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In 1991, a group of International Islamic University of Malaysia (IIUM) students were hanging around and jamming in few studios around Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Petaling Jaya (PJ). They were Nox (guitar), Shah (drums), John (bass) and Awang (vocals). Being influenced by thrash genre, they played mostly cover tunes of Sodom, Kreator, and Slayer. Under the name "X", they went through a few changes in the line-up and finally settled with a constant one. As time went by, their musical style progressed into aggressive and energetic grindcore/crossover a long with a new name "Necrophilia". They started to jam with covers of Filthy Christians, Napalm Death, S.O.D, and Gang Green... not forgetting their own embryonic materials. Then with the name "Chronic Mass", they transformed into straight-forward hardcore band with several original songs built from simple riffs and straight-in-the-face lyrics. In the end of 1992, they came out with their first demo entitled Messed Chronically. The demo featured new member Ami (later of 24 Reasons/The Pilgrims) on guitar. Drums were handled by Nox (using a drum machine). Although the production was not really good, the limited edition (30 copies) sold out in a month. They went through more progressions as they started to dig out the roots of hardcore and punk. Chronic Mass's historic debut gig was held at the Garfunkel Pub together with Carburetor Dung, The Pilgrims, Subkultur, The Splatters and Lovely Ugly Carnival. A vulgar display of aggression and simplicities! The crowd started to realise the existence of HARDCORE in Kuala Lumpur's book of punk rock. By '93, Chronic Mass was totally into unmelodic-straight-forward hardcore. Their music was an expression of hatred, anger and dissatisfaction towards the ignorant and pathetic society, and included songs about the inner self and attitude. At this point, they named their influences as Filthy Christians, Inside Out, Rollins Band, Fugazi and other hardcore bands around the globe. They also released new songs in form of Rehearsal tape consisting of three new numbers, a couple of classic covers and a song from the Messed Chronically demo. In 1994, the hardcore scene in Malaysia started growing with many bands and hardcore shows. Chronic Mass was already known as the first hardcore group and they played many shows all over Malaysia. They recorded two new songs for a compilation project which consisted of five Malaysian and five Singaporean hardcore bands. Due to some problems (allegedly the studio burned down, destroying the master tape) the compilation was never released. Sometime in 1996, they released a new material by doing a split release with Basic Rights (Emotional Progressive Hardcore band). The split release tape was released under their own label As It Is. Like their first tape, this one sold out of all copies. A few months after the release, Nox (owner of As It Is Records) invited a few hardcore bands from all over Malaysia to participate in a project compilation. But it turned out to be a very controversial compilation when one of the bands (Disaster Funhouse) started a boycott, due to the fact that the compilation was being sold at high prices at chain stores. The title of the compilation was Visionville Hardcore vol: 01. It was not only released by As It Is, but was also a joint venture with Strange Culture Records (whose owner had a shady reputation for ripping off bands; many people still boycott the label today). So later on Chronic Mass started doing things their own way by appearing on the TV3 (an independent local TV network which now control by the government) "Alternative" show and playing with major label bands at big venues. Awang left the band in 1998 and moved to Sabah. He was replaced by Mie Bulat (Smog). The band continuing play shows for awhile and called it quits sometime in 2001. A few of the band members now play with Project AK (Rap-core), and Infereal. |
DISCOGRAPHY Releases MESSED CHRONICALLY tape (demo, 1992) REHERSAL tape (demo, 1993) CHRONIC MASS/BASIC RIGHTS split tape (As It Is Records, 1996) Compilations VISIONVILLE HARDCORE vol. 1 (As It Is/Strange Culture Records, 1996) INFO - |