United We Groove

The past Friday while most of the music lovers in the city we’re at the Bryan Adams, a faithful few were at United We Groove. The gig was at the new centre for independent music, Above the Habitat. BYOB makes it a good deal for the audience.

I managed to catch a couple of songs by the first couple of bands, Karwaan and Punkture and they weren’t by cup of tea. Although I did like Punkture‘s cover of Velvet Revolver ‘Slither’.

Grunge act Hook played songs from their recently released EP Blank Spaces and they sounded good. The surprise of their set was a cover of Split Holy Ghost Machine Gun.

The band I was really looking forward to was Primitiv. The band keep getting better each time I watch them live. Their set list mainly consisted of track from their album Immortal and Vile . A addition to their set is a unreleased track Squishy and Spongy (video below)* . The band are currently in the studio recording and I can’t wait to listen to their new material.

I didn’t stick around for the last band Systemhouse33 as it was late. Congratulations to the band on completing 15 years. 

*Posting the video since I manage to get decent audio.

Bangalore Open Air 2018

It’s been a month since Bangalore Open Air and the line up was stacked with 4 international bands. I managed to get some decent shots of most of the bands that played at the festival.

 

 

Kryptos

 

Immolation

Unscene – Bear in Mumbai

Belgian metal band Bear kicked off their Indian tour a couple days ago in Mumbai with a smashing set. The band performed tracks from their latest album /// and also Noumenon. Known for their energetic live performances, the band put on a show that will be etched in the memories of the audience present for the near future. Guitarist James Falck got into the mosh pit towards the end of their set.

 

Escher’s knot, the support act for the tour played in Mumbai after 3 years. The band played a 4-piece and their set featured tracks from their EP, Tesselations and single The Grand Design. It was great to see the band live after a while and they really got the crowd going, starting a few moshpits. They ended their set with a cover of Meshuggah Humiliative.

 

False Flag started the night off with their political hardcore sound. Their set comprised of songs from their recently released self-titled EP and soon to be released split EP. I felt the young band need some work on their stage presence which could be ironed out once they play more gigs.

Bear performs in Bangalore today, in Delhi on 12th April and their tour ends in Ahmedabad on 14th April (All details in poster below). Metalheads in the respective cities don’t miss the gig, lest you regret it later.

Dream Theater

I wrote a gig review after ages.

The rain caused fans to wonder if Dream Theater’s concert at the MMRDA Grounds on Sunday night would be canceled. Their fears were allayed when the veteran American progressive rock band took the stage and played ‘The Dark Eternal Night’, the track with which they’ve been opening the last few shows of the Asia leg of their ongoing Images, Words and Beyond world tour. About 5,000 attendees braved showers throughout the gig and were treated to a flawless three-hour set, the highlight of which was the 23-minute epic ‘A Change of Seasons’. Each member of the band got their moments in the spotlight, with guitarist John Petrucci drawing the loudest cheers and even vocalist James Labrie, who has his share of critics, silencing his naysayers. The band promises to be back in India soon and considering the response they got, it’s very likely that their fans here won’t have to wait as long as they did for this much-anticipated live debut.

First posted on The Daily Pao.

Insomnium Live in Dubai

The metal scene in Dubai has been quiet for the past couple of months. However that changed last weekend, Finnish melodic death metal band Insomnium performed at the Music Room.

I was expecting the gig to start after 10 pm but when I reached the venue I realised that the openers Smouldering in the Forgotten had already finished their set. It was good to finally meet the guys later in the night.

I have been listening to Insomnium for a decade now. The first album I heard by them was “Above the weeping world” and was really glad that they played songs from the album like “The Killjoy“, “The Gale” and “Mortal Share“. The band started off their set with tracks from their recent release “Shadows of the Dying Sun” and covered their entire discography. They were in top form and put on a great show. The audience were equally enthusiastic, I noticed a moshpit going during their faster songs. Here is the entire set list they performed

I was glad to see a good turnout for the show. It shows that metal is still alive in the city. Overall it was good night thanks to Metal East Records. Looking forward to Finish doom metal band Swallow the Sun next month.

Here are a couple of pictures of Insomnium I took on my phone.

 

Iron Maiden

Iron Maiden are one of my favorite bands. I have managed to see them live twice in Dubai. The second time was 4 years ago during their “Somewhere back in Time” tour. Here is an article I wrote about the show for Spin Earth.

The place to be on Friday the 13th was Dubai Media City Amphitheater in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.There was a gathering of not only teenagers in black t-shirts but of metal listeners of all ages, some who even brought their kids along. The reason for the gathering was IRON MAIDEN!

This was their second appearance in the United Arab Emirates, the first being 2 years ago at the Dubai Desert Rock 2007. I did have a chance to see Iron Maiden perform then alongside 10,000 other fans. This time around was special for me as they performed songs from their album “Powerslave“, which is my favourite Iron Maiden album.

The opening act for the show was Lauren Harris. I saw her also at Dubai Desert Rock 2007. She was promoting her new album “Calm before the storm”. She sounded ok, not really something I am into. Her guitarist, Richie is pretty good and had a few nice solos.The sound for her was a lot better than the last time I saw her, so I was expecting it to be a lot better for Maiden.

After short change over, it was time, the moment everyone was waiting for, The Churchill speech, followed by “Aces High“. The crowd (including me) went crazy. It was a great show. As mentioned earlier, the set consisted of tracks from the “Powerslave” and “Somewhere in time” albums. They played a few tracks that were a bit of a surprise, “Children Of The Damned“, “Evil That Men Do” and the biggest one being the 13 minute epic “Rime Of The Ancient Mariner“.

“The highlights of the concert for me were when they played POWERSLAVE, hearing the song live along with the pyrotechnics and also seeing Bruce in a Mask! It was awesome. Another was seeing Cyber Eddie.“said Vineet M.

It was the first time for some like Asanga M seeing Iron Maiden live. “I had some high expectations going into the concert” he said”This was one of my favorite bands and not only the band that got me INTO heavy metal but into playing guitar in general. I probably would not have picked up a guitar if I had not heard The Trooper.”

Overall it was a great night. Great performance by the band. The sound was also really good. I have been looking to this tour for some time now (since I last saw them live) and I am glad i got to catch it. Can’t wait to see them on their next tour.

Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2012

Last Sunday, I attended the 3rd edition of the Rolling Stone Metal Awards. I was also at the previous two editions, here is what happened last year. The awards is a great place to the metal community in India to get together and celebrate the bands that have put out some great releases in the past year. Check out the list of this year’s winners here.

The bands that performed were Pangea, Providence, Abraxas, Eccentric Pendulum and Zygnema. All the bands put on a great show and there were quite a few moshpits as you can see below

Met a lot of the people and also got to hang out with an old friend of mine, Srivatsan who took some pretty awesome pics. Check out my thoughts on this years gig along with pics here

Albatross – Horror metal from India

Albatross is “a band which combines bone chilling stories with bone crushing metal“.  The band started out as the solo project of bassist Riju Dasgupta aka Dr. Hex and slowly added more members due to the response online to the first single “Gigi”.

The current line up is :-

Biprorshee Das – Vocals

The Scarecrow- Guitars

Vignesh- Guitars

Jay Thacker – Drums

Dr. Hex- Fretless Bass

They released their EP “Dinner is You”, a concept EP about cannibalism and the Kuru disease. It was mastered by Grammy nominated Swedish producer Andy LaRocque (King Diamond). The release was promoted with a 2 city tour their label mates Devoid and also Dubai death/thrash band Nervcell. I caught them at a gig last month and they put on a kickass set. The set included a couple of new tracks which sounded good.

Heres a video of them playing “Among the Cannibals” taken by another fan

The band will commence recording for a new EP in the coming week, stay tuned for more details on that. Join their facebook page for updates on the recording and the EP.

(Band Photo by Prashin Jagger)

Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2011

Rolling Stone India  held the 2nd edition of the Metal Awards yesterday at Blue Frog. The bands performing were Noiseware, Exhmation, Artillerie and Bhayanak Maut.

I’ve not seen Exhumation or Artillerie live before so was looking forward to that. Bhayanak Maut always put on good show.

Naagin inspired ??

All the bands put on killer performances. The crowd went nuts (typical Bombay crowd),  lots of moshpits. I managed to get a picture of Exhumation while headbanging

The show was hosted by Vishwesh (Scribe) who did his best to keep the crowd entertained. Check out the list of all the winners here.

Overall, it was a good night.  Looking forward to the next Metal Night at the Blue Frog.

Woah its May already!!

Its been a month since I moved back to Mumbai, not much has happened since my last post. Unemployment still prevails, not for much longer i hope. Been busy with job interviews, hence things  have been a bit slow on the writing front.

Dischordian is the Garreth D’Mello, vocalist of Mumbai alternative rock band Split. One of the few non – metal Indian acts that I enjoy. Check out my interview with Gareth who is the “Chosen 1” on Indianrockmp3.com 

Exhumation are one of India’s oldest death metal bands. They released their latest album “Consider This” a little over a month ago. I managed to get the album on limited edition Cd (#167/200).

 

Exhumation are one of India’s top death metal bands. The Mumbai – based quartet have been around for close to a decade now and have maintained a stable line up. ‘Consider This’ is their first release in 5 years, ‘For Personal Consumption Only’ EP being their last release. The album is about choices, we as humans have two paths and there are external forces from each path that are trying to get us to “consider them”.

The band starts its aural assault from the first song All that is and it continues till the last song Alpha Omega, not letting the listener out of their grip. The album reaches its peak on the 5th song, the title track with poser crushing riffs. Other tracks that stand out on the album are, Black Plague and Hell Forbid. With 7 tracks under 30 minutes, the album leaves you craving more of this no frills death metal.

The album has a clean production courtesy Kuber Sharma. The mix is dominated by the guitars of Prashant Shah. Aditya Mehta adds some high pitch screeches to his growled vocals, however it gets drowned out by the guitars at times and the bass is barely audible throughout the album.

Overall, this is the best release so far by Exhumation in terms of songwriting, which is miles ahead of ‘Among the Dead’ however the production hinders it. ‘Consider This’ has set the bar high for other Indian death metal bands that want to release an EP/album this year. Those who have been waiting for this album for some time now should not be disappointed; I hope they don’t have to wait 5 years for another release from Exhumation. 

Download ‘Consider This’ for free here