Millitants advancing north

Within 24 hours, I finally finished up the full guitar works and bass for War On Humanity. This is Assault's first original. It took me about 4 weeks of listening to melodic death metal; research, before I could straight head to my 'song creation labs' and produce something.

The main riff actually came from a punk-rock-flash-game engine. I played it back when I never had a pc of my own.

My first main idea of the song is to sound like In Flames' Clayman. My favourite song from the swedish metal group. (Actually second most favourite. 1st has got be Leeches!!! and 3rd is The Jester's Dance [Instrumental]).

Why? Because it has the thrill of a roller coaster ride. The swift heartbeating of the double kick drums. The ever melodic guitar harmonies which gives me a sense of freedom and blissfulness. The powerful shrieking of Anders Friden.


If I have dreadlocks like him, I'll look like Munky of Korn while I headbang on the guitars!


Sadly, we're not playing that song on Assault's first performance.

Tapestry 07 Playlist:

1) In Flames - Only For The Weak
2) Arch Enemy - Nemesis
3) In Flames - Come Clarity
4) Arch Enemy - Burning Angel
5) In Flames - Artifacts Of The Black Rain
6) Sentenced - Cross My Heart & Hope To Die
Total Mins: 24:45

Bread got faugust!

Yesterday was the nyp 07' bandz out audition.

My band faugust planned to meet at 8.30am for a session. And slept at 3am the night before. I usually sleep from 6am to 11am after subuh. But instead i stayed up and practice my guitars till I left home at 8.

We should had a good rest before the auditions...

Half an hour before auditions at fourtones, the faugusts had lunch at some Indian restaurant somewhere around Clark Quay.

The roti prata was 80 cent. I ordered two pieces. That was 30 cents more than my neighbourhood Indian stall. But don't get me wrong, their prata was massive. The width is the length of my forearm. In the end, I could only finish up one and a-quarter prata. (Hadi ate the other left over three-quarters. )

Auditions

Firstly, I was nervous, more nervous than the previous tapestry audition. This is because the judges looked like thugs. Didn't look like students. And the fattest one looked like the Tapio Wilska, ex-vocalist of Finntroll! No kidding!


Judges say,

Our first song saturday night (misfits): Bass is out of tune.

Second song, helena (misfits, not by mcr): Sounds tighter, but drummer Azi lacked timing on the blast beats.

Overall comments: Guitar sounded too fuzzy, couldn't 'feel' the power chord. (Trust me, it's not my gadget's fault.)
Bassist should use own bass larh.
Vocalists has to stand out more, in terms of sound and performance.
Drummer has x-factor and style, but needs to improve on blast beats.

Lessons learnt for the day:
Have enough sleep before the day of an audition.
Prata at Clark Quay is humongous.
Adjust the amp not the gadget.
Anyone who look like a Finntroll is fearsome!!!

A 5 minutes' posting

• Assault-Nullified and Coventide are in the Tapestry gig 2007! Catch us on July 28-29.
• Hollywood "Metal"? Hmm... I wonder why people like metal (including metalcore, nu-metal, lamb of god) from america so much. Not to mention emo, pop-punk and hardcore from america. Have they heard of metal from the scandinavian region (black metal, melodic death, gothic metal..)?
  
• Bands Outz 07' Auditions this thursday. Me on the guitars. Playing kick-ass classic horror punk songs of Misfits!!
  

I.F.H AMMO Ver 5.0

IYAN'S 5 HEADBANGER AMMOS

Bathory - Woman Of Dark Desires
Year: 1986
Origin: Sweden
Genre: Black metal


My sudden liking for raw black metal. Simply raw...

+ How the song started was quite gripping. Straight to the headbanging part.
+ Fiendish vocals of the great Quothorn
+ Wicked piercing guitars
+ Raging drums
+ The beginning of the guitar solo really sounds like a roaring godzilla (02:35 mins).

Long live Quothorn (both black metal and Viking metal era). And Elizabeth Bathory...(she loves female blood)

Headbanger's Meter: Very high to extreme

Celtic Frost - Progeny
Year: 2006
Origin: Switzerland
Genre: Doom death



My first True Metal album on my cd-rack (judging to the number of nu-metal & modern rock albums I own). The new Celtic Frost. Heavier and doom-er.

+ [Guitars shrieks] Fischer: "URGH!!" His significant growl.
+ Undeniably merciless, evil-toned and energetic.
+ The blast beats they play are abnormal.
+ Turn up the volume. Turn up the bass. You'll feel Celtic Frost trying to squeeze that weak heart of yours... like a bug.
+ This is music of mass destruction. No more turning back...

- Hmm.. Lacks melody. Focusing more on heaviness and roughness.

Headbanger's Meter: Very high to extreme

Bad News - Warriors of Ghengis Khan
Year: 1987
Origin: United Kingdom
Genre: 80's hair metal/Comedy



Ghengis Khan slaps himself on the face; in embarrassement. Bad News isn't a real band anyway.

+ Quote: "I'm a warrior... I'll kill myself one daeyyeeyyeeyy!!!"
+ Quote: "Burning, looting, raping and the shooting" [repeat 4 times].
+ Lots of shooting sound effects, missiles, choppers, explosions. Very badass (more like "bad-smelling ass")
+ Listen for the two samurai fighting sound effects (02:10 mins). Cool!!
+ And a drop-dead crappy solo on an acoustic guitar.
+ They covered (a bad, foul-sounding version of) Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.
+ An awesomely bad metal song, but really fun to hear.

- An insult to 80's metalheads. Muhaha.

Headbanger's Meter: Funny

Orthanc - A Journey in the Dark
Year: 2007
Origin: Singapore
Genre: Black pagan metal



Orthanc are my new heartland heroes. A viking/pagan black metal band, with much of folkish elements in their album. Thanks to Yazid for borrowing me Taur e-Ndaedelos.

+ Quote: "The world was young, the mountains grinned." I guess those were the first words audible from the album.
+ precisely epic, dark, and heroic-themed too.
+ Plenty of strong blast beats, accompanied by the symphonic keyboards.
+ Not forgetting their unique atmospheric guitars.

- While some may say it sounded "cold and unattractive", A Journey in the Dark portrays the downhearted but brave moments in my life. Hail Orthanc.

Headbanger's Meter: Moderate to High

Sentenced - You Are the One
Year: 2002
Origin: Finland
Genre: Gothic/Suicidal rock



Seriously, I like sentenced more than HIM. Less glam.

Story: One day, I was beside this girl I knew. She smiled at me. I smiled back. We had a chat. Then we headed to our own directions.
Suddenly, the guitar solo (02:27 mins) to this song played in my mind.
Is she the one...?

"You are the only one I see... My first and last..." Alamak emotional.

+ Strong and fine vocals by Ville Laihiala
+ Atmospheric use of guitars and acoustics
+ Again, a memorable dreamy guitar solo
+ Overall, a splendid sentimental song.

Headbanger's Meter: Moderate to High

Life's Bored

"Life's boring." "Life sucks."

Now what do you do now? Hmm.. Sit back and enjoy the boredom? Enjoy the suckiness?

Imagine us 10 years later. Or 15. We becoming dads or mums. All we do is work, taking care of the children, pay bills. Bla.. bla... adult life.

Will we feel like want to become teenagers again?! Will we miss blogging? Friendster? MSN? Going out with friends watching movie? Will we miss [A HOBBY HERE]?

To make it clearer, life as a teenager is short!! Seriously, 21 - 13 = 8 years.

Now, I'm 18. Years left: 3

Where did the 5 years go?? Alamak! Later got NS!

Some (possible) plans for that remaining 3 years

• Performing with Nullified-Assault for Tapestry '07.
• Performing in BandzOut campus gig. (Seriously, I wish I did better on my 1st gig at msl.)
• Joining a CS LAN gaming competition. (You can say that CS is outdated and passe. Whatever. I wanna revive that CS spirit I had 3 years back. This would be my final hurrah to my young gaming fetish!)

Me and my cousin. Glad that I've been to WWW when I was young. It's okay to act childish for now...

66 Rules For The Metal-Wannabe Emos

*** WARNING !!!***
Highly offensive to the metalcore masses. You've been warned.




(Also known as 66 ways to piss metal in the name of emo and hardcore)

These guys are REALLY annoying me.

One day, I walked into HMV. I went to browse at the metal section. Yeah, the prices are higher than in usual metal shops.

Suddenly a group of boy-girl "fashioncore" kids (and one of them has dreadlock hair) stood by me. The first album they picked up and chat very loudly about is Norma Jean (metalcore). Bla.. bla... And then they took Cradle of filth (C'mon. They're so mainstream..) from the racks. Again chatting loudly...

And then I found Atreyu on the metal section. Rainbows? Cartoons? What kind of metal cd cover is that??

And a year ago at a college gig, I watched a bunch of kids in emo punk outfits covering Iron Maiden songs. Holy shit!

Enough!!!

Here goes...

1. Your clothes are 2 sizes smaller, especially your black color "metal" t-shirt (with mini sleeves).
2. Or wear a black sleeveless t-shirt to look "tough" and "metal".
3. Probably try to taper your pants (this is a must, if your ethnic is melayu mat rep).
4. When you're wearing bermudas, it's to show that you're related to the skatecore scene (or because your area has frequent floods).
5. Wear that tight black “metal” t-shirt even though you're just going to the neighborhood shop or hanging out under the block with fashioncore friends.
6. Get a stud belt and bracelet!
7. Don't wear boots! Wear a chuck taylor or some other low cut sneakers.
8. Or else wear a skate shoe.
   
9. Get ear gauges like Matt Heafy. Consider wearing a lip ring too.
10. Get long girly bangs. This should cover your eyes or just on top of your eyes.
11. Else get a dyed spiky hair. Then skip rules #13, 24, 33, 34, 35, 40, 44, 60, 63, 65.
12. Or simply get a moptop haircut like the beatles.
13. Touch and stroke your girly bangs to the side, every 12 seconds.
14. Get this emo cap!!!
15. After properly dressing like the rules above, you can now head for the town or the esplanade. Show your stuff!
16. Chapter 4 is the greatest metal anthem ever and you have it as your ringtone.
17. Otherwise, a hardcore guitar solo by Atreyu or by any other hardcore/metalcore band with a badly untuned guitar.
18. The Trooper is your favourite Iron Maiden hit song.
19. 95% of your bands in your "Metal music folder" is metalcore or hardcore related.
20. (The ever-famous) Metallica is one of that other 5%.
21. You tried to listen to Swedish Melodic Death because your metalcore heroes do so.
22. But gradually you lost interest and return to that 95% in your metal folder.
23. In public, walk proudly with your walkman phone and turn on loudly some "metal" song to show you're "metal".
24. When someone stares at you, don't start a fight. Simply just stroke your girly bangs and look away.
25. You think Cradle Of Filth is so scary and wicked (woo.. scary).
26. Lamb Of God is your favourite death metal band!! (They're part metalcore too anyway.)
27. MCR is your favourite goth rock band. Given that you've watched the Helena video (Actually, they're just other emo pop-punk crap).
28. You couldn't really differentiate between core/scream vocals and death vocals.
29. You dance when you listen to avril lavigne.
30. You know the latest hits from Fall Out Boy, Good Charlotte, MCR and other crap mainstream pop-punk bands.
31. But then, you didn't know the latest metal albums from legends like Slayer's Christ Illusion, Celtic Frost's Monotheist, Amorphis' Eclipse, Kreator's Enemy of God etc.
32. Go to GIGS!! The best place to be and to show your "style".
33. You can hardcore dance better than you headbang.
34. Stroke your girly bangs when you stumble upon a hot chick in a gig.
35. Stroke your bangs when the big bouncer stares at you.
36. After moshing, pause for a while and stroke your bangs again. This is to maintain your "cute emo" look.
37. In your conversation about Avenged Sevenfold, mention "Avenged Sevenfold" at the 1st time. But then say "A7X" on the 2nd time, 3rd time and so on.
38. Anyway you can't even mention the name full properly:"Avesh-shieh-veng-foh"
39. You insist that [A HARDCORE BAND NAME HERE] is metal because they are extreme and brutal.
40. You insist that [A METALCORE BAND NAME HERE] is metal because they are extreme and brutal. Plus their riffs are heavy and solos are (very) technical.
41. Your right hand strokes your bangs again before it returns to the mouse.
42. While jamming, bring along girlfriends who are complete emo/goth posers. And one of them is a vocalist from a screamo band.
43. And once in a while, she tries to duet with your band. She sings (screams) horrible but your guys tried to bear with her.
44. Get them to smuggle beer into the studio for you too.
45. In reality, you are more girlish than them because you stroke your girly bangs more often.
46. Your band name is an all-English phrase, sounds something to do with "pain", "hate", "killing" or "dying" eg: "BLEEDing Through, HATEbreed, KILLswitch Engage, A Perfect MURDER, As I Lay DYING"
47. You claim that your band plays "heavy" and "brutal".
48. Your guitar is dropped-d turning (this is so that you can palm mute that same fucking D powerchord a million times!).
49. Your drummer sounded more like punk.
50. Your guitars distortion DIDN'T sound like Pantera.
    
51. Because you didn't know how Pantera guitars sounds like.
52. When singing clean vocals, your vocalist sounds like Simple Plan or Saosin.
53. ALWAYS mention Iron Maiden as your influence, if you have the word "Melodic" in your genre lable. (eg. melodic hardcore, melodic metalcore)
    
54. At least one of your member owns an Iron Maiden shirt.
55. At least one of your band member claim themselves very sensitively emo (actually he's just another attention-seeker/cry baby).
56. At least one of your member owns an Jack Daniel t-shirt.
57. At least one of your band member skates. And wears Vans shoes.
58. Try to get at least one of your band member with long "metal" hair and plays guitar shred (Looking “metal”).
59. When performing in gigs, you expect the crowd to mosh or hardcore dance. Headbanging is just too "light".
60. Perform The Trooper in an emo punk outfit. Your vocalist sounded like Gerard way instead of Bruce Dickinson.
61. After that crappy performance, stroke your bangs again.
62. During your "Breakdown (a metalcore/hardcore interlude whatever part)", the crowd began to berserk.
63. After all that, all of you stroke your bangs at the same time.
64. Your album cover consists of four colors. Black (for that "metal" look), white, grey and [PINK OR BRIGHT GIRL COLOR].
65. You stroked your bangs a total of 23 times while reading this post.
66. Stroke again one more time before you go to the next webpage.

Sorry metalcore. No matter how technical you sound, you guys are not true metal. Start by changing that fuckin hairstyle and your annoying tight t-shirts.