A few days ago finally the CD of Megadeth’s Th1rt3en arrived at my door. I know it’s a bit too late since the album is already released since November 2011, but not in Indonesia, it’s freaking hard to find this album in the city I am currently living in. So, I excitedly opened the packaging, took a quick look at the booklet, and started cranking the CD. After shuffling it for a few times I can write what I think now. So here it goes….

What I Like
The first track (Sudden Death) is a perfect song to open this album with it’s groove, heavy riffs, and insane guitar solos. The recording quality is also a plus, it’s very clear without sounding harsh or muddy, not to mention Dave’s and Chris’ amazing guitar sound. My favorite tracks are Sudden Death, Wrecker, Public Enemy No. 1, and Never Dead.

What I Hate
Some tracks are just… boring. We the People, 13, Guns, Drugs & Money are my least favorite tracks from this album. Also I don’t really like Chris’ (or Dave’s) guitar solos in most tracks. Yeah it is shredding and technical, but it sounds a too predictable to me. I really miss the solo like Marty Friedman did in Tornado of Souls from Rust in Peace album.

So…
I am not a die-hard Megadeth fans, but I think the album is worth buying. Compared to their previous album like United Abominations (2007) and Endgame (2009), Th1rt3en is still the best. Th1rt3en is not that awesome, but it’s still a good album.

I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel, it’s my cover to the solo part of the song Enter Sandman by Metallica. Check it out, feedbacks are welcome

It’s a… thrash metal band!! Well… maybe it’s not that great, but it’s just… really exciting for me. I’ve been listening to thrash metal for years but unfortunately It was hard for me to find other musicians around my age with similiar taste, influences, and dreams. And now let me introduce them.

Starting from the drummer, he was the first musician I met when I started living in college. It’s all started on an internet forum, when I saw his post that saying he is looking for a band. Now, we’ve been playing together for a few months and I feel suitable with him. We share the same goal and dreams, we have similiar musical influence and taste, and he is also a nice guy to hang around with.

Next, the bass player, I met him in a college musicians organization. I think he has the heaviest musical influence among us. He listens to a lot of death metal bands, but also likes thrash metal, has his own gears, and he is also from my faculty, so it’s not hard for me to find him around the campus. I’ve seen his playing once and I couldn’t hide my smile. He plays the bassline of Master of Puppets just like what Cliff did. Overall, he is above my expectation, and I hope he won’t disappoint us.

I can’t imagine playing stuff like Metallica without another guitar player, so I recruited another musician to play the guitar with me. He is my senior, who is also from my faculty. I haven’t really known him tough, we have only met a few times to talk about the band. All I know is he has much more experience in music than me and I think his level of playing is above me.

Last but not the least, the singer. After meeting and having a chat with him, all I think is that I am so lucky to find him. He has wide influences and knowledge in music. He knows every band and even loves some of them that I mentioned during the first meeting. For sure I can learn many things from him. Being a singer and frontman, I realize that perhaps he is the most important personnel in the band, not only that, I think he is also the “rarest” among us, so I have a high expectation to him.

That’s all the musicians that I am going to work with, tomorrow is our first rehearsal and I can’t wait for it. Let’s hope everything won’t be disappointing, runs smoothly and fun!

So this is it, I have started my classes at the college and living on my own now. Far away from parents, siblings, friends and warmness of the home. New place to live, new people and friends, new classes, yeah of course everything is new. So far I am pretty enjoying what I do though, I decide and do everything myself, I also enjoy learning French and my college-life.

First, let’s start with the new place that I live in. Honestly I am not sure what to call it, it is basically a house, with a lot of rooms for lease, but it’s not a dorm. Well, whatever you may call it, I now have a pretty comfortable and clean room to do anything from recording a song to writing some college-tasks (and sleep of course!). Other than that, this house also has a kitchen, few bathrooms, and a TV room.

Another thing I concerned when I started living here was my band. I have to start-over everything here, especially the most difficult part: finding some good musicians who can also be a good friend. So far I’ve started an alternative rock cover band with some of my collegemate. We’ve only had one rehearsal though, covering some songs from Coldplay, Maroon 5, and Paramore. I have a pretty high expectation for them, after a few more rehearsals I hope we can start to be solid, and writing an original song in a few months. Besides them, I’m now also playing in a slamming death metal band, but I don’t really prioritize it for some reasons.

Now, about my college. Yeah as you may already know it’s called Brawijaya University, it’s arguably one of the most popular and respected university in Indonesia. One of the gate can be reached in just a few steps walking from my room/dorm/house/flat/you-name-it. Even so, I usually go to the class with my bicycle since the faculty of culture science where I study is located quite far to the center, so sometimes walking is not the best choice to be there. Acually I haven’t really got time to explore everything there, so I guess nothing really worth mentioning anymore.

Well… looks like this is the end of this post, by the way, don’t be surprised if in the next posts I will write some articles in French or about France

Knowing it is very true, that statement quite bothers me recently. As a guitar player myself and being in a band, I know a lot of musicians around me. And yes, most of them are guitar players while I find it so damn hard to find a good singer. Anyway, this large population of guitar players is not my point, in this post I just feel like writing my thoughts to be the “good” guitar players. Keep in mind that I also don’t really think myself as a good guitar player yet.

Don’t be a jerk
Yeah this is the most important point in my opinion. I know a few guitar players who have an amazing technique and good knowledge of music, but are pain in the ass to play in a band with. They have a high ego and tend to think that they (or their ideas) are always better. Generally, just appreciate and listen to your bandmates, make both of you and them happy, realize each of you and your bandmate is equally important, always show up on-time for a rehearsal or other meetings, and stay committed to the band. Well, I’m sure you get what I am trying to say.

Practice, practice, and practice
I don’t think I need to expain this, of course practicing is the primary way for us to play better and better.

Expand your influence and knowledge of music
Knowing (and even better loving) most bands/musicians in your music style is always a good thing. Usually I find vast influences equals good playing and songwriting skill. Listening to a lot of musics inspires you to many things, from “hearing” something good in your head to motivating you to be better and more better musician. It also makes you be a delightful person to talk about music with.

Learn music theory
Music theory is the language of music, although there are many famous guitar players who don’t know anything about music theory. I’m sure you have ever seen a lot of pianists who can sight-read printed music effortlessly, but have you seen a guitar player does this ? Ability in reading music and deep understanding in theory is another thing that will make you stand out from many another guitar players.

Learn another skills apart of playing guitar
Singing, lyric writing, audio engineering, other instrument, or even ability to design a good album artwork.

Friends and network
Having many friends means you can introduce or even sell your music to more people. A dull gig sometimes can also be brighten up by inviting a lot of friends.

Well, that’s all that I can think for now, maybe I’ll add the list later when something crossed my mind. Hope you find it useful

Only two weeks left for me to stay here, before I will have to move to Malang where I will continue my education to the higher degree. Besides my family, nothing feels hard for me to leave except the band where I play guitar in, HolyKillers. I wish I could spend more time together with them before my departure.

We usually rehearsed once a week for one hour, yep, that’s the most precious hour that I am talking about. Precious not because the money we have to pay to rent the studio, it’s precious because it’s pretty damn hard to get. It’s been almost a month since our last rehearsal, the other guys (and girl) seem to be too busy with other things while I am enjoying my (boring) holidays.

Anyway, in the middle of their bustle, we are still trying to finish our third song. Right now we have finished the music and the recording for most of the part,  I also have written the lyric. All we have left to do is to come up with some melodies and vocal patterns and then record it.

So, let’s hope I can do everything I want to do before I leave this town and everything in here.

I passed the admission tests and got accepted at the Brawijaya University

As I’ve written in my previous post, our drummer left the band because of some reasons. But not too long after that, our guitar player brought someone new to the band to sit on the empty drum stool and yesterday we had our second rehearsal with him.

So far, I think he is a quite good drummer. Good technique, speed, accuracy, and he also learned our songs even better than the original drummer altough sometimes there were still a few acceptable mistakes. Besides that, he has a good knowledge and influences in the style of music that we play.

I hope he feels comfortable playing with us and it looks like he is also a fun guy to hang around with. It’s just a matter of time until we really know who he is and how he can get along with the rest of the guys (and girl) in the band.

Sunday night, May 29th. HolyKillers played another gig at a local music studio in our town.

Actually it felt awkward for me to play a “gig” in a studio, not on a stage and the crowd was mingled with all of the performers. So sometimes I had to avoid a mosher who went out of control and was going to hit me or my bandmates. And yeah, I said a “mosher”, that was the first time I saw the crowd moshed and even stage-dived to our music, it felt awesome

Another thing is, that was the last time we gigged with our drummer. A week ago something bad happened between us and he decided to quit the band.

And the songs that we played that night are:

• Refusing to Die
• My Last Serenade (Killswitch Engage cover)
• Adorable Duty
• Encore (yeah, the crowd asked us to play another song): This Fire Burns (Killswitch Engage cover)

So… here are a few more photos from the gig:

Reza, our vocalist screamed his heart out hahaha…

Okka, the (other) guitar player (beside me)

Yeah, it’s me

Nabela, our bass player who recently called herself a fairy

Remy, the drummer. Goodbye bro, we’ll miss you

Second, HolyKillers’ gig on Sunday, May 29th. It’s supposed to be a good news, but it’s not. We’ve just lost our drummer and we haven’t found the replacement yet. And that’s not the only problem, I just broke my guitar strings and I don’t have enough money to afford a new one. Also, gigging means I’ll lose pretty much time that I should have used for studying.

Third, Well… um… this is about a girl. I really want to tell you about this, but…. I know I shouldn’t.