BANNBODO – 1313 CD-R

Bannbodo
1313 CD-R
(self-release)

About a year ago a friend of mine, desperate to form a new band after relocating to KL from Penang, was going to try out and play guitar for “Band Bodoh”.

At that point I didn’t know of any band by that ridiculous name, or even why anyone would want to call his band as such! However, I like the self-deprecative slant.

A few weeks later the friend told me he’s not gonna be fitting well in the band. “Those guys ah, they play metal!,” he said, extremely exasperated. Y’see, he’s into shoe-gazing mid-80s indie with droning wall-of-sound guitars (think early Ride & My Bloody Valentine) and being in a metal band would be terribly unfortunate. Yup, he was desperate but not that desperate!

Anyway, it’s “Bannbodo” actually, but I guess the meaning’s the same and they have been playing round KL for a while now, especially round Giggers and such. I’ve been seeing the name in some flyers but never had the chance to listen or check them out.

This CD-R here is a recording passed to me by one of the band members a few days ago. There are three tracks here, very well recorded and produced, with the right density and the right playing, excellent drumming (maybe a drum machine?) and strong tough-guy vocals that fits to the muscly “jock” mould like a glove.

Pretty much a perfect gift for anyone who’s into the early 90s American bicep-flex bands such as Pantera or Machine Head, but unlike say Shock System who would add in some rap-rock and nu-metal bits, Bannbodo stays true to the aforementioned path with some Killswitch Engage slant and also bits of Slayer-ism.

Not my cup of tea, but I never liked Pantera anyway – for me it’s just a metal-ised copy of Henry Rollins in a 90s flashy, widdly-guitar-solos macho-metal mode. I remember Aru (Koffin Kanser) trying to get me into Machine Head and also Deftones in the mid-90s and I just couldn’t go through their albums without feeling nauseous.

However the first two songs here – I’m Your Enemy & Incoming (People of Palestine) – rip like they should and I’m sure Aru would dig these guys. Both very good stompers, that is if you like that sort of metal, but the third song (Stupid Plague) killed the mood a bit – it features some of that “emo” meets metal thing (like that pretty-boy “Metallica-gone-emo” band Trivium), where there are sickly crooning soft parts embedded inbetween the rough riffage.

Enquiries: email Bannbodo | Boi – 0163847929

Website: myspace.com/bannbodo

note: the CD-R will be selling at the Ricecooker Shop very soon!