DEADHEAD FANZINE / AFTERLIFE Productions
This is the 1st intie planned for the third issue of Putrefactive Effect and it was done maybe a year ago. Looking back to my questions, I find them lacking of deepness but as you can read, Wan is a talkative guy and a totally dedicated underground maniac! So dear Putrefactive readers, here’s a lesson in Metal by Afterlife Productions owner from Mal(HELL)sia.
1-Infernal greetings to you Wan Syamsul! How are you, dweller of the hellish Malaysia? I reached you the old way by snail mail to have a chat about your activities so let’s start! How was procreated Afterlife Productions, can you give a brief overview of your label history?
Hello Jim at Putrefactive Effect zine! Thanks for your cool letter and interview. I’m doing fine over here, hope things are the same on the French soil… My small underground label Afterlife Productions actually started in the year 2002 and my first release is SABBAT “Bloody Countess” tape. My intention to create a label is to support the underground scene with high spirit like it was meant to be in the glorious 80’s great scene! I am also the editor of Deadhead Fanzine before I already start this label. So, behind each gap to release a new issue I can release any Metal bands that I like. Besides that, receiving mails constantly from all over the world is kinda cool thing!!! Deadhead Fanzine is very thick and totally die-hard basement publication, so it took like 1-2 years to release each issue. With this label I can fill the gap and keep on busy with the contacts from the underground which is great to me!! I’m happy that people who used to read my fanzine before also become a supporter to my label. They sense my high spirit to support the underground scene! It’s only for passion and interest!!!... Frankly speaking, the idea to make this label already came across in my mind since the year 2000. To make things clear, I once asked Gezol (SABBAT frontman) that I wanna join their 7’’ Harmageddon series (to release a Malay Harmageddon 7’’) but at that time Gezol were too busy with SABBAT schedules (new recording and tours), so they can’t afford to do it for me, and my label’s plan was to keep on hold. Around the year 2001 after some discussion with Gezol (keep in touch with him), he finally gave a precious opportunity to me to release their deleted “Bloody Countess” release, it’s actually an old SABBAT demo (really rare), which is actually been released in vinyl format in the 90’s by American label Holycaust Recs. limited to 100 copies only, and long-time sold out because of that small quantity! I must say not so many Metalheads got hold of that rare item! So, Gezol (vocalist of SABBAT) proposed me to re-release it with permission from Holycaust Recs. I am also contact that label to get green light from them! This “Bloody Countess” re-release under my label is also a special one because it’s the first time it got pressed on a professional cassette format (but the front cover still remain the same to protect the originality of it), and old live tracks were added as bonus! This “Bloody Countess” tape that I released has sold out within 1 year. But these days I got back my first intention of my label that’s to release SABBAT 7’’ vinyl. I am happy because it’s a long wait for me. I will release a Malay Demonslaught 7’’ this year (their Harmageddon series have ended, but continue with Demonslaught series). Watch out for it!
2-How do you become a metalhead? What were the first releases that turn you on? Do you (or did you) play in a band? Wasn’t it too hard listening to metal in your country? I used to believe that the religion of Malaysia is mostly muslim?
It was long, long time ago actually. Let’s go into the time capsule and see what happens… I think it was the year 1986 or 1987 that I first got listen to Metal. I’m still schooling back then. Everything was so cool and happening that time because around my area (I lived in my hometown in the southern of my country back then) no one listened to heavy music except Rock and Ballad bands that sing love songs! Their image is sissy and their music is sucks!!! That’s the reason a Metaller like me hates Glam Rockers a lot!!! I never attracted with those stuffs, so I picked up bands with evil and nasty tape covers like IRON MAIDEN, METALLICA, SLAYER, KREATOR, VENOM, etc… in the records shop. In the late 80’s I don’t see any CDs at shops, so when I say records shop, it’s a real meaning of it (records = vinyl) so, no CDs selling… I was a kinda a rebellious kid who always hot about Metal, so with my collected pocket money (save each month) I bought a lot of cassettes by mentioned bands. And that time of course school kids don’t have much money to buy vinyls. So, I only can afford to buy cassettes. That’s why until today I still feel that cassette has a magic touch and the sound is totally great, the second after vinyl sound quality of course. Cassettes are very nostalgic thing to me! During my high school days (in early 90’s) I started to buy a lot of goodies like t-shirts, magazines, posters, videos, etc. and I started to know the other Metalheads at school after noticed their drawings on bags and perhaps school books! We share all our cassettes after school! And I am the one who mostly bring new band to give my friends a listen and day dream that one day we could all meet our Metal gods, haha!! And whenever there was a school holiday, I travelled to Kuala Lumpur (our capital city) because over there I could buy a lot of stuffs and merchandise. From this you can understand how important Metal music in my life as I grew up my childhood years with it… I don’t play in any band because I don’t know how to handle music instrument (however I am trying to learn to play guitar now, hehe). So I only can become a faithful Metalhead with my label and fanzine with me as devotion to the underground Metal scene! Yes you’re correct the biggest religion in Malaysia is Islam. We have two other big races in this country that are Chinese and Indian because they came to my country eons ago as merchants, for example Chinese came to Malaysia to bring silks, jewelry, poultry, etc. and Indian came here with spices, sari, jewelry, etc. So, that’s how it all started!
3-Here are some of your productions in tape only: SABBAT, NEGATOR, METAL INQUISITOR and GOAT PENIS. Can you comment each production and what we can expect from each of them? You seem to be a die hard fan of the tape format. Never been interested in other format like LP, EP or CD? What are your next releases?
Great Jim, you seem to follow all the releases of my label. I am really glad about this! Let me give the details one by one. The first band release under my label like I told you earlier is SABBAT. Well, as everybody knows SABBAT is an old black metal legend from Japan and perhaps the oldest underground band ever existing from the Rising Sun country! Gezol is 40 years old this year but his spirit is still diehard and maniac!!! At the moment SABBAT got 2 cassette releases under my label that are “Bloody Countess” (sold out) – released in December 2002 and “Sabbatical Rites” – released in February 2004… METAL INQUISITOR is well-known band from the infamous Hellbangers Moselfranken Fanclub in Germany. People who long for Heavy Metal must know this band!!! This is the second band that I release their stuff under the banner of Afterlife Productions. Their “Commencement” cassette (sold out) got unleashed in August 2003… The third band that’s NEGATRON is Philippines’s best hope for Thrash Metal, they were called EFFLUVIUM before. As you notice their band name it’s clear that they honoured the Canadian space-Thrashers VOIVOD!! Their riffs are always headbanging, haunting and full of variation and it’s an 80’s feeling!!! I released their “Thermal Shock” cassette in January 2005… Then come to the fourth release of my label, GOATPENIS is a barbarian Black Metal band from Brazil! The recent band that I release their material at the moment I answer this interview. They’re still obscure and totally underground band! Not many posers know about this band if you compare to those bigger bands, but in real thing GOATPENIS are already formed since the late 80’s, but they never become big or went commercial! I help them to release their old material onto a cassette entitled “Atomic Rituals” which was out in July 2005. I promote all my releases through flyers, just like the ancient underground way! All the deals with bands for every release is totally underground which means I don’t send them contract to sign! It’s more like a friend deal, but with each other’s trust… Yes, I am a diehard cassette collector and I have thousands of them in my house. Hehe. That’s the reason I like to release cassette, but in very good condition and professional format (to honor the bands and underground)! My label’s releases are not only in cassette format but soon I will release 7” vinyl too. I answered already in previous question I think… Metalheads out there please contact me for my releases because some of them will gonna be out-of-print soon and I am surely not gonna to re-press it as it’s a limited edition release!!! Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. Each cassette cost only 5 dollar/euro, except SABBAT cassette (lengthy tape) that’s 6 dollar/euro. All prices are airmail postage included…
4-Your productions (limited to 500 copies each!) offer good quality pro tapes with nice packaging with fully informative booklets. Are you alone investing in those productions and do you earn money by running your label?
This label is run by myself alone. The financial cost, inlay design, arrangement and distribution are handled by myself! I only need help from my friend to transfer my design to the computer because I am not a computer expert and only know to use it a little. He is some sort like a computer designer of my label! But, you can see that every design, words, arrangement in the booklet is directly came from my brain, so you can feel the underground touch and totally non-commercial style on it!!! And I will always do that for my label…Honestly, I don’t earn money from my releases, only a little because these days I often do trades, trades and trades. The little money I got will be kept for the next releases (that later on I have to add it with my own money to the cost). I have a steady job for a long time, so this can support the financial side of my label. I don’t do this label for profit nor for name! Here nobody knows that I am running a label because I have to keep it low-profile, just for underground only, so only a handful of underground Metalheads know about its existence!!!
5-How is Afterlife productions perceived in Malaysia and more widely in the world? What are the most serious contacts you have (labels, distros & zines)? Where does your stuff sell/ get traded mostly?
The response in Malaysia is just fair to me. It’s really different from 2-3 years ago when many people still have faith in underground stuffs. These days many local Metalheads don’t buy stuffs through mailorders, only they buy at shops (or Internet) because most people don’t have interest anymore to write letters like we do. For the worldwide response it’s ok for me. It’s cool to receive contacts, trades, orders and friendship from all over the world. I am exactly happy for that! The only un-cool thing is the expensive stamps I have to pay for postage because they always kill! (I can but agree! Argh!!! – Jim) Imagine I have to pay around US$150 each month for all the packages I send to overseas. That’s a big amount of money for a small label like me, hahaha!!! But I used to be normal of that situation for years now. Things are out of hands sometime especially if I got so many letters and packages. That’s the reason I took some time to reply because it’s too hectic! I only can settle everything at night (I only sleep a little) or in the weekends because I have full-time job daily in the weekdays… I don’t have any other serious labels who cooperate with me because I still think that every label do their part with me especially the trades and wholesales. I must say that I am much familiar with underground labels and distro from Europe as they’re very fast and reliable.
6-How a band can get your favours and being released by Afterlife Productions? Checking your whole releases we can see black/thrash, thrash, heavy or black metal. Hey man, what about death metal?
Any bands can be my favors if I like them. I don’t care what style except those commercial music I dislike a lot such as Nu Metal, Rap, Gothic, Mtv shit, melodic and so on!!! I am mostly deal with underground bands because it’s easy to work with them and very supportive! Death Metal also in the genre I like most (I worshipped POSSESSED, DEATH, SLAUGHTER, MASSACRE, etc) and sure soon there will be a good Death Metal band release their material through Afterlife Productions. Time will tell…
7-I am fucking fed up by your postal services! I used to trade tapes with Rosmalie from API fanzine but my latest packages never reached him; and sending registered stuff in Malaysia is awfully expensive and takes time to arrive! Can you give me an explanation about this? Metalheads used to work at postal services and stole all the shit they can, ah, ah!?
Actually I have experienced this fucked up problem since the 90’s. So, I am quite immune of it! It’s sometime depending on luck, because I did receive a package with inverted cross drawing but it never inspected by local customs. Can you believe that? Haha it’s real! I never feared my stuffs got stolen because I have faith that tells to not worry about this shit! Sure I have lost many packages that contain rare stuffs and precious items that I trade or order myself! But, I still keep on doing mails every month!!! From my experiences, I don’t have any problem to send out the mails to overseas (because my mails will be checked by foreign customs in the country I sent it), but the trouble is happened when people overseas send their mails to Malaysia. It will go through our local custom check and if they suspect something like drugs, pornography, violence music like Metal, they will hold your packages! They send a warning letter to the recipient (like me) stating that this item got hold in the custom office!!! I f that ever happen I cannot take it from them because they (customs) will ask me so many things (like I’m smuggling drugs!!!) and at the end I will gonna be fined for the stuffs! It’s ridiculous because we have to pay for example US$50 fine, for the stuff that merely cost US$15. So, what the heck I have to go through this shit? That’s the reason I never claimed any stuff at custom office because I gonna get more trouble… Well, the cost for registered letter to overseas from here also expensive too, very much higher than 2 years ago since the petrol price has increased lately and it did effected the whole system in Malaysia too, including the post and living cost! My advice for foreigners to send packages to my country is please packing your mail in very official look, clarify it as “gift” with low cost amount, and don’t ever write any Satanic/Evil symbols on the envelop!!! Our local customs are not open-minded enough! Funny thing is, every year I did receive some porno mags/pictures, hemp leaf, Satanic band/zine front cover from my friend overseas… So, it’s clear that it depends on luck actually. Or maybe the gods of Metal help me. Hahaha… I could tell you that postal services in South America is much more nightmare and risky, especially Colombia, Peru, Chile and Brazil! If you always deal with Metalheads from mentioned countries you will know what I mean!
8-How was the life after the Tsunami? It reaches Indonesia, Philippines and also Malaysia. Does it have an incidence around you and your activities? It focuses media for months on this part of the earth. What’s your view on this? Don’t you feel medias only seek for sensational shit and don’t really care about the disaster effect?
Actually the death waves Tsunami didn’t hit my area (fortunately I live at the center of mainland) only affected some near-beach parts in the northern Malaysia (the nearest one to Aceh). People described it as the sign of Doom’s Day to come because that tragedy caused millions of damage and death! Yes, the newspapers and magazines took advantage to sell their stories and sometime “rumors” about this tragedy. It happened here daily on that time. Luckily I don’t have friends who got hit by the Tsunami waves, but some weeks ago the earthquake in Yogjakarta, Indonesia caused my friend’s house a misfortune!!! Unlike Indonesia and Japan in Asia, our country is not standing on the earthquake ring, so we are basically on a safe side, hahaha!!!
9-Do you also know Ultra Hingax Productions from Kuala Lumpur? I know they released some NECROTIC CHAOS stuff. You surely know this black/death horde. Can you give us an overview of the bands which really worth to be mentioned. Let’s talk about SILENT DEATH (great death metal!), ATHORTOGH, MANTAK, HERRIOT, MANDATORY…
Yes, I know the owner of UHP since we’re both based on the same city (Kuala Lumpur), this guy is very veteran in our underground scene. He released a zine called Krenmaut Fanzine many years ago. His work for the label is different from mine because all his releases are distributed nationwide by big distributors, so anyone can buy UHP releases in local record shops…SILENT DEATH is old Death Metal band with Thrash oriented! Back in the late 80’s they were called BACTERIA. Their first stuff “Before The Sunrise” is totally classic! I think they’re no more these days. Some members of this band continued their musical battle with another band called BREAK THE SILENCE, but sadly this band is also no more too! I don’t know what caused them, but mainly from what I see is the line-up problem, drugs problem, and family problem, hahaha. ATHORTOGH is sleeping band because I don’t see them perform or release anything (shitty and lazy attitude), but they never officially said they have defunct their band. MANTAK is a new hope for Malaysia, but this band is from East Malaysia (an island called Borneo, famous of “Orang Utan” monkey), so their belief, culture, dialect is somewhat different from the mainland where I live now. MANTAK got an offer from Drakkar to release their new album, but previously Legion Of Death already released their 7”EP. Their music is totally different now from what they played in their demo days. HERRIOT is an IN FLAMES clone band, and because of this I think they’re no more. Their line-up is not into underground scene, and can be described as trendy Metalhead these days! MANDATORY also share the same recognition like HERRIOT. Basically I don’t care about them anymore!!! You must check out more promising bands from Malaysia like ANTACID (great thrashing band!!!), ENVENOM (Blasphemy-worship band!!), DEMONICAL CRISIS ASSEMBLY (really War METAL band!!!) and few others. Our scene is small these days so if you ask any underground Metalheads in Malaysia they should know these bands… And I have to add if anyone wants to know what band that started and brought Metal music to my country it’s certainly 5-piece band called BLACKFIRE!!! If they ever released an album back then, sure it stands with the same cult status like many Thrash Metal gods nowadays since BLACK FIRE’s birth was in 1982 and played sort of VENOM, BLACK SABBATH and Heavy Metal oriented music! In 1988 they made a controversy that shocked the whole Malaysians, by drinking blood during performance on stage in front of thousands fan in National Stadium! This story was so hot in newspapers back then and they’ve been called as Evil band!!! But anyway that blood is actually fake one! After BLACK FIRE, our scene started to have many bands with this kind of extreme Metal like PUNISHER, SLAP DEATH, NEMESIS, SIL-KHANNAZ (they got their name from one BLACKFIRE song), RATOR, PICAGARI (Malaysian SODOM!), SUFFERCATION, SILENT DEATH, SAXO, etc. But most of these names only active gigging (except few of them), and no official release ever came out, until the year 1989our first local band to release a demo is RATOR with their “Evil Symphony” demo!!! It has been said that even Holocausto of BEHERIT also mentioned RATOR as one of their inspiration in some interviews back in the day. How great is that, huh? Unfortunately RATOR didn’t manage to release any album and finally broke up in 1993… Anyway, to tell you a surprising new, after more than 20 years, BLACK FIRE recently released their first album on 06/06/06 entilted “Lahirnya Dari Api” (a birth from fire) released under Nebiula Productions (SIL-KHANNAZ own label) but only with 2 original members remained as line-up, the rest are new guys! This release is truly important for all Malaysian Metalheads, as our forefathers have released an album finally!!! It’s certainly a fucking long wait for all of us!!!
10-What’s your opinion on still playing acts like KREATOR, DESTRUCTION, SLAYER and their latest releases? Some deceptions? Some great gigs? Are you more into US Thrash Metal (bay area) or do you bang your skull on European one?
Honestly I don’t buy the new albums from bands you mentioned. It’s enough for me because their music has changed, and it’s not my cup of tea anymore!!! I dislike the shitty re-union by old bands especially if their attitude, look, music style are changed! Let’s their cult status is kept well, not ruin it by releasing new Gay album with decent “digital” sound productions… I don’t feel the same excitement when the time I first heard outstanding releases like “Pleasure To Kill”, “Sentence Of Death” and “Hell Awaits” many many years ago! Nothing can beat those albums’ sheer power!!! Yes I am only talking about what I find it interesting and can make my head banging and my hands do air-guitar whenever I hear music. I am very skeptic that those old men will ever release good album again like in the 80’s!!! Yes, I saw KREATOR last year (September 2005) when they played in my city. But I only can enjoy their old tracks, but when they played tracks from “Renewal” album up to the latest one, I am absolutely don’t know the lyrics. Call me old-schooler because I am definitively worshipping the glorious albums released in the 80’s!!! Actually I’m into everything that’s hard and heavy… Yes, I do like the 80’s Bay Area Thrash scene in Frisco and USA in general (old METALLICA, SADUS, MEGADETH, EXODUS, VIO-LENCE, HIRAX, SLAYER, etc), well since you talk about the Bay Area scene, most of the bands got stucked with a typical sound that originally formulated by METALLICA, MEGADETH and EXODUS, only POSSESSED that I think sounds different from those Frisco bands. Also the violent 80’s German Thrash scene that gave big impact to me (KREATOR, SODOM, LIVING DEATH, DESTRUCTION, ASSASSIN, DARKNESS, POISON, etc). And the 80’s South American brutal Thrash scene (SEPULTURA, PENTAGRAM, VULCANO, HADEZ, SARCOFAGO, CHAKAL, etc)… If you ask me about European bands sure I know many big names but I’m much into the obscure 80’s Thrash/Heavy Metal scene from the East Europe (former communist countries) with bands like MERCILESS DEATH, KAT, SLAUGHTER (Poland), POKOLGEP, OSSIAN, MOBY DICK, PANDORA’S BOX (Hungary), METALLA KORROZIA, ARIJA (Russia)…
11-How do you see the evolution of metal (since you started listen to it) until these days with nu-metal crap, hyper technical brutal death, modern thrash, melodic goth/gay metal… What does Malaysian youth listen today? Which trends would you like to see disappearing?
Honestly I would like to see all the trends disappear from this rotten planet earth. So, only real Metal can survive and people will be more “educated” when it comes to underground music! No mtv shit!!! Yes, Metal has evaluated so many times, there are many sub-genres these days (all of them are mixed with 2-3 different styles), and I don’t know what style of Metal will appear next!!! I don’t know what’s up with the mind of today’s youth in my country because I never cared about them! But I think any popular music in mtv and channel V is what popular for teenagers. Also the mp3, ipod, cell phone ring tones, etc are the latest world’s trend. So, I just don’t give a damn.
12-What do you know from our fucking country (zines, bands, radioshows, labels…)? I am sure you know some really underground stuff & that you are looking for some. Do you trade with some people from France? What releases are you eager to trade with?
About France I only know the beautiful chicks, castles and ruins, fine wine, Paris tower, and classic village sceneries… Hahaha I’m just kidding Jim. From the past I know about what lies beyond the earth of French underground scene, with the infamous MUTILATEDAGGRESSOR, LOUDBLASY, MERCYLESS, CATACOMB, MORSURE, VULCAIN, Enfer Mag, D.O.D Fanzine, Decibel Storms Mag, Thrash Recs, Adipocere Recs, Holy Recs, Osmose Prods, Listenable Recs, Haute Tension Radio Show, The Satanic Black Legion, etc. These days your scene is cool with Drakkar Recs, Legion Of Death Recs, Skullfucked Prods, Nihilistic Holocaust, Mutilating Process Fanzine, DEEP VEIN (good band indeed, ahaha!!!- Jim), BLOODY SIGN, MANSLAUGHTER, etc. I am from time to time getting orders and mails from France and I do trade with them too. If people have LP’s from old French bands, no matter Heavy, Thrash or Death Metal please contact me. We could trade each other LP’s as I can offer some old Malaysian Heavy/Rock LP’s. I’m interested to buy also depending on the prices offered…
13-It’s over for now Mr Syamsul, keep spreading real metal and best luck for the future. If there is anything I forget to ask you, I let you conclude. Hellish regards!
Thanks Jim for the opportunity to appear in your Putrefactive Effect zine! I wish your zine will stay long in the underground scene, to support the music that we all worship!!! And call me Wan next time ok? People who are interested to contact me please do so. Beside my label and fanzine, I’m also run a small distro service, so you can ask our distro list for free! Through this distro I can help many bands to sell their stuffs here in Malaysia and Asia, so let’s get in touch for a deal! Good luck for your band DEEP VEIN also!!!
Wan Syamsul
10 Lorong Lang Tompok
Taman Sri Bintang Kepong
52100 KUALA LUMPUR
MALAYSIA
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