Black Territory Album Launch @ One Cafe, Jln. TAR

There's no better start to a gig than listening to the sound-check over a cup of 'milo ais'. Though the event had been running a liiittle late for the past couple of hours, when you're in Malaysia, there's only so much you can expect of punctuality, kan? But that aside, what's there to get frustrated about at a gig sprinkled with crazy bands celebrating a crazy release?

Black Territory purges out their debut album, "This is Black Territory" with hardcore style, allowing us to relish within the throngs of metal (except for the slightly disorientating disco ball spinning on the ceiling), and we are introduced, finally, to the opening act, This Sunday. Line-up including BT's manager, Wong (thanks for everything, bro :]), as guitarist, a suddenly flash of Avenged Sevenfold pounds into the crowd's ears as they hit the first song, but the combination of the two vocalists brings us back to the former sounds of The Used. When you've been sitting around to a long and exhausting wait for an event to commence, an energy booster is what you need. Both hands up, This Sunday were definitely that boost we needed, both performance-wise and of stage presence. Their music was well arranged, and performance solid. The only mishap, again a repeated fault throughout, was the sound level of the microphones, which were overshadowed by the eruption of instruments that were shooting at the crowd's adrenaline.

The next three bands roared through the hour; Dying For Autopsy, Ana Four Craig and Asthalin did the honours of warming up the fans for The Padangs, the final performance before prayer break. DFA were a large division from This Sunday, bringing us Lamb of God-like vocals, along with some mental metal riffs. However... the melodies didn't quite blend tight enough and the vocals were disjointed from the rhythm. AFC were a step up, they got the crowds moving a little more, but they themselves perhaps needed the warm up. What is with the stand ups? No metal band should be seen still for even a second, dudes, take this to the road. Asthalin gave us a full on blow to the heart, with firm vocals and music that tainted a bit with Love Me Butch. But more work on the timing of the drum rhythm would touch up flaws.

The Padangs. They peaked to as loud as the sound system could allow them. Despite the abruptly minimized sound exerting from the speakers, their performance was ace and they definitely did their reputation well to bringing the house down. A tight four-tracked set, embracing the every aspect of metal, before the crowds were given the chance to recollect breaths after the break. Moshi left me, and I was left alone (Azam was busy being a good photographe :D). But hey whatever, made new friends, which is the best part about gigs, in my opinion.

We re-enter the scene with Massacre Conspiracy who entertained us with a neatly covered tune from Cradle of Filth. Their double vocals strong, driving their solid fanbase to hysteria, they were followed swiftly by Arsonist and Daarchlea. Whilst Arsonist gave us a raw - perhaps a TOO raw - performance that lacked in the dirty, dinghy qualities of a metal band, Daarchlea smashed through with ecstatic energy and drew together a string of songs that were well arranged and moshable to the max. I left the crowd with a screwed up finger.

We are left breathless as we welcome Kids on The Move to the stage. They are derived from perhaps a much more punk sound, the vocalist even admitting that they trail away from the metal trend of the day, but they still captivated the crowd nonetheless, being one of the uprising bands in KL. However, it came up to the point when all the kids needed a real energizer, and KOTM sounded a bit monotonous towards the final song.

With ants in their pants, the crowd waited for the band prior to BT. One of Malaysia's best since 2003, Cassandra were welcomed with a quick spark of enthusiasm and they plunged down a flawless set, disallowing the slowly fading and exhausted crowd to dishearten their spirits. It's always the one risky thing of being the band before the last; people want to get their energy recharged and stay out on your performance, which was the case with Cassandra that night, unfortunately for them.

Haziq arrives in time for me to sneak him in, and the hour strikes for the hugely anticipated band of the night and Black Territory jumps onto the stage, enduring cries of impatience as they set up their instruments. And there we have it, a pitfall down to the dark sounds of metal. They played their parts in crushing grace and bringing out the roughness, but they dwelled too, on the metal clichés, giving us predictable acoustics - which sadly, the we-want-mosh crowd did not appreciate - as well as a slideshow of their journey through the music scene. Everybody give an 'aww'...

BT gifted us with amazing guitar solos, as well as the first song they'd ever written, riffs symmetrical to Avenged Sevenfold's Chapter Four. BT's vocalist did a good job in communicating with the crowd, but again, the microphones are to blame for the minimal and flawed sounds. There were points when people began dragging their feet and the minutes seemed endless... we were crusading our way towards midnight, and one could tell the knackered everybody were already thinking of home.

But the atmosphere picked up and the final song ended in a crescendo, leaving us with the breathless air of climax and swirls of Search flashbacks and Dragonforce tunes lingering in our heads. There was a feeling of satisfaction and success that leaked from One Cafe as the gig-goers poured out of the area and what had begun as a poorly delayed gig ended with the reputation of a gig to remember.

Celine needs to brush up on her mosh-stamina.