Kakiseribu 'Manusial' demotape review

KAKISERIBU ‘Manusial’ Demotape REVIEW

KAKISERIBU hail from Penang island, and feature WEOT SKAM‘s guitarist Edd Lewis on guitar and vocals. This means that I am very familiar with these guys, and I bump into them all the time. I was given a copy of their debut demo tape ‘Manusial’, co-produced by Green Peace Disto, Fvkof distro and Disco346 and released in October 2015. And I don’t see why I shouldn’t give it an honest review, regardless of the fact I hang out with these guys quite often.

KAKISERIBU pack four angry and raw tunes in less than 10 minutes of unrelenting d-beat crust  which they self-describe as a ‘buzz saw doom/sludge downbeat, and classic annihilating galloping D-beat attack’. Indeed, quite an interesting combination. The cover artwork, a crude drawing of a Space Amoeba-alike monster coming to prey on a bunch of  anarcho-punks, is lovely. It’s my favourite kind of doomsday.

The first song, ‘Manusial’ is a good example of KAKISERIBU‘s staple sound: it opens with an EYEHATEGOD-ish wall of white noise that turns into a doomish intro played with anguish… before they accelerate and swoop into classic d-beat. I am not too good in making comparisons with other bands as I’m no great expert I admit, but this sounds quite stereotypical d-beat’s  tu-pa-tu-tu-pa to me.

kakiseribuBand

What I like a lot comes back on track 2, ‘Tali Gantung’. I love the way it starts off as a deranged slow riff that could have been performed by an amped up version of FACEDOWNINSHIT – if they played very much faster. However, midway through the song, the d-beat attack comes back, relentless and very classic. Was it really necessary to end the song like this, boys?

‘Kehidupan Boneka’ has a similar structure. A great, mind plumbing – meaning that it takes all the shit out of your brain – intro that  ends up too quickly to transform, again, in the upbeat syncopated skin gallop termed d-beat. This song alternates fast and slow upbeat rhythms better, transitioning well into the last track, ‘Bangsat Paling Agung’.

Here, again, we start very atmospherically. Lewis plays some melancholic arpeggio that tastes like a night out on Planet Destruction, something akin to a particularly inspired southern sludge metal band ala BEATEN BACK TO PURE, and continues well halfway into the song by planting long nails into your soul’s coffin… until the d-beat comes in to wake you up. Among the four, this is probably my favourite song because here KAKISERIBU pays a bit more attention to crafting a more diverse and personal sound.

In general, I enjoyed this demo because it packs a lot of energy in a short time, showing the potential of a good live band – indeed, they are – and leaving you wanting more. On the other hand tough, I believe that if KAKISERIBU want to make their music much more powerful and impressive, they should pay more attention to one thing.

Which is: the sludgy downbeat parts. They work so well in distinguishing their sound from other Malaysian d-beat bands, that I think they should stretch as long as possible. But when the d-beat speed comes in, I feel like something has been taken away from me forever. Why? Because those sludgy parts sound so powerfully haunting and make KAKISERIBU stand out from the “1-2-3-4-go-d-beat” bandwagon. In fact, ‘Manusial’s standard song structure is “slow part-break-fast part”, and it tends to get jaded after a couple songs, affecting the overall listening experience. My honest suggestion is to lay some guitar solos over the slow parts, and maybe different vocal lines, too, and make them go on and on, mammothycal, for minutes. KAKISERIBU, please. Hook the listeners with something you can do so well… a staple gun of sludge straight against their foreheads. Make them bleed, Mad Man Pondo style.

This said, ‘Manusial’ comes off as a solid demo with a raw yet catchy recording sapiently mixed by Cole Yew of Soundmaker Studio. It will appeal to most fans of raw crust punk. However, I wish that with their next release, KAKISERIBU will be able to balance their power more, understanding that, at times, going faster doesn’t always mean to sound better. – Marco Ferrarese

Listen to KAKISERIBU‘s ‘Manusial’ here:

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