defrage.
This is the story of how I met a member of the Band Defrage (warning: link goes to Facebook).
I was at a petrol station near Innsbruck, Austria, filling up the tank of my car, when a young man carrying a plastic bag approached me and asked me whether I spoke English. Assuming he wanted to ask for directions, I said yes. He then wanted to know whether I liked music (a quite generic question, but whatever). A bit unsure where that conversation was heading, I answered yes again.
He then proceeded to tell me that he was in a band from Estonia and wanted to know what kind of music I liked. Since I wanted to give the shortest possible answer I said "Metal". At which point he pulled a cardboard cd-sleeve out of his plastic bag, turned it around and pointed at a track-title marked there which said "We Are Metal" and explained that, in fact, his band was a Metal band. He then told me that his band was right now on tour through Europe and was going to play at Nova Rock in a short while, but since they were a young band without big resources, they were trying to finance their touring by selling CDs to people and hey, would I maybe be interested in purchasing a CD from him? Only EUR 15!
Now, on the one hand, stories that start with "I met this guy at a petrol station/highway rest area, and he sold me X" are usually tales of how somebody was conned into buying something utterly worthless or maybe even an empty package. On the other hand, I liked his main argument ("if we ever become famous, you'll be able to sell it on ebay for a million!"). So I thought what the hell, gave him EUR 15 and received a shrink-wrapped cardboard CD sleeve. He thanked me and then turned his attention onto another prospective customer (and I saw that a colleague of his was busy trying the same approach on a young lady at the next pump).
Getting into my car, I remarked to my wife that I was curious to find out whether there actually was a CD in the sleeve at all.
And there was.
And bloody hell does it sound great!
I would describe the sound as sortof Fear Factory during the Obsolete era (which, to me, equals "brilliant!"). Apparently, the CDs are not available for sale through normal channels but the band seems to be quite busy using their unique sales approach in parking lots/fastfood restaurants/pedestrian areas in Austria/Bavaria/Switzerland. So if you happen to meet them, definitely buy that CD!
5 out of 5 stars!