Void Inn-I Can Hope

Self-Release/Independent
2016

Formed in 2010 by the wizard pair of Jelena Vujanovic (lead vox) and Sinisa Pejovic (guitar), Serbia's Void Inn released their debut EP, "I Can Hope", one year ago today. I've got no cue as to why it's only now making the rounds. With bass guitarist Marko Djoric and drummer Nebojsa Mandic filling out the ranks in style, Void Inn's "I Can Hope" is a (one and done) knock-out punch in a scene full of nothing but chumps! Thanks to the many influences of this (grunge-infused) hard rock/dark metal band this six track EP is about as damn close as you can get to being an essential pick-up!! Along with lead singer Jelena's Danzing-like vocals (which are stone cold superb!), "I Can Hope" builds itself out of the best parts of Alice In Chains, Megadeth, Down, Pantera (minus the groove), Metallica (minus the modern day suck aspect), Black Sabbath/ (early) solo Ozzy*, Samhain & Danzig, Soundgarden (everything up to and incl. "Badmotorfinger"), (early) White Zombie, Tool, Metal Church's first two albums, Tad, My Sister's Machine, and Type O Negative (minus the keyboards and with a bit more Carnivore added into the mix). When you add in a form fitting production job and some cheerless lyrics to go with the disc's dark vibe, "I Can Hope" is one EP that is going to get a lot of replays on my home stereo! Give this band some time and a little bit of support and they are going to something else!! I'd stake money on it.  


 *Especially all of the great guitarists that Ozzy had in his early solo years!

Interview with Serbian death metal band Nemesis

Nemesis is a five-piece death metal band from Serbia. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with the group. 

Andy-First off I would just like to thank you for taking the time to talk to us. How are things going for you today?

Anja-We thank you for reaching out and noticing our work! Everything is going great! Winter is harsh this year so we were hibernating a little, but we are back on the metal horse! We will try to make this year prosperous and successful.

Andy-Would you mind introducing yourself to our readers?

Anja-Nemesis is an all-girl death metal band from Serbia. The band has five members: Sanja on vocals, Aleksandra on lead guitar, Tijana on rhythm guitar, Anja on bass and Selena on drums. We all come from different cities, of various education and taste, and we do think that this makes us different than a usual band.

Andy-How did the band first come about?

Anja-Nemesis is a band founded in 2013 with idea to gather female musicians and do something totally unexpected – to form a death metal band. Serbia is a country where folk music (not in a good way folk) and EX-YU rock are mainstream and are cherished dearly by the audience. Death metal music seems appropriate music to fight stereotypical concerts with tribute bands that play songs that we heard so many times. We wanted to make something different.

Andy-I think you succeeded in that! Now, I believe that I read somewhere that you were named after an Arch Enemy song. Is that correct?

Selena-That is partly correct. We love Nemesis song by Arch Enemy, but our main idea was to name the band after the Greek goddess Nemesis. She represents everything we fight for: Justice, order, truth and punishment for those who are arrogant and think they are above gods, or in our case, laws.

Andy-Very cool. Besides Arch Enemy, who are some of the band's main influences?

Anja-There is a lot, each band-mate has a different taste, making us unique but also strange. There are few bands that we would point out: Kreator, Death, Pantera, In Flames, Amon Amarth, Gojira, Trivium, Nevermore… The list is very long and we could say there are a lot of genres that are influencing us, we are pretty sure that it will be noticeable in our upcoming recordings.

Andy-Word has it that you have a new EP in the works. How is that going and when came fans expect to see it?

Sanja-Yes, that is correct. This week we will be recording final parts of vocals and songs. It should be sent for production-mixing very soon. Hopefully it will be out by the end of April. We are very excited and we cannot wait to see reactions and comments from our fans, we really did put a lot of effort in making these songs!

Andy-Are there any song titles that you can share?

Selena-Sure. Our audience already had the opportunity to hear our first single "Vengeance", which will be on EP, and other three are: "Living Dead People", my personal favorite, "Savages" and "Divine Retribution".

Andy-I just love the video for your song "Vengeance"!* How did that come about?

Sanja-The video at the first, didn’t have any story, we wanted to present ourselves as a band, hence the classical band on a stage video. Thankfully to our great friends and supporters Branislav Radovanović and Relja Ilić we were able to make this video look brutal, full of colors and present us in the best possible way. First thing that was filmed was us playing in Cultural Center in Pančevo (town near Belgrade), but we felt like we wanted to spice it up. The parts were I am the only actor was a little bit spontaneous representation of me as an "avenger". It was a great experience, a lot of fun and I cannot wait to start filming our upcoming video!

Andy-If there is such a thing, what is a typical show like for your group? 

Sanja-Typical for our show is – energy! Each show would be fueled with energy, sweat and people jumping and moshing around. I think that we communicate and share our energy with audience each time, even people who would see us for the first time would feel good and end up moshing and headbanging. At the end of show we would get lots of hugs and compliments. We love our shows! 

Andy-Who are some of the group's that you've played with so far? 

Sanja-There was a lot of awesome bands with who we shared the stage, but we would like to highlight few local bands who are also our friends – Jenner, Void Inn, Demist… Of course we would point out and very popular Pero Defformero, with who we will be playing on March the 3rd in Belgrade. When it comes to foreign bands with who we played I would highlight Brazilian band Nervosa. We hope to play with them again soon, the girls are so awesome and sweet! Maybe we should mention a upcoming gig that will definitely be great? We are going to Ljubljana on March the 11th and we will be playing with famous band Hell Cats! Our colleagues from band Jenner will be playing also! We are very excited and we will do our best to travel outside Serbia as much as possible because we would like to spread the word that Serbian metal bands exist! 

Andy-It sounds like your band is very active. Do you have a favorite show that sticks out?

Anja-Favorite show would be definitely a concert with a very popular Serbian band Pero Defformero, that we mentioned question ago. Guys from the band were fabulous and were the best hosts. Also there is another show that sticks out. Our dear friends organized a road trip with 7 bands to their hometown, Golubac (near a border with Romania). There we played a gig with other metal bands including Jenner from Belgrade and we can say some friendships were made that night. 

Andy-You brought up Jenner (who I just love and have covered before) o that brings up a important question. With their signing, Serbian metal is a hot topic these days. Has Jenner's success helped the scene out any?

Selena-The girls from the band Jenner are our friends, and we are really happy for them. We don’t think it helped us in direct way, but they did help when it comes to girl bands in general. Maybe there is someone who read the name of our band for the first time in their interviews, but more important is that they are showing the world that girls can play some badass metal. 

Andy-Damn right they can! Has there been any label interest in your band?

Selena-There were some foreign labels offering to sign us, but we want to wait till we enter the studio with album material. We think that even our most loyal audience will be pleasantly surprised when they hear all of the songs. There are many labels out there and we will try our best to find the best offer there is. We want to go big or go home. 

Andy-I hope you go big! You all deserve the success and metal fans deserve more (high-quality!) death metal bands. Where can our readers find out more about you and hear your original compositions? 

Sanja-For now, this can be done by following our Facebook  page and our YouTube channel. We can proudly say that our webpage is under construction, it should look great and be easy to use. For now, you can be up-to-date by following our mentioned pages. It would mean a lot if our fans would like our page and give us a follow. Also we are inviting the readers to hit a like button! 

Andy-Yes! Heavy Metal Time Machine readers be sure to head over to the band's Facepage page and hit that like button!! It's always important to support great metal bands, whether here in the U.S. or overseas. I always let artists have the last word. Is there anything that we didn't touch on that you would like to address? Words of wisdom for other death metal bands? Want to say something to your fans or would you like to slam the hammer down on your detractors? Whatever it is the mic is all yours and yours alone!

Anja-We appreciate it! There are things to address, it could be a whole topic with few pages. Metal is really an underdog at this point, but we will make some changes, I am sure! Words of wisdom are simple – do it, make it happen! There is a lot of metal bands struggling and maybe would think that they should quit, don’t! Make a drastic change if you feel that you are sinking, or going nowhere. And when it comes to our fans, we would like to thank them, we are here because of them, because they believe in us. Their support is endless and it is pushing as forward. We would also like to thank you for making these questions for us, hopefully you will be able to enjoy new music videos and our EP.

Andy-I sure hope so and again, thank you all so much for chatting with us. Don't be a stranger and please be sure to let us know when you release your new EP.



*Here is the official video for "Vengeance":

Face Off- "Lush" Single

Maple Metal Records
2014
  
Hailing from Belgrade, Serbia, Face Off is a female-fronted alternative metal act which previously released their full-length debut, "The Colour of Rain" at the start of 2013. With a sophomore release planned for later on in 2014 (or possibly even 2015!) the band, which is bolstered by the haunting voice of Marija Kovacevic, recently released the single "Lush" to tide over fans while they wait for the next step in this creative band's existence. After taking a look at their influences (Deftones, Portishead, Massive Attack, Lacuna Coil, Katatonia, Isis, Gojira, Placebo, Tool, Mogwai, Oceansize, The Gathering, Bjork, etc.) and then having explored their back-catalog* it's clear to see that Face Off (Marija Kovacevic, guitarists Stefan Vitasovic and Aleksandar Djordjic, bassist Stanislav Stanojevic and drummer Zoltan Simon) has gracefully evolved between releases. Whereas "The Colour of Rain"** relied a little too heavily on it's influences (and came across as a hair more gothic then this excellent new single) "Lush", which can be checked out in full at either of the two links that follow this piece, shows a band fully capable of expressing themselves without wearing their influences on their respective sleeves. It's not that hard to envision this Serbian act taking the next step up towards more world-wide exposure as front-woman Marija Kovacevic has an amazing voice (not sure why but she reminds me of a more metal-minded Dolores O'Riordan (The Cranberries) although quite honestly she has (aptly) been compared to ex-The Gathering vocalist Anneke van Giersbergen and that seems more then a little fitting as well!) and her band-mates expertly encircle with smooth playing that really eases the senses. Most certainly this soothing piece won't be for everyone, but for those who truly love all the different flavors that rock and heavy metal come in (and live by the motto that variety is the spice of life and death!) an atmospheric release such as this one is also a welcoming site to beyond!

You can download "Lush" here: http://faceoffonline.bandcamp.com/

The official video for Video of "Lush": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzDWs4t3DHo

*You can actually hear their full-length debut album, "The Colour of Rain", in it's entirety on Youtube!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCQ6TH9OxhU 

**Regardless of whether or not one can hear this band's various influences on their debut album (as well as, oddly enough, Evanescence) it's still a creative (and downright atmospheric!) alternative metal album that was a real pleasure to stream! 

Hype!-Hype!

Odličan Hrčak
2013


Every now and then bands will send me promos that, for whatever reason, end up marked as junk. That proves to be a problem only when I get lazy and don't bother to double check said folder. Lucky for me it was one of those days when I decided to actually sort through all the misc. e-mail "junk". I'd have hated to have missed out on this self-tiled debut album from Hype! Especially as this album proved to be such a pleasant surprise all around. How so you may be asking? Well, this band, who call Zrenjanin home (Zrenjanin is located in the eastern part of Vojvodina, Serbia), has one of those "We're another Paramore-influenced rock band" looks about them. That was something I did fear and yeah, that's also something that was totally all on me! I know all too well that you should not judge something by it's outward looks. Still I catch myself playing the game, trying my hand as it were, of judging a band by just their looks. Although it must be stated that Hype! does have good looks on their side. That doesn't hurt their chances any right? And those good looks? Well, that starts with their front-woman Dargana Mijatovic (aka Gaga Lee) who is a former member of the band The Spanks. The only thing is those lovely looks stand in sharp contrast to her take charge, tell it like it is, foul mouth vocal delivery! At first it looks as if I'd label that as a down-side, but really her no B.S. attitude makes this rock band real and honest. Influences come down to Guano Apes, Garbage, Skunk Anansie, Iggy Pop and Pearl Jam (at least as far as the band is concerned), but I'd also toss in the likes of Jane's Addiction, 4-Non Blondes, Veruca Salt, Sonic Youth, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and even Hole to make everything all square and what not. Of course that one choice of theirs (Garbage) would only make sense if Shirley Manson and her band-mates had been influenced first and foremost by Guns N' Roses! Only then could I see it as Hype! has much more venom and fight running through their collective veins then the members of Garbage. That's especially true when you look into the rest of Hype! Plainly speaking the guitars of Hype!, which are handled by Pavle Kirćanski (who also played in the band "Impurita") and Dalibor Kurjak (who played in "Gluve Kucke", "Partibrejkers" and "Dzukele'), are of the ass-kicking, street rock variety and yes, they are quite righteous. Bass duties fall to Milos Kralj ("Memlah") while the drum stool is occupied by Darko Kurjak (also playing with "Partibrejkers", "Memlah" and " The Hurricane Brothers"). Both of these fine individuals help anchor the raw undercurrents that is Hype! and it's "all in or nothing at all" approach to rock and roll. This fine debut-album might not make the members of Hype! superstars overnight or anything like that (especially true given the awful taste in music that much of today's generation seems to have and the nauseating "idols" they choose to worship), but it's pretty much real rock from a real rock band. There's nothing fake or artificial about Hype! as far as I can tell and this album, all ten tracks of it, is what you'd be more likely to experience from a well-loved and long-term local band that keeps on playing just for love of it all. In the end Hype! is worth the hype as this newer rock band is off and running in the right direction! You can find "Hype!" on iTunes.