NILE / HATE ETERNAL LIVE IN ADELAIDE 26 MAY 2010.

By: Lutfie

It was a fairly cold autumn day when Nile and Hate Eternal were scheduled to play at Fowlers Live, the venue that has always been sheltering a lot of international shows in Adelaide. It is a shitty venue for its acoustics but I shouldn’t be complaining, as I thought without Fowlers, Adelaide could have been a shit hole for international metal acts who tour in Australia.

I was pretty busy that day with uni so I only got to come at door by around 7.20pm after some decent yiros for dinner. Support band for this show were One Step Beyond (at last, some decent band apart from crappy hardcore kids). Honestly that was the time I first heard them and I admit I liked them. One Step Beyond play rock’n roll/grind/jazz style and they have really catchy tunes, reminded me of Blood Duster who on their later releases, being more rock’n roll and less grindy. The guitarist seemed like a guy I always see around Adelaide city too. All in all, they rocked the crowd that night. Definitely looking forward to coming to their gigs in future.

ONE STEP BEYOND

Next up were Hate Eternal. Erik Rutan was probably infamous for his roles in the world of death metal. Known as album producer, death metal guitar god, and Morbid Angel’s ex-guitarist for the infamous Domination, Erik Rutan also fronts Hate Eternal which in my opinion, not his best use of talent. Honestly, Hate Eternal style is REALLY not my cup of tea of death metal. Way too generic and noisy on both records and live. Perhaps I was way too up front during their set, resulting blowing sound from Erik’s amps. Anyway, it seemed performing artists do all the setup shit themselves, no crew what so ever. Erik came up the stage with his box of pedals and effects which were associated to his Ironbird.

HATE ETERNAL

ERIK RUTAN IN HATEMODE

Hate eternal started off pretty early than the allocated time frame (about 10 minutes). With 3 piece band this time, Erik, Jade, and a session bassist blasted through their set relentlessly. The drummer was a crazy dude. He made jokes while he was setting up his kit and had hilarious shoutings with the kids in the crowd. This guy can seriously kill. He had a good skill at fast-blasting drummings, which pretty much defines Hate Eternal.

The session bassist was pretty sick individually. I honestly don't know who the fuck he is or which band he was picked out from to cover up this show for Erik. I wish he actually played in a better death metal and got me nuts.

OKAYY..Actually, Hate Eternal were complete boredom. Shit boredom. I wish I could refund half my money for this show. Erik Rutan did not impress me at all other than noisy, dropping tremolo, hate-driven vocals and lifeless stage presence. I kept running within the crowd to find the best spot to enjoy them but failed miserably. Their set went fairly long (an hour of complete ear torture) and some of their fan probably happy with their set and total so called brutality presented. But definitely not entertaining for me.

ERIK RUTAN AGAIN

I tried to get full view of all band members

Up next were NILE. Karl Sanders was the first person to got on stage to set his guitar. This time, it was my first time to see such a delicate setting for a live performance that used digital effects etc. Karl had a 19” lcd plugged in front of his spot that was connected to his laptop(at the back, near amp) now that was a very digitized setting. Compared to Erik’s setting, Karl used pretty much all USB connected gears. On the other hand, other members seemed to have normal setting to their gears, George Kollias was my main focus, since I am so into drumming he had fairly decent setting like the previous drummer (Hate Eternal drummer) I thought he borrowed Jade’s cymbals, judging by seeing Jade having to opened up his cymbal trunk after packing them down. Honestly, I did not expect much from Kollias other than to play a drum solo in the middle of Nile’s set. But that seemed to no avail.

Karl Sander setting up his lcd for tuner/effects etc.All by himself.

As I predicted, Nile started off their set with ‘Kafir’. Blasphemous song indeed, but I shall not elaborate on that. Heavy and somehow sounded better than the cd quality. As I was standing right in front of Karl, I can hear his guitar sounded so sharp and precise. So did Dallas’ guitar whose sounded so heavy. I should not berate much on sound quality of this show as all shows that I went to were promising in terms of acoustics. No wonder some songs just sounded A LOT BETTER live than on their records.Thanks to the pro sound mixer.

DALLAS-That is a sweet DRI shirt

Talking about setlist, they played quite a number of songs from the latest album ‘For Whom the God Detests’ which were awesome. The latest album just kills and no bullshit Egyptian traditional soundtrack done to fill up 13 tracks. There were also songs from the infamous Catacombs and Black Seeds and Nile’s traditional closing song was definitely Black Seed of Veangeance.

KARL SANDERS-Wooppps unintentionally took this picture with the mic stand before him.

Apart from the awesome-ness of the performance, I must highlight the scene where Karl spotted a guy who kept filming Nile’s set and snatched his iPhone away, put it on the spot he was standing. It was hilarious. Clearly Karl did not like his picture or video being taken (maybe due to weight problem? HAHA) during his performance. Karl ended up returning back the guy’s iPhone after swiping it to his guitar. It was cool of him that he did not crush that phone, which I expected he would have done. As a result to that event, I refrained myself from taking too many photos during Nile’s set, since I had taken a few beforehand for this review anyway.

NILE - In action

Nile set went on about an hour and a half. It was a really great set by Nile and it was worth my money spent to see them, unlike the Heh, Etanol. Grabbed myself their tour shirt and 2 more for other Malaysian friends who ordered it through me. All in all, Nile really rocked up the night!


p/s: i got Karl's pick too :)

Groinchurn - South African Grind

It's been a while since I posted any old interviews that was salvaged from Thanatopsis at Geocities.

This interview was done for Thanatopsis zine issue #3 in 1996. I had the opportunity to meet them in London in the late 90's but unable to go since I was doing my A-levels at the time.

 Recently I managed to get their SIXTIMESNINE cd courtesy of Shah of Random zine. Great to have the cd since they only gave me a tape copy last time round. Will try and do a review on it soon. Don't know if the address is still valid, but worth a try??

Enjoy:

GROINCHURN is one of the most promising grind band ever to emerge from the South African scene. Groinchurn began it's grinding assault of well crafted noise in early 1994. The band was formed by Mark Chapman and Sergio Christina of SEPSIS. Just before the recording of the first demo, HUMAN FILTH, Christo of DESECRATOR joined on vocals and bass. 

The band went on to release a 2nd demo, EVERY DOG HAS IT'S DECAY, which has to date sold around 800 copies worldwide. Next was a 20 min. spot on the FOUR WAYS TO MISERY CD on MMI RECORDS (Germany) followed by the release of 2 split 7" EP's : one with CAPTAIN THREE LEG on FUDGEWORTHY RECORDS (USA); and one with WOYCZECH on PAINART RECORDS (Germany). 2 live split tapes were also released: one with MINDFART on ABNORMAL TAPES (Slovenia); and one with NECROSE on AXIOMA PRODUCTIONS (Holland).

The latest offering, SIXTIMESNINE, is definitely the best and strongest material to date, featuring 13 awesome tracks of relentless and experimental grind with an original edge. Get it or die. I've heard it, sounds really fuckin' great man!!

For order or info:

Groinchurn, P.O. Box 4478, Vereeniging, 1930, SOUTH AFRICA. Or get it from Marbil Entertainment, P.O.Box 1264, Germiston, 1400, SOUTH AFRICA. Fax:27-11-626-1197.

Enough shit here, let's get on with the interview(answered by Sergio):

What's the latest news from Groinchurn? Any changes?
The lineup is still the same as always and the music is still fast and all that. Latest news is that we've just released our debut album and we're chiffed with it!! It was released at the end of Feb. the title being "SIXTIMESNINE". It is about 24-25 min. long and has 13 songs! Propackaging and production and all that.

Isn't Groinchurn members of Sepsis and Desecrator? What happened to the bands?
Yes, me and Mark were in Sepsis and Christo was in Desecrator. Both bands broke up ages ago.

Tell something about your demos.I heard you're working with MMI Recs for a CD?
Human Filth was our first demo. We recorded it in a tiny studio that usually deals with soft pop and gospel shit! We just weren't allowed to swear blaspheme and Christo had to sort of mumble swear words in the lyrics!! It cost us about 300 buxx or so to record and it was recorded in about 3 hours or so!! We recorded it in March 1994. It had 7 trax on it as was probably about 15 min. long. The 2nd-Every dog... was recorded in a professional studio and cost us a lot more that 300 buxx to record! It had 14 trax on and obviously had better sound. We recorded it in later 1994 because Human Filth sparked off local and overseas interest.
We did work with MMI Recs and were featured along with 3 other bands (NYCTOPHOBIC, CAESAREAN SECTION, WINTER OF DISCONTENT) on a comp. CD called 4 Ways to Misery. We were supposed to do a CD with MMI, but the label stopped, which is a damn shame 'coz MMI was a good label! Well after that we did a couple of split 7"s and stuff. Namely a split with Captain 3 Leg and a split with WOYCZECH. Soon we're going to bring out our Coughin 7" and Totally Fucking Live 7".

Now it seems the U/G scene is full of Punk/HC and Black metal bands, it seems that the two are considered as trends. Do you agree? Will Groinchurn turn to play one of these genres?
Black Metal and HC/punk seems to be big in our U/G now, I guess that's what's getting the most support now- whether its good or bad-I don't know. I reckon the important thing is that the bands in the U/G, whatever genre they belong to must be into what they're doing, i.e. they must be real, otherwise the U/G will be full of bands that should be in the mainstream, and that would obviously be bad! As for us doing Black Metal-Nah! As for HC-we've been doing that since we started, Grind is old HC taken a couple of steps further. Lyrically, Grind is similiar to HC and all that well I think so anyway!!

Have you guys done any gigs/tours before? How was the response? Is it hard to organize shows there?
Yes, we've played loads of gigs and we've done mini tours around the country. The response to the gigs goes up and down, sometimes it's goddamned chaos. It's not that hard to get gigs here now, say about 8 months ago to a year ago it was very difficult to get gigs, but now it seems to be picking up again. We're playing regularly now.

Have you heard the new Napalm Death LP's? Do you think they're the grind godz they were? How about Agathocles, Carcass and Brutal Truth?
ND has definitely changed, I certainly wouldn't call it grind anymore. I like "Fear,Emptiness.." but the new one is off. Their music isn't intense anymore. I haven't heard Agathocles' latest stuff yet, but I trust its still brutal. Carcass are now a bloody rock n' roll band to me, I won't even bother taping the latest album-no thanx! Brutal Truth can't be accused of wimping, I must say, they're still really intense. They're cool because "Need to Control" is more extreme than "Extreme Conditions..", and I'm looking forward to hearing the new one, whichI will soon!

How's the scene in S. Africa now? Name some bands + zines.
The scene here is definitely expanding. There's a bunch of new bands out. People like Philantrophy, Gutted Remains, Mayirism (don't know if I spelt it right), Sex Wax, Gaadacanal Dairy, Dieversions and a bunch of others whose names I can't think of right now! Zines-really too many.

Do you think your music can influence people?What are they about? Is the band a way to voice out your anger, depression + hatred to someone/thing?
I don't know if our music influences people. There's not many ways of telling. If it does, I hope its positively. The lyricsare about all sorts of things, personal conflicts, social things, hypocrisy and shit like that. The music is based on anger and frustration with situations that affect people day in and day out.

Your opinion about:
1.Neo Nazis,
2.Racists,
3.Wars
Neo Nazis are fucking sick and they are amazingly stupid creatures-"More hair than Brains" as the saying goes. Everyone hates someone, there's a little racist in all of us I reckon, or at least all of us have what it takes to hate someone because they're not the same. Racism is basically just another social disease kinda thing. Wars make no sense obviously. The war is a tool to satisfy greed, power or any other sick thing that reflects what mankind really is-stupid as hell!

Do you know any bands/zines in these regions?
I know of a handful of bands and zines and we are in contact with a few

You go into a store to buy a CD. Which one will get your attention: good coverart, mostly popular bands' new material or a new bands' name you really like?
Well good coverart will first get my attention obviously and then I'll go for what I knowor what I've heard about. I'm not really bothered if the band is new or popular or whatever, I just get what I'm familiar with.

Promote your merchandise.
Well, our CD is available now :SIXTIMESNINE it costs $15 postage paid worldwide.
We're also selling 2 split 7"s :
GROINCHURN/CAPTAIN 3 LEG for $6
GROINCHURN/WOYCZECH for $6
In the future :
GROINCHURN 'coughin' 7" GROINCHURN 'Totally Fucking live' 7"
And that's it!

Your closing words.
Thank you Noorwan for the interview, we appreciate your support!! Good Luck. As for the readers, if you're interested in us (info,merchandise or anything else) just right to : GROINCHURN
c/o Sergio
P.O. Box 1047
SASOLBURG 9570
SOUTH AFICA. 

That's it for the interview. Quite a long one too. Contact them now for info or merchandise. They got a homepage (edit: homepage now defunct) now as well. Since this interview they've released some new stuff, which I forgot now!! This intie was for our 3rd issue, but it came late so, I decided to put it here. They gave me pix but I don't have a scanner (shit!!). Oh well, hope you enjoyed the intie.

 Groinchurn on Myspace