Contrast The Water Blog

CTW to support Devildriver

The line up has been finalised for the ANNOUNCED Devidriver South African tour. We are proud to announce that Contrast The Water will be one of the support bands.

hay all we have finalized the line of south african bands
there are just a few that still need to be confirmed fully ,but this is it :)

JHB SHOW !

15:00- Visus
15:45- Facing the Gallows
16:30- New Found Disorder
17:30- 16stitch (TBC)
18:30- Knave
19:30- Chromium
20:30- Agro
21:30- Battle winner
22:30- DEVILDRIVER!

CAPE TOWN SHOW!

15:00- Enmity
15:45- Suicide Kings
16:30- Deity's Muse
17:30- Pestroy (TBC)
18:30- Mind Assualt
19:30- Chromium
20:30- Contrast the Water
21:30- SMS Battle winner
22:30- DEVILDRIVER!

plz note: this line-up is subject to change !
keep your eye's on the group for line-up changes

New song up and Make Some Noise Interview

Check out the new track Dirty Reality off Forge of Rage and recent interview with Make Some Noise

Contrast The Water have been touring all over South Africa the last few years and now finally the debut album Forge of Rage is out, can you give us some highlights of what you guys have been up to till now?

Barry Drewett - Wow !!! Tons of stuff, Delia keeps us very busy, I think she believes in that saying `Idle hands make the devils work!’, so she keeps the whip cracking and we keep jumping! Man, highlights we’ve had ….being one of the opening bands for Blind Guardian, playing Splashy, Metal 4 Africa, RamsFest, The Summoning/Grimfest, meeting new people and bands, having dodgy plane rides, dodgy car drives, and many, many booze-ups. Doing our album….. the list continues, I could probably write a book but nobody would buy it.

Q - You guys have just returned from Ramsfest how did that go down?

Barry Drewett - Mind blowing!!! The Cape crowd and RamsFest are absolutely legend, and, man their support is so visceral and totally inspiring….I think they really understand the genre and they get so involved in the live shows, as a musician you get swept up in the mayhem….like I said Legend!

Q - Have you got any gigs or tours planned for the album release?

Barry Drewett - Yes, all the major towns and venues, we officially launched our album at RamsFest, and will be touring the Highveld with Mind Assault and Erebus where we will be playing Zeplins Friday 7th March and The Black Dahlia on Saturday 8th March, you can check out our gig guide at www.myspace.com/contrastth ewater and facebook.

Q - The album was recorded at Witchdoctor Studios in Durban, how was the whole studio experience ?

Barry Drewett - That was a very cool experience, for me personally, to be working in studio with Ray and Shaughn from Witchdoctor Records, as I have a lot of respect for them, and their Metal credentials are top class! Shaughn and Gabs where very accommodating, and they put up with a lot of our crap as we are not the most well behaved bunch at the best of times! I am quite sure we left Shaughn with a few extra grey hairs and a bleeding ulcer, but he never complained, he’s a metalhead , man!!!

Q - What inspired you to write the lyrics for this album and what are they generally about?

Barry Drewett - I was a paramedic for many years, and I saw some terrible things, and I have seen mans ability to commit unspeakable acts on each other in the name of race, religion, politics or just downright brutality, and it changed the way I live my life! The contents of the lyrics are about all the above, and the growing lack of empathy we experience in everyday life, which basically means we are losing our humanity! But I think when you write and sing about actual events that you have personally experienced, your performance is more visceral and real… hence our aggression on stage.

Q - Can you explain the Artwork of Forge of Rage or is it something that Johann Freyer came up with?

Barry Drewett - Grant and I came up with the concept, and Freyer perfected it with an awesome understanding of what we wanted. We wanted something on the album cover that would describe South Africa at this point in time, which I think it does. The struggle of the old and the new coming to terms with each other, we have the worlds best constitution, but a staggering democracy, we have peace, but we lose a lot of lives to crime, but we are Africans and there is nowhere else in the universe we would rather be than here in our beloved country!!!

Q - What show or gig would you say you received your best crowd response?

Barry Drewett - They are all special in some way, like I said Cape Town crowds are mind blowing, but to get a kick out of an old grizzled, battle hardened Joburg headbanger is just as cool, or our own home provinces crowds who know us so well, they are all special!

Q - Having toured most of South Africa what city would you say is the best to go to on tour?

Barry Drewett - Heeey….man… they are all cool, but let’s do this another way:
Cape Town: awesome scenery and booze-ups that border on the dangerous side.
Joburg: outright dangerous booze-ups, and driving your car like you are actually at Kyalami.
Durban: Aaaahhhh….mmmmm… oh ja, Bunny chows and curry.
PMB: For just being so layed back.

Q - Any final words you would like to add please go for it?

Barry Drewett - Heavy Metal is a growing menace, and we are so proud to be part of the South African Metal scene, and thank you for all the support and all you crazy metalheads who make this all worthwhile!!!! Oh ja and please buy our albums, we need to fatten Ray up and it is gonna be a costly endevour…….PEACE!!!

http://www.makesomenoise.co.za/contrast-the-water-interview-with-barry-drewett/

Contrast The Water dropped from Splashy Fen line up

Splashy Fen is Kwa-Zulu Natal’s biggest live music gathering and it is always an honor and a privilege to perform there. Last year Contrast The Water performed at Splashy to rave reviews and an unofficial promise to return in 2008.
Nearer the event time we were informed that no metal bands would be invited, although we were extremely disappointed, we accepted this as we know we play an extreme genre, and this causes limitations.

However last week Pedro contacted me and asked if Contrast The Water would play, we agreed immediately and he offered us a good deal, which we accepted. This week when I contacted Pedro, he informed me that we would not be playing as the powers that be, did not want Heavy Metal at the festival.

Although we are very disappointed we accept their decision, again as we know we play an extreme genre of music, and people who don’t understand our scene, feel that there is a threat of violence. But with hard work, and over time I believe that Metal will garner the respect it deserves, the whole of the USA, UK and Europe can’t all be wrong!

So all you guys going to Splashy….. have a blast, and please go and support our Hardcore brothers Crossing point and show the organizers that there is support for bands that play music that is extreme.

To the organizers we would like to thank you for even considering a Metal band, you at least give us a semblance of hope!

Contrast The Water no show at motherfudd

Well first off apologies for not playing our set , we came up to the festival in a rented bus, that had to be back in Durban by 08:00 on Sunday morning. With the times running late, if we had stayed, we would not have got the vehicle back in time!
Anyhoo, we got to spend the day with all you sick Highveld bangers, and our PTA/JHB friends, so it was more then worth it!

Many thanks to Yvonne and Agro for being so accommodating and congratulations on the biggest Metal Fest I’ve been at in S.A they broke the 3000 mark on Saturday evening! Mother Fudd proves that metal is far from dead, and is in fact a growing menace…**** yeah!

We will be in Jhb on 8th of March at Black Dahlia and PTA on the 7th at Zeplins where we promise to make amends for missing our set at Mother Fudd!

Again thanks to Yvonne, Agro and all the bands that were at the festival, you guys rule!

Yours in Metal
Barry (vox)
CTW

From The Dark Metal Fest

This is gearing up to be KZN’s biggest metal fest of the year, featuring twelve of S.A’s biggest metal acts, all on the same day, at the same venue, so this should be every metal heads Valhalla! There will be tons of metal and booze giveaways, and the opportunity to meet all your favorite bands. There will be more temptation, with lots of promo girls and cage dancers, dishing out funnels and shooters.

From The Dark Metal Fest.

Saturday 15th December 2007

Burn Nightclub 16 Walls ave Greyville Durban

Starts 14h00 till late.

Damage R50-00

So here is a little run down of what’s going to be on the menu, and in order of appearance

1). Cynical Origin (DBN): Nobody knows who they are, and all I can say is after watching these guys you will not be the same! They play Death/Freak Metal, are completely alarming, and completely fucked up! They are the festivals surprise package, and I recommend you don’t miss them as you will be sorely disappointed! These guys are about as sick as sick gets, and they just don’t give a ****! So be warned!

2). Arise to Conquer (DBN): One of a crop of awesome metal bands making their name in S.A fronted by our own Dylan who is one of Durban’s stalwarts in metal and one of the scenes hardest workers. They blast you with anthem like mayhem that leaves you screaming for more and more!

3). Four Letta Word (PMB): This is a powerful metal core/extreme metal outfit who take no prisoners and have a live show that is about vicious as they come! Watch out for there percussionist… this dude is crazy!

4). Clone (DBN): Very sexy, very alarming, seductive, god like, psychopathic, and that’s just William their front man! The big hit of the Summoning Festival, our very own Spunk Metal Gods… Clone! Marie Biscuits, poloni, and chunky come… I say no more!!!

5). Creophagous (DBN): KZN’s kings of death metal, in your face, ripping your flesh, stringing you up by the tendons, death metal. They will be debuting new material, a new name and a new look, so don’t miss the rebirth of one of your old favorites!!!

6). Chief Rebel Angel (DBN/PMB): This is a band made up of the cream of extreme metal in DBN/PMB and is fronted by Wayne (from “V” fame) who retakes the helm and rips it up with style, these guys are a must see!!!

7). All Forlorn (JHB): this is a pro outfit, manned by a group of young brilliant professional muso’s who know what they want and know how to get it! They play an extreme, grind, deathly flavored type of metal, they have kicked **** across the border and done likewise in stadium fashion in Botswana. This is the new wave of S.A metal, these guys are gonna go far!!!

8). Gadabout (JHB): We have been trying to get these guys down to Durban, and have finally succeeded!!! I will explain this band to you in a nutshell: I want to make a bumper sticker, and all it will say is “I’m in a metal band, and when I grow up I wanna be Gadabout!!!” I know the Durban metal heads are going to idolize these guys!!!

9). Warthane (JHB): Another of the powerhouses of S.A Metal. We have watched this band go through all the growing points of a band and go from being a very good band to a band of international standard and are still getting better, if that’s possible, personally a band we hold in very high regard!!! And apparently they are very good eye candy for the metal maidens… so bang or perr out which ever tickles your fancy!!!

10) Contrast the Water (DBN): A bunch of useless skin slappers from Durban that play death/groove metal with a South African influence. So if you got nothing to do on Saturday come out and watch these five farts make some noise and watch the other bands! Naaa… only kidding…but seriously they are skin slappers, I know I’m in the band!

11) Erebus (JHB): Black/death metal of international standard and without question one of the shining lights in S.A extreme music! These guys are about as good as it gets!!! A definite must see! Take note of their drummer, he is possibly the best in his field!!!

12) Architecture of Aggression (P.T.A): S.A masters of death metal!!! Brutality at its classiest!!! These guys have spent time in the U.K and are soon to be off on a European tour, it would take a novel to list their accomplishments. Just so proud that they are South Africans and they are playing at this festival!

So hope to see all you headbangers on the festival day. And to all the headbangers from other provinces that will visit the fest, I hope you enjoy our KZN scene, get very drunk and have a blast!

Yours in Heavy Metal

Barry Vox CTW

New Contrast The Water Song

Witchdoctor Records have released a 45 second demo sample of a new Contrast The Water song "Child Soldier". The song is for a compilation coming out later on in the year in Cape Town.
The band are scheduled to release their debut album "Forge Of Rage" in early 2008, which will be followed up by a massive local tour and possible European tour.
"Child Soldier" was recoded and mixed in a day at Witchdoctor Studios, check it out and leave us a comment.... Click here to listen

Blind Guardian Pre PArty

Blind Guardian Pre-Party at Zeplin’s PTASaturday 7th Oct Saturday morning early we where off to PTA to play at the Blind Guardian pre-party gig at Zeplin’s. Not wanting to ****-up at this gig, as all the organisers were gonna be present, we where to say the least, very fucking nervous!!As we pick up Grant in Malvern, our rental bus decided to seize!

We ended up sitting on the side of the road for about 2hrs, waiting for a new bus to be brought out, and in the mean time we were slowly circled by a group of Jehovah witness type who seemed intent on saving our souls, until they got close enough, and saw Ray stitched out on the grass and decided Satan was already amongst us, and beat a hasty retreat!

Then to top it off a car full of trendy babes drove past shouting and cheering “There’s that Goth band” **** I thought we were too big and ugly to be Goths! Anyhoo, we finaly got our vehicle and were again on the road. With the nerves starting to settle, we arrived in PTA and met up with a friend of our, as she drove away from us she was ploughed into by a drunken driver and her vehicle written off! So the **** continued and when we finally sorted her out we proceeded to the club and as we arrived there was one of those notorious highveld downpours and band and equipment where drenched.

Feeling sorry for ourselves and looking like various types of **** the cat has dragged in from the cold we slumped into Zeplin’s and man, instantly everything just turned good, many metal bands, many metal heads and many good friends.Man just seeing all you guys from Jhb And Pta again, and the way you always make us feel so welcome makes anything we go through worthwhile.Thanx for being metal heads in the SA metal scene. We put all our energy into our gig and let off a lot of steam on stage, and hope you guys enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed jamming for you.

Again thanx for all the support. Special thanks to Ancient Influence for creating all this metal goodness. Thanx to our highveld friends Warthane and Erebus for always being there for us.Thanx to David for the kind words, you don’t know how much your support means to us.

Thanx to Dr Death for your support and your hospitality, you do so much for extreme music. With the evening turning to early morning in a haze of booze and smoke we finally slunk away at 2 in the morning in high spirits knowing we will be playing the Blind Guardian Nightfall Festival in a weeks time in Pta.

So we will be seeing you all again soon! **** Yeah!!!! Yours in MetalBarry(Vox)

News letter 27/7/07

Howdy all; Well after a string of gigs over the last three months Delia, our manager has finally given us some down time, for 2 weeks, which we are using to put the finishing touches to our debut album, and working on some new material. Having toured in Cape Town, JHB and Pretoria and jamming at our local venues, I must say that things are looking good for Heavy Metal, there is a lot of support and venue owners and organisers are starting to take the genre more seriously.They are starting to realise that metal has a faithful following, and that metal is a mouth piece for a generation that is a bit pissed off with their lot and quite discontented.Having said that, I have been around the S.A metal scene for nearly two decades and it is the strongest I have ever seen it, so kindo’s to you crazy metal heads who support the genre, it is only as strong as you make it!Thanx to guys like Shaughn from Witchdoctor, Christo from Grim Productions and Patrick from Metal4Africa that have thrown in their lot with heavy metal and continue to fight the good/evil fight!!! Now that I’ve got that off my chest, Durban are in for a good one, on the 10 August’07 Erebus from JHB will be jamming with 3 local bands at the Winston. Now those of you that know me, you have heard me rant about this band, they are a Black/Death Metal outfit that rank up there with Agro and Mind Assault. Trust me they are awesome, and evil as ****, you don’t wanna miss them! Thee line-up that night will be Ankst, CTW, Erebus and Creophagous. It will be a theme night with props and backdrops, so slap on some corpse paint, spikes and come and join the chaos. The CTW beer funnel will be in attendance so a ****-up is guaranteed! On the 11/08/07 the show will move to PMB, but unfortunately Erebus can only make the Friday, So PMB can expect Ankst, CTW, Creophagous and a local band TBA. Creophagous will be debuting their new drummer at these events, and let me assure you, they are as savage as ever! There are many Major Metal events coming up in the next few months with The Summoning on 25/08/2007 in JHB, Witchfest on the 28/09/2007. On the 13/10/2007 German power metallers Blind Guardian will be playing at the Pretoria show grounds and CTW will be one of the opening SA bands along with Agro, Sacrifist, Chromium, Deity’s Muse, LA Cobra, Ancient Influence, so you can imagine how we are shitting ourselves! Hope to see a lot of familiar faces there, as it will help with the nerves. Well thanx for letting me ramble. Hope to see you soon and remember Heavy Metal Rules!! Yours in MetalBarry (Vox)

CTW & MA Tour

The Contrast the Water and Mind Assault Tour

The tour kicked off with Mind Assault coming up to Dbn where they were to play at Burn on Friday 8 June with Code of Silence, but due to our very efficient local government, there was a power cut and they could not perform at Burn, which was a massive loss to the Durban scene. This gave us a chance to show them around our local scene, so it was off to the Winston, and then J13 where a copious amount of booze was consumed!

On Saturday we where off to Pmb and Red Door for a mini Metal Fest with Code of Silence, CTW, Mind Assault and White Chapel. We went down by bus and took a lot of fans with us. There was much beer funneling on the bus and other general misbehavior.(All court on video by MA to be realest the end of the year)

Once again PMB came to the party and turned out in big numbers and all the bands had an absolute blast. PMB is turning out to be one of the craziest places to gig at and it is always a pleasure to perform there. Special thanks goes to Claydon, one of our die hard fans, who decided to stage dive at the exact moment when nobody was there to catch him, he ended up knocked out cold, with his teeth through his bottom lip, thanx my bro for bleeding for the cause!

On Sunday at the crack of down we packed a very fragile Mind Assault off to the airport for their return trip to CT. Here I am going to rant a bit about MA. These guys are absolutely awesome, they are professionals to a fault, and in my opinion the best extreme metal act in this country!

All the bases are covered they are tight, original and they have an awesome stage act, they eat, sleep and breath metal. Cape Town can be proud to call this band their own!

We then had a weeks break and on Friday it was our turn to fly down to CT were we had 3 gigs at R.O.A.R, The Metal 4 Africa at Klein Libertas in Stellenbosch, and a student night at Mercury Live on Monday.

With in hours of our arrival the MA guys met with us and the drunken downward spiral began. We performed at R.O.A.R that night and got our first taste of the Cape crowd, and we began to realize that they are a crazy bunch who love metal, and like their drinking habits – the more extreme the better! We played with MA and ..ing who are a crazy band that hate everything and the members are some of the elite of old school extreme metal, they where awesome! On Saturday it was off to Stellenbosch for the Metal 4 Africa festival, I could write a book on how awesome this venue is, and suggest that you make plans to get there for the next Metal 4 Africa, you will not be disappointed. The caliber of Cape bands is out of this world and every band on the day produced the goods, they are extreme, tight and dedicated to their scene. Not one band disappointed! We had possibly one of our best gigs and are very proud to have performed at such an awesome venue. Again thanx to all Cape support you guys are awesome and thanx for making us feel so welcome!

After our gig we spiraled out of control and got absolutely blasted with Raymond ending up head banging in a corner to Pantera and generally pissing the venue owner off! Thanx to Patrick and Metal 4 Africa for pulling off such an awesome event. Over 650 paying people

On Sunday we had an off day which ended up with ourselves and the MA guys retiring to some trendy cocktail bar where within an hour this bunch of hairy, bearded head bangers emptied the venue out! We got very pissed and began back slapping competition and fart lighting! It was a delayed ****-up for Chris’s 21st and he had to deal with a 3lt cocktail, check the before and after pic’s. We soon had to leave and on the way home Raymond viciously attacked some leftover pizza we had, and I am still picking anchovies out of my beard.

On Monday we played at Mercury Live to a trendy crowd, which turned out to be a great gig, and a great ****-up. All to soon we were flying back to DBN and arriving at 8 Thursday morning, very hung over and very pleased to have made so many good friends.

Again thanx to MA and everybody involved it was great.

Mind Assault will be back in Durban in October, so do yourself a favor and make sure you see them you will not be disappointed.

We will be playing with Agro on Saturday the 30th June at Burn so hope to see you there.

Yours in Metal

Barry (vox)

27 April News Letter

The build up to this gig was an absolute nightmare for us, as a couple of weeks ago I found it appropriate to turn a simple case of bronchitis into full blow pneumonia with a healthy dose of laryngitis and Alan our lead guitarist not wanting to feel left out, decided to test the laws of physics and see what would happen if he drove his car at 60kms/h into a tree, so velocity + tree = Alan in hospital for two days and many stitches in his fret hand, he was stone cold sober when he done this, which has left him open for severe ridicule from the rest of us! Well to cut a long story short, it was nose to the grind stone and time to pull our **** together. What was special about this gig for me, was that we had a guest vocalist to perform two songs with us. So two songs into the gig, enter Ebony a good friend of mine from Gothic Black Metaller’s “The Sorrow” and the first time in South Africa a female extreme metal vocalist took to the stage. (She sounds like Satan’s concubine being slowly but deliberately tortured to death) So I hope you guys in PMB enjoyed her performance. We love performing in PMB and at the Red Door, for the simple reason, that the crowd there is so laid back and calm, but the minute you throw a piece of heavy music at them, they instantly become raving lunatics, thanx millions you guys rock and it is always an honor to perform for you. Jamie as usual puts a lot of effort into the sound, thanks man you always make us sound cool!!! Also thanks to all the Durban fans that came out namely Clone reprobates Pauline & Mel, Russel and Jen, members of the Gothic Rockers Ankst , those tortured souls from The Durban Underground, Ben and anyone whose name I have left out, you guys don’t know what it does for our confidence, when we look into a crowd and see your familiar faces, thanks so much you make what we do worthwhile. Our next gig is on the 18 may at Burn, and this is a FREE gig to show our appreciation to you our supporters, there will be merchandise and booze give-aways and a competition, where the winner will accompany the band to “The Summoning II” Metal fest in JHB in August this year, All expenses paid. So get hold of one of the flyers/cards and your entry to Burn will be FREE, that’s is R30 more to get pissed on, so hope to see you all there! Yours in Metal Barry (Vox)

CTW Splashy Video

Go and check out this link to see our video from Splashy

Just click on the Contrast the Water tab on the video box

http://www.kuluma-tv.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=98

Contrast the Water

This is just a quick up date to let you all know what we have been up to these last two months.

Been busy rehearsing getting all the tracks down with Raymond, for those who don't know he is our new drummer. He has fitted in very well with the band and has added a lot more diversity to the music, making it harsher and more rhythmical.

We are going back into studio to re-record our demo and in April our album.

We are gigging on the 2nd March at Burn Night Club with Warthane from JHB. Hope to see you all there. Don't forget to print our flyer and hand it in at the door, then you will only pay R15 to get in.

Take it easy

Contrast the water