Djizoes:

BY: YVONNE GLASGOW
Wow, I must say that it is unfortunate this disc is only a 3 song taste of the power this band evokes.
This is the bands second EP. Their music is almost indescribable. The rhythm of all the instruments mesh into a sound that you can not help moving your head to. If I had to categorize these guys I would put them somewhere in with stoner rock, just because of their rhythms.
This band has been around since 2002 and it is shocking that they have yet to release their full length album.
And just in case you were wondering, Djizoes is pronounced like 'Jesus'. Clever, huh?
Make sure you keep an eye out for these guys in the future!
- Annex 22

Djizoes

It’ll take more than denied Chinese visas and copyright controversy to upset these Swiss metal rockers, bassist Ales Campanelli tells Bong Miquiabas

How do you say your band name?

-It’s pronounced “Jesus.”


Oh, just like it... looks?
-Exactly.


What’s the reason behind the name?
-We were looking for an easy-to-remember band name. But we were thinking of Jesus not in a religious way. We use the spelling as a joke, to get away from all the religious connotations.


How would you describe your attitude towards music?
-I consider us old school hard rock.


What artists or bands influenced you?
-Our singer is a huge fan of Jethro Tull. We listen to Iron Maiden, Metallica, maybe a hundred bands.


What brought you to Asia?
-We thought, ‘Let’s try the other side of the world.’ It was kind of a risk. We found our record label in Japan and a lot of people helped us, so playing in Asia has special meaning.


Why do you think people in Asia like your sound?
-That’s a very difficult question. Maybe because we’re best on stage. Maybe people appreciate us live. Maybe because we’re straightforward. I don’t know. But I’m happy about it. [Laughs]


How would you compare your fans in Asia with those in Europe?
-In Europe, people are more interested in complicated songs; there’s a growing interest in technical, really syncopated music. I think in Asia they like simpler music.


Maybe this goes back to what you said about a straightforward sound?
-Yeah, I was afraid to use the same word twice. [Laughs]


How would you describe the sound on your latest EP?
-The EP is new songs played with new musicians [lead guitarist Fred and drummer Ax both joined the band six months ago]. The sound was based on emergency. We did this in record time. It really sounds stressed. [Laughs] Seriously, I really enjoyed it. It was a great experience.


I noticed you recorded a Chinese song. Tell me about Xi Shua Shua.
-We were supposed to play in Beijing, but because of the Olympics we weren’t granted permission. [However] we wanted to do something for our Asian tour, so we asked our Chinese friends. We tried to do a heavy metal song with our singer singing in Chinese, but there was a copyright dispute. We really chose the worst song in China for copyright purposes. But whaddya gonna do?


What does the title mean, anyway?
-Xi Shua Shua? Oh, it’s in Chinese, so I don’t know. [Laughs]


How many languages do you perform in?
-We sing in English. We speak French in Geneva, but I don’t think it goes well with hard rock. English is the language of rock‘n’roll.


What kind of reaction do you get when people learn your band name?
-It’s really funny. In Europe, people don’t care. But in America? We had some reviews there, and on one we got a zero on a scale of one to ten. One reviewer said, “These guys call themselves Djizoes! I hate them!” But it wasn’t that bad because people remember you. Some people were upset about it in America, but most people laughed. We’re just a band, ya know?

Djizoes play Club Cixi on Tuesday 8 and The Wanch on Wednesday 9. Their new EP, Erkonoclast, will be available this summer. See: www.myspace.com/djizoes - Time Out

Swiss rock band Djizoes (pronounced "Jesus") lands on American shores for its first U.S. tour with the guitars turned loud and a suitcase full of American rock cliché on its three-song release "The Erkonos Project."
Proclaiming themselves to be "pure and true metal" -- according to the band's news release -- Djizoes has a style that is much more complex, interesting and radio-friendly.
Combining Dreamtheater-like prog rock with the wailing and angst of 1990s grunge, Djizoes borrows from heavy metal's more musical innovations. With lightening musicianship and creative arrangements, the Euro-rockers craft a sound that has none of the fury and brutal anger of metal but manages to keep the musicianship.
On the opener, "Rising a Nation," lead singer Dje does a pitch-perfect Layne Staley (deceased singer of Alice in Chains), and the band members follow suit. They dish out a five-minute romp through hard rock's colorful past; walls of guitars and drums carry Dje's voice to emotional crescendos, and the band delivers a hard-rock punch.
"Banshee" is more Pearl Jam than Slayer. This moody, serpentine track is an alternative gem; bass player Ales and drummer Vinch (no one in this band uses last names) give the album a perfect tornado of rhythmic sound with tight and titanic playing. You can hear the band's musical prowess shine on the Tool-like closer, "Silence."
On "The Erkonos Project," Djizoes shows us that the Swiss still know how to rock, even if we Americans can't anymore. This preview record (expect the full-length sometime later this year) is musically excellent, vocally engaging and gives a glimpse of what could be a major hard-rock act in the coming years.
Djizoes rocks, but it's hardly heavy metal, with a sound that could attract a far wider audience than metal's hard-core niche following.
So if you check out Djizoes next week at Dragon Chasers Emporium, don't wear your Dimebag Darrell T-shirts and expect to get into a brutal mosh pit. But do expect to hear melodic, hard-hitting alternative rock that will take you way back. At least way back to the early 1990s. - Centre Daily Times (PA)

The least one can say when listening to "The Concrete Fog", is "Holy shit those Swiss are precise!!". Djizoes: doesn't sound like anything you've heard before. They are extremely talented, deliver a heavy and powerful energy, play their music in an inspired manner without pretension.
Djizoes: is between progressive Metal root and Heavy Rock. It's really hard to describe. Extremely well played heavy guitars answer to an omnipresent bass played in chords, all this rythmed by an extremely powerful drum section. For someone like me who loves drum lines, I was really surprised and charmed by Vinch's style. And all this comes with an agreeable vocal section, right in the mediums, which will remind of Mike Patton in the early Faith No Mores. The tracks melt into each without boring, with originality, power and sincerity. The instrumental mastering of these guys leaves no one unmoved. Artistically speaking, "The Concrete Fog" is more than a success, it's a real eargasmic pleasure! I had the opportunity to see them perform and believe me, the live mastering and energy by far overtake the studio!!!!
 - Algoblast.com

At the end of 2005, I heard a rumor that a band with 4 members would be touring in Japan. They came by themselves and booked their schedule by calling from Geneva to Japan. One day they got to a live house but the place was a jazz house so they couldn't play, or there was a live house but no hotels... From 2005 to 2006, they were running around the entire breadth of Japan.

Djizoes:- It's spelled this way and is pronounced "Jesus." At the end of 2005, I had the precious experience to see their young, energetic live show and talk with them.
One year passed. They came back to Japan after they had experienced a similar tour in the US. They also now carried a CD called in the papers.
My impression about the 2005 shows were that the songs were a little dark and underground and created a grange sound, but they went through many live shows and played in front of a lot of audiences and their sound had changed a lot.

I could tell each member had a very high technique, but they needed to put their techniques to good account. For the band, on top of clearing this problem and making a success of having an original sound no other band has was proclaimed in the new CD in the papers.
[The drummer] hammered out the intensive beat subjective two-bass, the leader of the band and base player who keeps watch on the entire sound, Ales's fraze (sic) winded up and framed Djizoes:. As sensibility gushes and sends the frase from his finger tips of his IV's kaleidoscopic guitar sound, we can hear the deep feeling, much unlike his youthfulness.

And the vocal style of the vocalist, Dje as the face of Djizoes:, increased each word's persuasion as it left his mouth and became complete once it traveled through our ears and reached our hearts.
Only a year? No, actually, they must have had only a few months.
In that short period, they sought out suitable music, they constructed their own sound, they completed the work producing it clearly, and they landed in several places in Japan with a total different expression from one year ago.

The sound Djizoes: embossed with their album pushed out its groove and at the same time they didn't just dash it with speed but controlled the range from accent to speed perfectly and challenged the development of the music just like progressive music is.
It would seem fearful to persist in one style, but taking all the music techniques inside and creating an ensemble which allowed them to come to a positive, advanced methodology that is theirs.
This sound which departed from Switzerland grew up in Japan and has surely come to have the quality of being accepted worldwide.
Once, England accepted Jimi Hendrix's revolutionary sound, and like the time Japanese rock fans found Queen, now we live in a Japan that has the band called Djizoes:.

History repeats itself. Twenty-first century rock is about to be born here in Japan.
- Hiroyuki Ohno
- Outbreak Magazine

Pronounced “Jesus” like in English, Djizoes: exists since 2002 and hails from Geneva. This band was introduced to me a few months ago, via The Concrete Fog, as a nest of ideas. Euphemism. Their new album, In The Papers is brilliant! Incredible and strange. 1 or 100 listens don’t change a thing, this music speaks to me, touches me and takes me far away. Why? I have to admit, I have no idea. Only one certainty, others will be unmoved by their sound. It doesn’t matter, if this “drug effect” works on one person, it can work on others: a curious listening of this album is necessary. Djizoes: unrolls, mixes genres and holds emotion with a soaring, sublime and grasping voice. It’s hard rock but it’s also progressive music, it’s most of all intelligent rock, it resembles everything and nothing, maybe only the construction reminds of the absolut freedom, the mastery and richess of Faith No More. No repetitions, the moods interlace, fuse with a disconcerting fluidity, it’s often beautiful, interesting and taking, an aura of genius hovers over these compositions going from frenesy to lulling, directed by a masters hand by arrangements that will cut your breath. It’s excellent, hard rock from another planet. The future is their biggest challenge to come.
9/10 – Alexis Laffillé
- Hard Rock Magazine