Global Domination | Demo reviews

Recent updates

Recent discussions

Demo(n)s

Haemic: Demo 2011

04/05/11 || Daemonomania

To add a bit of spice to your typical “demo” review, I decided to make this a collaborative effort between myself and one of the boys from Haemic itself. Ray Heberer, guitarist, got on board with this plan but cautioned that I should forgive the production (it’s a demo after all) and that the typical mocking tone of GD shouldn’t overshadow the music at hand. Fair enough. The rest of this interview will be centaur questions. Let us see how it all shakes out.

Daemonomania: So Ray, here we are reviewing your demo. Anything you want to tell the assembled masses of GD before we begin? Like where the band’s from, who influences you, what you do in Haemic, why we should be kind and merciful?

Ray Heberer: Hey… The band is not from anywhere, really. There are three members: Adam Farkas from Hungary, Mitch Shinderman from the USA, and I (Ray Heberer); I’m from Taiwan. Adam programs all the synths and writes the songs, Mitch does vocals, and I do guitars, and contribute a little bit to the writing of songs. Since Adam does most of the songwriting, I really have no clue of what the influences are, since it sounds so damn weird. I can say the music would be for fans of Windir, Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, etc. I know that Mitch on vocals likes to emulate Pekka Kokkko of Kalmah.

Feel free to be merciless, especially towards those other two guy’s, they’re probably slack-off college students. However, I am a 15 year old sophomore in high school, a hard-working half-Asian nerd, so be a little more kind to me. Honestly, I don’t care how much fun you poke at us, as long as the readers would be so obliged as to go download our demo. DO IT NOW.

Cool. So first thing I’m thinking here is NO DRUMMER. DRUM MACHINE. Not that it kills your sound, but since you have recruited people from the rest of the planet, why not a skinbeater from – say – Norway?

Oh yes indeed we are looking for a drummer. The thing about drums is they are so very hard to record properly. Yeah, really sorry about the drums, especially the bass drum. I mean really, the bass drum is like half the sound of metal music in itself! So we are searching for a drummer who can record and play well. If the hunt is fruitless by the time I start recording, the drums will just have to be programmed with a better mix, particularly a clickier bass.

Drumming aside, I dig the way you guys work the electronic bits in there. During some of the “spooky” parts I even get a minor Opethian vibe. Seems to contrast a bit with the fasting, blasting, screeching, but hey, you guys are the songwriters. As a guitarist, are you pissed at the lack of solos they let you do?

Well, not really. I got plenty of other projects and collaborations, where I make sure I do a lot of solos. However, there are some pretty intense guitar bits coming up in the next songs in the album. Not solos, but some good old atmospheric sweeping. As you see, the band is heavily focused on atmosphere, so if the atmosphere requires some 14 note-per-second sweeping, it will happen. I play a relatively small part in songwriting, I just interpret the guitar lines send to me, change them how I like, add some harmonies. My major contribution was that soft melody in the middle of Arch Nemesis.

If you were more heavily focused on atmosphere, you’d use less CFC’s. Anyway, that was my next question – a full-length is in the works, eh? With a real drummer and a better keyboard sound (why do bands always use THAT sound? why not an evil church organ?), and with a better band name and logo (I’ll draw it for you), you guys might have a shot.

Haha, true! Hey, Haemic’s not a bad name, it’s an adjective that describes things characteristic of or characterized by blood. A decent name in my opinion. As for the logo, sure go ahead, we don’t have one! For the full-length, we’ve got 10 songs done, that’s probably going to be it. I still have to learn my parts, and Mitch still needs to make lyrics, but Adam’s got all these tracks chock-full of synths, so hopefully you’ll hear a few sounds you like. Recently, I’ve been in contact with CJ Kao, the keyboardist of Chthonic. Besides playing for Taiwan’s flagship extreme metal band, he also works as a sound technician and has a studio. We’re working out a schedule, but it appears that he will be mixing and mastering the album. But yeah, I’m not exactly sure what we’d be shooting for, but I think we’ll have a shot (seriously I don’t get that idiom).

Haemic, anemic, bulimic. Just telling you what could happen. I’ll do your logo with two conditions – 1. I get credit and GD gets mentioned in the booklet and 2. I get a copy of whatever album you guys eventually release. Deal? Oh yeah, and there’s no lyrics yet? What’s the dude growling then? Bla bla bla evil bulimia!

Well, I will admit that Haemic has a disadvantageous search-engine compatibility; if you google Haemic you get all this medical crap. I’ll totally take you on for that offer, are you actually legitimate artist?

I sent you the lyrics a while ago! Pretty standard metal stuff, I quite like the lyrics.

Don’t you worry, I am legit as fuck. Too legit to quit, in fact. The lyrics are completely and utterly mindbending. My mental knuckles are white as I hang on each and every line. Well, I think this is quite long enough for a demo review/interview. Good luck on getting a drummer, getting that shit recorded, and releasing some blood-related metal beatings. Any last words of wisdom that a youngun such as yourself can offer the musty DM/BM OG’s ov GD?

I’m glad you enjoyed the lyrics. I’d like to say that although metal is great for the fact that everyone tries to get involved making music, sometimes us artists lose touch of the reason we started creating the music. I make metal because I want to create a product for myself and others to enjoy, and although I might not be the best at what I do at the current time, anyone with half a brain can see that my name will be more known as I develop more. I’d encourage people to take a listen to some of my other projects, and I’ll promise that I’ll keep it coming! Stay metal always!

Half a metal brain, that is. Score please…

6,5

Information
Released: 2011
Website: Some Downloading Thing
Band
Mitch Shinderman: vocals
Ray Heberer: guitars
Adam Farkas: keyboards

Tracklist
01. Arch Nemesis
02. Graveyard
03. Hellgate (instrumental)

Demo reviews