ANNOUNCEMENT: Slam City Seam Reap Festival Announce Full Lineup [Cambodia]

Very excited to help announce this sick new metal/extreme music fest to be held in Cambodia! The fest is called Slam City Siem Reap and features bands from Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam – SICK!!!

The main person behind this, Chihiro, helped answer a few questions:

UA: Can you give us some background as to where the idea came from for this fest? 
Chihiro: I have always been a metalhead, heavy metal music always helps me through the day no matter what my mood is, it just makes everything better.  I also used to work for promoters in Japan, I always admired their passion for promoting live metal shows, and the whole process of putting up a good metal show piqued my interest in having a dream to promote heavy metal, hardcore, punk, and extreme music here in Cambodia. I think it would be a good avenue to inspire people in Cambodia to maybe pick up an instrument and start a band and grow the music scene here.  As well as making connections with other metal musicians and promoters in Asia, and have Cambodia be known for producing good metal music as well.

It started with an innocent post on social media, sometime last month.  I was just thinking out loud about dreaming of organizing Siem Reap’s first-ever metal show.  And to my surprise, there were a lot of people supporting the idea.  A friend messaged me shortly after, that he would be interested to help.  In a couple of weeks, things started to gain traction, and the bands we contacted expressed their interest in joining the festival and gave their commitment, so things started to get really serious, fast forward, and we are now just 9 weeks away (as of writing) from having this dream come to fruition, and I couldn’t be more grateful for everyone’s support and I will give my best for this event.

UA: Since the lineup features bands from the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia, tell us about how you picked the bands.
Chihiro: During the initial brainstorming of ideas for Slam City, Paolo (from 7th Street Tattoo Siem Reap), recommended Dead People, a deathcore band he knew from his hometown (Zamboanga City, Philippines), who used to play regular sets at his old metal bar back home.  He said that their music deserved a larger platform.

He also recommended Sandy Good, a band from Batangas, Philippines. He met Nel Briones (vocalist) when she was getting tattooed by his friend and was impressed when he listened to their demo. Both bands immediately committed to taking part in the event, especially that is for a charitable cause. 

I also pitched Cambodian metal bands, Nightmare A.D., Doch Chkae, and As The Heart Betrays, as they are the flag-bearers of heavy metal music in Cambodia.

I also wanted to invite pikachu-core band, Cut Lon from Vietnam, as they have already played a set at my metal bar, ATLANTIS, to which they said they were happy to come back to Siem Reap.  Murder Bizkitz, a Bangkok-based hardcore thrash punk metal band, who are good friends with Cut Lon, expressed their interest to play at the festival, and we were blown away by their music and were happy to have them on board.  Things just fell into place and now we have a proper lineup for a legitimate Metalfest.  We are glad to have international bands participate in our festival, and I hope that this event will make music connections stronger between countries hopefully, we can make it happen again and bigger every year, and Cambodia can boast that it is host to one of the biggest metal festivals in the world.

For more information on the festival: CLICK HERE!