Attention Siege Survivors!
For those of you who haven’t been keeping up to date with the news, watch out and take cover because the Siege is coming to your town! Last year,
Bloodshedd
Sin
For those who want the complete heads up, the dates are as follows:
Oct. 23 - Schickoz Bar, Lucban, Quezon
Oct. 24 - Naga City Gym, Naga City
Oct. 25 - La Corona, Lipa, Batangas
Oct. 26 - Venue Bar, Calamba, Laguna
NORTHERN LUZON LEG
Oct. 30 - Romulo Hall, Teachers Camp, Baguio
Oct. 31 - Dagupan Astrodome, Dagupan
Nov. 1 - Lincoln Masonic Temple, Olongapo
Nov. 2 - Power Plant Bar, Malolos, Bulacan
VISAYAS LEG
Nov. 12 - Nuvo Bar, Cebu
Nov. 13 - Barefoot Bistro, Dumaguete
Nov. 14 - Qourum Bar, Bacolod
Nov. 15 - Metal Mania Rock Bar, Iloilo
Nov. 21 - Manila Homecoming Show (TBA)
Cradled in the midst of the serene, suburban community of Varsity Hills in Loyola Heights is Circus Studios. For the entire month of August, unbeknownst to the unsuspecting upper-middle class subdivision surrounding it, the studio was home to one of the most dangerous bands in the Philippine rock scene, studio owner Nino Avenido’s very own Greyhoundz. Within the confines of the studio, the band wrote, recorded and mixed their new album Execution Style in a little bit more than a month. No mere feat considering the fact that the band barely had any songs written coming in. Even more amazing is the fact that none of the band’s past efforts even came close to being written and recorded this quickly.
“We were supposed to come out with the album last year,” says bassist Nino Avenido. One thing led to another though leading to even more delays. With the prospect of another year without a release looming, the band finally decided to get their act together in late July. Once the planning stages for the recording sessions began, the idea of trying to gun for the NU 107 Rock Awards deadline came up. Never one to back down from the challenge, the band decided to record the album as quickly as possible to reach the September deadline. To achieve this, the band decided to record everything live.
For those unfamiliar with the recording process, it’s important to mention that artists rarely if ever record live these days. It’s much easier to lay-in and record tracks individually since it’s a lot easier to fix mistakes. So you can imagine that live recording is only done by the most precise bands, bands that rarely make mistakes. If you have a band like that though, it’s much quicker to record. Another effect is that a band’s energy is much easier captured live.
Since Greyhoundz has pretty much built their reputation for the last decade on tight and energetic shows, the band was excited about the prospect. After initially trying to record with a metronome, the band decided to forego the whole thing when they felt that things sounded stiff. “Mali yung metronome e,” Avenido joked, “minsan nga pag tumutugtog kami kahit tuner mali e.” After discarding the initial idea of recording with a click track, everything else went swimmingly for the band. The first half of the month found the band throwing around ideas and writing songs. When the band finished a song, they’d record it live in the same area right where they wrote it.
Though he produced all of their past efforts, Noel de Brackinghe told the band that he wanted to see what the band could do by themselves. For Execution Style, the band decided to self-produce the album with the help of their manager Bubi Sanchez and Wombworks studio engineer Pat Tirano. The band didn’t completely sever their ties with de Brackinghe however since he’s still mastering the album.
The band was also very fortunate with the gear that they used during recording. Avenido reveals that the band’s studio set-up was very close to the set-up used by the band Tool while recording 10, 000 days.
The band not only recorded the album differently, they also changed-up the songwriting process and their very sound itself. The band admits that it’s the most collaborative effort that the band has ever come up with. All the songs were written in the same space that they would be later recorded in. Drummer TJ Brillantes shares that nothing was forced while they were writing the album. This newfound spontaneity resulted in what is probably the most eclectic set of songs that the band has ever come up with. The band for example flirts with dancehall in one of the tracks. Brillantes, says that as a drummer he’s used beats in this album that he thought would never fit into the band’s signature rap metal sound. The song Freight Train for example has this confusing breakdown that you’d never think would work as chorus if it weren’t for vocalist Reg Rubio’s vocals. Manager Bubi Sanchez also says that all of the songs are less than four minutes long, another breakthrough for a band which has been known to experiment with lengthier songs.
Longtime fans need not fear though, the trademark Greyhoundz sound is still there. The first single Shoot To Kill is a testament to this. The groove is right there along with the aggressiveness that we’ve come to expect. If anything else, it’s enhanced by the energy resulting from the band’s choice to record all of the instruments live. The song also sounds much meatier than past efforts. Drums, bass, guitars and vocals all seem to be equally championed in the mix. Especially apparent is the fact that cousins, Nino and Audie Avenido sound much thicker and more in-your-face than they’ve ever been. Nino’s intricate bass lines are much easier to appreciate while the other Avenido’s muscular guitar prowess is even more apparent than in past albums.
The band is set to unleash Execution Style sometime this October. There must be something to it when a band with a back-catalog as influential and as genre-defining as the Greyhoundz says that their next album is the best one they’ve ever done. From the few songs I’ve heard and the swagger that I haven’t seen on them in a long time, I’m definitely inclined to believe it.
We're very satisfied with the songs that we've written so far for the second album. I think we topped ourselves on this one. I honestly think that it's better in more ways than the first album was. For those who haven't heard any of the new songs, we've been playing four of them live at our gigs. This Saturday will be the perfect opportunity for you to hear them since it's the first of only two gigs we're playing this month (and probably this summer). Our gig will be over at RJ Bar which is located along Jupiter St., Bel-Air Village in Makati City. We'll be playing with our friends 13 Needles and Ephesus along with other bands like Galaga, Cross the Line, Shotgun Lola, Ground Alpha, Battle City, Escalation To Decline, To The Gallows, and Vanilla Colt. 150 pesos gets you into that gig with a free beer.
Of course our other gig for the month will be over at Summer Slam where we'll be playing after one of my favorite bands DARKEST HOUR!!! I personally can't wait for this one. I never thought I'd see Darkest Hour live in our country and I'm really happy that it's actually going to happen. It's great to see all of these bands starting to come here. I sure hope that more metal bands are encouraged to come to our country after Shadows Fall and Darkest Hour. Trivium's supposed to come over too but it's been postponed from what I hear. Here's to hoping that more metal bands make the Philippines a regular stop for their Asian tours.
There's also a lot of news coming in from our brothers over at Tower of Doom. The news that I'm most excited about is the release of the Siege Tour 2007 DVD!!! Last year's Siege Tour was an amazing experience for all of the 9 bands that were a part of it. In around a week or so, you'll be able to share in some of the craziness that we went through over that two week stretch. The DVD will be available in all record stores nationwide so watch out for that one. Hopefully you won't miss out on the next Siege Tour. It'll be happening this October and I'll post more information when I have it. Also, I'm very happy to announce that two other bands from Tower of Doom will also be releasing their debut albums very, very soon. The first release will be by post-hardcore band April Morning Skies who have been making quite a name for themselves over the past year or so. The other is the much anticipated album of SIN, probably the most talented and skilled band in our country right now. I've heard a big chunk of the album and each and every one of those songs are just totally devastating. I can't wait until everyone else gets to hear it. Aside from that we've got a lot of releases coming out later this year including Boy Elroy's sophomore album and maybe even a new one from the guys in Bloodshedd!
Our album Conflagration is still available nationwide. Go grab a copy if you haven't yet. We're also selling shirts through Branded. I can't remember how much they are exactly but it's a great shirt and I guarantee that you won't regret buying it.
- Yagi Olaguera
I'm very proud to say that I started the first Shadowsfall pit! Everyone was being too camera-core during the first song. Everyone just had their phone cameras out. It was such a travesty! I dragged Caloy from Sultans of Snap and
kairex3 along with me to start the pit up. I did the same thing the whole night, always dragging other people in with me to start things up. I was able to drag a bunch of people to mosh including Charles from Sin and Ian of Queso. I saw Eric hanging with Alan and Nikki backstage so I called him out to join us in the pit. His eyebrow piercing got fucked up in the process! Hassle. Just as the set was about to end, I dragged Rogel from Valley of Chrome to mosh just once before the gig ended. My body fucking hurts but I never had that much fun in a long fucking time. I probably moshed at least twice as much as I did during Valley of Chrome's set. It's too bad people don't really mosh in bar gigs anymore. I almost forgot how fun it was.There was this huge sense of brotherhood in the pit. You don't really get that during the bigger gigs.
Drip is composed of Beng Calma on vocals, Malek Lopez on live keyboards and programming, Caliph8 on turntables and Ian Magbanua on beats and programming. They've been around since 2002 and have released a seven-song EP aside from the aforementioned albums.
Odysseylive also conducted an interview with Drip vocalist Beng Calma recently about the new album and other things related to Drip. Check out the four-part interview on Drip's profile at http://www.odysseylive.net/drip
Tower of Doom labelmates, Cog, April Morning Skies and Imbue No Kudos will help the guys celebrate the release along with metal super group Intolerant and fellow Laguna scene mainstays, Typecast and Tempest! The guys have also requested that everyone bring toy guns and swords - nothing that can actually hurt of course - as they plan to recreate some historical battles during the gig, or so they say anyway.
Now take this image and post it everywhere!
