want to go , cuz i wanna see the drummer , Irwie Vaz . He is abudda , but he kicks in the nuts of many new drummers. He is a hardcore metal drummer, who playes pantera and slayer. Playing vincent paul's and steve lonbardo's drum beats is no easy job even for a good drummer. That means he surely is exceptional. Thats totally awesome. So i plan to take classes from him . I have started drumming after my first year, but i've improved very less after that year. But i really want to improve as a drummer. Play more metal , and not the crappy grunge , we end up playing. I was thinking of taking classes from him . Anyways i'm gonna call him and find out abt him and whether he can take me . Thats one thing i have to do. I guess thats it for now. Nothing more to say. I'll wait so that Sridhar can write something here.

Adios amigos

vikas just wrote a review of yesterday's gig at Mikanos and the fucking review disappeared from the blog. That's what he says. Helga's FUn(k) Castle played and PDV played.. I so wanted to catch them Live. My luck! Will try and get hold of HFC's album after I get back to Bombay. Was such a dry season. I attended just 2 gigs this summer and both of them by Zebediah Plush! Waiting for I-Rock. Its tht time of the year again.. Independence!!!

Zero performing at MIKANOS

mvikred

ps:Review later.... wrote it but screwed up while posting :(

Forum Mall : Pretty good place , but the whole of banglore is there :) ........ Too packed on weekends











Pubbing at STYX ..................In order
Sridhar , on top of him nikhil , on the right its hari and me