Ian Wright writes about his time with Stigmata, while he was in Sri Lanka

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That was a crazy 6 months hairing around the globe, stamping my dirty footprint everywhere…. filming the new programme,’ Invite Mr Wright ‘ where people invite me into their lives and homes to show me their country. Are they mad ? Errr… YES ! of course.. you would have to be, to let me loose in you private domain.
But I do think, that it is the best TV show I have done….. Ooo…
FIRST up was Vernetta, a DJ , Actress and her family in Singapore… I knew that they would be the best family to be with as soon as I met them at the airport… Its all about that cheeky glint in the eye and they all had it. It was great to rediscover Singapore which I was beginning to see as one large shopping mall, but now I know it is just two large shopping mall’s. Vern showed me all the different disticts, Little Indian, China town, the now trendy Arab quarter, markets , temples, nutty new builds, beauiful old colonial style places, bars and of course, the main attraction… FOOD ! which is out of control there and Heavanly….Two more weeks and I would not be able to pay the excess baggage to get home. We also got our feet and legs nibbled by small fish in a tank, which can’t be right, Vern’s folk’s, Albert & Doreen renewed their wedding vows with 80 Harley Riding Rockers guests , all dancing at the church and I got beat-up by a woman in the boxing ring which seems to happen to me in every show, care of Wayne, Verns husband…..but they are still one of the sweetest families you could hope to meet.. next to the Adams family.

SECOND was Sri Lanka. Not the normal image you would associate with this beautiful island, I was on tour with STIGMATA….. A briliant Heavy Metal band from the capital, Colombo. It reminded me of my rocker days, lovely… I have shorter hair now but my air guitar will always be with me. 6 days on the tour bus…now thats rock-a-roll man. With the end of the bloody 30 year civil war and the start of rebuilding we were luck enough to travel to the rarely visted north of Sri Lanka. Elephant action, toddy drinking and a half naked press conference things were getting messy already…. But visiting a Tamli Tiger reablitation camp where 53 couples were getting married that day was a serious reality check. The couples , men and woman were all ex-fighters in the war and as one woman said, who was fighting for 2 and a half years , never believed that she would live to see this day. An amazing day for all of us, what an honour to witness it happening. Then we travelled deep into the jungle to spend time with the Veddah people, who are the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka but are still hanging on, tooth and nail to retain their dying culture, I think that the Stigmata boys felt well at home…

And then as a last treat, we turning up at the hotel were the Sri Lankain and Pakistan cricket team were staying, before playing each other in the Asia cup. So, like you do, we tried to take on the best spin-bowler in the histroy of cricket Murali in a cricket knock about….. again it got very very messy, even my dirty body-line tactics didn’t work this time. Then, it was back to the raunch in Colomdo for an ear-bleeding live Stigmata concert , time to dust down the air guitar and roll back the years , the night did not dissappoint…. You know that you have been to a good gig bacause when you stagger out, stinking of beer , soaked to the skin with sweat and you can’t hear anything for three day because of the ringing in the ears..

Then straight onto India for the Third programme in the series, hooking up with Bollywood superstar Arshad Wassi, who’s task it was was to get me into a Bollywood film and then make is as a movie star in India. I’m 45 , fat , can’t sing , dance or speak Hindi but we never let these minor details get in the way to my path to stardom….

The forth show was in Japan with my host Noria who is one of the last tradisional Geisha women in Toyko. Which, I have to confess, I did think that a Geisha was a high class prostitute but now thankfully I know betternow…. She is more of a high class, all round entertainer and socializer highly trained in tradisional Japanese dance, singing and a musician with NO hankie-pankie who so ever… Also she has to be a brilliant conversationlist and a complete piss-head to be able to handle the gallons of Saki drunk by rich clients most working nights. I couldn’t keep up with these highly trained women when Noria and five of her friends took me out for a quite little drink, and if anyone saw a figure being horrible ill outside their hotel a few months ago it wasn’t me… What an amazing insight to an amazing way of life and a sadly dying art.

Spain was another eye-opener as I was involved in spainish gipsy life , following a famous Flamenco musician Tito for the fifth show.

Tantrum throws up new music

An interview with the tantrum's front man Javeen...

Tell me about the new album your recording, what can we expect from it?

Everything from Speed, adrenaline, aggression and pumping sounds too mind twisting dark political music and lyrics.

What took you so long to record the album?

Constant issues basically, lineup changes was one; because every time a new guitarist came in we had to work with him to build a connection up and he had to learn the songs, which are pretty challenging songs, so it takes a while to perfect and play with correct technique. Then we had money issues, in fact still do but we collected for a few years and managed to get some good equipment. Income is always an issue when playing non commercial music and you need a load of that when putting out an album. Our day jobs don’t help with time either.

Are people to obsessed with saying something is thrash metal or heavy metal or death metal?

May be some are, but not so for us. All types of metal bring some element into the picture; of course some may or may not fancy that element. But we like to experiment with various musical elements and I guess that’s what makes our music progressive. Not that we specifically categorize ourselves but I think we fall under Thrash Metal, although we are not the conventional Thrash Metal band.

How do all the band members interact to write and record all the songs?

Well it depends; everyone throws in their ideas at random. Thishan however joined in after all the music was composed and didn’t have the chance to contribute much for this album, although he has thrown a few modifications here and there. For this album however for the majority of the songs I would bring in the base structure and theme, may be a riff or a vocal line and show it to the others and then Akila and Taraka would make it more what should I say fancy and interesting with their touch of guitar and drum parts.

After this album are you promising the fans with constants acts? (Concerts and performances)

Yes definitely or at least look forward to and hope to as there are always issues when organizing a show and as Tantrum we have always managed to organize quality shows where the audience gets their money’s worth with good sound, a good venue etc. It’s tough to organize a show at that level in Sri Lanka, without running at a loss as finding sponsors is tough with the countries financial situation. So after the album is done, we look forward to organize and play many shows to push and promote it around Sri Lanka and the rest of the world.

How would you describe the Sri Lankan metal scene to our international readers? What according to you are the challenges faced for a band over here? Any perceived advantages/disadvantages according to you?

More disadvantages I guess. The fact that Sri Lanka is a Sinhalese speaking country and our music is in English as well as the majority of the audiences around the country listen to Sinhala music. We are actually catering to a very small segment and among the English music listeners, even fewer individuals listen to heavy metal, although it’s improving rapidly and more listeners are building up around the country even in areas we wouldn’t have expected. Another reason is barriers to advertise and market heavy metal music in this country, radio stations refuse to play our songs and therefore exposure to the public is lost. I think if there was more exposure there would definitely be a bigger audience for metal music; its building up already mainly online and by word of mouth. it would be great if media, especially radio got more involved in the heavy metal scene, because now papers, magazines and even TV are getting into it realizing the potential gain through this genre of music. Another disadvantage is when it comes to organizing shows, finding sponsors is tough with the financial situation in the country, finding a decent venue is a problem as well as the good ones tend to be costly. Advantages for us would be the fact that we’ve been around for awhile and there are only a few well known established metal acts in the country and we happen to be one of them; in that sense competition is not so much as other countries when it comes to musical standards.

What’s your most memorable gig?

Bleed for your passion (2009) which celebrated our 5 year reign in the industry as well as the Rock Company 3^rdparty show which was back in 2006. Both were memorable in the way the crowd responded that night, we were under the ashes basically in 2006, we went through a major lineup change and we got onstage for the first time with the new line up, we were all nervous as to how the crowd would react to the new Tantrum and the response we got was amazing! In 2009 we were celebrating our 5th year and the attendance and response for that show was truly overwhelming and inspiring, it was one of those shows where the crowd was louder than us. TNL Onstage 2005 finals (the year we won) was a memorable gig too I guess, it’s not every day we get 1500 plus people screaming for us.

What do you think it is about tantrum that makes it stand out from other bands?

Our music I guess; its different to a lot of bands here in Sri Lanka, as I said earlier it’s not conventional Thrash Metal music, it has its technical and progressive side to it as well as it is dark music. Most Sri Lankan bands are accessibly melodic, but not so much in our music. We have a more eerie yet groovy sorter sound and we are the one and only band that uses and composers on 7-string guitars in Sri Lanka. We could also say we are different with our image, when you check out our band pages & band pictures you will know what we are talking about.

Feel free to end this interview with anything you feel needs to be said.

We like to thank News Now.lk for featuring us and all our fans and friends from the bottom of our Tantrumental hearts for supporting us, we really appreciate it.

Top 10 Metal Albums of The Year - According To METAL INSIDER (Stigmata no.8)

Chris Colgan, New and Noteworthy author

1. Mutiny Within, Mutiny Within (Roadrunner)
For a band to resuscitate a dying genre and give it a completely new life, it takes quite a lot of talent, innovation, and luck. Mutiny Within had all three of those factors working in their favor with their self-titled debut. Because of this album, metalcore now has a new face, a new life, and a new direction that could turn legions of haters into fans. The influence is already showing, as technical and progressive metalcore bands are now appearing all over the place. Not only is this my favorite overall album of the year and my top compositional album, the album also opens with my top song of the year, the flawless “Awake”. The sky is the limit for this group, literally…if you’re discussing Chris Clancy’s vocal range, at least.

2. Heaven Shall Burn, Invictus (Iconoclast III) (Century Media)
Based on a lot of the reviews I read, most metal albums are usually judged by the quality of the music, often only taking lyrics into account when they are bad. I’m taking the opposite approach here, because Invictus is the best lyrical album I have EVER heard, hands down. Marcus Bischoff is poetic, uncompromising, vicious, and succinct – in short, a true lyrical genius. With historical calamities, current atrocities, and deeply personal struggles all laid bare, Invictus is obviously my choice as top lyrical album of the year. It also gets my picks for having the best cover of the year, with a beastly rendition of “Nowhere” by Therapy?, and the best guest appearance of the year, with Sabine Weniger of Deadlock performing a heart-stoppingly beautiful duet with Bischoff on “Given in Death”.

3. Demon Hunter, The World is a Thorn (Solid State)
I view Demon Hunter is one of the most underrated bands in all of modern metal. For me, they are one of the rare groups that simply gets better with every album. The World is a Thorn is no exception, featuring absolutely phenomenal songwriting from Ryan Clark and highlighted by exceptional guest appearances from Strid, Älvestam, and Throwdown’s Dave Peters. I’ve said it after every other Demon Hunter album, and I’ll say it again here – I don’t know how Demon Hunter can get any better than this. But I still hope they prove me wrong yet again on their next album.

4. Solution .45, For Aeons Past (AFM)
Two years ago, Christian Älvestam parted ways with Scar Symmetry. This year, Älvestam has returned with a band that sounds a lot like Scar Symmetry, except that Solution .45 is even better. Utilizing some of the most subtle nuances that make huge differences, while highlighting the best parts of Älvestam’s vocals, For Aeons Past is a breathtaking album in every possible way.

5. Triptykon, Eparistera Daimones (Century Media)
Celtic what? Tom Warrior still has it, this album proves that. One of the greatest minds in metal history has once again raised the bar for every extreme and avant-garde metal band to follow in his footsteps. Combined with the essential Shatter EP as a companion piece,Eparistera Daimones is a mind-warping trip through musical ingenuity.

6. Overkill, Ironbound (eOne Music)
In my opinion, the Big Four have been getting outclassed by many of their supposedly “lesser” peers for many years now. In 2008, it was Testament. Last year, it was Kreator. This year, Overkill delivers a simply monumental thrash album that is the best of their thirty-year history. From the first notes of “The Green and Black” to the final riffs of “The SRC”, Ironbound is the purest essence of thrash quality.

7. Soilwork, The Panic Broadcast (Nuclear Blast)
What Clint Lowery is to Sevendust, Peter Wichers is to Soilwork. 2007′s Sworn to a Great Divide was a pretty good album, but The Panic Broadcast absolutely blows it out of the water. Wichers is one of the best songwriters in all of modern metal, as evidenced by this diverse album. Combined with the stunning vocal talents of Björn “Speed” Strid, Soilwork is virtually unstoppable.

8. Stigmata, Psalms of Conscious Martyrdom (M Entertainment)
Most of you probably haven’t heard of this power-prog group from Sri Lanka (not one of the many other Stigmatas out there), but they’re one of the most interesting groups I’ve discovered in recent years. Much of Stigmata’s material makes some of the biggest prog bands sound like their songs were composed on a Casio children’s keyboard. If you want to hear something fresh and exciting from the power-prog underground, then Stigmata is what you’re looking for.

9. Sevendust, Cold Day Memory (7 Bros./Asylum)
I enjoyed Sevendust’s albums with Sonny Mayo on guitar, but one listen to this album is all it took to convince me that Clint Lowery is the true brain of Sevendust, just as much as Lajon Witherspoon is the heart. Cold Day Memory is Sevendust’s best album since 2001′s stellarAnimosity, putting them back at the top of the heap of alt-metal bands that have persisted through the past decade.

10. Linkin Park, A Thousand Suns (Warner Bros.)
This isn’t exactly close to metal, but DAMN, this album is mind-blowingly good. There are more than enough detractors about Linkin Park’s sound changes, but I will stand by this album and its progressive tone. I admire risk-takers, and this album is the riskiest composition I’ve heard in a long time.

Honorable Mentions: Mnemic – Sons of the System (Nuclear Blast), Borknagar – Universal(Indie Recordings), Dommin – Love is Gone (Roadrunner), Periphery – Periphery(Sumerian), Iron Maiden – The Final Frontier (UMe), Kalmah – 12 Gauge (Spinefarm), Cradle of Filth – Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa (Nuclear Blast), Nevermore – The Obsidian Conspiracy (Century Media), Wretched – Beyond the Gate (Victory), Sabaton – Coat of Arms(Nuclear Blast)

Top 10 Metal Albums of The Year - According To METAL INSIDER