Senzafine got together to “bring the bounce back”, and it’s safe to say that they certainly manage that with their take on 90s hardcore / metal. Now this is a genre that seemed to have fallen out of fashion but it’s great to see there are still bands who “get” exactly what made it so popular in the first place. The groove laden riffs, the bouncing uptempo beats are all delivered with panache and power by a band who know when to crank it up but, equally importantly, know when to hold back.
Senzafine are a band just perfect for getting a sweaty club up and rocking, and they make one of the best noises to come out of Scotland that I’ve heard in a while.
Band Information :
Band Name : Senzafine
Year Formed : 2008
Location : Glasgow, Scotland
Current Lineup :
Joe “Lev” Cassidy – bass / shouting
Graeme Humphrey – guitar / singing
“The Polish Hammer” Szymon Ostasz – drums
Brief History :
- Formed around late 2008 as a reaction to the growing staleness of the local heavy music scene, intending to “bring the bounce back” by drawing heavy influences from the big riffs and “head-nod factor” of 90s metal and hardcore bands (eg Biohazard, Helmet, “Chaos AD”/”Roots”-era Sepultura, Life Of Agony, Pantera, etc.) that few bands seem to have nowadays.
- A demo version of the song “The Risk (Is Worth The Gain)” was featured on 96.3FM Rock Radio in the West of Scotland’s “Future Classics” slot a then-unprecedented three Fridays in a row from 22/05/2009 to 05/06/2009.
- Full demo CD, title “BOSS”, was released in 2010.
- Played up and down the UK, including shows with international touring acts such as Warrior Soul from New York and English crossover metal pioneers Senser
- In advance of releasing our debut album, we shot and released a video for its second track (“Burn The Bridges”), which has been available to view online since August 2011 at the following location: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlj_qW8058I The video was directed and edited by our bass player.
- Debut album, “APEX”, was released via Copro Records / Casket Music in early December 2011 (almost a full year after it was recorded).
- Senzafine’s original drummer Craig Chapman moved to England just prior to the release of the album. His spot has since been taken by Szymon Ostasz, formerly of the band Madafaka, who has brought a harder-hitting and more technical edge to the band’s rhythm section.
- Played several shows of the Fozzy UK tour in November 2011.
Career Highlight :
Sharing the stage with two of our childhood heroes – professional wrestler Chris Jericho and Stuck Mojo guitarist Rich Ward – when we went on the road with Fozzy in November 2011 was a big deal for us.
Plans For The Future :
Hoping to play as many shows and get as much attention as possible to help promote our recently-released album, “APEX”, although we are also already writing newer, heavier and more complex songs with our new drummer that we aim to record some time towards the end of 2012.
Interesting Stuff :
- The abandoned waterworks where we shot the video for “Burn The Bridges” was COVERED in drawings of dicks and graffiti that just said things like “GAY”, “BITCH”, etc. If you watch around the 03:54 mark of the video, you can see a big blurry area to the right of Graeme’s head – this is where the phrase “RAPE RAPE NO ESCAPE” was plastered all over the wall.
- The spoken word intro on the first track of our album was recorded for us by Lord Nelson, the current vocalist of Stuck Mojo. We were originally going to use a quote from the Christian Bale movie “The Machinist”, but we weren’t sure how to go about getting clearance for samples from movies. We had got to know Lord Nelson just from going to see Stuck Mojo a hell of a lot, so we asked him to record it for us and he did.
- The front cover artwork for our album is based on a design sent to us by Alan Robert, the bassist from Life Of Agony.
- Rich Ward described our bassist’s long, flowing locks as “amazing”.
Ideal tour-mates : Life Of Agony
Dream rider : Big cartons of liquid testosterone for Keith Caputo to gulp down on a daily basis, to help combat all that oestrogen he’s harbouring these days.
Senzafine on the Web :
Band Website : http://www.SenzafineUK.com
Twitter : @SenzafineUK
Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/SenzafineUK
Bigcartel : http://senzafine.bigcartel.com
Reverbnation site : http://www.reverbnation.com/SenzafineUK
Other Services : Coming soon, or so we’re informed! Our CD is available from Amazon, though – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Apex-Senzafine/dp/B0068IOU5O
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