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LOCAL FEATURE by Ernie Thomas click on link to view
Take a slab of thick
‘n’ chunky modern metal, add a little hip-hop groove, and top it off
with smooth and sassy female R&B vocals (think Beyoncé Knowles of
Destiny’s Child meets Metallica) and you’ve got an idea of the
unique sound Cleveland, Ohio’s BiastFear
has created.
It only took only one
spin of their 12-song/13-track CD ––
All Angels Scream –– to know this band had something unique
to offer to the metal scene.
Without a doubt one of
the most unusual and ground-breaking bands to emerge, BiastFear is just
what’s needed to shake up what’s sadly become a cookie-cutter
assembly line of heavy music.
The mystery here is why some enterprising A&R record person
has not thrown rose petals at their feet and a major label contract on
the table. If there was
ever a break-out band waiting to happen, it’s BiastFear.
While not to downplay
the power of the band –– Rob
Schultz (bass), Skitch Breda
(drums) and Ormi (guitar)
–– it is the sensual singing and rapping of an ebony angel named Crystal Moore that sets this outfit far ahead of the pack.
Their roots date back
to 1997 when childhood friends Schultz and Breda teamed up with dual
guitarists Ormi and T.J. Banks
in a thrash metal outfit which recycled Sepultura-style riffs. “We realized there was life after
‘devil-horns-in-the-air’ heavy metal,” recalled Schultz of why the
band began experimenting with their sound to the chagrin of Banks, who
unwilling to grow artistically was ousted.
“I wasn’t sure what I was looking for,” recalled Moore.
“I just knew I was getting tired of the (straight) R&B
scene and wanted to try something heavier.
I just wasn’t into love songs and that’s what R&B calls
for. I wanted to be
angrier.”
“When we first
decided to look for an R&B singer, I was a little worried,”
recalled Schultz. “I know
fans of heavy music can be very resistant to changes in the
‘formula’, and once they turn their backs on you, it’s over.”
“From the moment we auditioned Crystal we knew she was
perfect,” added Ormi. “Not
only does she have an amazing voice, she’s incredibly beautiful.
Image is important, even in heavy music.”
Moore dared to enter the world of heavy metal in mid-1999 and has
never looked back. By
mid-2000, they were laying down tracks for All
Angels Scream with platinum-selling producer, Andy Patalan (Sponge)
Making that CD was
adventurous. “(Crystal)
had never sang rock and we’d never played anything that could even
remotely be considered R&B,” Ormi mused.
“We do you start?”
“I’d never even been to rock concert before joining this
band,” added Moore. “(Our
first show) I walked into the club that first night and saw some of the
freakiest white kids I’d ever seen.
I was sure they were going to hate me.”
She found out otherwise just moments into their first public
performance and things have only gotten better since.
The group collaborates
in writing their material, which contains lyrical content of substance
and is smartly arranged to take the best possible advantage of their
deep-rooted dual styles (R&B and metal).
While one is hard-pressed to find an uninspired cut on All
Angels Scream, exceptional moments are the disturbing title
track, the audio self-portrait “Take
A Look At Me,” and the very radio-ready “In
Throughout,” which both opens and closes the disc.
Also of note is ––
“A Public Denouncement”
–– their rebuttal on to claims from white-collar America that music
and the arts should be held accountable for today’s youth violence.
The career gamble paid off on the local Cleveland music front, so
the self-funded and self-managed band is now trying to slowly conquer
other markets, which is what brings them to Chicago’s South Side this
month. BiastFear perform at J.J. Kelley’s on June 29.by
Ernie Thomas
For those who like
their music heavy, sweaty and in your
face loud –– Mas Kaos
–– is the band to see. With
his shaven-head, black clothes and massive frame blocking out the stage
lights, frontman/vocalist Bubba
cuts an ominous figure on stage, but he rarely stays there for long.
For most of a typical
Mas Kaos set, Bubba’s imposing and hulking frame is seen cavorting on
the dance floor or wandering out among the audience inticing some
feedback and occasionally inciting a mosh pit.
“We wanted something to really reflect the aggressive music we
play,” he said of the band’s name, which means “much chaos.”
“We didn’t want people to come thinking we were a classic
rock band or a pop band.” There
seems little chance of that mistake being made...
The name signifies not only their sound, but the band’s history
as well. Though just over a year old, Mas Kaos has endured many
membership changes. Bubba and rhythm guitarist
Robert “Spider” Burns are all that remain from the original
line-up. Bassist
Derek Ferguson has been on board eight months. Drummer Joe Hudson
has been with the Kaos Krew only a since the holidays. The latest personnel change came in February, just one day after Mas Kaos took top honors in the first preliminary round of a $1,000 battle of the bands at Griffith’s Backdoor Lounge.
Bubba proudly recalls a four-week run with the death metal band, Phlegm
Casserole. “That was
the band I formed in 1991, when I was in the Army,” he said. “We played one gig on base and got thrown out after like
three songs.”
With that exception, Mas Kaos is Bubba’s first time in a formal
group. “After Phlegm and before Mas Kaos,” he laughs, “I
was a self-proclaimed karaoke legend in local N.W. Indiana clubs.”
Boasting four hours worth of cover tunes by the likes of
Disturbed, Marilyn Manson, Godsmack, Drowning Pool and Metallica,
creating original music will be the primary focus of the band now that
Sisco has joined their ranks.
“I’ve got words to
about a dozen songs written and now we’ll start working on the
music,” said Bubba, adding that plans are for the band to dedicate two
days a week to writing their own songs.
“Derek’s schooled in funk-style bass, so we’re looking to
develop a sort of Primus kind of bass line groove, but with crunchy
guitar over it. Sort of
like Primus meets Disturbed and Pantera,” he concluded, “with Linkin
Park dual vocal stuff going on.”
Optimistic the current line-up will stay together, Bubba predicts
Mas Kaos tunes being slipped into shows by spring and hopes to see a
local CD completed by early fall.
MAS KAOS perform at Bookies on June 8
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