REVIEWS: MADDER MORTEM - ALL FLESH IS GRASS

 

MADDER MORTEM - ALL FLESH IS GRASS (Century Media - 2001): Agnete M. Kirkevaag has a powerful voice. And this is the first thing I though t when her voice appeared in the first song ("Breaker of Worlds") of this album, the second CD from this norwegian band (The first one is called "Mercury"). This woman uses her voice in a completely different way than most female vocalists do nowadays: she is really more aggressive. I mean she is energetic but he knows how to do it while singing great original melodies over the wall of sound created by the musicians. The second thing that came into my mind is the quality of the sound in this recording: is fantastic! Recorded on Studio Underground from Sweden where bands like Opera IX, Carnal Forge or Necrodeath have recorded, this CD features nine tracks of pure heaviness, pure twisted melodies and strange vocal harmonies. What the band wants to emphasize are the different atmospheres and textures that you can find through all the CD: Pure heaviness ("To Kill and Kill Again"), depression and despair ("The Cluster Children"), beauty ("Head on Pillow"). This is an amazing second effort of this promising band. I have not listened their debut but I would love to, considering the quality of "All Flesh is Grass". Favorite Tracks: The Whole Album. Contact: www.centurymedia.com or www.maddermortem.com

REVIEW: LUTI KRISS - THROWING MYSELF

 

LUTI KRISS - THROWING MYSELF (SolidState Recs. - 2001): This band´s music is really heavy, modern and climatic…the first band that comes to my mind when listening to them is Deftones, also I feel there are some shades of Fear Factory and Pantera in there but in a minor proportion. The recording has a strange introduction with some noises and effects before getting into "Black Smith" with great tempo changes in some parts. Followed by "The "Annihilat" Ion" a song with furious rhythms and vocals. Some exotic sounding melodies along with some breathing bases are thrown in "Ligh Blue Collar " one of my favorite tracks from this recording. "Patinetly Philadelphia" starts with an original riff before getting into some vocal madness and melody lines that creat an atmosphere of oppression. This band is really original and gives a needed new twist to modern metal music. My favorite tracks: "Light Blue Collar", "Patiently Philadelphia" and "An Act of My Own Volition". Contact: teresa@toothandnail.com

REVIEW: KRATORNAS- THE ONSLAUGHT OF BATTLE DEMONS, UNHOLY IMPALER - COLLECTION OF MEPHISTOPHILIS, PAGAN WINTER - INFEROS

 

KRATORNAS- THE ONSLAUGHT OF BATTLE DEMONS, UNHOLY IMPALER - COLLECTION OF MEPHISTOPHILIS, PAGAN WINTER - INFEROS (Ligum Dulum Prods. - 2000): This is a cassette that the people in ligum Dulum Prods. sent me containing songs from three of their bands, Kratornas from Philippines, Unholy Impaler from Italy and Pagan Winter from Germany. Kratornas is a really fast bands with elements of death/black metal and grindcore. They have interesting parts when they try to go slower and develop good ideas. What find strange here are some of the vocals that are two highpitched and distorted and seem an electric saw (maybe is because the sound is not really good). "Armaments of Sadism" is the song that I think Kratornas must use as a mould for new songs. Un holy Impaler has different songs and riffs with a crushing guitar sound (evethough the mix is not so good) and they have originality in their black metallish music. Songs like "Horror Village" and "Ritual tribal practice" are future classics of the underground. Germany´s Pagan Winter are graced with the better sound of the three bands here. Their music is raw black metal with fast riffs, blast beats and the vocals typical in the genre. There are also influences of bands of 80s thrash metal like Kreator, Destruction and early Sodom. Also there are some Bthory influences too, but with a faster edge like in bands such as Immortal. A great mix to my ears. Contact: ligumdulum@angelfire.com

REVIEW: KEMET - DYING WITH ELEGANCE

 

KEMET - DYING WITH ELEGANCE (Deadsun Recs. - 2000): Exceptional record from this great band from France. A mix of doom and gothic parts with great climatic vocals, ocassional screamings and great guitars are what make this recording so special. The opening with "Immaculate is really a great beginning with clean guitars pushing through a melody that soon becomes a distorted rythm in the fashion of My Dying Bride or Anathema. The vocals in this track are awesome, sort of a cross of Pete Steele and Aaron from My Dying Bride in the clean parts but worked out in a completely different way (In fact what I like from the singer is that he can transmit the feelings which he is singing about) . In fact the second song "Cowardly yours" starts in amore death metal fashion but getting more climatic after a few seconds. In the middle part of this song there is a screaming part (sort of black metallish) with some Emperor´s shades. "Will you forgive me" has the addition of really interesting bass lines that ornaments the work of the voclas and some twin guitar harmonies that are fundamental for the harmonies. This is an album to listen numerous times because you can find something new each time you listen it. Specially beautiful are the female vocals in "Like a Musing" that make an interesting contrast with the vocalist´s vocals and the guitar solo melodie in the middle of that song. The inclussion of acoustic guitars in some of the songs really help to remark the atmospheres that are present throughout the whole album. My favorite tracks: "Like a Musing", "Immaculate" and "Insignificant". Email: gurkkhas@aol.com

REVIEW: KATATONIA - LAST FAIR DEAL GONE DOWN

 

KATATONIA - LAST FAIR DEAL GONE DOWN (Peaceville Recs. - 2001): As they always did, Katatonia manages this time to surprise you with their newest recording. The atmospheres so depressing in their previous recording are present here two but in a more subtle way: as one can see in opener "Dispossession" (sort of Pink Floyd in some places, specially in the vocals). There is more contrast between the heavier parts such as the ones present in "Chrome" and the cleaner ones ("We Must Bury You" (with great lyrics)) specially when they are put one next to each other. What amazes here is the sound that is cleaner and more up to the fron than in previous recordings…I think the production is much better here (the CD was recorded on the great Sunlight Studios from Sweden and was recorded, mixed and engineered by legend Tomas Skogsberg, Jocke Petterson and Katatonia themselves). What I like from Katatonia is their hability to make a fusion of metal, gothic, dark and experimental music to create their own style (and this have made fans form such different styles as death/black metal and gothic music to like them). Jonas Renkse vocals are as charming, hypnotic and personal as always (check as an example "Tonight´s Music") and Anders Nyström and Fred Norrman are amazing in their job of constructing the songs with rhythms and subtle melodies. Katatonia is one of those bands that never will dissapoint you. My favorite tracks: "We Must Bury You", "The Future of Speech" (great orchestration) and "Sweet Nurse". Contact: www.peaceville.com

REVIEW: INSOLENCE - REVOLUTION

 

INSOLENCE - REVOLUTION (Maverick Recs. - 2001): This intense recording of this band from San Jose, California is a welcome addition to the "new metal" scene. The sound of the band is a mix of bands like Soulfly, Living Sacrifice, Korn, Limp Biskit (also some of the vocals are similar to the ones in The Prodigy and some melodies really twisted like the ones you can hear in a band like Tool) and many more. There are also some reggae and funk influences too. This band is really tight and it looks like that it has been rehearsing and playing live a lot. "Death Threat", the song that opens the CD is a song destined to be a hit. Second song " Head 2 Head" is much more aggressive and I liked it much more because of the strength that pours out of all the song´s parts. There are fourteen songs in this CD, including one experimental/industrial/hip-hop track called "Mad Science II". The band is touring with Soulfly, so I think that those concerts willbe killer…plus it would be good to see Insolence live to see their live act that they tell is very impressive. Contact: christian@susanblondinc.com

REVIEW: HASTE - WHEN REASON SLEEPS

 

HASTE - WHEN REASON SLEEPS (Century Media - 2001): Powerful second album from this Alabama sextet. The music is a mix of metal and hardcore with great results. The strange thing with this band is the constant use of two vocalist…one growling and the other one highpitched. Songs like "Meridian Summer", "Confessions of a Lesser Known Saint and others are really like a kick in your head. This band is really powerful and has the atributes to be one of the top bands in the style of bands like Rage Against the Machine (in fact Haste is much more powerful than this band). It is great also the use of clean vocals in some tracks that give some strange melodies to the songs. It will be interesting to see how this band will evolve in the future. Contact: www.centurymedia.com or www.hastemusic.com

REVIEW: GOD FORBID - DETERMINATION

 

GOD FORBID - DETERMINATION (Century Media - 2001): Amazing second release from this great death metal band ! (the previous are "Reject the Sickness" and  the MCD "Out of Misery") What I like the most from this band is their skills in doing really powerful and fast songs including amazing melodies, guitar parts (clean guitars in some of the songs are really spectacular) and solos that make this band unique in their style. There are two points also that I would like to remark: One is the excellent drumming and bass playing from this masters called Corey Pierce and John Outcalt respectively. The first is a beast behind the drumkit and the later is a Steve Di Giorgio style player!! The other one is the excellent sound and production of this recording. The opening of this technical death-metal opus can not be better than this: A climatic instrumental passage ("Dawn of the Millenia") gives intro too the first song "Nothing": fast, brutal, technical, in the vein of At the Gates, In Flames and the bands of the Gothenburg sound. All the CD is full of blasting music with powerful riffs (beside the drumming and bass playing I talked about before). This is a killer CD for lovers of brutality and technical bands. Favorite tracks: "Broken promise", "Divide My destinity" and "Determination - Part 2" . Contact: www.centurymedia.com and www.godforbid.com

REVIEW: FUNERAL RITES - NECROEATER

 

FUNERAL RITES - NECROEATER (Painkiller Recs. - 2001): A rainy introduction leads us into the dark world of Funeral Rites. "Weird Tales" is the opening track of this band that has influences of black metal and I can hear some old school of thrash metal in there too. The songs are carefully constructed giving priority to the generation of atmospheres and dark feelings. There is an interesting use of spoken vocals in this first song too (along some funeral keyboards). One thing to point out is the excellent work of the guitarist. After this slow beginning they speed up to full blast metal in their second track called "The wintermoon". What I liked a lot from this track and from the whole album is the use of keyboards that sound really clean in contrast to the guitars. Fans of elaborated black metal will be delighted. It would be great if this band can record with a bigger budget to get a better sound (in fact I think this is the only low point of the recording but it can be fixed easily). Contact: painkiller@infonie.be

INTERVIEW WITH VADIM BUDMAN

 

Great canadian improviser Vadim Budman, member also of the Vertrek Ensemble who has played in recordings with great artists as Eugene Chadbourne and Derek Bailey, answered our interview in a way really inspiring. This is to show that new things can be learned in each interview, specially with interesting musicians like Budman.

First of all I would like you to explain a little bit which kind of music you are doing.

I play fully improvised music (usually in Vertrek Ensemble). We like to call it "ground zero" improvised music because we are always trying to create "new music" and try to stay away from a "language pool" hoping that the music will be completely different all the time. I also have a solo project that consists of compositions and improvisations borrowing from blues, bluegrass, and klezmer music. My next solo album is entitled "Hebrew Hoedown"

Which are the differences from your solo music compared to the one in Vertrek Ensemble?

The main difference is that my compositions are very idiomatic, although I always throw in certain "improvisational elements" into it. In Vertrek Ensemble and even when I play solo improvisations I like to start from ground zero as I mentioned above and see if I can say something new within the improvisational language.

Why the releases of the Vertrek Ensemble always have guest musicians appearances such as that of Derek Bailey (guitar master) or Eugene Chadbourne ?

When we first started out we were a quartet. We found it very hard to keep members in the group. It seemed like the only people that were serious and committed to this music were Ron (de Jong) and Myself, so we became a duo and started inviting different people to play with (who were serious) for every gig and recording. Sometimes this meant looking outside Edmonton or even Canada (not that there aren't a lot of great improvisers in Canada, in fact Ron just released a duo from Montreal called Detention on his label) and the whole Derek Bailey recording was almost a fluke. Ron called Incus one day to straighten out a problem with a money order and Derek picked up the phone. That was the start of a long relationship which ended up in us going to England to record. It was also a year of planning and saving money. Eugene was different, we made a conscious decision to play with him. We are both HUGE fans of his. So we contacted him and he agreed. It also gave him a chance to visit his father who still lives in Calgary (365km south of Edmonton).

This also fit in nicely with our mandate to always create new music with constantly changing variables and the music became more interesting. Although having played shows as a duo, our musical intuition is becoming more fine tuned with each other's and we have been finding that lately we have been enjoying the duo setting.

How is it to play two instruments as different as the cornet / flute and the guitar?

I have been playing the guitar for 15 years and was very versed in the "proper" way of playing. I needed something that was completely foreign and new to create the sounds that I heard in my head. I have always loved the sound of the trumpet and when I lived in Toronto, being a very expensive city, I found myself very bored and decided to rent a trumpet. I instantly fell in love and when I moved back to Edmonton I found a used cornet which I enjoyed better because of the darker tone. In fact playing the cornet has helped me approach the guitar differently. The wooden flute I picked up in a store that sells goods made by people in third world countries with all the profits going to them. It is a simple South American flute but it has enormous character. I also own a pan flute but it's hard to play. I'm working on it, I had a Chilean friend show me how. I love simple folk instruments.

How is your material composed? Do you have something on mind or do you start playing an ideas come out through playing?

In free improvisation I do a lot of listening to other musicians which determines what I play. My compositions come by both methods. Sometimes I have an idea in my head and I sit down and work it out, and sometimes ideas come from improvising. When you improvise, certain ideas resurface, then I take them and work with them, maybe add an idea from a previous time. I have a composition called "Diaspora blues", which is about four different ideas that I was fooling around with. One day I was in a studio recording material for "Hebrew Hoedown" and it wasn't going well. So I decided to do an semi- improvisation (just to calm my nerves) and put all the elements into one tune on the fly. Which turned out to be "Diaspora blues". I was so happy with the way in turned out I went on to record the songs that I was having trouble with in one take.

I saw in your website that you are going to play some dates in Europe. Are there any other plans of touring? Perhaps South America?

Touring plans are always coming up. I have not been asked to go to South America yet. I would love to go to Argentina (I have a good friend here from Buenos Aires who always raves about it) or other locations if the conditions are right. If anyone is wanting to present me there you can email me and we'll talk. I also have a friend in Salvador, Brazil so I have a place to stay there.

Does releasing your music through your own label allow you to experiment more than if you´d have contract with another label?

It's the whole reason that I started Volatile records, to be only accountable to myself. I am open to do recordings for other labels, but I feel that when it's my music and my label I tend to want to promote it more. Although I know of labels that work very hard promoting their artists, there are not many of them promoting experimental music though.

I saw that there are some songs in the Vertrek Ensemble that are more than 27 minutes long...why did this happen? Are these longer songs composed differently than the shorter ones?

They were composed the same way. Just in those pieces there was a lot to say. Sometimes you can say what you want in 5 min. and sometimes it takes 33.

Are there any plan to record new compositions alone or with other guest musicians?

There are always plans. I have a back-log of projects right now for a few years including more Eugene Chadbourne and some new musicians from all over the globe playing various kinds of music, and I always have 2-5 ideas for myself at any given time. The problem is money. There is so much good music going on out there that you need to be a millionaire to put it all out.

How big is your knowledge of music theory? How does this affect your compositions and playing?

Learning two different instruments throughout my life, I have a basic musical knowledge from private instruction, I never went to any post secondary institution. Lately I have been learning advanced theory on my own because I have always been weary of musical instruction and usually disagree with the "instructor".

Theory is just that. A "Theory". Unfortunately most people mistake it for law written in stone. Those people are problem to music in general. It's more of a guideline for western equal temperred music and it's notation. There are many other theories from other parts of the world that are just as relevant (if not more to me).

At this point I find some theory useful and some completely useless. But that's the whole point, weeding out the red herrings for your own purposes and experiencing the joy of self discovery.

Which are the main features that you found recording at the Yardbird Suite in Edmonton or in Moat Studios in London?

The Yardbird is this great live venue here in Edmonton which has a great atmosphere especially when it's empty. We have done some exciting music in there with Jasiek Poznanski (on days that it is closed and live shows), who is a wonderful champion of this music and a super engineer. Moat is a recording studio, but like Jasiek, Toby (the owner) is also a tremendous fan of the music, he offers incredible rates for improvisers and probably one of the sweetest people I have ever met. His passion for the music makes you feel extremely comfortable so you can make great music.

Which are the musicians that you consider more influential for you?

The biggest heroes are the people that were not afraid to do something new (or as I call it "taking it to the next level") even in the face of adversity and starvation and not just musically. Aside from the obvious musicians that I admire, it's the people that changed history against all odds like the Tuskege airmen or WWII. They were black American fighter pilots who had the best combat records of the entire war (in fact they never lost a bomber on their escort missions, even though they weren't even supposed to be able to fly because they were black). Visual art has a huge influence on me. There's a painting by Edvard Munsch called "Train smoke" that blew my mind.

VOLATILE RECORDS WEBSITE: www.volatilerecords.ca

 

VERTREK ENSEMBLE - DISCOGRAPHY

Another Idea of North - CD (1998)

Departures w/Derek Bailey - CD (1999)

Dimsum, dodgers and Dangerous Nights w/Eugene Chadbourne - CD (2000)