The Beat October 2002

6.25 Rock Club, Busan
September 14th
By Robnick Bosdie

As card-carrying members of the metal militia and having long ago sold our souls for Rock‘n‘roll, we were thrilled to clock out from the Beat‘s home office and head down to Seomyeon to check out the 6.25 Rock Club. The date June 25th refers to the day the Korean War opened the gates of hell on the peninsula, and it seems fitting; the club opens the gates of sonic assault--from punk to metal to heavy hybrids—every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

First up was a young Busan group, The Big Nail (Baek Sang-hyeon on bass, Choi Ji-hoon on the mic, Chang Hwan on drums and Jo Seong-min on guitar). Their sound is akin to bands such as Korn or Slip Knot. You might call it Tantrum Core, since the vocals consist of breathy screams vomited into the mic. Sweaty, loud, angry and frantic; their debut 7 song demo will hit the streets in a few months.

Then came the headliners; Soultake was formed in Seoul in 1999 with Ahn Byeol and Im Hwan-taek on vocals, Pak Dae-Beom on guitar, Im Byeong-seop on drums and Heo Joon-seok on bass. They played their own brand of self styled “Hybrid Music” and sounded like metal kids who caught the 90‘s funk wave, and then kept morphing it into a mix of grungy guitar, electronic samples and one-two hip hop style vocals. Touring in support of their first album It‘s My Turn--self-produced and released on the Soundplant label--they‘ve been making their way up and down the peninsula in a couple of vans.

Frontlady Ahn Byeol told us that the tour (8 club dates around Korea) is going well; she said that when they play up in Seoul, it‘s usually in front of crowds of over 300 people. The main problems have been that they‘re tired from driving the van and have had difficulties with regional dialects. Said Ahn, “In Taegu we‘d ask people in the street for directions to the club and we couldn‘t understand what they were saying.”

Their name reflects their borrowing from and devotion to different styles, from metal grunge to funk rock, from creamy to superchunk. Their version of Aerosmith‘s Walk This Way falls flat, leaning too heavily on the Run DMC remix, but their cover of Metallica‘s Master of Puppets is novel—hip-hop vocals over the original riffs, slowed-down and meaty. Their originals bring to mind bands as diverse as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Deftones, Lenny Kravitz, Incubus, Guano Apes and Soul Fly.

Their future? “To make another album,” Ahn says, “and keep touring, we hope in other countries too. Wherever.”

They‘ll be in Japan from 11/7 to 11/13 to play a string of club dates. Then back to Korea to continue work on their second album

Club 6.25 is located in Seomyeon, two blocks behind Taewha Department store. Look for the sign or just follow your ears to the source of the HEAVY METAL MADNESS!