A Tribute to Malaysia Hardcore Hall of Fame 1: CHRONIC MASS

Words From Editor: From now on, I will try the best I can to compile all the hardcore bands from Malaysia which play an important roles towards what we have today. All the biography in this series might be done by different writer, but I believe that “sharing is caring” and it is important for me to deliver to all the kids about all these bands. Either I’m going to do it on weekly or monthly basis, it’s depends on how fast I could get the news and their biography.
For this first series, I believe there is no other bands who deserved more than our first hardcore band from Malaysia, without a doubt, CHRONIC MASS. Been in a scene circa 1991-2001, they definitely earn my respect towards their contribution into Malaysia Hardcore scene.

CHRONIC MASS (Kuala Lumpur)

“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.  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.

Awang left the band in 1998 and moved to Sabah. He was replaced by Mie Bulat . The band continuing play shows for awhile and called it quits sometime in 2001. A few of the band members continue to play with some other local bands, such as Project AK, Infireal and the most recent, Forsaken.

Discography:

Messed Chronically (demo tape, 1992)

1. Intro
2. Bounded for Release
3. Devitalized
4. Awful Mess
5. Checkmate
6. Beneath the Core
7. Outro

Basic Rights/Chronic Mass (split tape, 1996)
BASIC RIGHTS
1. Within My Community
2. United Colors
3. Holocaust
4. Realise The Life

CHRONIC MASS
1. Life Within
2. Why
3. Get Down
4. Togetherness

V/A Visionville Hardcore compilation (CD, tape , 1996)
1. PROJECT AK “Acid Trip”
2. ANOTHER SIDE “Curse”
3. DISASTER FUNHOUSE “Unreasonable”
4. N.E.T. “Through the Mind”
5. CHRONIC MASS “Wasted”
6. PROJECT AK “Bring It Back”
7. ANOTHER SIDE “Darkroom”
8. DISASTER FUNHOUSE “Oath”
9. N.E.T. “What’s the Point (What’s the Reason)”
10. CHRONIC MASS “Togetherness”