TERMINATRYX hits LUCKY 13!

9th Log
TERMINATRYX HITS LUCKY 13!

2015 celebrates the 13th anniversary of TERMINATRYX.
Below is an article originally posted at Metal 4 Africa on this milestone and the release of the Terminatryx collection “Lucky 13: Anthology I” (an exclusive digital release via Fangoria Musick, feat. songs from across the band’s catalog) – get the anthology here: goo.gl/j6sc71
The piece includes quotes from all band members reflecting on the band’s 13 year journey.

(Access the original news article HERE)

TERMINATRYX – “Lucky 13: Anthology I” (cover image by Dr-Benway)

Terminatryx “Lucky 13: Anthology I” Launches Worldwide

Cape Town’s industrial dark rock/metal quartet of Terminatryx celebrates the worldwide release today of their Lucky 13: Anthology I on this suitably spooky Friday the 13th, November 2015. The 13 track digital collection celebrates the band’s 13th anniversary and includes tracks from across all albums including the self-titled Terminatryx debut of 2008, Remyx v1.0 from 2011, and Shadow from 2014. This first Terminatryx collection is being released by Fangoria Musick – the digital audio imprint of the world’s foremost name in Horror since 1979 (visit the Fangoria announcement here & album link here).

The band founders had this to say:

“In the mid-‘90s I spent several years in Europe with my band V.O.D (Voice Of Destruction), playing drums – here we recorded for our German label and did a full tour with Katatonia and In The Woods supporting our Bloedrivier album. We were quite saturated and I was relieved to return home. During my first year back I spent time having fun with a solo project F8, using a bass guitar I bought in the UK.
I had no serious plans to start another band. But after meeting Sonja at Oppikoppi Trek 2000, within a year or two she indicated she wanted to do something band-wise; something SA music never really had; an electronic / hardcore blend with female vocals. I constructed some songs and approached it all as just some fun with my new girlfriend. Never did I expect us to reach thirteen years, outlive dozens of bands, release 3 albums, open for Ministry or win international music video awards! Time surely flies when you’re having fun!” ~ Paul Blom (writer/instrumentalist/backing vocals, Terminatryx)

“In thirteen years of being a member of Terminatryx there are a few things I know for certain. Nothing happens without sacrifice, sometimes even hard work is not enough and there will always be those that love you and those that hate you. If you manage to keep your head, take on good sincere criticism and ignore the rest, the experience can be amazing. The last thirteen years have been a period of learning and developing. More than anything else it has been a period of playing and creating, having fun and most of all making friends and building relationships. Out of Terminatryx came our Makabra Ensemble project and my A Murder acoustic project. Life, for me, would have been so dull without Terminatryx and here is hoping for many more years with great songs and killer music videos.” ~ Sonja Ruppersberg-Blom (writer/vocals, Terminatryx)

Long-standing band members also had some words to share, marking the momentous milestone:

“There are many things that I can say about the past thirtten years with Terminatryx. Being part of such an amazing band has challenged me in numerous ways, always with a positive outcome. For instance, drumming for Terminatryx is a ‘one of a kind’ job, with many technical aspects to consider such as in-ear monitoring when we perform live. This can be very demanding, as I have to keep constant focus – if I skip a beat, or go out of sync with the programmed backing elements, everything will fall apart. Luckily I have undertaken this challenge with a very disciplined approach, which has pushed me to become a much better drummer and musician. Feel free to buy me a tequila after a performance, not before! All the work that we have put in thus far has certainly paid off and we have an amazing team of people that we work with; from photographers, film-makers, sound engineers, designers, etc. I believe that we owe a majority of our success to these individuals that have given us their time and knowledge. I am also very fortunate to have such amazing band-members; Paul and Sonja certainly know how to spoil Patrick and I, and we are lucky to have them at the helm. I am very proud to form part of the Terminatryx machine and look forward to the next thirteen years!” ~ Ronnie Belcher (drums, Terminatryx)

“When I was approached to join Terminatryx as a performing guitarist in 2007, all I was thinking was that it would be an excellent opportunity to grow musically, and become better educated in the industry for a couple of years before the thing fell apart as most bands do. It has been both of those and so much more, minus the falling apart, amazingly. I had no long term plans or ambitions with the band, yet I find myself still here… despite even announcing my resignation in 2012. Funny how that worked out! These people are just too magnetic. Paul and Sonja’s devotion to each other spills over into their band as well, and obviously touches those who are attached to it. In that regard, my education continues still, but it’s become about more than just the industry; but about something far more important – people.” ~ Patrick Davidson (guitar, Terminatryx)

Connect with the band Terminatryx on facebook
Connect with M4A’s True Believer funding initiative on facebook
Connect with the author Patrick Davidson on Google+

 

MUSIC’S WORTH – Part 3 [ Paul Blom ]

Alright, here is the third and final part of my stream-of-consciousness reflection on music, my (partial) perception of it, my affinity for music & movies, whether music is losing its “worth”, and stuff like that!
I’m not claiming to have a solution, as the issue is as wide as the world’s population, and as long as the internet…

8th Log
MUSIC’S WORTH  Part 3 – Paul Blom
Access Part 1 Here
Access Part 2 Here
Access Part 3 Here

Paul Blom

Just like fashion, music and movies follow trends where the public is spoon fed something that is mostly just a regurgitation of what came before – and the people gobble it up…

Even Prince recently proclaimed that it’s “a bad time for music” – but, it depends where you look.  If you try to find it on the commercial and mainstream airwaves, then it’s been fucked for ages!
Sometimes I feel all the best music has already been written, and out there to be discovered and collected – the rest is just filling up time and creating money making impulses. You can only listen to that much music in one lifetime, or not?

If you break down the route music takes, it’s quite an extensive process, where (almost) everyone gets paid for their services along the way – The short version is:  various biological organism (us humans) crawl around on its habitat (planet earth) >  within the minds of some of these creatures, beats, notes and melodies formulate, influenced by their personal experiences, other sounds and songs they hear or images they see, an emotion bursting forth in notes and measures > from here these need to be expressed, from whistling to singing, to banging and twanging it out on instruments created from raw materials like wood, metal and carbon pulled from the earth, processed, molded, shaped and cobbled together into guitars, drums, keyboards, saxophones, processors, valves, transistors, hardware, speakers and a million other components > pointed at microphones or plugged into amps linked to mixing desks and computers, captured on magnetic tape or a digital timeline in I’s an O’s, translated and mastered into a file like a wav > then sent off to a factory where it is transferred onto a CD or vinyl, or compressed into an mp3 file for the end listener, sent off to brick & mortar shops or on-line download stores (and illegitimate ones)… at the end of it landing in the hands or music folders of people who choose whether this long process is worth paying for or not…

Do musicians create music as a career, for personal enjoyment as a hobby, or play the role of a philanthropic purveyor of entertainment?  Which of these should you support?

Some of the biggest artists in the world say they got into music to impress girls, others to be rich, many to be famous.

Twitter, Instagram and other applications have made it possible for anybody and everybody to become “famous” – It is no longer for the elite, but a vacant selfie stare with nothing to back it up is an empty jpeg of a generation.

Fame is never something I’ve found appealing, and I create music for its cathartic expression, its content, potential emotional impact and effect it may have on a listener to enrich their lives in some way, even if it’s fleeting.  It is also an artistic expression which we fuse with music videos and photography, as a whole.  If you don’t like my creations, no problem, move along to something that speaks to you, or go make your own. (If you haven’t heard what I do, check out our most recent Terminatryx album “Shadow” below)

YouTube has also created a new kind of celebrity directly linked to it – granted, far too many of them are mind-blowingly stupid like Cutie Pie…
It’s a great platform for bands to get their music and videos out there, but some also have the perception that if it is on YouTube, it’s a free for all – Where someone uploads a band’s music or a director / producer’s movie in its totality without their permission, those who find it on YouTube believe it is now a legitimate free product.  Not so.  I’ve seen on-line publications that are deemed as reliable and legit, but their reputed contributors are not exactly clued up – For example, I came across one with a list of “free documentaries” to watch on YouTube – half of these were missing because the owners of the work got wind and had it removed.  If Slayer’s new ‘Repentless’ album pops up on YouTube the same day of its release and the band didn’t post it, it’s not legitimate.

Some would feel music is integral to our existence, just like food, oxygen and sex.

It sometimes feels as though musicians are expected to fulfill a public service… Free prostitutes as it were?

Fast food servers don’t do their job for free (and most musicians earn less than they do, if they don’t have a day job to pay the rent… no guaranteed hourly rate I’m afraid).

I find it interesting how almost daily I see people publicly proclaiming on social networks where they grabbed a new release for nada, and where others can do so… Or a friedn offering to bring around their terabyte of movies and music…  I find it strange, since we think career criminals are idiots when they pose & post pics online with their stolen goods – is this any different?  Is it such a victimless crime?  Jay Z and the Rolling Stones don’t need more money, but the indie band from Chicago, Durban or Tokyo does…

I like to have my media collections (CD, DVD, Blu-ray, Vinyl, PlayStation, X Box etc.) visible on a shelf, like my books.  I love libraries and accessibility of my favourites – being able to see these collections, various bands, artists, authors, directors, genres grouped together… And I love box sets!

Some of my (and Sonja’s) DVD box sets

Perhaps many of us have more of an organized hoarder affliction than others.  Thousands of songs and movies lying hidden on a hard drive makes you more detached, forgetting about their existence.  Walking past your shelves and spotting something you love to revisit, or another you’ve not heard or seen in a while and relive is a great experience.  Due to space restrictions I have hundreds (maybe thousands) of DVDs and PlayStation games pulled from their boxes and stacked in 200-capacity disc folders.  I forget what’s in there, so like a geek I have to alphabetize them in case I’m looking for a specific flick(!)  Getting rid of a chunk of these is pointless, as the second hand resale value is pitiful – I’d rather hang on to these as part of my library.  An album that was sold for the top value on CD yesterday drops to 10% of its value the day after – almost like a new car driven off the lot.

Like movies having to open big on the first weekend to capitalize, not everyone has the marketing muscle to let every corner of the world know about your latest album and sell enough of them quickly, before they’re littered on every free download site…

I’m also a completist in the sense of I want to own all my favourite’s, like all the movies by David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, all the Metallica albums, Slayer, The Prodigy, Rammstein etc.  It feels as though the collector mindset is dwindling and the fast-food music grab and discard – Hey, we wrote a song about this on our debut album: “CONsume”!!
Check it out here, track 2:

This connection to material objects may seem weird, but within these plastic constructs lie moods, experiences, emotions, memories, notes, scenes, lines and lyrics that touch you in profound, fun, entertaining, or frivolous ways, and owning it holds a certain attachment.  Mere throwaway entertainment to some, but a connective force to others, especially if you have a deeper interest in film- and music.

It’s also a case of the practicality of formats, cost effectiveness, demand and durability.  It took large factories and plants with thousands of workers to produce tapes, albums, video cassettes, CDs etc., even more in the chain to distribute and reach the stores around the world.  A digital file is almost unfettered, all that labour and those costs stripped away (yet still sold at the same price…?).  And did all those factory-, transport-, admin- and retail workers land in the unemployment line when these antiquated formats fell by the wayside?

Some sound purists would love all their music on reel-to-reel tape, some would dig to have their old 8-track tape player again and let the nostalgia flow back…

But unfortunately the production of all these formats is not practical, or economically viable.  I’d love it if you could have the format you like – hell if you prefer VHS, why can’t you have that option?  Alas… (PS. I still have a ton of my favourite movies on VHS! – New formats also enable companies to cash in on the same content over and over – and if the quality is still good on one format, no way in hell am I going to buy it again on DVD… and again on Blu-ray… and an HD download… or whatever else they may have waiting in the wings).

A portion of my movie collection (on DVD, Blu-ray and VHS)

The digital world has drastically jacked up audio and picture quality,  however, to the ears of many, music recorded on analog tape, printed to vinyl is the only superior way they can truly feel the warmth and reality of the songs captured in time.

Back in the on-line domain, free tracks made available as a promotional tool seems to have spiraled out of control, in that bands started to dish out their songs and full albums for free wherever they can (some of excellent quality, some atrocious) – but the mindset of the listener and consumer has made a shift for many, in that they now begin to expect all music to be free of charge.  We regularly create special free download occasions, but also don’t want to sell ourselves short.  Then the argument flares up that bands now have to start relying on playing live to make a living.  Why?  What about recording artists that don’t always play live, or bands that simply don’t play live as often?  And in South Africa, anyone who thinks an alternative band can exclusively tour and play regularly for a living is gravely mistaken.

When it comes to musicians in the live environment, the norm is that everyone else is sorted first, from the sound engineer to the barman.  The catch-22 is that without the band, the sound guy wouldn’t have anyone to mix, and without the sound guy, the band will sound like shit…

But hell, who doesn’t like something for free?  Although, a gift from someone is far more gratifying than grabbing it on the sly, isn’t it?  So if a band makes a track or an album available for zip, directed at you, it should mean more, shouldn’t it?  Then, if you like it, is it not fair to then pick up the entire album for a reasonable price?

Millions upon millions get their music legitimately via iTunes and many other platforms like Bandcamp, CD Baby etc. – but even more do so the sneaky way.  Spotify and similar platforms pay ridiculous royalties compared to radio with only the huge commercial bands cashing in down the line.

Sure, we all know how the economy bites our asses, but if you budget your food, cigarettes, beer, video games etc., shouldn’t your music consumption be rationed accordingly?  Again (not all of us) walk into a bar and leave without paying because the booze companies make enough money, do we? (man, these analogies can go on for an eternity!)

A friend of mine has no qualms in proclaiming that he buys his music, but rips the movies he wants to see…

Once you’ve paid your monthly data fee to M Web, Telkom, Verizon, whoever – you want to get your money’s worth and download whatever you can to get the most out of your allocated data… In the end the adsl and broadband providers may be the only ones profiting.

Terminatryx Live

The other day Sonja mentioned that we’re one of the last generations to grow up without the internet – so naturally we’ll see things a bit differently to kids exposed to an iPad in stead of a book, an mp3 file in stead of a CD…
Somehow music has become this public domain entity floating around the web which we demand to access and have when we want it.  With a CD it is a physical, tangible thing you can keep, study, page through and listen to all at once (or get autographed by the band if you get to encounter them – further expanding your connection with the music).  To a great extent the invisibility of on-line music has removed that realness, and perhaps its worth.  You don’t get to stack your favorites on a shelf anymore – it’s listed on a hard drive, a phone, or floating in the cloud…

Do we want music to lose its worth?  I don’t believe so.

I was reminded about this recently when we set up an Indie Go Go crowd funding campaign for our latest Terminatryx album – having no expectations.  We were truly surprised how people from around the world saw the value in supporting something they like or believe in (even before its completion!), with contributors from South Africa, the UK, USA, even Japan, Switzerland and Australia backing part of the recording cost (not charity, but receiving albums, downloads and various other perks).  While one can often get despondent when you’re unsure of how people value your work, this was a big reminder that all is not lost.

If I had a solution, I’d slap it right at the top of this piece and make it one quick and easy paragraph (and if you’ve reached this far, thanks!)

So, all I can do is try and remind everyone reading this that whether you love the music of a specific band, or even if an act does not exactly fall within your taste confinements, or a specific album does not meet your expectations, every band puts their heart and soul into their music, and for the most part, do so out of their own pockets (again, even more so here in South Africa).  So when you’re poised to grab that track illegally, keep in mind how the accumulative compound effect of many people doing the same thing may have on a band and their future.

Supporting bands by physically being at shows are great – even though the R20 – R50 entry fee is often scoffed at (that’s under $2 – $5! (while R500 to a grand get pulled out without flinching for a touring international act), but buying local music as opposed to ripping it, you place a value on it, something you want to keep and in the long run it will not only make it easier for the bands to continue creating music you love, progressing and evolving, but also have you value it more and appreciate that product you acquired legitimately, knowing you’ve invested in the advancement of artists who will never get backing from the Arts & Culture department.

We all love music – but don’t always show it….

> a few days after posting this, I stumbled across this image:

Access Part 1 Here
Access Part 2 Here
Access Part 3 Here

MUSIC’S WORTH – Part 1 ( Paul Blom )

(Initially this piece was pushing 4000 words… but I though maybe it’s best if I edit it some more and split it up into 3 parts to make it easier on you! The word count actually grew – So, here goes Part 1)

6th Log
MUSIC’S WORTH  Part 1 – Paul Blom
Access Part 1 Here
Access Part 2 Here
Access Part 3 Here

Paul Blom – Terminatryx co-creator

Music…  something most of us cannot live without, yet it can so easily be devalued in so many ways.  From dismissing something as shit because it doesn’t fit your genre preference, to illegally downloading it.

 

My love of music and movies are very much on a par.  And while the music I make usually have a Metal edge or movie soundtrack elements, and music videos or movies I produce and direct have a Horror flavour, my taste in audio and cinema is as wide as Weird Al Yankovic’s prosthetic butt in his “Fat” music video parody of Michael Jackson’s “Bad”… OK, even wider – from Classical music to Grindcore, or Romantic Comedies to Eastern Extreme films – and loads in between.

With the digital and on-line age, access to music (and movies) has become effortless, swift, and also, potentially at no cost…

It’s not up to me to condemn anyone when they decide to grab illegal downloads in stead of buying it, but in that respect can only relay my perspective on it from the other side.

Across the 1980s when we took the weekly pilgrimage into Cape Town’s CBD by train, we’d head straight for Ragtime Records looking for new albums (located in the Old Mutual underground mall, below the Golden Acre on Adderley Street), raiding the import bins, searching for our favorite bands at the time (incl. Kiss, Iron Maiden, W.A.S.P., Metallica, Slayer, Overkill, Megadeth, Anthrax, Manowar, Accept etc.) or discover new ones (sometimes just judging by the killer artwork alone! – often less successfully so, as with the Krokus live album).  Still in school, pocket money was tight then, and when you managed to find that gem that very few people would have on their record shelf (with only a few of them flown into the country), you cherished it and savored every note (and I still have most of those vinyl LPs).  And when friends and acquaintances surfaced with rarities like Venom’s live Hammersmith Odeon show on Betacam videotape, or Hardcore / Punk EPs from Sweden on 7-inch, these were copied onto cassette (something many compare to the current on-line sharing habits – albeit a much faster, unencumbered and easily proliferated trend than the old-school method).

 

My vinyls

 

These trips into the city hunting for music was an adventure with a great reward at the end of it – the music becoming an integral part of our lives, identity and soundtracks to our youth (with albums like Slayer’s “Reign In Blood” and Metallica’s “Master Of Puppets” still as brilliant as they were on their release 3 decades ago, and not just because it has a sense of nostalgia attached to them, but because they really are fantastic albums with great songs and production).

Virtually anything you’re looking for today can be found on-line with a few key strokes.  Searching for new music however can become a task as you now have to wade through a vastly increased morass of bands – some brilliant, some good, but most terrible imitations of imitations in a perpetual cycle of regurgitation – buying all of these albums blindly is obviously not practical or financially viable (that’s why there are sample streaming options to check out first as a test drive – like the headphone listening corner record stores used to have).  But with technology’s advances everything is speeding up and we all demand everything right here, right now, no waiting period to be tolerated – even on-line stores race to ensure overnight delivery of your physical CDs / DVDs / Blu-rays… I still find an excitement in waiting for something you ordered, like an import taking longer than usual – maybe forgetting about it as you get on with other things, you know, like life – pleasantly surprised when the courier arrives with your package(!)

But, when looking at what it takes to create an album, be it a work of genius or a bland offering, one produced in a home studio or at a multi-million dollar professional facility – is one of lesser value than another?
Then of course the shift towards digital files as opposed to physical CDs are an issue (not just related to cost, accessibility and space).  And we all have our preferences – yet I don’t understand why we cannot embrace all of these formats to serve different purposes… Maybe because the hardware producers need a new component to sell us each time, scrapping the previous one in favour of the “new and improved” technology?, and with living spaces shrinking, can we all fit a variety of players on the shelf? (Ours contains: a DVD player, PS3/Blu-ray, X Box, PS2, Wii, HD Media Player, and yes, a VCR – with all the discs, tapes and files to go with it – While I have loads of vinyl records and still a few cassettes from back in the day, I haven’t re-purchased a turntable yet).

Terminatryx – “Shadow”

 

It is often assumed that the musicians and moviemakers on these media delivery systems are wealthy… Even Metal bands you consider to be huge are not all millionaires.  Industrial acts can be even more niche (unless you’re Trent Reznor or Al Jourgensen, running your own show).  Record companies don’t throw money at non-commercial bands and musicians.  They have to work their asses off and whatever the record company puts in, they take back tenfold before the musicians can profit from their art.  So if the cost outweighs the return – the band can end up owing the record company! (while none of the executives and employees miss a paycheck or bonus).  A master-slave relationship often resulting in relentless touring to pay the bills, not necessarily for the joy of playing to fans and making a living at it (some record deals even hijack the band’s merchandise rights).  In the early-’90s when my band V.O.D (Voice Of Destruction) was (kind of) signed to local label Inhouse Records, we had to get up to Johannesburg on our own steam, record, play live shows, then having to hint with label owner Philip Nel that we’ll need cash for gas on the long drive back to Cape Town!  We never saw any returns from album and compilation sales.  When we took the plunge in the mid-’90s and flew off to Europe to record for our new German label Morbid records and do a full Euro tour (with Katatonia and In The Woods), again, all costs had to get covered first.

The indie route is becoming the norm with more freedom, but even so, that places all the burden on the band.  It takes focus, determination, double the hard work, and a thick skin to take many hits.

Even though it has a more visceral approach, Metal / Industrial / real alternative music is more challenging and (yes) intellectual than your average shit-pop tunes aimed at the lowest common denominator (although generic satanic content can be negated as equally frivolous as mainstream themes of dancing or proclamations on how much “swag” you have… a line screeching “Satan!” often coming across just as meaningless as “Up in the club!” – but each to their own).  The musical input and technical execution of Metal far outranks commercial drivel following whichever trend seems the most likely to cash in with a single release or (the once popular) ringtone download.  I accidentally passed Idols while channel flipping and judge Jennifer Lopez’s vacuous new video was being screened – holy shit, the same old pathetic crap with the most soulless “music” behind it, and yes, the “lyrics” are about fuckin’ dancing!.  At the end of the day, that song is literally worth gold to her (in revenue earned), however base, simple, dumbed-down or commercially pandering it may be – while to me it isn’t even worth a turd, and I wouldn’t want it for free (even as a legitimate give-away, let alone an illegal download…)

The days of an album that was constructed to take the listener on a  journey of musical and emotional highs & lows across 9 to 12 tracks seem to be disappearing in favor of an instant fix.  But it looks like Metal is the bastion where this experience would survive (with concept albums also not forgotten).

And besides, Metal was never radio’s friend – Iron Maiden and Metallica built their fan base on the road with a lot of blood and sweat (and I’m sure quite a few tears).  While on-line stations have done a lot to get new music heard, not many pay the artists royalties like regular stations (who also knew how to cut corners).  So, the discrimination of heavier music being barred from regular airwaves (and removed from the revenue stream where others benefit), increased plays and streaming on-line may get them noticed and heard, but not necessarily paid – so, the hope would be that listeners do further investigation and buy the album if they like it – but, increasingly, in stead opt to find it somewhere for free… So, if your job doesn’t pay that well or payday is still far off, and a cool new album comes along that you can’t afford, how easily do you hit the browser and see where someone has uploaded it?

Paul Blom

I’m still puzzled as to how anyone justifies taking someone else’s work, dropping it on-line for anyone to do with as they please… Do they feel they’re doing the musician a favour to get it out there?  Or get ego points for being a sharing person, or maybe even get it out there before the official release date?  Or even think they’re fulfilling a public service?  Is it a power trip? Who knows…

Creating an album however, is not exempt of substantial cost.  Even if you record at home – the equipment, software, your instruments and the many hours dedicated to writing, rehearsing, recording, honing your skills, as well as mixing, the mastering, the reproduction (if you press physical CDs), all add up to a handsome sum that has to be covered.  Recording in a professional studio ups that even more.  Terminatryx has done both of these and the recoup process can sometimes lead to simply taking the hit and writing it off… Is that right and justified?  Even with merchandise sales, new T-shirts need to be printed with the income from those sold, so the cycle rolls on.

It costs a lot to do what you love, and to have fun at it! – but debts can take the joy out of making music, and lead to so many bands throwing in the towel.

Drop us a reply if you agree or disagree with any of these ramblings…
To be continued in Parts 2 and 3…

Access Part 1 Here
Access Part 2 Here
Access Part 3 Here