Horns Up Podcast: Episode 13
New music
On lucky episode 13, Animesh and I discuss the music that they have been listening to for the past month. Their picks range from Death Metal to Prog, and even some not so metal music. There is something for everyone to listen and also discover.
Sit back and raise those Horns Up. Follow a playlist of all the tracks on Apple Music and Spotify
Horns Up Podcast: Episode 12
Hacktivist hacked the music industry in 2011 with their Rap meets Djent sound. There was a polarizing response to the band but they kept going and have performed around the world including in Mumbai, India at the Big69 festival in 2015 where Animesh and I caught them live.
We spoke to vocalist J Hurley about their meteoric rise to success, their latest single Reprogram and also their upcoming plans
We also discuss the Indian band Bloodywood and their addition to the Wacken Open Air line up. Hit the Play button and raise those Horns Up!
Horns Up Podcast: Episode 11
Old school, Brutal or Melodic; whichever type of Death metal you prefer you cannot deny the influence of Swedish Death metal from the 90’s – bands like Dismember, Grave and Entombed.
On this episode of the Horns Up Podcast, Alex Hellid from Entombed joins us as guest. He discusses the Swedish Death Metal scene, the early days of Entombed and their second album Clandestine. Entombed fans, listen to the end for some exciting news.
Adit (Blackblood)
Adit Khanzode is a familiar face to those in the Bombay metal scene. For the past few years, he has been organising gigs under the Blackblood banner and this weekend will be the 15th edition, no easy task. Find out more about the origins of Blackblood, the Mumbai metal scene and what’s coming up in the 15th edition of Blackblood in my interview with Adit below
Hi Adit, you are gearing up for the 15th edition of Blackblood. How are preparations going?
The preps are going on in full swing as it is our 3rd Year Anniversary gig as well, trying to promote it as much as we can for it to reach the maximum amount of people who have been related to Blackblood since 2016
You started the Blackblood series of concerts a couple years ago. What inspired you to get it started?
There were hardly any venues who were promoting metal music in Mumbai, especially Navi Mumbai, we had a few organizers who tried to create a regular metal gig scene but failed to deliver most of the times due to unforeseen circumstances and stopped doing it after a while, me being a part of an upcoming metal band ‘Orcus’ at that time felt the need to take matters into my own hands.
Looking back, what has been the most memorable edition of Blackblood so far? Why?
I can’t be biased towards a particular edition of Blackblood because all the BBs are my Babies (so cheesy) , but there are a few editions which did leave an amazing imprint of happiness on our minds,
for eg, BB6#Unchained was a special one cause it was dedicated to Unchained, one of the biggest college metal festivals that ever had been in Navi Mumbai , BB7#7meibaj was our first anniversary gig which had a tremendous turn out, BB8#Thankyouchester where we cried our hearts out, BB12 which was a part of Godless’ tour swarm over india, BB13#suarkebacche for the amount of grind it had in it, and BB14 #coremachayeshor for being the most surprising edition with respect to turn outs
How do you select the bands that will perform at the shows?
I have been attending local metal gigs since 2011, and have seen almost every band that’s there in the city perform live, the main criteria for selection of the bands is that, they have to be tight enough to pull off a good enough set and also need to promote the show in a positive manner, it also depends on how much crowd a band might be able to pull off as Blackblood has been DIY since its inception
There are very few metal gigs happening in Mumbai at the moment. What do you feel is the reason behind it?
Its mostly Bollywood, Electronic and Hip Hop music that has taken over the live music scene in general, the logistics/production costs involved in an electronic producer’s performance or a hip hop artist’s performance is much less compared to producing a whole live band, Bollywood still manages to do live band shows as it’s a major platform in india and has a massive fan following, metal on the other hand caters to a very niche audience due to the extremity of the nature of metal music which isn’t very acceptable to the masses
What are you currently listening to?
I have been listening to Gojira, Meshuggah, The Ocean, Veil of Maya, Heart Of a Coward, Napalm Death, Devourment, Cerebral Bore, Animals As Leaders, Slayer, Metallica, Pantera, Widek, Hatebreed, the Contortionist, Lamb Of God, Linkin Park, SOAD, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Algorithm, Whitechapel etc in metal
Daft Punk, Bonobo, FKJ, Porcupine Tree, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, The Doors, RATM, Kings of Leon, anything that’s chill step minimal lo-fi or down tempo
What are 5 bands that the readers should check out?
Again 5 is a very small number to list out for the readers to check out but I personally recommend a few bands from the Mumbai Local Metal Scene that you guys should check out, Eternal Returns, Carnage Inc, Sutledge, Dirge, Pacifist, Atmosfear, Sceptre, Primitiv, Albatross, Stark Denial, Anthracite, Last Ride Home, Festacorn, Death By Fungi, Dionysian, Killchain, Five Of Castles, Labyrinth , Jatin Talukdar Project, System House33
What can the audience expect from the upcoming edition of Blackblood?
Sheer madness as the Lineup this time is RAD AF, we have extreme death metallers Plague Throat from Shilliong, Prog/mathcore geniuses Orchid from Bangalore, Thrash with a mix of groove hailing from Hyderabad i.eHostilian, pure death chops presented by Dead Exaltation and Bloodkill who are an upcoming thrash metal band who have been ruling the college circuits in and around Mumbai, and a lots and lots of happy people in High Spirits (not the venue)
Do you have any more shows planned in the coming months?
We do have shows planned for the coming months, however as blackblood has been always commencing in Mumbai or nearby, we are planning on taking it to different cities in different states and would be looking for collaboration with bands from those particular cities
Thanks for answering all my questions. Do you have anything else to add?
Thank you so much for considering me worthy of this interview, all I want to add is that Metal Music in general is fading away and a lot and lot more people are turning their ears to different genres, I am not against any genre as I myself enjoy music from every aspect of life, but also should not forget that , our upcoming generations won’t even know of this genre if we don’t introduce it to them first hand, I got into listening to metal/rock music because of cartoon network where POA by Linkin Park used to be aired with a cool animated video, got introduced to live metal music through Unchained and chose promoting metal music in everyway as my goal for life, we need to make the younger generation aware of this genre,we need to stop this sub-genre based elitism where people who follow a certain sub-genre of music DISS people who follow a slightly different sub-genre, and unite as metalheads to save the scene and make it progress in a positive manner, I really want to build a community of metalheads who support eachother at gigs and in general in life because there’s one thing common between us, i.e the Black blood of metal that runs through our veins.
If you are in and around Mumbai on 20th of APRIL, do come for the show or you can simply buy the tickets as a donation for this event on this event link
Horns Up Podcast: Episode 10
Horns Up Podcast completes 10 episodes!
What’s common between Blotted Science, Hate Eternal, Triptykon and Obscura? Hannes Grossmann!
The extraordinaire drummer has performed with all of these bands. Last month, Grossmann released his 3rd solo album Apophenia
On this episode Animesh and I speak to him about the album, being a session musician and producers. Hannes also shares key insights for drummers and also upcoming bands. So turn up the volume and raise those Horns Up!
Haunt interview
Heavy metal act Haunt started out as the solo project of Beastmaker frontman Trevor William Church. It is a now a band with the addition of Daniel “Wolfy” Wilson, Taylor Hollman and John William Tucker.
If Icarus Could Fly, the second album from the band is out now. The album was one of the albums I was looking forward to from this year and it does not disappoint.
Haunt are currently on tour and I managed to get an interview done with Trevor William Church. Read it on The Metal Wanderlust
Horns Up Podcast: Episode 9
Grindcore is one of my favourite sub genres of metal and I was quite excited when I first about a documentary being made on the sub genre. 5 years later, Slave to the Grind has been released and it is an informative watch even for those not into grindcore.
On the latest episode of the Horns Up Podcast, Animesh and I spoke to filmmaker Doug Brown about the grindcore scene around the world, working on Slave to the Grind, the future of grindcore and more.
