Music
Morally right, Spleen Saint!
by Nilma Dole
After a bit of a hiatus, I had
the rare opportunity of meeting the band guys of Spleen Saint. The Sri
Lankan melodic black/death metal act derives their influences from acts
such as Death, Emperor, Cradle of filth, Dissection and Opeth.
 Lead dude Dylan and guitarist Malith met up with Sunday Observer
magazine minus drummer Kasun and bassist Arosha who were caught up with
work and study related affairs. Speaking about why they aren’t seen at
gigs around town, Dylan said, “We are highly focused on getting an EP
released and are committed to seeing that taking off the ground”.
Keeping in mind the success of their ‘underground’ gig in Dehiwela,
Dylan said that they might consider something like that but not anytime
soon. He added, “We are two months away from airing it and doing it at
Slum Records which is our own private studio.”
Dylan said, “We’ve been busy with work because I’m in the hospitality
education sector and Kasun’s just finishing his studies” said Dylan. He
commented that the rest of the guys are all studying and working.
“We are hoping to release our debut EP via our own studio Slum
Records Sri Lanka and through Funeral Rain records in Canada and
Misanthropic Anti-Records in Norway” said Dylan.
“I don’t believe in bands playing for competitions because more often
than not, the judges are not metal musicians”.
What he means is that most music judges vary from jazz to rock to hip
hop but no one has any understanding whatsoever about metal. “I do not
want my music to be judged by a hip hop artist, because I do not
consider hip hop as music” he said.
Dylan highlighted that the crowd attending the band horn-lockers
listen (and understand) commercial music. “It’s also a money making scam
where they take your music and they sell it to your own fans. If we were
playing anywhere, our fans would come and listen to us” he said.
 Talking about working with professional producers and popular local
record labels, Dylan said, “We are sadly limited to hip hop or some
other form of programming where utterly talentless music (basically
something that is easy to produce and to sell) is being produced to be
sold.” He further commented,”What will happen is the record label will
tell me how to compose my material, how to play the guitars on our
tracks, and what kind of sound they want in order to sell more copies”.
This will turn hamper the originality of their music and Spleen Saint
is not willing to lose their integrity or see others losing it either.
“We thank all those bands that have stood by us through thick and
thin and acknowledge Marlin Jayakody, Buddhika Karunasekera, Kuthub Deen,
Yasmin Yousuf, Chathuranga and Funeral in Heaven, and all the bands that
are going on the right path of creating ORIGINAL music that we can
proudly call SRI LANKAN” said Dylan. He also thanked friends, family and
their loyal fans that have made Spleen Saint a right mayhem metalling
band.
Easter Cantata
by Mahesh Perera
The Peterite Easter Cantata is significant to the Peterite Chorale.
For it was way back in 1992 that a group of dedicated past students
combined their vocal talents to form what today has become an extremely
versatile group of thirty plus resonant tenor and bass voices.
The group made their debut in 1993 as the Chorale under the able
direction of Steffan Corera and over the past eighteen years has won
accolades for its astounding harmony and depth.
 The Easter Cantata, today (April 4) at St. Peter’s College Cathedral
at 7 p.m. will see the Chorale join the St. Peter’s College Choir in
their long standing tradition for a recital of sacred music that will
elevate the audience to a high with their glorious singing. Some of the
songs you will hear today will be the Hosanna in Altimuss, Testify to
Love, Let the Redemption Come, God so Loved the World and the sacred
music Glorious Things of thee Are Spoken.
Seven years ago in 2003, The Peterite Chorale celebrated is tenth
anniversary with all the trimmings culminating in two sell out
performances that were held at the Lional Wendt. At today’s Easter
Cantata Fans at the Peterite Chorale have a pleasant surprise in store
for themselves. The Chorale recently held a concert entitled Resonance
and the wonderful harmony of the Chorale has been expertly captured by
the renowned sound engineer/accompanist Neranjan de Silva on CD which
will be launched today.
Apart from the Resonance performances the CD also contains a
selection of live recordings which have been skilfully mastered by de
Silva. The CD will be on offer at an introductory price. Resonance which
was staged last year saw the Chorale perform their usual repertoire from
the classical choral pieces to more modern popular music and spirituals.
The selections include The Lord is my Shepherd, Glorious Things, From
a Distance, Under the Board Walk, For the Longest Time, Hello Mary Lou,
I still Believe in You, Amazing Grace, You’ll Never Walk Alone and more.
Today is Easter Sunday and the Cantata which had its beginning from
the early 17th century was a firm favourite form of Italian chamber
music. In modern times the term cantata is applied almost exclusively to
choral as distinguished from solo vocal music. The Peterite Chorale who
will be releasing their CD today have lived up to the expectations of
their fans. |
