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World Painted Blood : SLAYER

 Now Slayer are fully functioning again-- and it's hard to believe that a 27-year-old band can be this intense. World Painted Blood races through 11 tracks in 40 almost fat-free minutes. Slayer haven't written a great slow song since "Seasons in the Abyss", but the few that are here break up the album nicely. The rest of the record is fast and finely controlled. Hooks peek through often, and the interplay between guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman is lively. Their trademark whinnying-horse solos are intact, and Lombardo still pushes the beat hard. "Unit 731" features some of his best drumming ever, with delightfully crackling fills. An extremely dry mix practically brings the listener into the room next to the band. This performance aspect is crucial to Slayer's success. Unlike, Metallica, whose drummer Lars Ulrich is inconsistent live, or Megadeth, who have settled into a monotonous precision, Slayer have retained their organic energy. They are one of the most electrifying musical units working today.

This upfront sound is double-edged, however. It's thrilling to hear the band in such close audio quarters. But as a result, it loses some mystique. The production quirks of past albums helped give Slayer an aura. Hell Awaits, for example, indeed sounded hellish due to an excess of reverb. The tedious sludge of Diabolus in Musica had a certain charm. Although Rick Rubin's production on Slayer's classic trilogy (Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss) was dry, the songs still had a smoke-rising-in-the-distance quality. Now the band is aurally inches away from one's face. Additionally, the band has turned its attention from the underworld to the real world. "Americon", for example, condemns the U.S.' blood-for-oil foreign policy. Slayer being timely is not Slayer being timeless. But the way they're still playing, they sure sound like it.

- Pitchfork

MEGADETH "ENDGAME"

It’s a given that Megadeth will never equal their great first five albums, but what’s so surprising about Endgame is just how close it comes. And again, it’s all due to Mustaine sticking to his strengths, and with the extraordinarily talented Broderick as his new wingman, the record positively scorches with an intensity we haven’t heard since Rust in Peace. With its furious back-and-forth solos, opening instrumental “Dialectic Chaos” wastes no time in showcasing that dynamic between Mustaine and Broderick, and combined with the pure speed of “This Day We Fight”, longtime fans will be instantly reminded of the bracing “Into the Lungs of Hell”/“Set the World Afire” one-two punch that kicks of 1988’s great So Far So Good…So What!. Although the lyrics leave a lot to be desired, lead single “Head Crusher” is nevertheless inspired, Drover propelling the fast choruses and then launching the song into a wicked groove that doesn’t feel far removed from ‘86’s “Wake Up Dead”. Similarly, “1,320’” is an old-school thrasher, with Mustaine’s trademark twisting riffs leading the way as Drover takes a more pummeling approach similar to Motörhead.

Lyrically speaking, we get the usual eclectic Mustaine fare, with subject matter that runs the gamut from bank heists (“44 Minutes”), funny car racing (“1,320’”), twisted love songs (“The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With a Kiss”), his usual “I’m slowly going nuts” shtick (“The Right to Go Insane”), and even the overdone Lord of the Rings saga (“How the Story Ends”). However, where Mustaine is always at his best is when he’s spitting venom towards his political and bureaucratic subjects: Wall Street takes one on the chin on “Bite the Hand” (“The erosion of the peoples’ trust / Of what will come to be an FDIC-assisted suicide”), while the title track gives former president George W. Bush a satirical parting shot.

With nary a throwaway track, not a moment is wasted on Endgame, with even such mid-paced breathers like “Bodies”, “How the Story Ends”, and “44 Minutes” holding their own quite well amidst the more ferocious fare. In addition, Andy Sneap bring the kind of crisp production he’s become known for, which is a perfect fit for the technicality of Mustaine’s compositions. Most importantly, though, this current incarnation of Megadeth (Megadeth Mk. 18 for those keeping score) has Mustaine sounding his most comfortable in ages, thanks in large part to his very strong supporting cast. We can only hope the foursome stays intact for a while, because after a horrible dry spell and years of clawing his way back, Megadeth could really be on to something special here.

-Popmatters

ktmROCKS Halloween GiG

ktmROCKS Halloween Concert 2009 is set for the final day ..[ THE HALLOWEEN ]...of this month bringing some best bands around the scene !!! Are you ready ?

Info :

October 31 (Kartik 14 [ Nepali date ] )
Saturday
Venue: GAA Hall, Thamel, Kathmandu

Bands :

ANTIM GRAHAN
VHUMI
SPELLS OF PROPHECY
BLACK SINS IMMORTAL
STAIRS OF CIRITH
SYATHA
KAAL BHAIRAB

Time: 12 PM – 6 PM
Ticket: Rs. 150/-

LAMB OF GOD : Wrath Review

Track Listing

1. "The Passing" 1:58
2. "In Your Words" 5:24
3. "Set to Fail" 3:46
4. "Contractor" 3:22
5. "Fake Messiah" 4:34
6. "Grace" 3:55
7. "Broken Hands" 3:53
8. "Dead Seeds" 3:41
9. "Everything to Nothing" 3:50
10. "Choke Sermon" 3:20
11. "Reclamation"

During the recording of Lamb of God’s new album, the band frequently updated their fans on the recording process, and what to expect from the album. Chris Adler stated, “This album is going to surprise a lot of people. Typically bands that get to where we are in our career begin to slack off, smell the roses, and regurgitate… No one wants to hear a band member hyping a new record. ‘Wrath’ needs no hype. We have topped ourselves, and on February 24, you will feel it.” Guitarist Mark Morton’s comments on the musical style of the album also increased expectations, saying, “…’Sacrament’ was a really, really dyamic record… and it was heavily produced. This one’s really raw and real sounding, from every angle, and we’re celebrating the imperfections on this record.” Morton stated how the album was “natural and organic sounding, which in itself, is kind of a revolution these days, when kids are making pro audio-sounding recordings in their dorm rooms, or on their laptops, and cutting and pasting verses and choruses. It’s no longer cutting edge to make a completely space aged, robotic sounding record. I think it’s almost fresh to make one that sounds like an actual band played it. Don’t get me wrong… it still sounds airtight and rehearsed, because it’s all those things. But it’s just real.”

With those words, Wrath almost instantly became one of my most anticipated records of the near future. Morton and Adler were dead on accurate in their statements. This album is real. There is a very natural, fresh sound to every track on the album, and the band even threw in a little bit of musical experimentation along with it, including something most fans of the band thought they would never hear, acoustic guitars. The opening track, “The Passing”, begins with an acoustic piece that slowly descends into heavier guitars and an ominous, foreboding drum section. The second track, “In Your Words”, immediately reveals what the intro was building up to, as the album comes in at full force, with a typical Lamb of God guitar riff, powerful and catchy, as the drums pound away behind it, including one of Chris Adler’s best drum fills ever recorded.

Randy Blythe has been known, over the past few albums, to add new vocal styles to some tracks, in what would seem to be an effort to freshen things up with the band’s sound. He immediately shows off his new style, a strained, higher-pitched scream, over the verses of the track. Calling it a scream wouldn’t be entirely accurate, come to think of it. It’s more of a yell. There’s no real aggression to it, like his shrill screams, which also show up on this track. His growls still sound incredible, as well. Full of guttural power, Blythe seems to have the ability to command the attention of the listener over the rest of the music.

And that’s just the opening track. The rest of the album takes the listener of an incredible journey through some of the best metal heard in some time in the genre. The first single off of the album, “Contractor”, is an exercise in sheer speed and power, as it immediately jumps into a grinding, pulse-pounding mosh pit anthem, before slowing down into another incredible buildup to the essential headbanger’s breakdown. “Grace” starts with another Lamb of God rarity, a melodic guitar section. This sounds like something you would have heard off of DevilDriver’s latest album, but it doesn’t last long, as, like most songs on this album tend to do, everything explodes in at once, this time with a moderately paced, power driven guitar riff, with steady, crushing drums underneath.

Musically, and vocally, the band is as good as ever. There are a lot of the band’s signature sounds on the album, especially in the guitar riffs. I don’t know the proper way to describe them, but especially moving into the Sacrament era, the band focused on these types of riffs a lot. Chris Adler is as sharp as ever on the drums, offering incredible speed, precision, and technicality on almost every song. His drum fills seem to get better over every song, and even when he’s not doing anything spectacular on the drums, he still manages to make the drums one of the driving forces of the band. Blythe, as well, has still got that “it” factor that makes his vocals so unique. The man looks intimidating enough, but once you hear that incredible, guttural growl breach his lips, he manages to match the intensity of his look.

Atomic Bush

Atomic Bush was a progressive rock group hailing from Kathmandu(Nepal), most famous for their epic progressive ballad ‘Sano Prakash’. They have recorded an EP titled ‘P Jam’ and are widely praised in the underground scene in Kathmandu.

Line Up:
Bibhusan- Guitar
Sunny- Guitar
Rajan- Bass
Alec- Drums
Abishek- Keyboards

Happy Dashain 2066/2009

METAL DUSK wishes you all HAPPY VIJAYA DASHAMI 2066/2009. We wish you have a joyous and cherish moments on this auspicious occasion.

- Metal Dusk

Cruentus

The history of the formation of the band doesn’t go to far back, as they were formed about a year ago when Brij and Alice, having similar taste in music, decided that they wanted to do something about it. But they really had no idea how to go about getting the other band members. Hence they resorted to their friends Mahendra, Adoit, Girish. And the first ever ones to be names ‘Cruentus’ were Brij on vocals, Alice on lead guitar, Mahendra on rhythms, Adoit on bass, and Girish on the drums. With this line up they did played a few gigs covering sepulture songs.

Few months into their journey, they faced trouble as three of their members Mahendra, Girish and Adoit decided to leave the band to continue with their further studies. Mahendra left for UK, Girish went to Bangalore and well Adoit too wanted to concentrate more on his studies so, they left Brij and Alice in square one again. Five months went by before Brij and Alice made any progress with their search for new members. When, finally Allen, Ranav and Ryan came to their rescue. Well Allen is actually Alice’s brother and the other Ranav and Ryan met in high school. And the new and the current line up of the band is Brij on vocals, Alice on guitar, Ranav on second vocals, Ryan on bass, and Allan on the drums.

But just being another face in the crowd of the newly arising bands was not enough for these guys, they wanted to make a mark and well they have as they have chosen black metal as their genre. Why black metal and not anything else? “we find it very creative and unique and we wanted to expose the Nepali music scene to something new as the music being played in the concerts were becoming very monotonous,” says Ryan the bassist.

They came out with their first single called “Massacre of the holy ones.” Mahendra, their ex-guitarist, has helped them in many ways although he himself is in UK. You can almost count him as their sixth member as he is constantly sending materials for the band to work with. Anywayz when asked what the single was about they said “it is self explanotary, it speaks for itself”
Currently they have 2 other singles to their name, “Unknown Warrior” and “Bless me with thy Pain.”

Antim Grahan : The Band that shaped the Nepalese Metal Undeground Scene

Formed in the early 2004, Black Metallers Antim Grahan rise from Kathmandu. Covering some songs of the likes of Children Of Bodom at the beggining, the band now has a strong hold identity of it's own originals. Fronted by the vocalist Parash, Antim Grahan is Pankaj on guitars, Supath on guitars, Pratik on bass, Niraj on keys and Sabin on drums. The band has undergone a few line up changes with the bass player Pratik and drummer Sabin joining the band later replacing previous member Sagar on bass and Hari on drums, who left the band due to their own personal reason.

The band took out an EP titled 'Forever Winter' which was a joint production of KTMROCKS RECORDS, Mingmar Dolma Lama and Antim Grahan. Antim Grahan is the first band to have a record deal in the history of Nepali metal scene. They got the label of KTMROCKS RECORDS which happened to be the first record company in Nepal for the local underground metal scene. The EP, 'Forever Winter' got an overwhelming response from the metal fans which created an immense popularity of the band in the underground metal community around the country. Songs like 'Infected' and the title song itself 'Forever Winter' was a massive success.

The band says that their music is representation of pain, suffering and dark realms of imaginary worlds. About their music, the band says " We really don't wanna give away any messages to our listeners coz the whole music is presented in a very story like way, more of like fairy tales with a very dark and painful environment. So all we want is that the people enjoy our music and have totally fuckin' owesome time while listening."

After a very good response from the fans from underground community for their debut EP, "Forever Winter", and then they released their second album titled "Tales From The Darkened Woods". This album by the band has come in a very short time off it's release of their first album, but the new album promises to be much improved technically and musically. 'Tales From The Darkened Woods' is much more bigger, better and heavier then their first EP.They have now come out with their 3rd New Album titled "In The Ambience Ov Malevolence".The most profoundly dense track on the album is “With Vengeance I Bleed”, with inventive use of classical piano motifs, all the while raging with blast beats and journeying through a full-on classic metal passage; it’s a song of utter brilliance. The final track “300″ is total black metal mayhem and is, of course, inspired by film adaptation of the graphic novel 300 that came out last year. The song samples Gerard Butler’s famous “Tonight, we die in hell!” quote from the film and fittingly, the vocalist also yells “This is Sparta” after the midway build-up.The album has powerful unhinged black metal interspersed with melodic keyboards and haunting female vocals. Admittedly, it’s a sound that has been done to death by the likes of Cradle of Filth and Nightwish. It’s not breaking new ground, but at the same time this loud-soft dynamic really enhances their sound, and is best incorporated on “Infected II” and “Serenade For the Gracious Death”. There are sweeping guitar riffs with epic overtones as on “Angels and Eternal Dismay” and more brutally on “Winter Blossom Ov Ceremonial Grief”.

Carrying on to the melodic level that the band has been going on, they have experimented with traditional 'Flute' and a new member, female vocalist Rajani Kayasta on their new album.This is the first time in Nepal that any underground metal band has introduced these kinds of experiments..

The band sites their influences as Gorgoroth, Cradle of Filth, Lord Belial and so on.

1st Post : Scenes

The present scene music of Nepal includes several popular rock and roll bands, including 1974 ad (Hard Rock), Nepathya (Folk Rock), Mukti and Revival (Blues Rock), and the long-running Cobweb. There has also been a surge in local rock/metal bands with the emergence of numerous bands like Nastik, X-mantra and Albatross and more recently Atomic Bush, Ushma Beg, Nekhvam and many others. An indie rock scene has also emerged, with punk bands like "Rai Ko Ris"(www.raikoris.com), with singer and bass player Sareena Rai, leading the way to a nascent DIY movement.

Metal bands such as Vhumi, on the other hand, is regarded as the significant band that started playing melodic death metal style. The band has become one of the most consistent and active bands in the underground scene. Similarly, Epitaph has pummeled the scene with a new breed of metal – thrash-death. Bitter Euphemism has stepped up a notch into the realm of technicality and groove while bands like Arachnids, Morgoth, Prakanda Bimba, Cryptic Violence, Fallen, Obscured, Pralay, The Time, Ushma Weg and Night have contributed in their own way to the scene. What these bands bring out on stage is interesting and more importantly unique in the Nepali metal scene, probably even in the whole South East Asia.

A very few level of involvement can be seen from the so called senior musicians and bands (of 1980s or 1990s) on the current scene. However few inspirations, motivations and guidance remain. (Respect!) Fronted by two inspiring “senior” guitarists Iman B. Shah and Deep S. Rana, HMG-Ministry of Rock, even though a strictly heavy metal cover band till now, helped motivate a new generation of young guys into playing music.

Besides the bands and musicians and ktmROCKS and most importantly the metalheads - the Internet has been a great contributing factor in the development and evolution of Nepal’s metal scene. The ktmROCKS forum is vibrantly alive from compositions of the forum members (mostly musicians and band members). With styles ranging from extreme death metal to virtuoso shredding to ambient to psychedelic acid techno to grunge to ‘you name it’, the forum users have taken the scene to heed and started recording their own songs and expressing themselves with the aid of modern tools. The year 2007 seems to be a promising start for “our” metal scene as beckoned by the releases of “Barbaric Regulation” (Epitaph) and “The Last Verse of Madness” (Morgoth/Lost Oblivion).