Haze


Today it is rather difficult to find a movie which scares the shit out of people and leaves them with an unease and uncomfortable feeling. Even most of my favorite modern horror flicks aren’t able to bring up these “mal à l’aise” feelings I felt so often while I was watching scary stuff as a kid. Either I’ve become completely over-saturated and desensitized to the whole genre, or movie people just don’t know how to write a good story and how to create an atmosphere anymore. When I look back a decade, there are only a handful of movies which in some way shocked or terrified me at least a bit and as I always say, I have seen a lot of weird, sick and disgusting stuff. Haze certainly is one movie that manages to do something with me.

In 2005, Tetsuo: The Iron Man director Shinya Tsukamoto was given the opportunity to do a short for the Digital Short Films by three Filmmakers project. The idea behind this project is to give 50.000 dollars to three directors in order to let them make movies by a given subject. The three shorts are then shown during the South Korean Jeonju International Film Festival. Mr. Tsukamoto came up with a 25 minute long version of Haze, which later on was extended to 49 minutes.

The story of the movie is quite “simple”:

  • A wounded man wakes up and finds himself in a perverse maze.
  • The man searches for an exit.
  • The man sees people being slaughtered and dying.
  • The man meets a woman (from now on the movie gets “weaker”, coincidence??)
  • Togehter they try to find a way out.
  • They find a way out.

Boring you said? No way! Personally I think there are a few reasons why Haze works so well. First of all, Tsukamoto uses a very simple but nowadays very underrated movie element: atmosphere. Especially the first half of the movie is dominated by an incredibly dark and bone crushing ambiance, which immediately captivates you. He then combines this effective and very tense device with some gory effects, primal and modern human fears such as claustrophobia, pain, death, depression and hopelessness. Using all these different elements and horror concepts for sure isn’t something new and especially its concept of isolation reminded me of The Cube, but Haze is able to maintain the level of anxiety very high nearly throughout the whole movie.

Before I watched this flick for the first time I was in no way claustrophobic and I even can’t say that I am now, but since I saw Haze, I have from time to time (although very rarely) this well-known nightmare of body restriction where I barely can move around in an isolated, tight and narrow room. I am not quite sure if it was because of that flick that my subconciousness tries to process this fear but if this is the case, I’ve got my own personal Jaws or Psycho, which would be epic.

If I have to write about negative points of the movie, I think that it loses a bit of its terrifying aspect in the second part just after the man meets the woman. I also think that it even loses more of its mystic and confusing character when the plot moves away from its metaphysical dimension by the two people leaving the maze. Nevertheless, Haze is one of my all-time favorite “what the fuck” movies and in the end it leaves tons of unsolved questions. I am not 100% sure if there are deeper, philosophical explanations and sub-plot interpretations, but I really appreciate it when a director manages to make a film where people think beyond just the images they have seen.


El Gore’s competition, and the winner is…

Many thanks to all your contributions! It was hard in many ways to decide a winner, but we finally managed to do a vote and select the best of the best.

And the winner is…

“Tempi di guerra”, as this masterpiece is known in Italian, was written and directed by Umberto Lenzi in 1987. Lenzi can be labled as the inventor of the cannibal movie genre and is probably best known for the cult flicks “Il paese del sesso selvaggio” and “Cannibal Ferox”. I think that “Tempi di guerra” is a well chosen winner and I am really looking forward to reviewing it. -Luc-

Congratulations to Panzerfaust! Please send us your contact details to elgore1@hotmail.com!

Heartbeat Parade – Burning Nantucket! EP


Well, what do we have here? Is it Postrock? Posthardcore? Instrumental Mathrock? Or everything together?

Heartbeat Parade have been causing some noise for over two years now in the Luxembourgish music scene. Their Burning Nantucket! EP gives us a preview of what’s about to happen on their first long player scheduled for later this year. Postrock seems to be fading slowly but surely but this could be declared as one possible logical progression of this style. In fact it combines pretty much everything mentioned above without ever losing its focus.

The good thing is: just like in ‘classic’ Postrock it lets you build up your own world around the song even if the band targets you in a certain direction by using vocal samples from documentary films. Still, the spoken word can mean everything you want in the end, especially because the musical direction leads to different feelings.

The skeptical and aggressive voice is never lost though due to the steady hard- and postcore outbreaks. Electro elements and a solid Mathrock fundament complete this complex tableau. Heartbeat Parade seem to have found a definite line and you can hear that those guys are no newbies in any way, in case you haven’t already known it looking at their portfolio.

Check their homepage for further concert dates.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv8jLh-rpMw]

Dirty Crows – Eat It Baby!

Check out the first single and video of our buddies from Dirty Crows. The video was shot by Daniel Carneiro and Luc from El Gore.

We’re looking forward to your album guys!

Their debut will be released at this year’s Food For Your Senses Festival, during which El Gore will be present too and provide you with some stories!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaB0cJQBP5A]

Enter The Void

Director: Gaspar Noé

Stars: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy

“Who else but the French?”

This was my first reaction after watching “Enter The Void” by Gaspar Noé. There was a lot of talk when the movie first came out and a few friends told me about the movie and how cool and great it was and I was eager (kinda) to watch it someday; as I really did not know what the movie was about, except that drugs have an important role in it. Well fuck yeah, a drug movie; something new and completely refreshing, huh?!

There’s Oscar, the main character sitting in his flat in Tokyo, philosophizing about life, death and drugs of course, and after a few moments you dive into Oscar’s drug inflicted nirvana because he smoked asbestos, or what the heck do I know, I’m no drug addict; and what you see in his mind are algae-shaped Winamp-like visualizations.

“FUCK! Not another ‘The Tree Of Life’-like bullshit, oh gosh; NO!”, I was lying in bed and writhing in fear. But it turned out differently than expected. I was relieved that Terrence Malick did not participate on this production.

To resume the story quite shortly, Oscar’s a drug dealer and was separated from his sister, Linda; at a very young age, after their parents died in a brutal car accident.

Eventually he convinced his sister to come and join him to Tokyo, as life down there seems to be carefree. Too bad there’s Oscar’s friend Alex who told him at the police in revenge for having slept with Alex’s mother (former stripper, you would) and after a short chase Oscar gets shot and dies immediately; but his soul floats around Tokyo’s skyline and observes the lifes and destinies of his friends and companions. An oath Oscar took with Linda, as he promised he would never leave her, keeps him from going beyond.

“Enter The Void” attempts to thematize life, death and re-incarnation but fails to convince me. I do not believe in re-incarnation. When you die, your body turns into hummus. Period. There’s no soul that will conquer another body / lifeform whatsoever… but that’s not the movie’s fault if I don’t believe in such sorcery.

The overall darkish atmosphere tries to be over-disturbing with all the neon-lights in Tokyo and the milky-foggish point of vue from Oscar’s soul down to earth is a very tiring experience. Don’t get me wrong; I welcome every director who brings new accents in film making and camera perspectives. But as my former English teacher used to say: “Enough is enough!”. Everything can be overused!

Another point I dislike is the exaggerated perversion and provocation. What’s the point of showing the tragic car accident that killed Oscar’s and Linda’s parents on multiple occasions, with little Linda screaming all her anguish out of her lungs? Why do I have to see how Alex (Oscar’s traitor) sucks dicks to make a living? I mean, you want a tear jerker, Gaspar Noé? Really? Or do you wank at the idea as on how you can shock your audience? This was my opinion after watching the scene with Linda’s abortion and the fetus lying on the kidney dish.

For a minute there, I was expecting a Gang Bros truck coming by with a handful of potent stallions jerking on the fetus and run over it afterwards.

Not because I wanted to see that but because I thought that the movie couldn’t sink any lower…

Movies like this one leave a very bitter aftertaste in my mouth and I cannot say that I liked “Enter The Void”, because I am not into this french over-stylization of violence and perversion. It’s not violence itself in movies that disturbs or disappoints me, but the fact that some directors / filmmakers give more value to shocking scenes than to a flawless / convincing storyline.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRNpSKsBKw8]

Defy The Laws Of Tradition – Till Death Us Part

Defy the Laws of Tradition’s debut Till Death Us Part from 2009 is by far not a typical breakdown-infected, faceless and boring metalcore record like most of ‘em are. Philipp Treiber (guitar/vocals) told me that his father had a big musical influence on him by making him familiar with bands like Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa but also Journey and Boston. Furthermore he stated that he’s very opened towards music, as he listens to a lot of different styles.

I don’t know what the other guys’ views are but you can hear and feel a vast variety of different inspirations. Metalcore, melodic death, thrash and modern hardcore surely are the principal constituents of this fresh and tasty soup. These ingredients at no point overpower the record but, on the contrary, let enough space for other spices from time to time (a bit of punk rock here, a bit of post-rock there). A proverb says that too many cooks spoil the broth. This doesn’t count for Till Death Us Part, cause every note has its right to exist. Every single aspect of the record is integrated and responsible for an heterogeneous and interesting output.

I have written lots of reviews over the past years and if you have followed me, be it my old blog or El Gore, I think it is clear that while listening to or writing about music, I often concentrate on the voice. It’s not the lyrics I am interested in but rather the acoustic color and the authenticity.

For example I am in no way sexist but I can’t listen to female voices in music aside from the beautiful Beth Gibbons from Portishead and Jón Þór „Jónsi“ Birgisson from Sigur Rós.

And so there is a (personal) diminutive negative aspect of the record. The guys could have used this sleazy, corny melodic, clean voice a bit less. Not because the voice is bad in itself or because it doesn’t fit but because the screams, shouts and growls are so energetic and aggressive that I want more. I know that this mixture of clean singing and shouting/screaming is an identifying feature of the metalcore subgenre but I don’t like this element because a lot of power and aggressiveness is being lost. Altogether that’s my problem and not something I don’t like about the band, but something I don’t like about the genre.

As my roots lay in the oldschool and primitive Black Metal, I am not a person who likes talking and writing about the technical skills of a band. So I will also cut it short for Till Death Us Part. To be concrete, I don’t give a damn fuck about techniques. Confucius already said: “Malmsteen has a lot of skills and he is able to play 1000 notes per second but David Gilmour plays him against “The Wall” with one single bending.” Why? Because Gilmour feels what he plays. And that’s exactly what I thought while listening to Till Death Us Part. Don’t get me wrong, Defy the Laws of Tradition, in everything they do, maintain the high standard. More important is, that the band is authentic, honest and play with heart. Good music is felt music and these guys definitely feel what they play. Kudos for that!

To conclude I have to say that the playtime of the record may be a bit too long. Always remember guys that it is far better when a listener really likes the music but wished that the record, concert or whatever was a bit longer instead of getting bored with the time because you keep on playing and playing.

You should give these guys a try and I am really looking forward to their new longplayer.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0JhUYT8DeE]