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Snake Sixx

The Sound Stash

SNAKE SIXX
aka Leif Gregory

I have played in over 15 bands so far and filled in for people in a few others in my 21 year musical history, these include AFTERMATH, JERK, NAXZUL, DARK ORDER, TOTAL ABUSE, THE AUSTRALIAN GG ALLIN SHOW, THE OFFICIAL AUSTRALIAN ALICE COOPER SHOW, AVRIGUS, SYNTERIA, SULKUS, SEVERED RAW NERVE and DESTRIER to name a few...Now shredding in Simmo (ex-Norse) new band LAZERHAWK

My whole life has been about the next few years, i learned the axe from Greg Morreli (ex-NAZXUL and GRUNGEON R.I.P.) and another guitar god (who works for Guitar World magazine now) when 11, I was in 13 and in my first band which some of you may have heard of called AVRIGUS. Simon Gruer was on rhythm and vox, I was on lead axe (as always) can't remember who was bass but the infamous Wayne Campbell (MORTAL SIN/GUNGEON/WHITE TRASH) was on drums...that gig that night was amazing, Greg, Red (Frozen Doberman) Alex Hardy (Mortal Sin) and a few other ol' schoolers names who allude me atm were there but i remember looking at Wayne on drums and feeling like I was in front of 10,000 ppl lol. When i strated my own band TOTAL ABUSE in '92 I started regularly hanging out with Greg and Campbell, going green and white from their weed and learning everything I could, Greg was like an encyclopedia to me, taught me so much about the scene (as well as Campbells invaluable lessons about the muso life). I remember being no more that 15 years old and he would drive over in his infamous black Bedford van and lend me his Roland guitar effects unit for the weekend (as long as Grungeon weren't rehearsing). Then in 94 I joined AFTERMATH. supported CANNIBAL CORPSE, DEICIDE, PUNGENT STECH, CARCASS...to name a few, medway through my stint with AFTERMATH joined DESTRIER the most brutal tech/death metal band from Australia to come out of the 90's (As stated in HOT METAL magazine) and supported DEICIDE. Joined DARK ORDER for a year and NAZXUL for a short while in 96, JERK in 99 as well as a breif stint in SULKUS. I learnt all the industrial shit in 97 from a guy i met with 11 keyboards connected to 1 slave keyboard into an atari st with cubase 2.1, a 16 track Yamaha automated mixer and a four track to record vox n guitars cause hard drive were tiny back then...lol then in 2001 started learing 3ds max and MAYA and so i could make anything visual possible...learned how to edit like a pro from another freak, n together we made a dvd called FUCK THIS IM GOING TO THE ANNANDALE, which got 4 1/2 stars out of five in Rolling Stone, then 2005 got caught up in an unhealthy relationship, biggest mistake of life...then realized ITZ TIME \m/...recently just finished playing in THE OFFICIAL ALICE COOPER SHOW and what became the most full-on and dangerously contraversial band ever in the country JESUS CHRIST - THE AUSTRALIAN G.G. ALLIN SHOW, and now with what possibly gonig to be the most insanely intense playing of my like in LAZERHAWK \m/ might be 34 but voices in my head keep directing me to do right by good music, show these blind kids bout things that havent experienced or seen, so have no concept in the first place of how to write like Jimi Page or Liam Howlet (Prodigy), Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, even industrial gods like FLA who Dino from FF worships like me.

...ITS ALL ABOUT THE RIFF \m/"


-Snake 2011

Review : SNAKE SIXX-EXXXPERIMENTS IN ELECTRO DESECRATION

Leif ‘Snake’ Sixx is virtually an institution in Australian metal such is the longevity of his activity and involvement in the scene, perhaps most notably as guitarist with death metal juggernauts Aftermath though he has had a hand in multiple musical pursuits with an assortment of roles.
Probably most acknowledged and acclaimed by the appreciative underground set rather than the mainstream snobs who fawn over corporate sellouts, radio friendly brain rot or has-beens still sailing on long past glories Snake Sixx has nonetheless managed to stay firmly entrenched in the scene.
Whilst many of his contemporaries from both earlier and more recent times have fallen by the wayside, vanished into obscurity or merely failed to cut it the prodigious multi instrumentalist has overcome hosts of obstacles, setbacks and dramas to soldier on relentlessly in the quest for making music.
Given his extensive background in a variety of metal oriented genres one might then assume that a solo album from him may well be some sort of expedition into a heavy metal environment and though it could be a reasonable assumption to make it wouldn’t necessarily be a correct one.
Instead having definitely paid his dues to the more metal side of things Snake Sixx ventures into the realm of the industrial, the veteran axeslinger trading (mostly) his six stringed weapons of mass destruction for the cold tools of electronica on his solo full length album ‘Exxxperiments in Electro Desecration’.

 


A bold and challenging experience that has been recorded and in the works for quite some time while other projects and ventures have kept monopoly on his time ‘Exxxperiments in Electro Desecration’ is an eleven composition opus that demonstrates both an array of diversity and a willingness to expand into provinces other metal alumni wouldn’t deal with nearly as well.
It is prelude piece ‘The Evil Beneath’ that first sets a mood, swirling a cloud of spacey ambience around muffled samples and eerie sonic experimentation with a somewhat unsettling atmosphere being conjured up as a multitude of laughing voices jostle into a freaky film score soundtrack.
From this springs demonic dance floor anthem ‘C Through U’ with a sedated Prodigy percussive outburst morphing into a tripped out beat over which ominous synth waves crash and incessant vocals drip threateningly, repeating key lines in a mocking mantra; the ‘I see through you, see all of you’ intonation particular reminiscent of Aphex Twins ‘I will eat your soul’ from the classic ‘Come To Daddy’.
This entity builds on the uneasy atmospheres invoked by the preliminary item by further drifting into dark soundscapes and despite playing host to some nice crazy upbeat stuff and infectious hooks the underlying menace is solidly maintained by the sardonic sibilant vocal and unremitting programming assault.
‘One By One’ also keeps the pressure on, surging deeper into industrial domains music wise, its cavalcades of programmed percussion smartly teamed with a wobble of mindbending synth reverberation, shooting spikes of sound out as vocals issue and this time alongside a distorted effect there are malevolent death metal styled things going on.
The monstrous vocal tendencies rise out of the electronic fury and their presence continues to enhance the auras Sixx has constructed with rave synths intertwined in percussive claps, overall the entire track an irresistible rolling beast that has the knack of planting a melodic hook deep in ones brain whilst seemingly masking it cleverly with persistent groove and jackhammer programming.

 There are abundant surprises and unexpected twists and turns here on ‘Exxxperiments In Electro Desecration’ including a beefed up reworking of Tears for Fears ‘Shout’, a seductive and hypnotic rendition of Marilyn Mansons ‘Tourniquet’ with Michelle Madden (Tourettes) providing vocals and an off the wall track that shakes up any preconceived notions, the tongue in cheek ‘Off The Muthafukkin’Streets of Bankstown.
Rather than the intoxicating blend of Aphex Twin/Combichrist/Prodigy style eerie industrial electronica meeting FLA/Mortiis (post Emperor) machine metal this track is almost more of an old school gangsta rap creation cross-pollinated with industro noise and interjections of razor riffing, leading with beats and a pumping bassline, and completely eschewing any type of expected vocal use instead is driven along by completely rapped vocals.
These come courtesy of The Penz whose delivery is somewhere between old school West coast artists like the underrated MC Ren (the least lauded member of NWA) and horrorcore entities such as Sutter Kain and Esham which definitely makes for compelling listening regardless of your spin on rap music.
Elsewhere the metal rears its head in welcome fashion, notably in one of my favourite tracks, album closer ‘Torn To Pieces’ where rugged and spiteful industrial riffing throws thorns of hostility into a bed of mesmerizing synth hooks and intense programming undertakings.

Those who are loathe to approach music if it isn’t the utmost brutal or nothing but metal or turn their nose up at anything that doesn’t fit into their stringent guidelines of how things should be or what type of music a perceived ‘metal’ musician should be playing will probably not be keen to give this the fair go it deserves but those with broad open minds and a true appreciation of music in all its forms will find more and more within the folds of ‘Exxxperiments In Electro Desecration’ the more they delve into it.
Hopefully the Aussies can get onboard for this and show some support for a longstanding veteran of the scene, otherwise I’m betting this would have industro dancefloors in scenes like the German one packed.
Won’t be everyone’s cup of tea especially if one doesn’t have the ability to broaden their musical horizons but then again it isn’t targeted at everybody, and those who it is intended for should certainly understand and appreciate its value.