Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
Jaxx, Springfield, Virginia, USA, January 7, 2006
First off, I should make one thing clear. Even though they aren't listed at the top of this review, SODOM headlined this show. Yes, SODOM, in one of their incredibly rare State-side performances. Unfortunately, both myself and my companion at this show were unable to stay for their set, so I won't be making any mention of them beyond this. I know a lot of you are probably thinking "you didn't stay for SODOM?!?!" Well, no, no we didn't.
Anyway, Maryland's INVERTED TRIFIXION kicked off the show with some very simplistic, keyboard-laden Black Metal. According to the venue's website, this was either their first show ever or their first show there, I'm not sure which. These guys were definitely going for the whole Black Metal "thing" - corpse paint, blast beats, eerie keyboards and a whole lot of IMMORTAL aping. Ultimately, the set was unsatisfying, offering very little that I hasn't been seen and mocked incessantly in the past.
Next up was another Maryland Black Metal group by the name of CATACLYSMIC AVATAR. If INVERTED TRIFIXION were uninspired, then CATACLYSMIC AVATAR were just bad. The keyboards were nigh omnipresent, but the keyboardist looked utterly board. In fact, the whole band looked like they'd rather be doing anything but playing the show. You could probably chalk this up to stage fright, which especially apparent in the vocalist. He took the stage and merely said "Um, we're going to play a song called blah." That was actually his introduction for pretty much every song they played. They did the whole BAL-SAGOTH style vocal narrations, which were pretty cool, but the Black Metal shrieks were just plain bad. To top it off, the band had by far the shoddiest corpse paint I've ever seen. Particularly amusing was the drummer - never before have I expected to see a Black Metaller turn around and reveal incredibly low-hanging shorts that leave his boxers fully exposed. Really, this band justifies any worries you might have about the negative effect of DIMMU BORGIR on today's teenage youth. At this point, I was starting to wish that I had arrived later.
Thankfully, locals KRASS JUDGEMENT brought a quality set of Death/Thrash Metal. No frills, just heavy riffs and a lot of pissed off vocals. Some of the singer's introductions were quite classy as well - "You want to hear a song about killing motherfuckers?!" and "This next song is a love song. It goes out to all of you beautiful ladies in the crowd. It's called 'Demon Bitch'!" Wonderful. Thus far, this KRASS JUDGEMENT were by far the highlight and this is coming from someone who typically despises all things Thrash!
When the Hummpa sounds of "Bakom Varje Fura" washed over the crowd, we all knew it was time for FINNTROLL. The band took the stage, working the crowd perfectly and ripping through a number of tracks, including "Jaktens Tid," "Födosagan" and nearly every song off of the "Nattfödd" album. Wilska made it quite obvious that the band was very thankful for the crowd's response, as this was the band's first ever show in the United States. Both Wilska and Routa were very responsive to the crowd; the other band members might have been as well, but I couldn't tell from where I was. Overall, the band sounded tight, energetic and most importantly, fun! There was much dancing and merryment, as one should expect from a band like FINNTROLL.
In the end, this turned out to be a quality show. FINNTROLL dominated and I'm sure SODOM was pretty good too. KRASS JUDGEMENT were a solid opening act and only INVERTED TRIFIXION and CATACLYSMIC AVATAR held the evening back.
Head on over to www.jaxxroxx.com to see pictures from all five bands. - Metal Observer
D-Day: Thank you for speaking with The Revenge. Give us a general description of your overall sound / style of music.
Ray: I would say we’re a loud in your face thrash band, you know I mean old school, thrash, real thrash metal.
D-Day: What musical offerings do you have for us to hear, and how can we get it?
Ray: We have two cd’s out, “You Got This?” and “We Bring It”. You can get both at any of our shows. You can also listen to some of our songs from both cd’s at www.Krassjudgement.com.
D-Day: I see you are scheduled to open for Obituary at Jaxx in Springfield, VA. How cool is that, and do you have some other shows in the near future to tell us about?
Ray: Man, it’s too fuckin kool. I’ve been a big fan since the early 90’s. We had to beat out a lot of bands to get the spot. We are the only local band on the bill. We do have some shows coming up. Friday the 5th of August at 6:00pm at Signal Hill Park, 9300 Signal View Dr., Manassas Park, VA and on Thursday the 11th at 11:00pm at Alley Katz in Richmond, and of course you know about Thursday the 1st of September, with Obituary.
D-Day: What other signed bands have you opened for and how was the experience?
Ray: Man it’s been a lot, Nuclear Assault, Overkill ,Deicide, Goat Whore, Testament, Metal Church, Brand New Sin and Kreator just to name a few. The experience with all of them was kick ass. Some of these bands we’ve played with multiple times.
D-Day: We've all read various stories about Blackie Lawless extending his pre-show preparations to purposely knock the local support off the bill as well as acting like a "primadonna", such as not wanting them around when he's in the general area, etc. Have you experienced anything like this in your time or heard stories from other bands like this? Fill us in.
Ray: No, I’ve never had a problem with any of the national acts we’ve played with they were all really cool, sorry I don’t have any stories about that shit for you.
D-Day: If you could choose any 3 bands to hit the road with on a major tour, who would that be and why?
Ray: Slayer, Exodus, and “Old” Metalica. These three bands were the start of thrash metal.
D-Day: Have you ever ran into another general area band called Cockfarm, and are they as goofy as they seem? (meant in a light-hearted way of course. We've interviewed them in the past.)
Ray: No, I’ve never met them, but I have heard of them.
D-Day: Which of these examples could fit as the main reason that you joined a band:
a) Music is my life and I've always wanted to perform.
b) It's been a dream to actually release an album on a major label.
c) Playing in front of a huge crowd is a rush.
d) It's much easier to get laid this way and sometimes people buy me drinks.
Ray : All of the above
D-Day: Do you guys have groupies yet?
Ray: Yeh, we do and they’re all very nice ladies.
D-Day: What albums seem to spend the most time in your stereo?
Ray: Exodus, The Tempo of the Damned
D-Day: What's been your most memorable experience so far? Any crazy shit happen while performing? Asshole promotors? Broken bones? Someone shit their pants? You get the point.
Ray: Yeh, one time we where playing at this small club in Manassas (red neck) and this dude that was running the show was all up our ass, like “you dudes rock”, “it’s about time a thrash band came in here and rocked this place”. You know that kind of shit. So he gets up on stage and introduces us, and when we get on stage he pulls me aside and says “dude, a lot of people out there don’t like thrash metal”. I said, “cool we’ll still rock’em out and maybe win some new fans in the process”. He walked away. And we started to play. It was good for the first three songs. I mean, there was a couple of assholes out there yelling “play some Skynard man,” but not to bad. We kept jamming on our fourth song and this dumb fuck gets scared I guess, because of the two dudes yelling,so he unplugged us and said we where to loud and took up to much power, so we would have to go. Then when we were done packing up, he came out and said “you guys are the best, I’ll have another show for you in a week or so”.
He got hit, I think. But, like we told the cops, we didn’t see anything. We never played there again. And it’s not there anymore.
D-Day: What's the main goal for Krass Judgement?
Ray: Do this for a living. This is what we fuckin love, This is our life, we love to play music.
D-Day: Any final words for the fans out there?
Ray: If you guys get a chance to see Krass Judgement play don’t miss it or you’ll miss it. It’s a good show, real metal at it’s best.
D-Day: Thank you, Krass Judgement!
Ray: Thank you, We appreciate the interest in Krass Judgement.
- D-Day's Revenge Webzine
Discography
Krass Judgement - You Got This!
Krass Judgement - We Bring It
Krass Judgement - Krass Judgement
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
Krass Judgement formed in 1998, playing original music from the beginning. After playing local parties and honing the material, they entered the studio in late 1999. The band released their first cd “You Got This” in 2000. In 2001 the band opened for Overkill where the songs from “You Got This” were debuted to rousing applause. To date, over 3,000 copies of "You Got This" have been sold locally and regionally.
After going through an array of musicians Ray Duran met James Shaw at a local 7-11 in 2003. Ray and James hit it off well and Ray informed James that he had been looking for a lead guitarist for sometime. Not long after their meeting, James joined Krass Judgement. Shortly after James joining Krass Judgement, he got in touch with Chris Green who was originally a guitarist living in New Jersey. After sometime of talking Chris moved back to Manassas, Va on a whim to join the band and pick up playing bass. Since James and Chris joined the band, they haven't looked back.
Krass Judgement went back into the studio in 2004 to start recording their second album "We Bring It". The album was finished in early 2005 and was released to the general public in February of 2005 when Krass Judgement opened up for Metal Church. The band spent the next several months getting their new material out to the masses and started broadening their shows from playing the Manassas/Springfield area to playing Richmond and other surrounding areas on a more frequent basis gaining new fans with every new venue they ventured to.
At the end of 2005 Krass Judgement parted ways with their long time drummer. In a scramble the band pulled out an old flier that they had found months previous for a drummer looking to join a band. At the time the band had a very big show coming up with Finntroll and Sodom and only had a week to get prepared for the show. In a panic Ray called the number on the flier and asked the Mike Perigo if he would be willing to come out sometime during the week and try out for the band. To Ray's surprise Mike was available to come to Manassas that day to audition. Needless to say the audition was outstanding and it was clear that this drummer could be a perfect fit for the band. With in the week before the show Mike had learned 6 of the bands songs and they were able to pull of the show with out a hitch! Mike has been with the band ever since. Shortly after Mike joining the band, they decided to go back into the studio and redo some of their old songs since Mike brought a much more heavier in your face sound to the band. By May of 2005 the band had released a 5 song demo with their new sound.
Since the release of the new demo in 2005 Krass Judgement has expanded their horizons greatly. To date Krass Judgement has played numerous shows with national acts as well as headlining the majority of their shows. The band has constantly been playing shows in Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Maryland, North Carolina, West Virginia and Virginia for the past few years and is still working hard to expand further and further with every step of the way.
Ray Duran formed Krass Judgement because he was sick and tired of the “scene” and wanted to form a heavy Thrash Metal band in the old school style.
Krass Judgement is a blue-collar party band. Always has been and always will be!!
Links
