Hello World,
I haven’t been posting anything up, as I have been extremely busy with my band H.M.A.S. Vendetta. So I decided that I want to dedicate this post in describing about my band.
H.M.A.S. Vendetta was founded by current singer/pianist William James Smith back in early 2007. Will was born in Brisbane Australia and later moved to London in 2006. It was on Halloween day in the year 2006 that he attended Lordi’s concert. Will was completely blown away by all the insane European Battle Metal madness and had the sudden idea to start a similar project involving the history of Australia and involving the stories of the ANZAC, the lighthorsemen and the diggers. At the same time also feeling homesick, he decided to return to Australia and left London for good.
H.M.A.S. Vendetta has had numerous different lineups before the current line up was completed. Australia’s acoustic metal violinist virtuoso Zach Johnston and Rory O’Donnell who was also the drummer for the Melodic Death Metal band Berserkerfox joined the band in mid 2009. Bass player Ozz Kosasih from Indonesia then completed the lineup on November 2009.
H.M.A.S. Vendetta is a band that describes themselves as Melodic Power Metal. They have influences taken from bands which range from Power Metal all the way to European Classical composers such as DragonForce, Manowar, Iron Maiden, Lordi, Queen, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.
Musical styles from bands such as Dragonforce (www.myspace.com/dragonforce) and Sonata Arctica (www.myspace.com/sonataarctica) are widely known as Power Metal because they incorporate extremely fast tempo along with melodic vocal melodies that was sung in an operatic manner. Power Metal music is deemed to be extremely fast because it’s usually played in 16th note alongside with fast tempo such as 150-170bpm. The songs “Boganheart” and “Digger” by H.M.A.S. Vendetta are great examples of Power Metal.
Keeping the Power Metal element in mind, H.M.A.S. Vendetta also incorporates a lot of Baroque elements, as Will and Zach were both classically trained musicians. The Baroque influences made the band sounds a lot more melodic than most other Power Metal bands. The violin, piano and bass also play a lot of melodies that often harmonises with the vocals. The influences from classical composers Tchaikovsky could be heard from the songs “The Lighthorsemen” and most of all from “Tommy’s Last Waltz”.
However not all of H.M.A.S. Vendetta’s songs can be classified as pure Power Metal. Some of their songs such as “ANZAC”, “My Country” and “The Lighthorsemen” incorporate a more Battle Metal feel taken from bands such as Iron Maiden (www.myspace.com/ironmaiden), Manowar (www.myspace.com/manowarofficial) and Lordi (www.myspace.com/lordi). Battle Metal is a term used when a band incorporates the feeling of going on a battle or war through their music. Bands which take on the genre of Battle Metal is usually very theatrical in the way they physically dress, the words and descriptions chosen for the lyrics and also the musical approach of it. The “gallop” which is a rhythmic pattern that imitates the feel of a galloping horse is often used to enhance the feeling of waging a war. The context of the war in Battle Metal differs from bands to bands. Some bands such as Manowar and Barbarion (www.myspace.com/barbarionoz) write war tales based on complete fiction about the battles which happened mostly during the middle age involving barbarians and primitive men as their main characters. However H.M.A.S. Vendetta writes battle tales on the events of World War I taking the side of the Australian army known back then as ANZAC. Songs such as “ANZAC” and “Monash” is an account based on true historical events- telling tales about the victories, defeats and the glories of the war.
To hear the might H.M.A.S. Vendetta for yourself please visit www.facebook.com/hmasvendetta.
Rock On,
Ozz
