Interview with war death metal band from Malaysia - HUMILIATION.
Answered vocalist BearBee, thank you!
Recenze/review - HUMILIATION - Conflagration (2023):
Ave HUMILIATION! Greetings to Malaysia. Last year you took the battle out again with your new album "Conflagration" which took me straight to the battlefield. A year ago, I also got my hands on your previous album "Infantry" and to be honest, I didn't like it that much. But the new one is great. I feel like I'm right in the war. What has changed for you in the past year and how was the new album created?
Salam sejahtera Jakub! Greetings to you too in Czech Republic. Thanks for having interest on HUMILIATION. I am BearBee, the vocalist who will be answering all your questions regarding the band. We feel honoured to be interviewed by Deadly Storm zine. Also great to know that you have been noticing HUMILIATION since a year ago. Thanks for listening to our 2022 release “Infantry” and giving an honest feedback into the album. We also feel that something is not right with the album production, but we don’t know exactly why…… Nevertheless, quickly we realized that there are things to be done for the next release. Therefore, for the case of “Infantry”, we don’t want to spend sooo much time to figure out on the negativity,… because past is past , history will never change.. and look forward for the betterment. It is better that way, while at the same time keeping the positive energy within the band.
For the release in 2023, nothing changed much actually. The songs composition process still the same where the guitarist cracking his head putting into structure then let the drummer pound the beat. Later during recording, we provided very clear input to the sound engineer on what we want and things that to be avoided so that song mixing & mastering will follow through giving the expected result. Finally, we are now back again into the battlefield with new ‘tank’ that is called “Conflagration”…. neither we retreat nor we surrender….Frontrunner!!!
Before we get to your new record, could you please tell us how the idea of starting a band was born, who was behind its birth? Please take us through the history of HUMILIATION.
Historically, myself and Mudon (drummer) were in a band that was formed back in 1996 during our university period. At that time, we were young and do not have any serious plan for band progression.
After myself and Mudon quitted that band in 2008, we were idle. Not much to do in our free time.
Not so long in mid-2008, an urge to form a new band come to my mind. HUMILIATION is an idea from myself and Mudon (drummer). We set vision that this new band that we want to form has to be serious in making progression. Second, the music itself is mid-tempo mood. Hence we chose death metal in simple way.
Third, we chose war + military theme & concept because for us it really suite with mid-tempo of tank rolling, ammunition firing and battle scene.
In realizing the dream, we met Afe (bassist) and started talk about how to make music (of course, metal in general) in simple way, a music that is not complicated but memorable. We passionately digging back our favorite playlist consisting songs from Bolt Thrower, Asphyx, Massacre & Gorefest and many more. At the same time, we were looking for a guitarist. That time, it was quite hard to find an old school death metal oriented guitarist in the country (I mean Malaysia). Most were into full of technical stuff, brutal death, grind core influence. Lucky enough, we found out from our circle of friends, Matt (guitarist) who is really into death metal. So we sat down and focused what actually we want to do. We decided to emphasize more on mid-tempo music...a simple one but contains strong groove. After few rehearsals, we went into studio and recorded 4 songs for our first release, an EP entitled “Face The Disaster”. We feel that something is lacking with the release which is the sound is not heavy enough. This has triggered us to scout one more guitarist to make our music heavier. Also, new guitarist is able to add to the heavy sound when performing live on stage. As a results, we recruited our friend Shah (guitarist) in late 2009. Henceforth, the ‘battle’ in composing new songs and releasing full length albums are unstoppable…
When I heard last year's album "Conflagration" for the first time, I watched an old documentary about the First World War before. I can tell you that I did one thing then. I re-watched the documentary with your new album as a backdrop. Everything fit together perfectly! It's like the sound was tailor-made. Where and how did you record, who signed the mix? The production reminds me of the good old BOLT THROWER. Was that the purpose?
Oh really??? I never thought that you did watched the 1st World War documentary with “Conflagration” album as the backdrop musics…. what a good idea.
We are an independent band under an independent label from Germany. The cost and budgeting for recording, mixing and mastering are really tight. For “Conflagration” album, all processes were done in our beloved country, Malaysia. The recording for drum and vocal tracks were accomplished in a studio, outskirt of capital city Kuala Lumpur. Whereby the guitar and bass tracks were all done in a personal studio in Perak (a state northwest of Peninsular Malaysia). Since all of us have personal work and family commitments, we really pay attention to complete all recordings session as per scheduled as time is the essence. Some more, every single cent of the cost is counted. We don’t play in the studios and not a lazy person throughout the sessions …..hahaha.
When it comes to the mixing and mastering, for “Conflagration”, were done by the same person, the sound engineer that has been working with us since HUMILIATION first release back in 2009.
Never that we set the expectation for the production to be like Bolt Thrower. As explained in the above question, we just provide clear input to the sound engineer that we want slightly bright but big heavy sound. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Anyhow, so far, we really satisfied with this release.
I'm looking at the cover and wondering what kind of tank it is. Subconsciously it's telling me something, but as it's damaged, I don't know, you have to help me. Tell us who the author is and how the theme is intertwined with your music?
When it comes to new album, I always figure out what would be the concept - cover, inlay and artwork. It is so happened that the recent years and current situation worldwide, we are experiencing wars involving some countries. So, it is good to portray the situation with an image of damage tank as a remembrance for year 2023. Right from there, I threw the idea to the illustrator in order for him to draft the sketch artwork before finalizing with the actual one and finally the colouring.
It was painted by our local Malaysian talent illustrator (Arifullah Ali) an oil-based painting on a canvas screen size.
In fact, HUMILIATION frequently engaged and entrusted him to do cover artwork for lots of our releases.
Wars are crap, but it's also true that from a historical point of view they are of course very interesting. How did the lyrics for the new album come about? Do you search in archives, watch war-themed films, for example? And are the lyrics historically accurate? I remember once HAIL OF BULLETS told me that a history professor came to them after a concert and reproached them for inaccuracy in one passage. Who writes the lyrics for HUMILIATION and how?
I like your word… wars are crap.
War + military is our theme & concept since the beginning. Lots of war + military stories mingling in our mind therefore we will continuously use it as the theme & concept in our next releases and will never stop it. Some more, war + military topic is among the most interested subject for metal musics lyrically and conceptually. When the lyrics are combined with our mid tempo death metal musics, it sounds like tank rolling on the ground…submerged propeller deep in the ocean….air strikes above the land… while firing and bombing causing casualties.
Malaya (early name Malaysia before independence) was involved in Second World War. The people fight for our independent, we were in the battle against Imperial. We also have our internal wars. We have tons of war stories to tell the world about our region and we eagerly passionate to share it through our musics.
Sad but true, human desire to be in power and money always has been, is and will be a powerhouse for human destruction. I do not regret the people, but I do not want anyone to justify, but war kills innocent people.
It is truly because of money & to be in power that kill people.
As long as human is in the existence, the history of war will never perish. World is all about good and evil. Always be ready to “Face The Disaster”.
All HUMILIATION lyrics is by me. I dive into historical readings and digesting all the relevant information before finalizing any lyrics and connecting the dots for an album stroryline. By doing this, I may avoid any misinterpretation of historical facts. For “Conflagration”, it started with one figure who is Sergeant Hassan Osman. From there on, the lyrics and concept grew.
What about you and concerts? Do you perform a lot and do you like it? And do you prefer bigger festivals or small clubs? What is the scene like in Malaysia in general? I know you have a very strong scene in terms of brutal death metal, slam and stuff like that, but I don't know many old school death metal bands from you. How do you feel about your bands?
We really really love live performance. This is where we are able to deliver our energy to the crowd and satisfy them in enjoying our musics.
Since 2009 until 2019, HUMILIATION performed a lot whether locally in Malaysia or abroad. We are not selective in choosing the venues. Whether it is a big festival or small club, we have done all sorts of venues. To date, we have been performing (and touring) in countries like Singapore, Thailand, Japan, European tours (Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Austria, Denmark, Netherland, Switzerland).
Due to COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it really impacted us for going abroad. Since then until now, we have yet to go abroad.
Malaysia metal scene began in mid 80's. The bands that are formed in the early era are such as Black Fire and Rator. The scene is getting bigger and bigger. We have lots of bands pop-up in late 80's and early 90's. Sil Khannaz, Brain Dead, Silent Death, Suffercation, Senseless are among the big death metal bands from that era. We still have other genres as well such as Infectious Maggot, Negation, Social Infection for grind core/industrial; Nebiras, Aradia for black metal; FTG, Tandus for thrash metal and Modar for doom metal. In end 90's, authority had spreaded the propaganda that all extreme musics are related to satan worshipping activities. As a results, authority did not approve permission for local gig and to make it worse, few metalshops in Kuala Lumpur also got raided. They confiscated all stuffs that has pentagram & inverted cross symbol especially metal band stuffs. Then the scene almost hibernated for some years. The scene started to burst again when Napalm Death played in Kuala Lumpur back in year 2001. After that, lots of extreme metal bands such as Kreator, Destruction, Death Angel, DRI, Hate Eternal, Lock Up, Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Warbringer, Municipal Waste and many more are able to showed up in Malaysia . But hardly on black metal bands, because the authority is closely observing the underground movement that involves black metal. Nowadays, there are lots of new bands and they are good in making music. We are proud of them and these new bands has making the scene keep its’ existence.
I guess you could say Malaysia is the promised land of metal for me. How do you explain that? The environment, the history? For example, we don't have many death metal bands in the Czech Republic. It's more grindcore here.
For a small country, it is not that big and not that small. We are quite a small country compared to Thailand or Indonesia, for selected gigs, we can have up to 500 people in one venue, which is very good. I would say sometime if there are commercial rock and metal bands come over to Malaysia, roughly about 2000 people may attend the show which is not that less or not that many.
Also, here we can see lots of younger generation are into metalcore but they are in separate movement. Metal show that includes metalcore bands may not be a good idea here. It is difficult to work together and it is a fact.
One thing for sure, whatever happens to the scene, HUMILIATION will continue and remain active and productive.
"Conflagration" is about war. In modern history, Malaysia went through a war with Japan in 1941. The war must have drained your country terribly. Do you still feel the references from history in society now? Again, we had socialism for many years and at some points, what we experienced still comes back in different forms. Was or is the Malayan war also a theme in your music?
Yes. Of course Malayan war is in our lyrical and album concept. Local war history is part of our life. Anyhow, especially in the millennium era, there are not much impact of past wars to the society. Since now is the world of modern technology and internet, people are being kept themselves busy with individual life. They’re less bothering about the past. So, we are surfacing it up and documenting those stories particularly about war that has happened in our country and regional areas in our way through lyrics and musics. People may not notice us but we don’t give a fuck since we do this for the sake of passion in death metal music and war + military history.
Years ago, metal music was strictly prohibited by the government but as its slowly becomes acceptable by the society, government starts to give some space on it. But that doesn‘t mean they support it at all. Public service broadcasters do play some metal music on the radio but with some limitations, it is very very rare for a death metal song to get airplay in the radio or television.
You play war death metal, for me personally it's one of my favourite types of this style. I think you'll agree with me that the founding fathers were once BOLT THROWER. Then came HAIL OF BULLETS, more recently DECAYING, MEMORIAM, DEATH KOMMANDER, JUST BEFORE DAWN, SCALPTURE. War themes are often dealt with in VADER. Why do you think that war is so interesting for death metallers? How would you even define what an honest war death metal should have in it?
I tend to agree with you on this. Those bands are in the ‘battleground’.
War has it all… aggression, greed, power, domination, evil, and darkness. For that, I think it suites with metal musics in general. For death metal in specific, there is an additional element that binds war with death metal which is the ‘death’ itself. In warfare, either you loose or you win….either you die or continue to survive with your life. In short, it tells you to have high spirit…keep going and strong!
Becoming a death metaller, going to live show is like going to battlefield with end in mind is to ‘win’ the battle…and the way to ‘win’ a battle is winning through head banging together with others as a team…as a regiment, battalion or platoon….then you can be “From Strength To Strength”.
As a band, when we are going into the battlefield, our songs are the ‘bullet’, be ready to be shot by us….hahaha.
HUMILIATION are definitely planning some concerts, events for fans. What about the tour for the new album? Please tell us what's new in your camp and what will follow in the near future?
The last time that we had been on the road was in 2019. COVID-19 pandemic had badly changed our plan for touring. Now, we are planning for shows. We can’t say much yet since the discussion is still on going. But for sure, there is going to be shows and concert this year 2024.
In late December 2023, we just announced our new member, Farhan (guitarist) who replaced Asraf. The unit is intact, full of tactic and strategies. Just wait for us to unleash new ‘bullet’ in the near future because we are a military death metal band.
I think you definitely won the war this year with your new album. I listen to it very often indeed. I downright enjoy your music. Thank you so much for that! And thank you for the interview. I'll look forward to the next battlefield and wish you well in private!
Thanks so much Jakub! Appreciate it much! It is an honour when you awarded us to ‘win’ the war with our new/latest album “Conflagration”.
Again, thanks for the interview DEADLY STORM ZINE and thanks for supporting us, HUMILIATION.
Till then, grind on! …in military death metal way.
Recenze/review - HUMILIATION - Conflagration (2023):
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