NEW INTERVIEW: Our first interview with ILLYRIA (Perth, Australia Hard Rock/ Post Black Metal), 22/7/17.

ILLYRIA band from Perth, Australia. Left to Right: George Blacklock, Matt Unkovich, Ilija Stajić, James Warren, and Daniel Hacking.

Kieran James (Busuk Chronicles)1: Hi, can you tell me the early history from the formation of the band up to now?

Ilija Stajić (vocalist)1: I started the concept of Illyria in my ancient history class in high school back in 2012 reading up about Roman provinces and ‘Illyria’ really stuck out to me as it sounded similar to my name and where my heritage is from (Serbia). It was great as a solo project for the first few months; the boys one-by-one came along the way until the line-up was settled in 2015.

KJ2: How is the response of people to your album?

IS2: It’s been an amazing experience observing our compositions travel around globally, special thanks to the internet. Overall it has been very positive and if there are things to work on it’s been mostly constructive criticism which we have taken on for the next efforts. We are doing surprisingly stronger in Europe and the Americas than our Australasian home-base.

KJ3: What are the most influential bands for you guys in playing music?

IS3: Numerous post-black metal bands from Alcest, Deafheaven and Lantlos being the main three in our eyes but we are also heavily influenced by a lot of prog rock/metal bands like Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist and anything touched by Devin Townsend just to name a few.

KJ4: “Swansong” is not part of the album track listing; is it a new song and is it going to go on a new EP or album?

IS4: Album II is in the works and we are taking a considerable amount of time to make it perfect. Swansong is just a taste of what is to come and will be part of the next full-length album.

KJ5: For the song “Swansong” you can call the lyrics almost Christian. First we have: “I will pray for you” then “if heaven exists”. Is that the humility of just not being certain? Is it a Christian band and / or do you personally identify as Christian (Serbian Orthodox)?

IS5: Swansong is about my maternal grandmother passing away as she had a big influence on my life, she was my first word as a baby and raised me as much as my parents. It was painful to see her slowly succumb to cancer but I will continue on with her in my heart. When it comes to the Swansong lyrics – I have to clarify that I am no holy saint, so if an afterlife exists, I really need more time here on Earth to purify my soul and reunite with her again. I tried to keep it as open as possible for some who need that spiritual boost regardless of faith and also those who find comfort in other ways.

Being half-Serbian and half-Greek born in Australia, I have always been around the zealous Orthodox community from both sides. I, of course, practice Orthodoxy, and I especially love singing the Divine Liturgy in my choir. The rest of the band members are non-religious which we both respect as it makes us who we are not just as a band but as mates. We write songs about any topic but there is a distinct difference between being a ‘Christian band’ and having a ‘Christian in a band’. Our listeners understand that which is perfect.

KJ6: More philosophically does Christian Black Metal or Unblack Metal have a right to exist in your opinion?

IS6: Overall definitely not, in the sense that I don’t enjoy ‘over-labelling’ something. Personally, it’s very much hits and misses for me – a really awesome Orthodox black metal act I recommend to check out is Hesychast.

Art is meant to create reactions so when a listener labels something as ‘kvlt’,‘blasphemous’, Christian, Satanic etc. it means the artist is doing something right symbolically, the band shouldn’t enforce it though. I believe to leave it up for the listener to decide what or who they like/dislike.

KJ7: How closely, if at all, do you identify or connect with that early Norwegian scene and its main bands and individuals?

IS7: I personally do not really tie-in with the early Norwegian scene when it comes to black metal; the other guys in the band really enjoy that sort of stuff and bring that flavour into our music. As a band, yeah we respect it but we try to sound like Illyria. Our philosophy is to achieve the goal of a listener knowing instantly that is our music upon listening.

Despite that, George and I love watching the black metal personality flicks like ‘Until the light takes us’ and Varg Vikernes (Burzum) on YouTube with his polarising views, I really enjoy his insight of European history, spending time with his young family and it makes me feel connected with my homeland. A positive European theme definitely has an influential inspiration on our next album, especially when the band is named after a European region!

KJ8: Do you wear corpse-paint on stage and, if not, might you do it in the future?

IS8: I kid you not, we talked about this at a point when the full line-up was formed and we believe that imagery is just as important as the aural sensations established. We decided not to wear corpse-paint for the primary reason that we don’t want to bottleneck ourselves only titled as black metal and secondarily that we were a bunch of lazy 18/19 year olds who weren’t keen on the rigorous skin clean-up post-show. It takes a special kind of commitment to do that stuff so we respect bands that get into character on-stage.  

KJ9: Do you write all the lyrics and do you do all the vocals? Someone described your music as having “clean vocal” parts and I understand what the person means but they are obviously not clean-clean in the power-metal sense. Do you feel the clean vocals are very important to what the band is trying to do?

IS9: I write and perform all vocals and lyrics in our music aside from the guest vocalists. I push the other boys to join in the fun when recording and live but they don’t have the courage to do it and that’s fine; not everyone finds comfort in it.

Vocals are very important to the band but I must respect the texture of the instrumentals which means I have a choice in sections whether to sing, scream, both or do nothing. I enjoy the versatility and the rest of the band believes that too. I enjoy singing and screaming – when it comes to a whole album I can’t do one without the other.

KJ10: What are the best and worst things about the metal community in Perth at the moment?

IS10: Perth is a tight-knit musical family; an artistic culture with an emphasis on open-mindedness when exposed to a plethora of genres is great. The post-black metal scene is thriving now with bands like Waste Not and Staos emerging through and our fellow contemporaries in Deadspace now signed to a label and touring internationally. The only negative is that we are so isolated to the rest of the country, wait scratch that – the rest of the world! Financing a tour is a thorn in our backside.

KJ11: What are your most memorable shows or experiences onstage and where do you like playing most?

IS11: Nothing will surpass supporting my idols Alcest. That was the best night of my life and to top it off we got to hang out with them afterwards until the early hours of the morning.

Nothing beats a house show. Everyone having a good time and playing in a sweaty, cramped shed is definitely the best for us. Until we start playing bigger shows if we keep working hard, the hearty habitat of a close, intimate show is our favourite.

KJ12: Here is a big one. What is the future of Black Metal?

IS12: Black metal is more and more being exposed to new parts of the world. I just saw a video on Facebook of an ‘all-black black metal band’ in Soweto, South Africa. I can only see positives with exposing more people to the niche genre and I hope that more bands incorporate their own touch and influence to make their own unique sound for black metal. I see an evolution for sure. Never forget where you come from but always look to progress artistically to stick out from the rest of the pack – who cares what others think. 

KJ13: Lastly, have you got any message for your supporters?

IS13: Thank you for loyally staying by our side and enjoying the journey with us; if you have read this and are now aware of our existence, feel free to suss us out at illyria.bandcamp.com and join the Illyrian family on our social media. Album II coming soon. 

Band tracks:
https://illyria.bandcamp.com/track/swansong (Swansong, new track)

https://illyria.bandcamp.com/album/illyria (full debut album)

CONCERT REVIEW: CANNIBAL CORPSE / DISENTOMB / ENTRAILS ERADICATED @ Brisbane, 8/10/2012

This day began for me when I left work in Toowoomba to get the 2pm Greyhound bus to Brisbane, 127 km away. I booked into the Clayfield Airport Motel first and then around 6.30pm I took the suburban train the seven stations south to South Brisbane to go to see the CANNIBAL CORPSE show. I had to walk 20 minutes from the South Brisbane train station. At the show venue on Boundary Road in West End night had nearly fallen ("darkness was descending"!). There was a line-up of around sixty people going back 30 metres along the side street. This was an 18+ venue but the great thing about legendary metal bands such as CANNIBAL CORPSE is you get a crowd ranging from 18-year-olds up to mid-forties. The fat and greying mid-forties crew are the ones wearing jeans and with the bald heads and the Kerry King beards (not to be confused with Viking beards). Unlike at an AC/DC show or STATUS QUO show you don't get anyone that looks above 45-years-old - the mid-forties crowd are the same age as the CANNIBAL band members. Clearly these ageing veterans such as myself "were there in 79 when the dam began to burst". "We were wearing denim, wearing leather and we ran down to the front". We were around 20 years old when the first great CANNIBAL CORPSE album Eaten Back to Life was released in 1990. Some of us even remember the demo! Some of us even believe CANNIBAL CORPSE never released a better album than that first one with its charm, innocence, high-school boy humour, and thrash-metal influences. After that it just got a little too serious. I stood in line at the Hi-Fi bar and was talking to a smooth-faced 18-year-old. In usual life people of my age and people of his age just don't have the same set of friends and we don't hang out together. Metal can bring such people together (or maybe we just talked because we were in the same bar queue).

CANNIBAL: Webster, Paul M., O'Brien, Fisher, Barrett

The first band on the three-band bill was ENTRAILS ERADICATED at 8pm. The venue was still not too crowded so I got right up the front one person back from the security railing during this band's set. I thought the band was very good - the guitar player was doing so many technical things non-stop from just right in front of me and his play was clearly an important factor in the band's overall sound. The vocalist did mainly shrieks mixed up with some death growls and the guitarist did some death growls as well. This band has a flow and a sense of song that I like. They probably had the hardest job going up first when the crowd was smallest. The band managed to generate a lot of energy and enthusiasm despite these factors.

DISENTOMB was next up on the bill. When this band started I headed back to the bar to get a second can of Carlton Draught. The bar queues were four to six people long most of the night so it took a while. After getting a beer I headed to the three merchandise tables. I bought an ENTRAILS shirt for AUD20. The CANNIBAL CORPSE tour shirts were AUD40 for the short-sleeve, AUD50 for the long-sleeve and I think AUD70 for the hoodies and I just didn't have these amounts of money with me. I watched the second half of the DISENTOMB set from near the front and slowly I edged my way up closer. I really hoped to be right up the front for CANNIBAL CORPSE. It really looked like this goal was possible. DISENTOMB played straight-up brutal death-metal and to me I preferred ENTRAILS but I talked to other people who preferred DISENTOMB. I don't quite understand this band name DISENTOMB. Does this mean after ENTOMBED entombs someone DISENTOMB will take that person back out of the tomb? Is that how it works? I guess that would leave you in the same position as you started from but a bit dirtier!

CANNIBAL with Jack Owen (top left)

At the end of the DISENTOMB set two guys who were right up the front headed back most likely to go to the bar and I quickly went in and took their spot. I think in these places you can't really claim your spot. It's not like in a pub or a restaurant or a seated-only football game: if you leave your spot it will get taken. We all waited for CANNIBAL CORPSE to appear. The curtain came down so the band could get set up without the crowd watching. By this time there was probably 300-400 people in the standing-only venue and the mosh pit up front was getting full. People were chanting for CANNIBAL and getting more excited. The band was due to play from 10pm to 11.20pm which would mean around 22 songs at an average of four minutes per song.

Then the curtain went up and the four CANNIBAL CORPSE band members except the drummer were all lined up in a row ready to play. ENTRAILS and DISENTOMB both have four band members and so the stage looked more empty when they were playing. It was a surprise not to see Jack Owen up there. Obviously I know he has been playing with DEICIDE for a number of years now but he was part of the visual image of CANNIBAL for a long time. He is in many of the band pictures that you still can find on the internet (with his bald head and his Kerry King beard)! It seems to be standard now for Rob Barrett to be on the left, Webster second left, George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher third from left, and Pat O'Brien on the right on the stage (i.e. left or right from the perspective of the crowd). I was on the railing on the left side directly in front of Rob Barrett and close to Webster. I could not see drummer Paul M. because he was blocked from my view by Webster's body. It was also hard for me to see O'Brien up the far end. The circle pit started up in the centre but it did not reach where I was over on the left. There were three security guards in the no-go zone between the railing and the stage. It was a small stage raised maybe 1.5 metres above the floor. When the circle pit started the security guards would grab the surfers and then drop them into the no-go area and then push them away to the sides.

CANNIBAL CORPSE

I don't recall or even know all the songs the band played. One surprise was "Covered in Sores" from Butchered at Birth (1991) which is really quite a boring album in my view. This song did not really excite anyone very much. Most of the songs played were the fast ones and these were the most popular. Songs played included: "I Cum Blood", "The Time to Kill is Now", "I will Kill You", "The Wretched Spawn", "Priests of Sodom", "As Deep as the Knife will Go", and of course "F***ed with a Knife" and "Hammer Smashed Face". No CANNIBAL show could ever be played without those two last mentioned songs and they still remain the two most interesting and enjoyable songs that the band plays live. Corpsegrinder introduced "F***ed with a Knife" by dedicating it to "all the ladies, women, bitches in the house". This song is one of the best live songs by the band as it has tempo changes, instrumental parts, and blast-beat enjoyment. "As Deep as the Knife will go", from the new album Torture (2012), is also an outstanding faster song and it was very well received by the crowd. The two "knife songs" (with the word "knife" in the song titles) were played back-to-back. Corpsegrinder was also telling the front row they were there not for "watching" so they should be either crowd surfing or head-banging. However, he warned the crowd surfers not to invite him to crowd surf as he was going to be far too heavy for them, "I guarantee you that" he said! I admit to "watching" because it is rare to get a chance to watch the band play so close up and Webster's bass skills are really a thrill to watch. At another point in the show the "Corpsegrinder" chant went up and he responded with a mock-polite "Well, thank you" which managed to be both serious and ironic at the same time!

It was amazing to see Alex Webster close up. His left hand moves up and down and across the fretboard at amazing speed. He uses his right fingers and not a guitar pick. Although CANNIBAL cannot be called a technical band Webster is a technical bass player. Rob Barrett, the rhythm guitarist, was also great to watch. He joined the band in 1993, left in 1997, and rejoined in 2005. In 1992 he played lead guitar on the MALEVOLENT CREATION album Retribution. This night he wore a MALEVOLENT CREATION tee-shirt. Certainly Barrett has a great history of being part of the original Florida death scene of the early-1990s as both a fan and a performer. All the band members wore black jeans and black band tee-shirts. They looked very different from the two early bands whose members wore the trendy modern gear of green army shorts and Viking beards (not to be confused with a Kerry King beard as I explained earlier). The CANNIBAL members showed how old-school they are because no-one wore shorts in the 1980s in the metal scene. You had to suffer for metal in that era wearing jeans and leather or denim jacket on the hottest of days! Yes, green army shorts, black-metal and Viking tee-shirts and Viking beards are trendy among the 20-somethings in the Australian metal scene! It is possible to have and follow trends in the metal world as well as in the broader society. 

CANNIBAL heads to Indonesia next (Jakarta & Solo)

Corpsegrinder promised us one last song and of course it was "Hammer Smashed Face" and everyone enjoyed this totally. Of course he could not promise one song and only give us one. There was another song played after "Hammer Smashed Face" and then the band left the stage. Alex Webster came down and walked along the no-go area and shook hands with all the people in the front row including myself. He is a shy guy and when he plays you can't see his face because his hair covers it. Once or twice people shouted out his name and he gave a shy thumbs-up gesture.

I was standing next to a crazy guy who had the Worm Infested album cover tattooed on his back. (I don't know whether he was a "tattooed millionaire", but probably not.) He got security to allow him into the no-go area during the show and he showed his back to the crowd and to the band. The security guy seemed to be happy when this guy showed his tattoo to the crowd but he was not not so happy when the guy tried to show it to the band! Another guy showed me a Butchered at Birth foetus tattoo on his left leg (kind of a "dying fetus" I guess). CANNIBAL fans are amazing for their devotion.

Yes I enjoyed the show but I could not help feeling slightly bored at hearing so many songs by this band. There was not much variety or different passages. If VADER is your Mom's home-cooked best meal then CANNIBAL is a Big Mac McDonald's value meal - totally American, totally uniform and processed, and just a little bit dull on occasion. However, people support CANNIBAL for the overall package of artwork, lyrics, songs, and stage performance and this package is still effective and still delivers 20 years on. It was amazing to be so close to such legendary figures in the metal scene. The band puts up a flawless and very professional performance and I guess if anyone has done exactly the same job every year for 20 years that is just what we should expect! Catch CANNIBAL at a town near you! If you don't see the band it will return, as I think the band will keep the shows and albums coming until at least the members reach the regular retirement age of 65 years or whatever it is in the USA!

Old-school truck with "1987" written on back, Jakarta

After the show I took a train from South Brisbane which went through the city centre and stopped at Bowen Hills. I had to get to Eagle Junction station, three stops further up the line. I saw that the early morning trains only run on Friday nights and the last train to Caboolture via Eagle Junction had gone past me before 12am. At Bowen Hills platform I saw it was 12.17am. I decided I would have to walk in the darkness "on through the night" back to Eagle Junction station and I thought it might take one to two hours. I walked along the side of the highway for 600 metres all alone in the darkness as at 1am on a Tuesday morning the mega-city of Brisbane sleeps ("at dawn they wake up"). I walked under a dark underpass and I thought "I hope I don't end up like a character in a CANNIBAL CORPSE song". No, not "Devoured by Vermin"! It might instead have been some combination of "Nothing Left to Mutilate", "Blunt Force Castration" and "Rotted Body Landslide"! Just as I exited the underpass I spotted a cab and he stopped for me. I had $6 in my pocket and $10.20 back at the hotel. I wondered if I would make it back to the hotel for a fee of $16.20 in total or less. In the end the trip cost me $16, perfect. I had been willing to walk two hours back to

the hotel if necessary. I guess you have to be willing to suffer for metal. A girl who looked like a hooker asked me for directions at the Bowen Hills train station but when I saw her again on the street she wouldn't talk to or look at me. This really happened. I guess she was worried I might [insert CANNIBAL CORPSE song title here]. But, just like the band members (OK, to be fair, Webster is as slim today as he ever was), I'm only a harmless, fat, grey-haired, and aging metalhead from that strange place called "The 1980s" who would never hurt a fly (on the wall)! [By Kieran James, 9 October 2012].

CANNIBAL CORPSE 1994 with Chris Barnes (centre)

CANNIBAL CORPSE 1990

CD REVIEW: TUSK (Perth, Western Australia Heavy Metal) - "Fear" EP (2015), by Collin Brophy, 1/10/15

Tusk - Fear EP, by Collin Brophy

Tusk is a four-piece metal outfit from Perth Western Australia; they have been around since August 2010.

Tusk released its debut EP "Misdirected Mayhem" back in March on the 15th, 2013. I have heard some of those tracks from that EP and if you can you should get your hands on it as well.

When you get five talented musicians whose aim is to make the best metal music possible together, and with influences such as Meshuggah, Psycroptic, Tool and Gojira just to name a few, then amazing metal is produced, and hence we have the Fear EP.

Tusk Fear EP was released back on 29 May 2015.

Band Members: Vocals - Geoff Shumack, Lead / Rhythm Guitar - Mitchell Swan, Lead / Rhythm Guitar - Matt Finnis, Drums - Andrew Sorbello.

Song titles: 1.Trojan, 2. Colonised Dystopia, 3.Fear, 4. Non Vocal Reality.

Fear is a four-track EP that goes for around 20 minutes, and what a 20 minute ride it is, the production is really good, and the sound quality is just as good, I couldn’t pick any fault with either one. The guys in Tusk should be really proud as I reckon they have produced one of the best EPs this year.

The drumming on this EP is outstanding; Andrew is definitely one very talented drummer. Both Matt and Mitchell do an amazing job on this EP, some of the riffs are fantastic, they both complement each other really well on this EP. The vocalist Geoff has a truly amazing voice; some of those vocals are some of the best I have heard in a while.

My favourite of all four tracks is “Non Vocal Reality”, this track shows off just how talented these guys are, this is one the best instrument tracks I have heard in a very long time. This track has it all from the guitar riffs to the slow and fast beats of the drumming, I would love to see “Non Vocal Reality” played live.

[By Collin Brophy for Busuk Chronicles Webzine.]