Crucible

Derek Haderman, guitarist and spokesman for local extreme metal band Crucible, took a look at the prospects for commercial success in Hawaii and didn't like what he saw. Local radio stations don't play original apocalyptic rock. The prospects for paying club gigs are almost as bleak.

Haderman didn't quit his day job, but he didn't relegate the band to hobby status either. When Crucible released its debut album last fall he actively sought opportunities elsewhere and came up a winner.

Crucible -- Haderman, Mike Ching (vocals), Kili Kaohu (drums) and Mike Evans (bass) -- leaves Honolulu Feb. 1 for a one-month European concert tour. They play a bon voyage show tomorrow at the Thai Night Club (formerly Ninja House) on Kapiolani Boulevard.

"If I've been influenced by any author it would definitely be (Ralph Waldo) Emerson and his essays on self-reliance," Haderman says. "If you wait around for that magical someone to come out and discover you, it's never gonna happen. It may happen for some people somewhere, but my attitude is that you have to be self-reliant, take the initiative and get out there, no matter what."

Music and sports -- skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing -- have been his passions since his days with an early '80s punk/metal band in California. The band's music is written with those sports in mind.

He and the band will start their odyssey in Spain, and finish in Portugal. The big date along the way is Madrid, where Crucible will appear with Jesus Martyr, Asgaroth, Night to Die, Almathea and Disembodied, in the second annual Repulsive Festival Feb. 27.

Jesus Martyr is a power-thrash-death band from Argentina. The other bands represent the best of the Spanish power rock, melodic black and death flamenco scenes. Crucible and Jesus Martyr will be spending the rest of the month driving across Europe for a series of shows that will take them as far east and north as Lithuania and Estonia.

"Only two heavy bands have ever been to Lithuania from the United States. We'll be the third, and the Lithuanians couldn't believe that there's a band like us in Hawaii. The other aspect of it is that my great-grandmother came from Lithuania, and they're excited about that. We've already done an interview for a Lithuanian radio station and they said to be ready for the 'Lithuanian maniacs' when we get there."

Crucible goes to Japan in June for concerts with Japanese extreme metal band, Intestine Baalism.

Crucible has already overcome a daunting list of obstacles. Haderman met Ching when Ching's band, Epidemic, needed a good guitarist. One member quit shortly after Haderman suggested that Epidemic do originals instead of simple bar band remakes.

At least one more took off when Haderman and Ching made it clear they were serious about the music and called practice sessions four times a week -- once a week was more the norm. Epidemic became Crucible last January when the band learned that a mainland group had claimed their first name. They started recording shortly after that.

When the bass player "just disappeared from the face of the Earth" halfway through the project, Haderman erased the bass tracks and redid them all himself. Kaohu, the drummer for Broken Man, was asked to sit in as a session musician.

"We did the album because I wanted to document what we had done at that point, and I wasn't going to let anything slow us down," Haderman says.

Kaohu liked the music and played on the title track. When Crucible was invited to play the Repulsive Festival, Haderman asked Kaohu to play the tour and the other members of Broken Man gave their approval. With Evans signed on as bassist, the tour line-up was set.

Haderman says the self-produced tour is a financial gamble the band is willing to take in order to get their music and message heard.

"People write and sing about whatever they care about," he says.

"For us, it's social consciousness, and the core of it is original thinking. Some of our music has a downward groove, but when you hear what we're talking about we're preaching a success story. Imitation is suicide. Mindless conformity is a fate worse than death. If you have yourself, that's all you need."

- Honolulu Star Bulletin

CRUCIBLE guitarist Derek Haderman believes that when it comes to the music business, you make your own opportunities.

He didn't find much in the way of air play for extreme metalcore music here so he set up a Web site and promoted the group's debut album, "Unshattered," worldwide. In considering Honolulu's shortage of venues for bands like his, he organized a 14-concert tour of Europe that took the band from Portugal to Estonia and back for a showcase set at the 2nd Annual Repulsive Festival in Madrid, Spain.

And realizing local concert promoters aren't presenting underground metalcore bands here, Haderman decided he'd have to do it himself.

Haderman, Crucible and Remnants of Reason fanzine will present "Havoc in Hawaii," featuring Skinlab and Pissing Razors with Crucible and Broken Man this weekend.

Who? What? Haderman says that's the point. The bands have a strong following within their genre but have not been discovered and embraced by the mainstream rock media that made earlier underground acts like Metallica, Pantera, Sepultura, Slayer and Korn rock-chart names.

"By the time the show happens this weekend I'll have been working on it three months -- just on this show," Haderman said.

"One of the reasons I'm doing this is because it seems like Hawaii gets everything last. When the rest of the world has heard about it, then it comes to Hawaii. We're like the last frontier but this time we're getting it fresh. Two years from now, there'll be people who didn't go to the show (now) and will be kicking themselves because they didn't go."

Haderman has taken on one challenge after another since he decided that playing metalcore was more fulfilling than working in a genetics lab. He graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa with a degree in Zoology and was considering going on to medical school.

Music and extreme sports won out. He'd take a guitar to the lab and jam while he monitored various chemical and biological reactions. Three years ago, he decided to take a break from genetics and get into music.

Haderman produced Crucible's first album to prove it could be done and steered the band through personnel changes along way. Crucible is now Haderman and co-founder Mike Ching (vocals), plus Eric Daguio (bass) and Evan Howell (drums). Howell is also the editor/publisher of Remnants of Reason and shares international promotional duties with Haderman.

Howell was instrumental in making some of the contacts with Noise Records. Haderman met with other music industry figures in Los Angeles, acted as tour guide when Pissing Razors' manager visited Oahu, and met Skinlab through Pissing Razors.

Suddenly, the show had two national headliner acts plus local bands Crucible and Broken Man. Things started getting complicated.

"It's one thing for us to pack up for a tour but playing host is a different matter. When we went to Europe I knew what I needed and could budget for it. Now, we're trying to keep these guys happy and give them what they need to do a good show, but as the promoter, suddenly we're looking at costs.

"Both bands want to bring their own sound man and we're trying to convince them that one is enough. Somebody wants a separate room because he wants to bring his girlfriend to Hawaii, or all these other people suddenly decide that they need to be here with the band for this show."

Skinlab and Pissing Razors have since agreed to share a sound man and drum tech between them, leaving Haderman free to deal with other loose ends. For instance, he was so focused on putting the show together that he almost forgot the annual influx of Honolulu Marathon runners that would make it hard to book hotel rooms for the bands, record label executives and out-of-town media.

"The Honolulu Marathon made the whole thing incredibly difficult. I've got some (rooms) lined up, but more and more people want to come here to cover our event.

"It's like they're shocked that an event like this could happen in Hawaii -- like there's no civilization here. That's wonderful, but then I need more hotel rooms."

Haderman says he'll be happy to break even; a portion of the ticket sales is promised to Prevent Child Abuse Hawaii.

"It has been tough. If I were smart, I wouldn't be doing this. It's not about financial things, but you do have to handle it as a business. I'd like to bring Crowbar out next, and they want to come, but we have to take it all one step at a time and handle the business and build."

Win or lose, he says he and Crucible are going to keep on following their dream.

"I'm fortunate enough to have guys in this band who are risk takers. They're not going for the money. They're going for things that aren't that easily attainable. We're in this for the long haul and we believe in what we're doing.

"We want to show people that it's not that difficult to do something that you want to do if you just dig into it, do the research, contact the right people, and show them you - Honolulu Star Bulletin

If ever a disc warranted repeat listens to fully comprehend it's scope, this is the one. Creating some of the most realized, yet off the wall riffs, Derek Haderman leads his crew though almost a full hour of the heaviest music I've heard eminate from the islands.

Vocally, I'd say that Crucible leans more towards a hardcore approach, in that Mike Ching's delivery sticks to the forceful, rather than straying to the experimental (no pagan elves singing in the backround on this one...).

Add it all up and you get Hawaii's finest delivering their first studio effort to mass appeal. Expect great things from these guys, as tour experience has given them more solidity and greater breadth. One of the better independent releases I've heard or seen in some time.
- Remnants of Reason