Before COVID hit there was a nice little touring circuit building up for visiting metal acts in particular – and it’s coming back, particularly for bands from the region. Slam City Festival in Siem Reap will be held this weekend at Atlantis Metal Bar on Friday and X Bar on Saturday, a celebration of metal featuring bands from Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. LengPleng got in touch to try and find out more about our visitors.
What can you tell me about your line up and your influences, and for the well-informed metalheads, what is your subgenre?
Dead People: Dead People is a deathcore band from Zamboanga City, Philippines, formed in 2015. The line-up is lead vocalist Jhamer Khan, bassist John-Jayrie Borgonia, drummer Alharbie Ismula, and guitarists Jan Rahmad Julkarnain and Alnadskhar Palahuddin. Our main influences are Slipknot, Slayer, Chelsea Grin, White Chapel, Suicide Silence, Thy Art is Murder, Lamb of God, Carnifex, The Black Dahlia Murder and Alice in Chains.
Sandy Good: my name is Pete Cervancia, guitarist for Sandy Good. We are from Batangas in Philippines. We started out as a hardcore punk band then added some doom/ powerviolence/ sludge/ metal elements.
Cút Lộn: We are a four piece thrash punk band with two guys living in Saigon and the other two in Hanoi. Fun vibe, high bpm, old school tone.
Is this your first visit to Cambodia? Where else have you toured?
Dead People: Yes it’s our first visit and first ever tour outside the country.
Sandy Good: Yes. We have only toured locally in our own country.
Cút Lộn: Cút Lộn played in both Phnom Penh and Siem Reap for the first time at the end of 2022 – it was a short tour together with Nighmare AD, that also included a date in Saigon. Our guitarist did play in Phnom Penh before though – with his emo band Proportions; and our drummer also had a show in Phnom Penh in the past with a groove metal band Voluptuary.
What is the music scene like where you are, particularly the metal scene?
Dead People: Like most of the Philippine culture it remains underground because the genre itself is not for the people, who find it noisy and chaotic and don’t appreciate the art and craft that we are creating. Some bands tend to play more on variety because it’s the only genre that can be played publicly anytime anywhere, while most of the music scene is only seen in the evening. Metal music in general is frowned upon by the society itself, that’s why we always held our music events at bars and restaurants owned by our friends and colleagues. Despite that the metal music scene in our city remains united as one.
Sandy Good: The Batangas hardcore punk scene is known for violence over the years but lately has tamed down as people got older. The scene keeps getting stronger in our area thanks to [independent production/promotion team] Hardcore Hope and its supporters, new and old.
Cút Lộn: In Saigon everybody plays pop punk and metalcore; in Hanoi everybody plays black metal. Hanoi is more about creativity, Saigon is more about marketing. Much better crowds now than years ago. Smaller towns still has none, but things do pop up here and there. Occasional big bookings as well. One band to check out from Vietnam: Gỗ Lim.
What can we find online to get a taste of your band?
Dead People:
- https://www.facebook.com/DEADPEOPLECore/
- https://www.instagram.com/deadpeople.zc/
- https://www.youtube.com/@deadpeoplezc
- https://open.spotify.com/artist/7fApgZC5BP6JlyoVIQosQ2
- https://shopee.ph/Dead-People-x-Rattle-Project-i.364363963.22223337622
Sandy Good:
- https://stillillhardcore.bandcamp.com/track/we-are-all-children
- https://sandygood.bandcamp.com/album/demo
Cút Lộn: We have a music video for nearly every song we have released, so just search “cút lộn youtube” and you’ll get at least half an hour worth of fun!
What should audiences expect from your show?
Dead People: Expect hype performance from us since this it our first time playing outside of the country and we are eagerly to give our best performance yet for the Siem Reap Slam City Fest and all the Cambodian metal heads.
Sandy Good: We’ll play some old and new stuff in our show but still the same raw and intense set that we always do.
Cút Lộn: It’s kids friendly!
And a message from the home team, Nightmare AD: We will be playing two completely different sets at Atlantis and at X Bar – the Atlantis set will feature new songs off our new record, and the X Bar set will be all our older material. We will also have merch on sale and brand new stickers featuring our new logo.
Let the loud commence!
Photos: supplied
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