Samavayo Pāyān Archives - Page 2 of 2

Samavayo Post “Transcend! Exceed!” Video; Album Preorder Available

Posted in Bootleg Theater on March 14th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Goodness gracious, that’s a catchy tune. Samavayo are set to release their new album, Pāyān, on March 25 through Noisolution. And I’ve locked down a full-album stream for March 23 — a couple days before; that’s how these things usually go — so I’ll spare you the blah blah blah of a review for the whole thing, except to say that the doubly-exclamatory “Transcend! Exceed!” is everything you could ask a single from it to be. Heavy, hooky, smoothly delivered and careening in its groove. It moves with an urgency that speaks to some of the sociopolitical themes of the songs that surround it, but is ultimately more about the movement in itself; the urgency becomes the need to get the listener up, or at very least to provide the encouragement to do or be more.

The Berlin trio sold quickly through the preorders for what’s called the “Club 100” edition of Pāyān, a deluxe edition limited in number to… wait for it… 100 copies, though honestly if you missed that, the regular old Club Everybodyelse edition looks fairly deluxe. Anytime I see a CD bundled with an LP I think to myself, “Yes, somebody gets it,” and that’s the case here as well. Not to veer too far into an album review, but Pāyān earns that through the band’s own performance across the songs as well as their ambition in style and message. “Transcend! Exceed!” represents something Samavayo do well — songwriting, uptempo heavy push with a physical sense of movement behind it — but ties in gracefully to the whole as well. And the video’s four minutes, flat. Short. Punchy. Right on. Like I said, everything you could ask a single to be.

Enjoy:

Samavayo, “Transcend! Exceed!” official video

Transcend! Exceed! is the second single of the new album and out on all platforms.

Camera and Edit – Milan Pfützenreuter
Electrician – Matthias Hildebrand
https://www.youtube.de/rotorbrut
https://www.facebook.com/PfuetzenrotorProduktion

Presale started

We also started the presale of the album on bandcamp https://samavayo.bandcamp.com/album/payan

Combining it with a donation action where we donate 1 euro per each merch item sale and everything buyers overpay (pay extra on top).

Club 100

The limited vinyl edition (100pcs) of our album (“Club 100”) was sold on March 6th and sold out after 25min, which we are very grateful for!

Specs

The new album comes with CD, red vinyl and blue vinyl which are limited to 300pcs incl. Poster with lyrics. The special thing is: the blue is only available through us (bandcamp, shows) and our label Noisolution, the red is in the trade (shops. mailorders etc. and club 100).

The CD is a 6page digisleeve without any plastic and 16page booklet.

Tour dates with Stoned Jesus in April:

Samavayo is:
Stephan Voland (Drums, Vocals)
Andreas Voland (Bass, Vocals)
Behrang Alavi (Vocals, Guitar)

Samavayo on Facebook

Samavayo on Instagram

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The Obelisk Questionnaire: Behrang Alavi of Samavayo

Posted in Questionnaire on February 9th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

The Obelisk Questionnaire is a series of open questions intended to give the answerer an opportunity to explore these ideas and stories from their life as deeply as they choose. Answers can be short or long, and that reveals something in itself, but the most important factor is honesty.

Based on the Proust Questionnaire, the goal over time is to show a diverse range of perspectives as those who take part bring their own points of view to answering the same questions. To see all The Obelisk Questionnaire posts, click here.

Thank you for reading and thanks to all who participate.

The Obelisk Questionnaire: Behrang Alavi of Samavayo

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How do you define what you do and how did you come to do it?

Since 2000 I am now the singer and play guitar for Samavayo. I began more as a singer, because that is where I musically come from and had to play some rhythm guitar but later I developed my guitar playing and the interest for equipment and sound.

In side-projects or other bands I also play guitar without any singing or play drums, but I see myself mainly as a singer and vocalist. I had just met Andreas (bass player of Samavayo) and Marco (ex-lead guitar Samavayo) at my school and was playing some acoustic guitar when they came up with the idea to have me sing in their band and play guitar. That’s how I suddenly came into the situation of playing in a band. Though I already had some major interest in heavy music. At that time I was listening to Body Count, Clawfinger, Metallica and other stuff.

Describe your first musical memory.

My first musical memory is my mother singing at Persian gatherings. That’s a Persian tradition and she was a great singer. She was often asked for singing at such parties.

When I was around 12yrs old my cousins from London gave me my first MCs, among them Michael Jackson, M.C. Hammer, Rick Astley and Paul McCartney. My oldest cousin is also a huge Queen fan, so he played a lot of that on his Piano and we sang to it.

I was 15 or 16 when I started learning playing guitar, my parents told me I can choose and I chose.

Describe your best musical memory to date.

In 20 years there have been plenty of great memories.

So many cool bands we played together and got friends with.

I think one of the great memories is our trip with Samavayo to Brazil 2014. All that excitement of flying a long trip to another continent, being there and playing shows and festivals, getting to know new people, that was amazing!
Same but quite different was our trip to Albania 2013. Besides the show we played we were on the biggest TV show and played our song “Rollin’” and people were so enthusiastic and nice.

I must admit the idea of touring with the band across the countries gives me a very good feeling in general that is why when I think of the last 20 years as a musician these images of touring and clubs and festival stages come in my mind. Definitely playing the PALP festival this year in the Alps on a Col du Lein in Switzerland belongs to the best memories!

When was a time when a firmly held belief was tested?

As a band we’ve done some major things wrong and there were times (around 2010) when I thought maybe quit it and restart with something new. I think as a musician your belief is tested quite often.

Where do you feel artistic progression leads?

It leads to the answer whether there is still something to say. Do I have ideas and output? Is there something I want to try/explore? Do I enjoy expressing what I express.

For me progression is rather transformation or development.

How do you define success?

As a musician I feel success when I have any sort of impact on anybody. Also as a band you set some goals you want to achieve like play that club, play with that band, play that festival and it’s great to be successful to do that.

What is something you have seen that you wish you hadn’t?

Watch my mother die.

Describe something you haven’t created yet that you’d like to create.

I would like to sing on a black or death metal track. So that’d be something I have to learn to do first.
There a some songs I would also like to cover, some great tracks of music history. Also I would love to a track in German or Russian.

What do you believe is the most essential function of art?

To extend people’s minds, to make them step into another world (at times), but I think it is also an essential function to define values. So it depends from what point you look at it. As a musician one essential function of art is obviously to express my self and have good times. As a consumer I want distraction and just a good feeling, being in a mood I like. I enjoy heavy riffs, great melodies, awesome rhythms, but I enjoy them a lot more when I enjoy the values that the lyrics or the band behind that riff is transporting.

Something non-musical that you’re looking forward to?

Our wedding party in 2022 that my wife and me had to postpone 2 times already and the honeymoon!

https://www.facebook.com/samavayo/
https://www.instagram.com/samavayo/
https://www.samavayo.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/samavayo
http://www.noisolution.de/
https://www.facebook.com/noisolution
https://www.instagram.com/noisolution/

Samavayo, “Afghan Sky” official video

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Samavayo Post Video for New Single “Afghan Sky” Feat. Nick DiSalvo

Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 28th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Berlin three-piece Samavayo have unveiled the first single from the forthcoming Pāyān LP in a new video. “Afghan Sky” is the first audio I’ve heard from Pāyān — which is out March 25 through Noisolution — and, uh, it’s pretty sick. This is going to sound weird to say, but I always kind of forget how much I actually like Samavayo. I post a fair amount about them, updates and whatnot, and I talk to frontman Behrang Alavi on the regular, usually when I’m bugging him about something site-related since a few years back when he generously offered to host The Obelisk — efforts on his part that are continually appreciated — but, well, I dug Samavayo a lot before then, as the review archive shows — 2018’s Vatan (review here) was preceded by 2016’s Dakota (review here), 2012’s Soul Invictus, etc. back to their 2005 Nasoni-delivered debut, Deathmarchmelodies! — and I continue to dig them a lot now.

Among the more admirable threads they’ve woven through their career is a willingness to be brazenly political in a relatively conservative underground. Guess what “Afghan Sky” is about. It’s about the fucking sky in Afghanistan, under which my home country, the US, waged 20 years of needless war in order to… ?… before abandoning the population to their fate under a quickly-established Taliban rule the oppression of which was one of the several things we claimed to be fighting against. My generation fought that war. It was pointless, a war of aggression in response to a single attack the effects of which will continue to ripple out through the decades that will comprise the rest of my life and probably beyond that, like Vietnam for the generation before mine. Like whatever the next war will be 10 years from now. Russia? China? Some proxy invasion? That second civil war that keeps getting teased in the newspapers?

Look. Before I go way off any further on social issues — there are so many, so shitty, for so many — the point I was making was that Samavayo measure the stakes of playing it safe vs. saying what they want to say and choose the latter. That is deeply worthy of respect in itself, but the song’s also killer. Alavi‘s vocals have grown more confident in melody over the last half-decade, and he nails the hook in “Afghan Sky” with apparent ease while still pushing himself in a way that underscores the passion with which the lyrics are written. Meanwhile, it’s a suitably brotherly chemistry between drummer Stephen Voland and bassist Andreas Voland (both also contribute vocals) that set the urgent groove in motion, and there’s a guest spot from Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo that adds a classic-style guitar solo for emphasis.

Solid, front to back. The clip can be found below, having been premiered the other day. The lyrics have subtitles as well, so you can follow along.

Dig it:

Samavayo, “Afghan Sky” official video

We are proudly presenting our 1st single Afghan Sky of the upcoming new album “PĀYĀN” released in March 25th 2022 on Noisolution records. Featuring Nick DiSalvo (Elder, Delving), who played a guitar solo in Afghan Sky.

“The song Afghan Sky is about the capture of Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2021”, Behrang Alavi, singer and guitarist of Samavayo says. “It is about the failure of the rest of the world to save the Afghan people and about their fears and horror, so much that people would hold onto a plane to escape and fall down from the sky of Afghanistan. I chose the topic because it makes me sick – I lived in Kabul before the 1990s, before the Taliban conquered the city. Afghanistan is a country that has suffered for decades and is left so alone by the rest of the world at such a crucial moment.”

“The solo in the song Afghan Sky is kind of special for a Samavayo song, as we usually don’t have specific solo-parts in our song. We invited Nick DiSalvio, a friend of ours, known from bands such as Elder or Delving to play it.”

It is the first time we have worked together with palantirvisuals (https://www.palantirvisuals.com, well known for great videos for Elder, Delving and Eldovar) and it has been an amazing experience! We are very happy with the result and looking forward to future collaborations.

It’s also the first time that we have put subtitles on a video. It was important for us, because of the message of the song. Also it has been exciting to find many different languages among our friends and network. In the end we managed to add 18 languages including Persian, Hindi, Pashtu, Arab, Vietnamese and many more.

Song taken from album “Pāyān” (2022) / Noisolution
Music, Production and Lyrics by Samavayo.
Guitar solo by Nick DiSalvo (Elder, Delving).
Recorded and Mixed by Richard Behrens / Big Snuff Studio Berlin
Mastered by Pascal Stoffels

Afghan Sky Credits:
Created by Malachi Cull
https://www.palantirvisuals.com/
Camera (Band) by Danny Kötter
https://www.instagram.com/thezitterman/

Tour dates with Stoned Jesus in April:

Samavayo is:
Stephan Voland (Drums, Vocals)
Andreas Voland (Bass, Vocals)
Behrang Alavi (Vocals, Guitar)

Samavayo on Facebook

Samavayo on Instagram

Samavayo Announce New Album Payan out March 25; Post Studio Documentary

Posted in Bootleg Theater on January 12th, 2022 by JJ Koczan

Just when I begin to think maybe the Samavayo in-studio documentary below that covers the making of their new album, Pāyān, is glossing over some of the less-thrilling moments of a given recording process — the times where you’re waiting for something to be set up, or fixed, or reset, or whatever — on the screen there flashes a sign that says ‘2000 Years Later,’ and that about sums it up. Still, the Berlin-based trio look like they had a blast making their latest outing with producer Richard Behrens, which will be out on Noisolution on March 25 and their first record since 2018’s Vatan (review here), and the documentary is a good look at their process, all the way down to celebrating Stephen Voland‘s birthday while they’re there.

Pāyān, the Persian word, translates to ‘the end’ in English, and though I raise an eyebrow anytime a band names a release in some reference to a kind of conclusion — does this mean they’re breaking up? and so on — the release announcement below makes sure to point out that, no, it’s not necessarily the end of Samavayo after some 22 years. There are plenty of other endings around to focus on. Noteworthy contributions from Greenleaf/Dozer‘s Tommi Holappa, Stoned Jesus‘ Igor Sydorenko, Elder‘s Nick DiSalvo and Coogans Bluff‘s Willie Paschen, as well as a cover of Iranian pop singer Googoosh add intrigue to the proceedings, and it would seem that the lesson Samavayo have learned in the last few years of tumult is that if you’re going to do a thing, go all in.

So be it. March 25 is the release. In the spirit of looking forward, here’s the documentary and album announce — complete with cover art featuring the band’s enviable new logo — as well as the previously announced tour dates with Stoned Jesus for this April.

Enjoy:

Samavayo, “Pāyān” Studio Documentary

“Pāyān”. The end. Persian.

SAMAVAYO deals a lot with “the end” in terms of content on their new album. The end of the bad, of the good, the end of humanity, end of the way we treat our planet. It’s about the destruction of our planet, division, racism, greed, exploitation, war, isolation, loneliness. But every end means at the same time a beginning, a new start and beginning. “Payan” – the seventh album of SAMAVAYO in the 22nd year of its existence is fresh and full of energy and power!

“Our sound has never been so clear from the ground up as it is on this album. We definitely can say that after 22 years we have finally found our sound.”

Musically, the record is different from its predecessors: more heavy, more prog, lots of anger and a pinch of punk, Alice In Chains vocals, and last but not least some unusual guitar soli are added by a illustrious bunch of guests who visited the studio: Igor Sydorenko (Stoned Jesus), Tommi Holappa (Greenleaf, Dozer), Nick DiSalvo (Elder) and Willi Paschen (Coogans Bluff) didn’t take long to contribute.

Without too much “world music” sounds, the trio has continued to incorporate oriental sounds, including two songs with Persian vocals again. The title track, as well as the cover version “Talagh” by Iranian pop superstar Googoosh have become extremely gritty versions that rhythmically would also suit Tool well.

“Shot Shot Shot” is, as the song title says, straight in the face. A hard uptempo number that leaves no questions unanswered. “Transcend! Exceed!” comes ingratiating, melodic, riff-heavy and compact. One album. Seven songs. No failure. Extensive arrangements, a grandiose production by Richard Behrens (Kadavar, Silvershark, among others). More versatile than ever, uncompromising and hard-hitting.

But also otherwise the band looks beyond the horizon and has ideals and goals that definitely show that you have grown not only musically. “As a musician, you often travel long distances to concerts. That’s why we decided to compensate our CO2- emissions by investing in sustainable projects. Our website server runs on “green electricity”, we produce fair trade shirts and we look to use as little plastic or recycled material as possible in the production of the records.”

An extraordinary album and a special band that has not stopped for more than two decades and always has new goals. More than remarkable and no end seems in sight.

Tour dates with Stoned Jesus in April: