Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
http://havochate.net/Press1.htm - various
Lamb Of God often brandishes themselves as “Pure American Metal”, but the tag may be better suited for Havochate. Cycle Of Pain is full of vicious, infectious grooves, melodically competent solos and hell-spawned vocals that are discernable and actually add color to the songs. Putting this album under any subgenre umbrella simply won’t work, for this is pure, unabashed, genuine metal that delivers the goods.
Havochate thrives off of thick grooves and the superior throat of new lead singer Tim Bouchee. Vast portions of the riffs are short and chunky, but have a multi-faceted quality to them that enables Bouchee to sing in a wealth of styles. Bouchee jousts from a Chuck Billy-like growl, to more classic, throaty vocals ala Rolf Scheepers or Eric Adams, both of which he handles with relative ease.
The bulk of Cycle Of Pain revolves around the bruising, in-your-face style ala Overkill and Metal Church, but toughened up with a more modern twist. Songs like ‘Still Alive,’ ‘Alone’ and ‘Crack In The Sky’ are instant headbangers, complete with memorable, soaring choruses from Bouchee. Some sweet, flowing harmonies are guitar solos are unearthed in ‘Tentacle’ and ‘Fiction,’ proving that Havochate can do more than block and tackle their way through blue collar metal.
With very few matters to gripe about, Cycle Of Pain should be an album given a much wider base of exposure than what it is currently receiving. How this band remains on a small indie is quite curious, for Havochate was already making the rounds across the country in 2002 as a support act on the Manowar/Immortal tour. Cycle Of Pain is as true as an American metal album you find these days, devoid of all the current trappings these young Yankee whippersnappers fall prey to. Obviously, Havochate has outsmarted them all. - Blistering
Comments: A rock solid group of metal musicians, highlighted by possibly the next American Guitar God! That’s the way this reviewer describes Havochate, the metal machine from New York, after listening to their recent release Cycle of Pain. The most recognizable member of the band is the outstanding former Testament bassist Greg Christian. He brings his talents to this powerful band and it is certainly noticed. (Currently he is preparing for a very limited Testament reunion tour of Europe and America.)
Founder and leader guitar virtuoso, Freddy Ordine, is right at home with these amazing pure metal rhythms and tremendous guitar solos. The lead singer, Tim Bouchee, sounds excellent both with death metal screams and singing as well. His best efforts on the album come on the tracks “Tentacle” and “Fiction”. His vocal death metal screams pinnacle on “Still Alive” and “Wicked.” Mario Rodriguez is the rhythm guitarist and he helps stack the awesome “marching” layers of metal annihilation. Former Hades skin-crusher Ron Lipnicki played all the drums on this 2nd studio effort for Havochate. His efforts are completely dominant and leading yet also clean and melodic!
Freddy Ordine recently explained there excellent sound via his labels website “We wrote much of the record on acoustic guitars and contributing our individual passions as they came to us,” Ordine explains. “The origins of the songs in acoustic form gave us more of a drive in the melody and stronger song development.” The melodies are great and the lead guitar even better as Ordine steps into the forefront of American metal guitar scene with this inspired yet even effort.
The solos on “Cold Embrace,” “ Cycle of Pain” and “Fiction” rule the day, but the lead work in “Rotting Hour” and Tentacle” are just as spectacular. Memorable is not an often-used word in this industry with thousands of metal bands the world over, vying for recognition, but in this case it is more than appropriate. They sound like a 1988 Megadeth mixed with a 1991 Testament but the real bottom line is they are just a kick ass bunch of shredders that could give two shits about anything other than waking the dead! Get your butts out and buy this one for sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Hardrock Haven
Customer Review: Rating: 5
staying true to their metal roots!
havochate WILL be the injection to old school metal that it so badly needed,the time of everyone sounding like the latest thing is over take note to these dudes ,awesome vocals with great range,shredding guitars,punishing bass,and exploding drums make these guys the next coming of old school thrash,try and picture slayer with a little bit of nevermore and a little bit of exhorder and you have the perfect metal band,i just did an interview with the lead singer and he said they wanted to stay true to their roots,nuff said man!!!
Customer Review: Rating: 5
This Cycle of Pain is too addictive to ignore
The Good
"Cycle of Pain" starts things off with a full-out thrash assault. Bouchee's vocals are blood thirsty, but not out of control (like cookie monster). The drums are pounding and the riffs are punishing. "Tentacle" has some rapid-fire guitar riffage and frantic double-kick drum work. Even thought the vocals are powerful and angry, during the chorus Bouchee shows off that he has some range. The guitar solo is interesting, but not too show-offish. "Fiction" displays how effective a simple heavy riff can be. The track starts off slow but builds to a flurry of distortion.
The combination of furious vocals and monstrous riffs on "Still Alive" are so strong that it had me looking for someone or something to punch. The intro to "Alone" had clean acoustic riffs and an ominous church bell in the background. You can already tell it's going to get wild, and it does! "Crack in the Sky" starts off with some heavy drum work that gives way to fuzzy guitars. A brief, racking guitar solo closes out the song. No words can describe the intensity of "Speak No More". At least there are some down tempo points so you can collect yourself.
The Bad
Nothing
The Verdict
This Cycle of Pain is too addictive to ignore. It's nice to know that there are still some metal acts out there that embrace the old school, and put their own stamp on it.
Customer Review: Rating: 5
Havochate Rules!!!!!
This is a must get metal album for 2005. From blazing guitars, gut wrenching vocals and machine-like drumming, this album will blow you out your seat!!! This band will surely dominate the Metal World!!! If you dont have it yet, you must put this on your list for the album to get!!! - Various
HAVOCHATE
Cycle of Pain
Track Listing: Cycle of Pain, Tentacle, Fiction, Still Alive, Alone, Wicked, Cold Embrace, Crack in the Sky, Speak No More, Buried in Lies, Rotting Hour
Rejoice Thrash Metal fiends....there is a band that still plays classic neo-shred, guitar solo's included, & they are called Havochate. Fans of the band Testament might recognize bassist Greg Christian, & sonically, the band has that early Testament vibe, I mean they are heavy as hell, but also maintain a melodic value that is unlike anything that I see & hear new today! "Cycle of Pain" is the first track on the disc & it goes for the juggular! "Alone" starts slow, but it's merely an illusion of the anger that approaches, because there are NO ballads & no love songs here, this entire CD is a shred fest from beginning to end, & let me tell you, ALOT of new bands could learn some things from this band! On another note, I LOVE the high quality glossy paper that the bands CD is printed on...few bands use really good stock like that, it's cool!
- ?
Discography
HavocHate-ThisViolent Earth-Root of all Evil-2003
HavocHate-Cycle Of Pain-Indecent Media/Navarre-2005
We are currently Being serviced to radio by the Syndicate. We Ranked #46 for the week of 4/27/05 on FMQB and #51 on CMJ and rising.
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
HAVOCHATE
Cycle of Pain
Indecent Media - IMD 7004-2
Freddy Ordine - Guitars, engineer, producer
Mario Rodriguez - Guitars
Tim Bouchee - Vocals
Greg Christian - Bass
Ovie Rodriguez - Drums
* Ron Lipnicki - Drums (studio)
Everything in life happens in cycles. The ebb and flow of reality in circular fashion; good times into bad, happy into sad, pleasurable and painful. Coming to grips with pain and overcoming it creates the opportunity for the cycle to begin anew, as pleasure.
The Cycle of Pain for Havochate led to the emotional outpouring embodied on their latest effort, and Indecent Media debut. As guitarist and
mastermind Freddy Ordine explains, 'Everyone goes through things like these in their life that they can relate to and these things need to be
confronted and overcome, which is what we’ve done with this record.'
The process of overcoming required more than just gut-wrenching emotion, it required the building of a family. The revamped lineup now features
powerful front man Tim Bouchee's banshee screams and throaty growls as the centerpiece to the more emotionally charged approach. 'We found Timmy in a want ad at a music store and when we brought him in to audition we were just blown away at how well he fit into what we wanted to do. He really uses his voice like an instrument and added a new depth to our sound,' tells Ordine. 'I try to sing what the parts call for. I like to mix it
up from a low gut wrenching growling to harmony and operatic melodies to keep the flow of the songs,' explains Bouchee.
Havochate's new sound harkens to the grand traditions of metal while forging a new mastery of the genre. 'It's not just the stacking of riffs, it was a real coming together of our ideas as a band,' says Ordine. 'Every riff was a growing up, waking up to the understanding of who we were and how to use the passion inside of us.' It is exactly that coming together, like a family, that helped the band overcome its individual hardships in order to break the Cycle of Pain. 'I actually think that the
music came about pretty naturally, everybody brought their special trait and the songs came together,' said Rodriguez.
'We wrote much of the record on acoustic guitars and contributing our individual passions as they came to us,' Ordine explains. 'The origins of the songs in acoustic form gave us more of a drive in the melody and stronger song development.' This gives the record a more natural, organic feel as opposed to a trite building of songs from the preconception of fusing together a series of riffs and patterns. According to Bouchee, 'The vocals take the music itself to the next level because they are the final piece of the puzzle. We created melodies for the songs that are very powerful and hook driven.'
The new sound and new family are only the beginning of Havochate’s new approach. 'We want to challenge the world around us and make a true
statement in music and about ourselves as musicians in the new scene,' says Ordine. That statement will mean transcending the stereotypes of the blossoming New Wave of American Heavy Metal and carving their own niche. As Ordine explains, 'We are just going to be ourselves...and this record will give us that opportunity, to go out and play and enjoy the pleasure playing brings all of us.'
Ordine understands that better than anyone after surviving a rotating lineup throughout the previous touring with Motorhead/Anthrax, Overkill, Manowar. 'I realized how important it was to have that bond, and with all we've been through to this point, I realize now we have to take the boundary out of what we do and who we are and just let the emotion bleed forth.' Likewise, Rodriguez feels, 'We put out lots of energy and feel we're a live band so we feed off the crowd for what we do. We’re looking forward to getting out there and making new friends with people who dig heavy music like we do.'
And so the Cycle of Pain spins, refreshing the perception of not only the band, but fans of heavy music. The redemption the members of Havochate
feel in the creation of the record is the same refreshed perception the members of the band hope music fans in general will find in the songs and in themselves through the aural experience of the Cycle of Pain.
www.havochate.net / www.havochate.com
www.indecentmedia.com / www.mazurpr.com
Links
