Metal Reviews

Wicked Maraya were an old, groovy metal band, they kicked a whole lot of ass. In 1996 they changed their name to Maraya and released a good album called No Hope For Humanity, then released Counterculture in 1998, which, sadly, is like grunge, I guess.

Anyway, like an asshole, I just won Counterculture off of eBay...AGAIN!! Hahaha. I created a master list of everything I had to avoid this because I did it a bunch of times in the past, apparently a list doesn't stop this from happening! Hahaha.

Well, Counterculture is a decent CD, but not great. I was just wondering if there were any fans of Wicked Maraya that may be interested in this because it's hard to find. Free, of course. If you want to hear samples, go to: http://www.funkette.com/wicked-maraya.html

The singer has one of the best metal voices I've ever heard, too bad he's wasting it in a wack cover band called Funkette now (I say wasted, but if you look at the site and all the chick photos, he may have made a wise career move)! Hahaha. Even if you don't know the band, you'd be wise to check out the samples for Cycles and No Hope For Humanity. Cycles being far better than the two Maraya CDs.

Let me know.

Haha, funny, a friend was telling me about these guys the other day, and I listened to Counterculture, but to tell you the truth it was waaaaay to modern for my taste. I think the rest of their albums are more traditional metal am I right?

The Cycles album (as Wicked Maraya) is a groovy, 90's metal album. Old school metal with some Alice In Chains like grooves. It's a great CD. No Hope For Humanity goes more into that Alice In Chains area, then Counterculture is virtually a different band.

Just found out the link you mentioned has the entire cycles album available for download, checked it out and you're right, nice groovy late 90's heavy metal, with some killer moments like Alone. See what you've done, now I have to keep scanning e-bay to get it

So let me get this straight: are you offering the album for free? Coz I have both of their other albums since years, but never got this one... I would really appreciate if you'd offer it to me!?!? (though it might suck :oops: )
E-mail me or something, thanx.

Indeed. "Resurrection" is a kick ass ballad! You should be able to find it on eBay cheap. I did. "Jacob's Dance" is another killer tune. "Winter's Garden" and "Sign Of Heaven" are the songs that really sounds like Alice In Chains, the opening riff to "Sign Of Heaven" is straight off the Dirt album, but they mix in some good metal to make up for it.

There's really not a bad song on this CD! It's sad that they changed. Too bad. The dude's voice is fucking excellent, I wish we could have heard more of it. I guess I'll have to check out Funkette if I ever visit Florida!

Funkette? Seriously, what kind of name is that! Hahaha. Even for a cover band! When I was stationed in Korea I was in a cover band and we called ourselves Run DMZ! Hahahaha. We even opened up for Quiet Riot when they did their USO tour over there! Hahaha. Fucking hilarious! But Funkette? That's terrible.

Is it expensive to mail to Finland? :shock:

No... :roll: 8)

At least from Finland to US is basically the same as to anywhere else in the world (2 euros whatever)... So I suppose it's about the same otherway around (~2 dollars)?

OK, I just checked usps.com and it doesn't seem to be more than $5 max. PM me your address, but the CD is currently in storage until Nov 30th. Long story. The gist being I bought a house that's not ready until Nov 30th, I originally told my landlord I was aiming at Oct 28th to sign, that fell through. My shitty landlord is selling his house so I have to move, well he included in his purchase and sales agreement to his buyer that I'd be vacated by the 31st! WTF? I never guaranteed shit.

So basically if I said no, I'm staying, he says his buyer will back out. Not sure I believe that, but whatever. That means his new house sale will fall through (one is contingent on the other). So, since he's been nice to me I found a shitty apartment in the ghetto and agree to move there as long as he paid the $700 for the month, and the $200 for a storage unit for all my shit. So anyway, this all happened Wednesday. Everything was moved today. My mattress, some clothes and my computer are at my new shitty apartment. All my CDs are in storage.

So anyway, hahaha...I will mail it to ya, but not for a month, probably a little longer. It'll be an X-Mas present!

Heh, your story was way too complicated for my unslept brain!



Aaawww <3 <3 Thanx.

Oh well, ok, in return I shall send you my (bands') CDs whenever they are finished! Hope they don't cause too much amusement :oops: ...Do you like death metal or just heavy/power?

I'm not a huge fane of death metal. There are those bands that sort of slip through my defenses and tickle my fancy, but for the most part death metal isn't my thing.

What does your band sound like?

Methul..? :roll: Well, I have a couple of bands (including mostly just me), but I think my most brutal death metal/thrash band has the most potential... It's not sewer-vocals though! More like Slayer mixed with whatever death metal bands \m/
But the other two I'm working on just now, are more traditional, the other one (my main band with my cousin) is more "classic" (=older) and the other one is more thrashy. Influences are drawn from Iced Earth, Helloween, Stratovarius, Exodus, Annihilator etc., but to compare to those would be too much.
But it all comes down to the vocals, whatever I can or can't pull out during the recordings then that shall it be. Coz there's no studio to sing, then u gotta settle for the "shower vocals"

All my songs have shower vocals! Hahaha. I can't be bothered to tweak everything to make it sound right, that bores me. I record to record. Demos are my friend. Recording is like taking a shit to me, just get in their and rip one out. Quick and easy.

Your stuff sounds good either way. I can handle death metal music, but the extreme death metal vocals just ruin it for me. Like Six Feet Under shit! THAT DUDE SUCKS!

Well, I have a slightly different problem: I can't bother to record!! -> :(
I requires huge amounts of effort to get me into recording mode...



Thanx. But better not say anything until you hear it *prays*



Yeah, I've just seen the videos from Metal Blade. He's style varies from the drunken twat, to sewer vocals, to Mickey Mouse. But there was this one song, Shadow Of The Reaper, which actually managed to sound almost good! :o

But but, what's your stuff like then? I would be dying to hear it! ...so that I can compare it to mine :twisted: 8)

I've done everything from metal to rap (only as a joke, though). I just do whatever I can. I'm a punk/hardcore guitarist though, my skill ends there! Hahaha. I can lay down the Pro-Pain riffs all day!

Looooooool! Haha, my material will probably crush you by pure metalness alone!! :twisted: Heh.

Hmm, I actually hadn't heard much of Pro-Pain before, but I listened through all the tracks on mysongbook.com; it was mostly midpaced material, but lots of very good riffs! Though I remember/read that the vocals are a bit shoutish...

Hehe.

Cycles is one of my favorite albums of all time, actually. It's just fantastic US Power/Prog. I'm glad i'm not the only one to appreciate this fantastic, unknown band...

BTW. I e-mailed 'Maraya' one day and Lou Falco responded... apparently he likes 'Cycles' best too...

Power/prog? I don't know about that, there's very little of each—in fact, no prog if you ask me—on that album. I'd call them pre-grunge modern metal or something. Cycles is indeed a killer album!

Did you ask Lou why he's singing in a fucking cover band with a gay name??

I think it's Power Metal though might be called Heavy as well. Listen to Vicious Rumors, another US Metal band, and you'll hear the similary. There's very little progressiveness... yeah .. but a band don't have to sound like Dream Theater to be progresssive... there's a fair dose of keyboard, and lots of inventive song structures/riffs. Anyway, lets not argue about style, lets bang our heads to their genious!

Here's a DAMN good review on 'Cycles' btw http://www.metal-reviews.com/wxyz/wm-cy.htm

He's singing in a cover band? What the hell? What's the band's name?

Yes, the link is in this thread somewhere. The band is called...you ready?...FUNKETTE! Hahahahaha! I kid you not. Retarded name, but check out the pictures...apparently all the local chicks and their asses love the band, so maybe he's made a good career move, I don't know.

Anyway, that review above I've read before and I think it's quite a bit misleading. The guy seems to just be tossing in metal bands as references for the hell of it. Nevermore, Sanctuary, Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Warrell Dane comparisons, no fucking way. The Alice In Chains reference is on point, as is the Queensryche comment, but rest are just ridiculous.

Here's a short, not too in-depth review I did on this album:

WICKED MARAYA - CYCLES

Wicked Maraya are a band I'd never heard of until recently. The song "Another Day" was playing on one of those Music Choice channels that some cable providers offer these days and I really liked what I heard. So, I hopped on the eBay train and it lead me right to this CD, roundtrip fare: $4.99. They play a mid-paced form of dark, old school rock/metal with Lou Falco doing a superb job on vocals in the traditional hard rock vein with some upper-register wails and a few more guttural screams.

The best thing about this CD are the songs, though. They're extremely catchy and well crafted. There is nothing mind-blowing about this disc, the twin guitar leads are great, but not amazing, as is the overall musicianship of the band. As mentioned before, the vocals are done extremely well, but this is no Geoff Tate (though the singer does have a few resembling moments). So, that leaves you with the songs themselves; individually the band is nothing spectacular, but as a whole they've managed to put together a collection of killer tunes. If you like some of the heavier rock bands from the 80's that toyed on the edge of full-blown metal then you should definitely give Wicked Maraya a try if you ever come across the CD. If this album were released today, it would have already earned a slot on my Best Of 2005 list!

After this album and a successful European tour, the band dropped the "Wicked" from their name and continued on for two more albums as simply Maraya. Unfortunately the music changed, the band traded in their long hair and all-around metal look for short-crops and a more fashionable mainstream style of dress. Luckily they didn't rap, but the style of music drastically changed into a more upbeat, radio-friendly alternative rock sound. This wouldn't be so bad if the songs were actually good. At best, they're mediocre. Cycles, though, is a great rock/metal album that you should definitely check out; an overlooked treasure. The band disbanded in 1999 and the singer is now in a cover band in Florida called Funkette...seriously.