BITTEN THE BULLET

A band with just two songs available for downloads shows that quantity is not proportionate to quality...

By Savaiz Bokhari

Recently while conducting research for an article about Velvet Revolver I stumbled across a link of their 'web–ring promotion partners,' The Black Bullet. I downloaded the two songs available for download, namely 'Tequila' and 'Hot As Fire'. Once I listened to the first song by this band I was pleasantly surprised to discover what I had been missing so far.

One of the first things that became apparent was the fact that the two bands were not even remotely similar in both their music styles and lyrical content. Black Bullet features a very 'white–collar' lyrical style that is reminiscent of the embryonic heavy metal bands of the early 70s combined with a very contemporary playing style and production and mixing techniques that can only be described as 'crude' or 'Indie'. Even the delivery style of the lyrics by the singer sounded similar to the MTV Europe version of simplified Pan-European English. Further investigation revealed that the band was in fact a solo project by Ajdin Jasarevic, a Dutch guitarist/lyricist from Amsterdam also working as an integral part of the Dutch quartet The Nobodies.

The collaboration by various members of The Nobodies and Black Bullet's demo actually resulted in Ajdin joining The Nobodies as he himself puts it:

"Black Bullet is a solo project of Ajdin Jasarevic. It all started begin 2003, when I got a chance to record some songs in a studio. At that point I wasn't playing in a band but I had some songs written that I wanted to record. So I asked some musicians to help me out. Ralf Wedage played the bass on the demo and Sebastiaan Lefevre a.k.a Spast did the vocals, both from the band The Nobodies. The first Black Bullet demo Burnin Desire To Play With Fire was recorded in the first part of 2003 and released in August 2003.

Meanwhile the original guitar player of The Nobodies left the band. While still working on my demo Ralf and Sebastiaan asked me to join The Nobodies as their new guitar player. At that moment my solo project was put on hold and I joined The Nobodies and started playing gigs. The Nobodies split up in June 2004 after two hard rocking years."

The band is excellent despite that fact that only 2 songs from the demo (Burnin Desire To Play With Fire) are available for download and they do not as yet have an 'accredited' recording contract. As Gavin Humphreys of Lastrockshow.com echoes my feeling when he writes:

"As before, BB haven't got a record contract as yet. But that doesn't mean they are not a superb rock band. This band will be signed, will make it big, and will bring back classic rock. Black Bullet has something about it that other bands don't, famous or not famous. The first time I heard BB I loved the track 'Tequila', then listened to 'Hot As Fire', and considering they haven't got millions of pounds or dollars of E.M.I. money behind them, and ain't got the special equipment that most bands do, they do seriously kick some other bands in the ass! You know that when you're listening to any Bullet track, you are listening to them practically live, that's how they play, no special stuff to make them sound like rock gods, no, just 100% pure, and to still sound good when they haven't got computers tapped into their brains is amazing and pure talent!"

The name of the project is derived from Aidjin's nickname from his school days. In addition to being a struggling musician with considerable talent, Ajdin is also an 'A' grade web designer as evident from the professionally done look of the blackbullet.tk and nobodies.tk websites (made and maintained entirely by Ajdin himself). The websites contain considerable info including album purchase and contact information for both bands.

While just two songs are currently available for free download on the band's site it is clearly apparent they produce good quality hard–rocking music. One point to note is that the band is brutally honest in expressing their feelings therefore the lyrics contain aggressive language and sexually implicit suggestions as well as references to alcohol and its effects (hence, listener discretion is advised). The music is catchy and the delivery of lyrics is reminiscent of the early 80s metal bands. The overall impression of the album is that of a band with neo–punk inclination and an affinity for heavy–metal music.

Although it is unfair to evaluate any band by listening to just two songs in this case I will take that gamble as even such a small sampling is good enough to make up anybody's mind.


Black Bullet is:

Ajdin Jasarevic (aka Blackie) - Guitars / Drums
Sebastian Lefevre (aka Spast) - Vocals
Ralf Wadege (aka Emoh) - Bass

Copyright 2004 - The Jang Daily, Pakistan