When thinking about 'Aeuk', which means tracked metal and so on - there is clearly a point where the sort of amateurish hobbyist attitude went into next level with passion, and I'm not talking about the use of real instruments (of my own) or anything else like that ... though it's not a coincidence all that started happening around the same time when I joined the first ever real band project: Cauterized. You can find the band from metal archives if you want to check the rather small amount info available online.
Like I mentioned in some earlier post (about fatal crash experience from late 1990s, check out the last bits of the post with screenshot) I got connected via the fast growing tracked metalscene * with lots of interesting fellas and one of these was guy with nickname "forhekset" (whom I got to know via "violator") who formed Cauterized in 1998, in South Africa. Yeah, I know, I'm from Finland, and this band was originally from the other end of the world. The magic of interwebs!
* Brief history: Thinking about tracked metalscene, how it was, it begun around 1997 and it ended pretty much in 2005 or so - it was just some 7-8 years overall, but it was intensive period and it was a great community where it was all about metal. No matter what genre, metal, period. Some were death/grind maniacs (like myself), some were into power metal, some were into thrash metal, some were into heavy metal, some were into black metal, ... you name it, there was always some fellas passionately into genre this or that. So it seemed. The scene grew like an explosion during those years. While in the early days it was "tens of people" who tracked metal, in the end it was like 500+ people who tracked metal - and/or in some cases if someone didn't track him/herself, he/she was intensively following the tracked metalscene and its' releases. I was running one metalscene ftp server at my home in the early 2000s and saw how the scene exploded - it was all great. The spirit was all in all awesome and it was all about music, like said. Anyone could compose & create the kind of tracked metal they wanted to and then release it into the scene. What killed the scene then? Well, ironically the technologial development, pretty much. The more possible it got to craft "real" sounding music at home, the less tracked it became and the buzz around the tracked metalscene ended really fast. I remember the talks and predictions about the "death of the scene" starting to grow within scene itself in 2004 and by 2005 it felt it was already disappearing fast. In matter of some year or two, it simply ceased to exist.
Back into the topic of Cauterized:
It connects with the forementioned tracked metalscene directly, because tracked metalscene felt (thinking about it afterwards) almost like ... I'd say the digital version of worldwide tape trading scene back in the 1980s. It had very similar spirit, with the exception that it was about "trading the tracked metal releases" instead of real life bands' releases. It was like you know ... you have mainstream metal scene, and then you have the underground metalscene. Well, tracked metalscene felt like the underground scene of the underground scene. :) And part of the magic was getting connected, too. It was a big part of it, for sure. Around the world. That's how it went with also getting connected with guys from South Africa and ending up joining their band Cauterized in around 1999/2000. At first I got to know "violator" (Richard) via tracked metalscene, and we shared the passion for oldschool death metal, I got "violator" recording some growls for my tracked metalscene songs, and also re'used some of his older growls for some of my tunes (it was common method in scene in the late 1990s especially). Then "violator" introduced me to his friend "forhekset" (Shukri) and I got seriously connected with him, I mean big time. Soon we were CDr-trading via snail mail, and as mp3s came, we were also trading real life albums (of course death metal mainly!) with the help of CDr - you could fit about 20 albums or so on just one CDr as 128kbps mp3 files. Back then it was like "wow!! hell yeah!!" effect and the trading jumped into hyperspeed level for short period of time. I know, 128kbps mp3, you wouldn't accept that kind of low quality these days, no one would, but we didn't care back then. It felt great - and it wasn't just trading, but when I found some good unknown bands which I really liked, I went and bought their albums too (I landed on my first proper job in 2000) so it had also the "support the music you love!" effect thrown in, on both ends. It was intensive and of course I soon found out that Shukri has this band Cauterized and Richard had just left the band as he moved away from South Africa then.
Shukri was (and is) very much melody / riff driven person, but he didn't enjoy programming drums. You can see where this is leading, as what I especially enjoyed in tracking metal was tracking drums. The more extreme drums, the better. (the attitude which I tried to maximize later in Scumfusion especially). So, as we heavily connected in our music tastes, one was about beats and one was about melody, I was soon joining Cauterized logically as ... drums programmer. When I joined, Cauterized only had its' founding member Shukri left, since Richard (vocals) had just left the band / project. Lots of things happened in short period of time, including Shukri moving into Denmark etc. We were busy creating album worth of material in 2000 and Shukri found new vocalist (Kim) from his new country, too. We had idea of crafting two packages of music side by side; new album of our original material and a tribute album filled with covers (of bands that had influenced us). The end result was like planned, two albums, which were released in 2001: Retribution (original material) and ReTribute (covers).
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| Retribution ReTribute |
So, back then these releases felt like "we did it!" and personally speaking I felt like I've really achieved something musically speaking, working with a proper band project. But to be honest, there is something in the production we never liked - and I'd say it's mainly the drumsound, something in it just doesn't work according to original vision. Technically it was raise to next level, with drums programming if compared to early Cauterized releases - but soundwise I was never really happy. But still, it was an achievement at the same time. Musically good stuff, something sucked in overall production.
And the band, it was always a studio project, there was never real talks about being a live band. It seems that these releases are nowhere to be found online, and explanation to that is quite probably ... the fact that very soon we felt disappointed about the production on these releases, like said. Musically good, productionwise well ... certainly better than my tracked metal released from around the same time, but that doesn't really tell much. Shukri especially was after seriously good soundscapes, and it was his band especially - we shared the pain of failure in production department.
I just listened some songs from these two albums today (as of course I have them with myself) after years and years break of not listening at all to them. It must be at least 10+ years break from listening to them or so? It sounds still ... musically in a way good, productionwise something just is lacking? I do not like the drumsounds & vibe. Anyway, Retribution contains 12 original songs and Retribute contains 8 cover songs. The bands and songs included were: Autopsy ("stillborn"), Pungent Stench ("embalmed in sulphuric acid"), Brutal Truth ("WILT"), Death ("zombie ritual"), Autopsy ("fuckdog" with sewer vocals from me, ugh!), Destruction ("curse the gods"), Grave ("into the grave"), Massacre ("corpsegrinder").
There is one thing especially worth mentioning in these two albums from 2001: Even that they were 100% DIY releases worked and recorded in Shukri's home studio, they were mastered by no one else but Mieszko Talarczyk from Nasum. Yeah! Shukri was determined to have Mieszko master the releases and he also made it happen (and he also paid for the job). Just few years later from this ... you know what happened, such a loss. Shukri and I loved Nasum, I especially loved first two Nasum albums, and their early chaotic works (which can be found from their "grind finale" release). RIP Mieszko.
So, the Cauterized tale goes on, those 2001 releases were just the beginning. The hunt for better production overall went on and it started going into kind of overdrive so to speak. I don't remember precisely anymore, but I think we were crafting new tunes too, but instead of going that direction a small EP happened in 2003: Split EP with Decay (who was another tracked metalscene connection, finnish guy "scythe" from the scene with his back then one man extreme metal band). It wasn't original songs either, but it was a tribute to Dead Infection. Cauterized's cuts were "from the anatomical deeps" and "maggots in your flesh" while Decay's cuts were "autophagia" and "day of decay" (fitting!). I remember the making of these two covers happened really fast, they were pure fun to craft and the result felt back then awesome. Especially the production: It was brutal, drumsound was much more fitting & better and Shukri managed to get perhaps his best ever guitarsounds, true chainsaw guitars. Kim's vocals were very good, probably his best (and also his last) with Cauterized. Listening to the two tunes I can only say it was definitely one highlight of the band even if it was "just" some covers. It was covers done with style, I still feel proud of those two cuts. It felt like this was what we tried to achieve (soundwise) with 2001 releases ... but simply couldn't back then. We often wondered about how 2001 releases would had sounded with similar soundscapes, ... it could had been so much better?
It's possible also to listen to this Dead Infection tribute, since Shukri has Cauterized's two cuts available on his bandcamp page: <click here> and go check em out and enjoy!
As a sort of interlude for next development, beginning of certain kind of problems: I can't really talk on others' behalf, but I can state that at least back in those days Shukri was a kind of perfectionist when it came to production, guitarsound, drumsound, vocals, etc. Especially guitarsound. :) It was both good and bad, you know, a coin has two sides to it. On the other hand I was like "let's just play and go for it, forget the tweaking, let's make music!" kind of guy. This didn't mean a conflict was making its' way around those times, but it did make way for certain kind of development as years passed. It made progress towards next release definitely much harder, personally I'd say even a bit frustrating towards the end. In 2004 we crafted an album worth of new material being heavily inspired and full of passion with the excellent Dead Infection tribute just behind us. It was really like that, we got inspired by what we ourselves did - and heavily, too. It resulted into really good new material which we all felt like next level considering especially the 2001 releases and things looked truly great for a while. I no longer precisely remember exact dates, but I think I had the drums programmed for whole new album worth of material in late Summer 2004 already. You'd think that the album came out in 2005, right? Well, nope. The album which was unfortunately destined to be our swansong came out only in May 2007 ... it might not sound so long period time thinking afterwards, but it felt really long ...
.. the massive delay happened because of two things: One big factor was that Shukri wasn't satisfied with guitarsounds and kept re'recording the guitars - nothing wrong in his playing, it was all about the sound. Even bigger factor was that Kim (vocalist) left the band. I no longer remember the reasons for him leaving, did it have something to do with the "continuous search for perfect guitarsound resulting into delays" or not, ... probably not so much that, but I think was more about him wanting to get into band which was playing live. Cauterized was always a studio project band, from day one. So, that left us a duo once again like it was back when I joined originally. The search for fitting vocalists ... beared no fruit in the end. There were several options and some close calls, but in the end Shukri decided to go for recording vocals himself which was quite unexpected result. And he did an excellent job at it! I was truly surprised back then and I still rate his vocals high, yeah. Of course I had no comparison, I had no idea what kind of voice Shukri has - but it felt it fitted like a nail to Cauterized's coffin which was on its' way already without us really knowing it.
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| Fury17 |
So, the album which was named 'Fury17'
(title was born of thought about it's an album with 17 furious songs) came out 18th May 2007 and it was finally a full album release which we both truly enjoyed and were genuinely
proud of. I still feel proud of that release, definitely. It's a pity that it was also our last album. At least Cauterized ended on a high note. So, as you can guess, since this was definitely
the cornerstone release for Cauterized; you
can find it online. You can listen to it for example on Shukri's bandcamp page <
click here> and / or you can check out the video (visual video containing cover art and stuff) I myself made for that album in youtube 10+ years ago <
click here>
(in my youtube stream the movie samples have been removed from the songs, but they are in their original form at Shukri's bandcamp page, that first link).
One thing worth mentioning about this album; not about who mastered it or anything (as it was all done by Shukri, hats off to him, even more reason to be proud of this release) but another curiosity; cover artwork is based on series of self portraits taken by my childhood's best friend Janne, who unfortunately no longer does photography (his later events in his life could be used as cruel inspiration / theme for some horrifying album), he had a special, unique vision as photographer ... and some of his artwork from that point in time fitted our album like another nail to a coffin, and personally speaking it felt like an icing on the cake. I paid for rights for the artwork to him, in behalf of Cauterized.
The story of Cauterized didn't end right there after this release. More the opposite for some time, in a way. The raise to next level was so obvious, not just to us it seemed because suddenly even some magazines wanted to interview us and there was clearly some small buzz going on. It certainly felt good, because we felt we finally had achieved crafting the kind of album which matched the visions and sounded great. I even have one finnish metal magazine saved as memoir from Spring 2007 which had pretty long and detailed (1½ pages long) interview with us, even that we were nothing but "an online band project", a freak in underground metal music world. Check out some pics and quotes below.
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| Miasma magazize #5/2007 |
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" It's easy to craft noisy grind, but to do it with precise production is demanding. "
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| " The only subject which truly motivates me is politics, it's real, it's important " |
So, for a moment it seemed that Shukri's band project Cauterized, formed in 1998 in South Africa, was heading for something "bigger" some 9 years later since its' birth. Looking back, it was the classic "tension building" element which caused the demise of the band. Though it has to be said that officially Shukri
(even less me) never said that Cauterized has split up. Cauterized never split up, but it faded away and went into infinite hiatus. But honestly, sure it
was split in the end if thinking about it. The end, well ... it just happened slowly during the years. More about that later.
One has to remember that it was only just us two members in the band, and we were good friends back then. We bonded
strongly through musical connection, for sure. We shared a
lot of sources of musical inspiration, be it the source of name for Cauterized (Dark Angel's "leave scars" album, you might spot a certain song there) or all the influences ranging from 1980s speed metal through classic thrash metal into especially oldschool death metal and early grindcore. Lots of shared love of certain bands, one good example could be a band like Defleshed, but I could as well throw names like Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, Grave, Dismember, Autopsy, Rotten Sound, Nasum ... and then there was the cool fact that where our tastes differed, it originally made us stronger; Shukri liked especially melodies and certain kind of riffs to that direction, dare I say "groove" - while for me drums and beats were the ultimate passion. All this sounds like we should had been the perfect duo for crafting extreme music, right? Yeah, and during the peakpoints I'd say we
were, too. The best times were amazing times, full of inspiration and passion about music. But then there was this slowly growing tension which so often causes bands to break up, a pity in itself ... we also had basic difference in how we saw music production in general, with Shukri being the perfectionist in production and
me being the punky underground production fella * even that this of course didn't split us. It simply caused friction during the years and was just a partial reason to the end of it all, I'd say.
* I don't mean that I wouldn't had cared about great production, of course I cared - but when other side is aiming for perfection and you want to create new material and progress through creation, really enjoy the creation process, it can get frustrating. I can't enjoy if I can't progress. This started already with the long path (about 3 years all in all) leading to "Fury17" album - I finished my part (programming drums) already in Autumn of 2004 around the time when I got to know I had been selected for university studies. It felt like an eternity for me to see the album finally getting out there only in early Summer 2007, knowing I worked the drums 3 years earlier. At first it almost felt like listening to some other artist's album because so much time had passed. I started university studies in January 2005 and graduated in 2007 May (yeah, around the time "Fury17" came out) first with the bachelor's degree (administrative sciences) and in 2008 May with master's degree with the same subject. I mean, I was working and studying at the same time - I crafted drums for "Fury17" before I even started university studies and "Fury17" came out when I got bachelor's papers already, ... And I remember how I was passionate about getting "Fury17" ready, because I knew it would be a strong album - and it was delay after delay. It started to eat me inside bit by bit, especially as at the same time I was visioning already the next album, meaning my part of planning meaning the beats, drums ... even if you'd imagine losing a vocalist would be the biggest reason for delay, I'd say it wasn't like that. Shukri handled the vocals in amazinly short period of time and rather easily to my surprise - of course prior to that the search for vocalist took some time and energy, and it ended badly, finding no one in the end. But it was the "sound perfection" which took a lot of time. Of course looking back and listening to the album, it sounds still pretty damn good, it has aged well, it was 100% DIY production and there is nothing really to criticize about it - that's how I personally feel about it anyway.
So, that was one reason for tension starting to grow bit by bit. Perfectionist in production fella vs. underground "dirty sound guy" fella attitudes. :) What feels funny now, tens of years later, didn't feel fun back in those days though. And that tension didn't just appear, it grew like a lovecraftian tale, bit by bit until suddenly it's too late to back off from the horrendous monstrosity coming at you ... BAM! Well, one thing is 100% sure: I am not blaming nor judging Shukri a bit though, nor am I taking the blame either; we all are what we are. It was no one's fault really. I know I acted way too impantiently back in time, but you know how the saying goes; as you get older, you get wiser? So, I was getting impatient, while Shukri seemed to have patience towards the end of the world with production details. So, tension was growing, at first it happened without us even noticing it really. Actually for a long time the tension was kind of hidden in joke talks and sort of humor. But humor doesn't carry through everything endlessly, and at some point the jokes started getting bitter edge to them and so on. Thinking about all that now, it's clear that what we both should had done - we should had adjusted our attitudes about it all to certain degree, to try reach a middle road suitable for both. But who knows had it helped, some things happen no matter what.
What happened as years started to roll was kind of continuation of the "search of perfect soundscapes" which turned into neverending cycle until it all exploded like a nuclear warhead in Fallout game series. We started working on followup to "Fury17" multiple times ever since late 2007 or so, and the work always ended after good, inspired talks and musical starts. I can't pinpoint single reason, but I remember it often boiled down to the endless search of The guitarsound. At the same time it felt like the sounds were so great on Dead Infection tribute and Fury17, how can it get better from that? After starting creative work multiple times, it was decided at some point, around 2009-2010 or so that "perhaps the time for full album releases is already old world style, let's make shorter releases" - and it was partially also because of growing pressure (put on by us ourselves) and certain kind of growing tension ... so then we were planning for EP release, let off the steam, some 5-6 songs max or so. The same thing kept happening with this EP plan though, after starting to work, working on a tune or two - then it all stopped for some reason or another. Some time passes, and we'd restart it again, work again on a tune or two, then it all stops, again ... it surely started frustrating me from what I remember. Fast forward to 2010 Summer and suddenly it was already some 3 years since "Fury17" came out and we were badly stuck in a loop ... around that time we were determined that now we really shall work on new material and make it happen. But it never really did. At the same time I started feeling like I getting more than just a lil' bit bored with my back then dayjob. Not a good combination, as you can guess.
We had numerous very good and inspired starts like said, and then the idea of "fixing" the 2001 release 'Retribution' happened as well - so I did my work on few selected cuts of that 2001 album, drums, and Shukri did some rough mixes, it sounded really tight and good to me (and to Shukri too), but ... somehow we found ourselves yet again at dead end. Then it turned into "let's have some re'recorded tune or two from 2001 album as bonus songs on EP" idea ... we crafted tight cover or two too, for example Skitsystem's "jag vägrar" - and we had few new original songs, good solid stuff. But in the end we just couldn't get the EP package ready. Not even in rough mix shape musically speaking, and Shukri never got into recording any vocals for any of the songs, either.
I was really disappointed, frustrated more than a bit and I remember the tension just kept growing in the background. It kept growing even that things between us stayed 100% civilized, and unfortunately like I mentioned already; at the same time I was having motivation difficulties at my back then dayjob, having been at the same job 10+ years and being more than bored - the situation at work evolved fast and then I went for one year long job alternation leave session (which turned out to be just the thing I needed even that money was really tight then), ... things were going kind of downhill anyway at that point in time and without going too much into details, ... the downhill even not just affected but almost destroyed my friendship with Shukri. That was really sad. These events didn't instantly end Cauterized, but it sure gave a push because I no longer had urge to ask about let's restart making music again. So much things happened in 2012-2014, that it's crazy thinking it afterwards. True turmoil. And like this wasn't enough, another bandmate of mine dropped out of my own band projects (Scumfusion, Mood:Doom) and I suddenly felt very much ... like everything was collapsing in my music hobbies. But luckily it was not just bad things happening though. As a result of getting completely "boredout" with my back then job, I moved permanently to south Finland from north Finland, a welcome change of environment. Then in 2013 Spring I quitted my job at north, started seeking new career opportunities in south (which I also found in 2013 Summer, really inspiring job) and as total opposite to all the darkness, out of blue I suddenly found my love of live in 2014 (whom I married just bit over a year later) ... while all this was happening, we patched our friendship with Shukri after some year or two of complete silence. And we are still connected, not frequently but anyway, everything is good - there is no bad blood between us. I am proud about what we did together as Cauterized, especially "Fury17" has stood the test of time pretty well for 100% DIY release.
As I was gathering data and writing this long blog post, I went into looking my personal Cauterized archives, too - as I was 100% sure that I no longer have any unfinished material by Cauterized saved anywhere at all. That I deleted the remaining bits and pieces around 2011-2013 turmoil and that I can't revisit any of that ever again. That I have just the releases we did together as Cauterized (and the two releases Cauterized did before I joined, "Serratura" demo and debut album "Tolerance through abhorrence" which sparked my interest back in the late 1990s). Well guess what happened? Against all my expectations I found the last pile of material we tried to work on together as Cauterized (!) - the last rough mixes and stuff from 2010-2012. Quite a pile of different rough'n'raw mixes, rehearsal type of clips for some songs, of course my drumbases, ... and yeah, these formed the "thing which was supposed to become EP" with some 3-4 original songs and one song from "Retribution" re'recorded (the opening track), and cover of Skitsystem's "jag vägrar".
Well, I got an idea to prepare a little clip of that Skitsystem cover, which has no vocals, just instruments and very rough mix / rehearsal type of soundscapes ... just to demonstrate how the last years sounded in raw, unfinished form ... so I asked Shukri for his permission (his band) and he was perfectly fine with my idea - so I went and crafted 50 seconds long clip for demonstration use in this blog post only, about how last moments of Cauterized sounded back then. This clip is dated December 2010 - and you can check it <
here>. Enjoy!
So, that's it - the tale of Cauterized ends here.
PS: I might craft full album streams for the old releases (releases prior to "Fury17") in the near future and put them up into youtube just so that they are available at least somewhere for at least history's sake. If that happens, I will edit this post here and put the youtube clips and links below here, in the very end.
