Fistful of Metal 20

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Riley Gale, the front man of American metal act Power Trip.

Track list

Power Trip – Executioner’s Tax
Capra – Torture Ship
Allfather – Poison Soil
Grid – Disinformation = Facts
Grid – Insatiable
Skeletal Remains – Illusive Divinity
Necrot – Asleep Forever
Cloudkicker – Code Language
Hinayana – In Sacred Delusion (Ft. Toni Toivonen)
Foretoken – Bewildering Duress/Retribution
Jupiterian – Mere Humans
Cynic – How Could I

Fistful of Metal # 10

Track list
Road rash – Burn out
Screamer – Out of the Dark
Megaton Sword – Born Beneath the Sword
SuidAkrA – Halls of Tales
Coilguns – Manicheans
Formless Master – First Strike
Formless Master – Fatal Impasse
Nile – Long Shadows of Dread
Nox Irae – All is Over
Abigail Williams – Ever so Bold
Chrome Waves – When the sun hits
Jakub Zytecki – Sunflower
November’s Doom – What we Become
Officium Triste – World in Flames

Fistful of Metal # 9

Tracklist

Kryptos – Full Throttle

Infinite Ashes – Ignite

In Mourning – Hierophant

Paganizer –   Apocalypse Writings

Genocide Shrines – All And/or Nothing

Baby metal – Shanti Shanti

Sitar Metal  – Dreamers We never learn

Sect – Redundant Gods

Vultures – Push

Cloud Rat – Al Di La

Car Bomb – Antipatterns

Serpents Athirst – Poisoning the Seven

Serpent Column –  Mεταγενέσιν

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 31

It’s time for another Versus on this episode of Horns Up, and it’s one that’s really, a timeless debate. On Horns Up we pit Ride The Lightning against Master Of Puppets in a clash to find out which one is the better Metallica album.

Nishtha Kanal Revankar (https://twitter.com/RootKanal) joins us to discuss, debate, and figure out who wins this round of Versus on Horns Up.

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 30

There has been a revival of thrash metal in the past decade with the retrothrash bands like Toxic Holocaust and Havok among others. This has also resulted in a comeback from bands including Death Angel, Nuclear Assault and more recently Exhorder.

American quartet Sacred Reich released their 5th album Awakening last month, their first album in 23 years. We spoke to frontman and bassist Phil Rind about how Awakening came together, the addition of Joey Radziwill on guitars and their upcoming tours in US and UK.

Phil Rind also shares what metal means to him and the influence of his practice of Tibetan Buddhism on Sacred Reich.

Zygnema

In 2010, while visiting Mumbai on holiday I managed to attend a battle of the bands style competition called Yamaha Beats. The competition featured amateur bands from around the city, there were three metal bands – Abraxas, Noiseware and Zygnema. The band that impressed the audience and judges alike with their electric performance was Zygnema and they were declared the winners. The band got a moshpit going in an indoor hall which was quite a sight to behold. Since then, Zygnema have released 2 albums and their live act has gone from strength to strength.

Last month, I caught up with Zygnema at their jam pad and reminisced about the Yamaha Beats gig. We spoke about their recent European tour, the sound on their upcoming album and much more.

Read my article on Zygnema on Redbull.com

Noisem – Cease to Exist review

In 2013 Agony Defined, the debut release from American extreme act Noisem impressed me with it’s mix of thrash metal and grindcore amplified by raw production. Their follow up release Blossoming decay did not grab my attention the same way. Post that the band disappeared leaving many to wonder what their status was. This changed late last year with the release of a single Sin Rash via Adult Swim.

Noisem are now a three piece lead by the Phillips brothers with a new new vocalist/bass player Ben Anft and signed to one of my favourite labels currently (20 Buck Spin). Does this have an impact on Cease to Exist?

Read my review of Cease to Exist on VM Underground

Horns Up Podcast: Episode 8

In the present age of streaming, singles have taken precedence over albums. On the latest episode of Horns Up, we discuss if there is a perfect album in our new format All A’s Album. The first album under the scanner is Pantera Cowboys from Hell.

Cowboys from Hell was one of the first metal albums I heard when I got into metal close to 20 years ago. You can hear about the impact it had on me in the episode. Music journalist Anurag Tagat joins us as a guest. Click play below and find out if Cowboys from Hell is a All A’s Album.

Follow Horns Up on Twitter for updates and more.

Godless

Indian Death/thrash metal act Godless are one of the most hardworking bands in the country. In a short period of 3 years, the band have quite a few notable achievements – released a EP Centuries of Decadence, supported heavyweights acts like Behemoth & Jeff Loomis, an Indian tour with Psycroptic and recently represented India at the Wacken Metal Battle. Later this week, Godless add one more feather to their cap, their second EP Swarm. The release is a potent mix of death and thrash metal.

I spoke to bassist Abbas Razvi about Swarm, performing at Wacken and their upcoming Indian tour.

Read my interview on  VM Underground

Amorphia

Thrash metal is the most popular metal subgenre in India. 3 of the “Big 4” of thrash metal royalty (the exception being Anthrax) have performed in the country in the past decade. There are thrash metal bands across the country including smaller towns like Cherthala in Kerala where Amorphia(https://www.facebook.com/Amorphiathrash) hail from. The band formed in 2012 and have released 2 singles so far,  Master of Death and Lieber Code. The latter features on their debut album Arms to Death, which will be released on April 15

Find out more about Arms to Death, recording the album and also the Indian bands that have inspired them in my interview with the band below.

Read the interview on Unite Asia