yakuza
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yakuza

Band Metal Avant-garde

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Music

The best kept secret in music

Press


"rolling stone"

Chicago's Yakuza burn in a special hell, at the intersection of Tool's riff math, the strip-mined singing of Napalm Death and, in Bruce Lamont's lava-stream sax, John Zorn's death jazz. That is, until "01000011110011," a very extended trance bath of horn, gently psychotic guitar and soft marching drums -- a Bitches Brew chaser after all that fire music.

DAVID FRICKE
(RS 915 – February 6, 2003) - rolling stone


"alternative press best of 2003"

It's great to hear a band doing something different other bands wouldn't even try. Yakuza's Century Media debut, "Way of the Dead," starts out with "Vergasso," which features Tibetan-style throat singing and gongs, before putting a wailing saxophone atop skull-grinding guitars. It's full speed ahead for just under a half hour after that, including a cameo (on "Obscurity") from singer/saxophonist Bruce Lamont's ex-teacher, Chicago free-jazzman Ken Vandermark. The album's closer, "01000011110011," though, is a bigger surprise than anything preceding it — a 43-minute ambient instrumental reminiscent of Subarachnoid Space or mid - '70's Miles Davis. In a better world, these psychotic Chicagoans would be the future of metal and jazz. As it is, they're a ball of screaming fury with chops to spare, who sound like nothing else out there." [PF]
return - alternative press


"the wire"

It's long past time to put the clichés about spandex pants and teased hair to bed, and recognize that over the past decade or so, metal has emerged as the most innovative and constantly satisfying genre in rock. YAKUZA mix punk energy, fusion hyper complexity, and out-jazz skronk, pulling Metal in directions no outsider or casual observer could have hoped to predict. The first 27 minutes of "WAY OF THE DEAD" are recognizably Metal in a mathcore / post-hardcore vein. Time signatures shift rapidly; riffs are layered on top of one another at blinding speed; the vocals alternate between a howl and a furious bark. But from the outset, there's a lot more happening than mere bludgeoning guitar.

The first song, "Vergasso", begins with a small gong, delicately struck, Tibetan style throat-singing (from the guitarist) follows, before the drums kick in, pounding out a rhythm that sounds 'tribal' but swings too. A quick, muezzin-like soprano saxophone wail from vocalist BRUCE LAMONT paves the way for the guitars, which transform the whole into a roaring, roiling mass of omnidirectional hate and fury, lurching and grinding and blending Helmet-like precision withy tsunamis High Rise-like noise terror. On the chorus, LAMONT plays tenor saxophone alongside the guitar, and comparisons to Borbetomagus wouldn't be an overstatement.
Every song on "WAY OF THE DEAD" churns art metal, hardcore, jazz, and noise into a seething morass of exquisitely controlled energy. One highlight is "Obscurity", which features the hometown-cred addition of Ken Vandermark on extra sax. After seven volcanic assaults in a row, the group realise everyone could do with a break. Only their idea of a let-up is the 43 minute instrumental, "01000011110011", closing the disc. On this delicate, drifting piece, they mix soprano sax arpeggios and trance guitar noodling like they were SubArachnoid Space covering Miles Davis's "He Loved Him Madly".

If an album this individualistic and bizarre could never be a signpost toward the future of Metal, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything this adventurous going on anywhere else in rock.
- wire magazine


Discography

yakuza-way of the dead cd (full length) century media

Photos

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Bio

Yakuza has been described as "experimental hard-core", combining a variety of styles ranging from metal to free jazz. The band is committed to exploring new ways of rhythmic, dynamic, and sonic expression that best represents its members collectively.