There is still new blood being born in the name of metal’s original sound. From Vishakhapatnam comes yet another such band in the form of Against Evil. They started out as a hard rock cover band name Echoes and have released their debut single ‘War Hero’ today which you can (and should) listen to right here. The artwork can be credited to All Things Rotten.
Bangalore’s old-school metal torchbearers Kryptos are continuing their sorties of Europe. This time around it may just be their biggest announcement yet. They have now confirmed a tour of Germany with thrash metal superstars Death Angel, from the United States. This tour comes on the back of a highly successful tour with Italian melodic black metal band Graveworm last year and another Europe tour prior to that which included performances at Wacken Open Air and In Flammer Open Air metal festivals. The tour begins on 17th July in Weisbaden and ends on the 11th of August at Essen. From the Headbangers India family, we wish the band all the best as always and congratulate them on returning to Europe again and again, stronger every time.
The year 2014 is clearly over, but it left in its wake several metallic gems that some of us writers just can’t get over. This year was especially eventful as it saw several top-tier titans returning with new albums, a lot of new promise emerging from different bands around the world and yet, disappointment also abounded as familiar faces quit bands and left legacies behind, tours got cancelled and some albums that just did not do justice to a band’s reputation were put out. While we would love to talk about the latter, we prefer instead to talk about those albums that we still can’t get over. Five of us have handpicked our top 13 albums (because 13 is so metal a number that its now considered lucky) each. You may agree with our lists, you may disagree or you may even find names that you had absolutely not heard of before this. We ourselves are quite surprised by how varied our lists are, and seldom have any common names. Tell us what your favourites were because we hope your year was as metal as ours.
2014 was a fine year for metal. Swedish metal legends At The Gates brought out their first album in 19 years and Exodus brought back Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza into the fold. Closer to home, Demonic Resurrection released their 4th full length The Demon King and followed it up with a UK tour, culiminating at Wacken Open Air, while Kryptos continued their love affair with Europe and toured 4 countries with Italian black metal giants Graveworm. As I mentioned, truly a fine year for metal. My Top 13 of 2014 was not easy to narrow down to; so many bands, so many great albums, not enough time to hear them all. In any case…
Honourable Mentions:
A year of a fair amount of fantastic releases. The year I dug deeper into stoner, sludge, and doom. Dead Congregation’s was easily the best death metal release of the year for me, although it hurts a tad bit to not have favorites Autopsy in my top 13. Legendary Judas Priest’s release was big let down, great to see Opeth doing some mad shit, while Mastodon just erupted like a volcano. And Over Kill still showing the world why they can literally “own” while a ton of thrash bands from the 80s seem to fade year after year.
2014 was a year with too many highs, which is always a good thing. Truckfighters, Whitechapel, Exodus, Entombed AD. Whilst the albums were amazing, the live gigs I attended will have to be the highlight. Opeth, Red Fang, Hatebreed, Carcass and The Ocean were simply mind blowing live. Definitely a year worth remembering. My top 13 of 2014:
I’d like to say that my proclivities for the heavy metal genre were invoked by bands that boasted of a classic metal soundscape. However, as I expanded my scope of listening to other sub genres in metal, I came to like a lot of the modern sounding bands who borrowed influences from electronica, pop and in some cases even reggae. 2014 for one, has been one year that brought forth bands and albums that are consistently redefining the heavy metal landscape and pushing the boundaries set by their erstwhile contemporaries. There are many albums that I heard, but here are my top 13:
A year of several slumbering giants reawakening (At the Gates, Sanctuary, Bloodbath, Behemoth etc), new alliances being forged (Conquering Dystopia, Killer be Killed) and of course the year that Cannibal Corpse released an album that made it to my top 13! Also the year I attended Hellfest Open Air metal festival in France, the single most memorable event of my life till date.
After two years of writing, recording and performing, India’s premier sludge/heavy rock band Shepherd is ready with their mammoth debut album. Titled ‘Stereolithic Riffalocalypse’, it is slated to release on 7th March 2015. The album will be available for pre-order on 1st February 2015.
To kick things off, fans can get a taste of the album here. Formed in 2011, Shepherd has been making waves in the underground, drawing influences from the guitar-driven sounds of early 90’s hard rock (Soundgarden, The Melvins, Eyehategod) and the aural assault of 80’s hardcore punk (Black Flag, Discharge, Fear). They have built a reputation for themselves as an ever-evolving and unpredictable heavy rock entity.
Stereolithic Riffalocalypse has been recorded by Premik Jolly at Bangalore’s Area 51 Studio and mixed by Rahul Ranganath and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, who has previously worked with the likes of YOB, Obituary and Oathbreaker. Album artwork by Sonali Zohra (Dangercat Studio).
Shepherd is:
Deepak Raghu – drums/vocals
Namit Chauhan – guitars/vocals
Abhishek Michael – bass/vocals
Stereolithic Riffalocalypse tracklist:
1. Spite Pit
2. Turdspeak
3. Crook
4. Black Cock of Armageddon
5. Stereolithic Riffalocalypse
6. Bog Slime
7. Wretch Salad
8. Stalebait
Bangalore-based heavy/power metal band Blood & Iron are now signed with Pure Steel Records based in Germany. The deal is a worldwide distribution deal and hence their third album ‘Voices of Eternity‘ will now be re-released via this label for distribution across the globe. The album was released last year and features guest performances by Riju Dasgupta (from Albatross) and Middle Eastern artistes Youmni Abu Al-Zahab and Vin Nair. The album featured Australian power metal vocalist Giles Lavery from Dragonsclaw and Warlord. From all of us at Headbangers India, a huge round of congratulations to you all!
It’s been more than 2 weeks since the Headbangers India crew got back from the 24th Wacken Open Air. The 2013 edition of the heavy metal ran for 4 days with over 120 bands from more than 25 countries (maybe more?) and today, when I think back, the first word that comes to me to describe the event is ‘overwhelming.’
Due to the nature of the event; the size of the festival and multiple stages, it’s really impossible to watch every single act. This ‘review’ (if I may call it so) focuses only on my impressions from the festival and focus on the bands that the Headbangers India crew watched.
IMPRESSION
Before I get into the actual review of the festival, I want to give you, the reader, an insight as to what this festival is made of. The town of Wacken has a population of less than 2000 inhabitants and on any normal day, would be a quiet German town. However, during Wacken Open Air, the village transforms into a living, breathing metal machine. With approximately 90,000 metalheads making their way to the festival this year, the town opens up and the streets are filled with black t-shirts and beer stalls. The feeling of walking through so many metalheads is definitely overwhelming. It’s like a part of the world where regular rules don’t apply; where metalheads can just be themselves without the judgemental eye of society upon them.
The festival itself covers an enormous area; enough for 7 stages (Black stage, True Metal stage, Party stage, Headbangers stage, W.E.T stage, Beer Garden stage and Wackinger stage), camping spots for all the festival-goers, beer gardens, food stalls etc. And if you are really unlikely, you could find yourself trudging long distances to get from your camp site to the Black stage and the True Metal stage (where all the action is). Wacken also traditionally has a legacy of terrible weather, and this year was no different. The sun blazed and beat down upon the festival-goers on the first two days and a short but intense bout of rain on the third day ensured that everyone left the festival with muddy boots and wet clothes.
90,000 fans at a festival equates to a tremendous amount of beer/alcohol/food consumption and the festival grounds were peppered with beer and alcohol stalls. The Wackinger Village consisted of several food stalls offering almost all kinds of food available, albeit at a slightly premium price.
WEDNESDAY
It was late evening when I actually arrived at the festival, sharing a car for the long journey from Leipzig, Saxony to the town of Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein. I met up with the guys from Devoid and Kryptos, and beers were popped as we waited for Devoid’s set at the W.E.T stage for the Wacken Metal Battle. Devoid’s set was preceded by Trallery, winners of the Wacken Metal Battle Spain. Straight up thrash metal with a ferocious bass player. Devoid’s set which was 20 minutes long was quite destructive as well. Beginning their set with ‘The Invasion,’ they went on to play ‘A God’s Lie,’ ‘Brahma Weapon’ and ‘Battle Cry.’ However, I’d have liked the band to end with a heavier, more in-your-face track that would have left a lasting impact on the audiences who had collected to watch ‘the metal band from India’ (being from an ‘exotic’ country has its advantages). I’m quite upset that I didn’t get to watch Crimson Shadows from Canada, the epic power/death metal band that ended up being crowned winners of the Metal Battle. The day ended with a lot more beer being consumed at the VIP bar. Nothing more to report.
THURSDAY
The official first day of Wacken Open Air 2013. I was up early in the morning to ensure I’d be able to use the bathroom facilities and take a clean shower. After a bit of a bite and waiting for the rest of the guys to wake up and get ready, we proceeded to get a few more beers and wait until 4pm for Skyline. A purely cover band, Skyline hit up the Black stage and got the crowds ready with their versions of ‘Still Of The Night’ (Whitesnake), ‘Turbo Lover’ (Judas Priest), ‘Paranoid’ (Black Sabbath), ‘T.N.T’ (AC DC) and ‘Paradise City’ (Guns N’ Roses) among others. Skyline were followed by Annihilator and that’s when the thunder began. I maintain that I’m not the biggest fan of Annihilator (save for Jeff Waters) but they did put on a great show. Tracks included ‘The Fun Palace,’ ‘Set The World On Fire,’ ‘Allison Hell’ and ‘No Way Out’ from their upcoming album ‘Feast.’ It was quite nice to meet Dave Padden at the VIP bar after the concert as well.
The next band I caught was Deep Purple, and all I can say is, this is a band for which age does not seem to have any effect on. Ian Gillian hit the highs and the lows with aplomb and it goes without saying, Steve Morse is a guitar legend. It was great to see a band that has been playing music for more than 40 years still draw massive audiences and entertain the crowd like it’s their first show. The band began their set with ‘Highway Star’ and ran through their classics (‘Perfect Strangers,’ ‘Space Truckin,’ ‘Strange Kind of Woman’ etc) and even invited Uli Jon Roth on stage for a guitar duel that went into ‘Smoke On The Water.’
However, the band of the day, perhaps the entire festival, was German powerhouse Rammstein. I’d caught their set in Berlin earlier in the year and was blown away, but Rammstein at Wacken Open Air was something else. 90,000 fans screaming along to every word, and that’s not the half of it! The pyro, the lights, the stage act. In my opinion, Rammstein have transformed themselves from a band that plays industrial music to a complete theatrical event. Beginning their set with ‘Ich Tu Dir Weh,’ complete with synchronised fireworks shooting into the sky, the band played a classic setlist which included ‘Du Hast,’ ‘Links 2 3 4,’ ‘Benzin’ and ‘Du Reichst So Gut.’ ‘Benzin’ had some of the coolest stage setups I’d ever seen; the guitar players shoot flames from their mouths and the vocalist Till Lindemann walks around with a flame thrower, burning down an innocent ‘fan’ that runs across the stage. The concert ended with ‘Pussy’ where Till mounted a giant penis shaped cannon and shot confetti into the crowds. What is surprisingly to see is that the band has absolutely no communication with the audiences. It’s all straight out song after song, bang-bang-bang-bang, no unnecessary banter to kill time etc. Rammstein were definitely my pick of the day (perhaps the entire festival) and after close to 100 minutes of screaming to every song and feeling the heat from the fireworks, I decided to call it a day and retire to the VIP bar for a few more beers.
FRIDAY
The 2nd day of Wacken was upon us! With a host of great bands on the lineup, including Gojira, Ihsahn, Ugly Kid Joe, Powerwolf, Sabaton, Doro, Soilwork and of course, headliners Motörhead, this was a day to look forward to. I was out at the Black stage at 1.30pm to catch Gojira and while they did put on a strong set, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the sound mix. However, Ugly Kid Joe (who unfortunately were playing at the same time as Ihsahn) were a treat to watch. Despite hardly being relevant in today’s world, the band garnered quite an audience and put on a great show. The cherry on the top? Phil Campbell of Motörhead joined the band for a rendition of ‘Ace Of Spades.’ This was particularly special, considering the events at the end of the day (more on that soon).
I watched the final bit of Sabaton’s set as I set up based in front of the Black stage, waiting for Lemmy and his crew of bastards to hit the stage, and they were quite impressive, to say the least. Power metal done well. It was their first time at Wacken Open Air and based on the response they received, it definitely won’t be the last.
Motörhead. Oh, where do I begin? When Lemmy walked into stage to the intro of ‘I Know How To Die,’ he looked like a man on the fringes of death. His voice, despite sounding strong seemed strained and he looked physically weak. The band played on (at a pace slower than usual) and make no mistake, it was great, but it was no Motörhead concert. It was no surprise that after 6 tracks and an early guitar solo, the band left the stage citing Lemmy’s poor health. I wish the best of health to Lemmy and can’t wait to see Motörhead again under better circumstances.
This short Motörhead set gave us time to walk out and explore the village of Wacken a little. By the time we got back, Amorphis were on at the Party stage and despite not knowing much about the band and the music, I was quite overwhelmed by their acoustic/psychedelic set with folk overtones, (although I was too tired to last through the heavier parts). Headed back to the bar for a few beers before hitting the sack.
Bands that I wanted to watch but didn’t/couldn’t: Mustasch, Doro, Powerwolf, Tristania, Agnostic Front, Soilwork
Reasons for missing afore-mentioned bands: Incredible heat beating down on us, as well as scheduling conflicts with other bands (although I did hear good things about all these bands). Doro celebrated her 30th anniversary of playing metal at Wacken and invited Uli Jon Roth, Biff Byford (Saxon) and Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger) among others to join her on stage.
SATURDAY
The clouds showed ominous signs as dawn broke upon the final day of Wacken Open Air 2013. The weather report predicted rain later on during the day, which came exactly during Lamb Of God’s debut performance at Wacken Open Air. The result was unbelievable; a wicked moshpit of flying limbs and mud everywhere. Having seen Lamb of God before, I ran for cover before the worst of the storm hit but the band played on to an ecstatic crowd that braved the rain for them.
I did catch bits of Anthrax and as anyone at Wacken would tell you, they totally destroyed. Nolan (guitars/vocals of Kryptos) had this to say about Anthrax’s set.
“The band of the festival for me was by far Anthrax. They absolutely destroyed the place. Joey Belladonna was on fire and it was one of the best vocal performances I’ve seen in a long time. Watching them play all the old shit, especially Deathrider is like a…..fistful of metal.”
I faced a ‘metal’ dilemma in the evening; watch Swedish doom metal band Candlemass or watch American shock rock artist Alice Cooper. The latter won over and I don’t regret my decision one bit. My teenage years flashed before my eyes as the 65 year old Cooper belted classics, one after another, including a bunch of covers by The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and The Who. I was bouncing all over the place, singing along to ‘Poison’ and ‘I’m 18,’ trying to make sure Manaswi didn’t leave me in embarrassment!
I also caught bits of Nightwish’s performance and to be honest, I was blown away. I knew Nightwish was big in Europe but they had a massive audience, and everyone seemed to be having a blast. They had a great sound and stand-in vocalist Floor Jansen was on fire! I’m aware of Floor’s older work with After Forever but this was the first time I heard her with Nightwish. The concert was recorded for a live DVD and this is something I would definitely like to get my hands on.
Midway through Nightwish’s performance, I left to watch Indian thrashers Kryptos hit the stage. Playing the WET stage a few minutes after midnight, Kryptos were one of the last acts of Wacken Open Air 2013. They attracted a sizable audience, although playing at the same time as Meshuggah and Lingua Mortis/Rage is bound to have consequences. I’ll be very clear; I thoroughly enjoyed their performance but I’ve seen Kryptos play better. Playing music mostly of their 3rd album ‘The Coils of Apollyon,’ the band did receive a good response from the crowd, and I think, that is the bottom line, isn’t it? Hardcore Superstar and Suidakra were on after Kryptos but I just wanted to rest my weary legs and have a beer. Walking back from the WET stage, I caught the last few minutes of Lingua Mortis Orchestra featuring Rage and enjoyed what I heard.
I missed Fear Factory (but heard them from the bar area), Danzig, Trivium, Sonata Arctica and Devil Driver but I’m not a big fan of any of these bands. No biggie.
So ended my experiences at the 24th edition of the heavy metal pilgrimage, Wacken Open Air. 4 days filled with excessive beer drinking, heavy metal and meeting great people from all over the world. That, perhaps was my greatest observation about the festival; the camaraderie between everyone there. No one cared about your age, gender, ancestry and colour of your skin. If you were at Wacken, it meant that you were there for the metal and that was the bottom line. No arguments about the difference genres of metal; everyone was accepted and acknowledged.
I will definitely be back at Wacken Open Air 2014, seeing that King Diamond, Emperor, Behemoth and Amon Amarth (among others) have been confirmed as performing acts. 75,000 tickets for next year’s edition have already been sold out, just 45 hours from the start of sales! I expect next year to be just as good (if not better) than this year and if YOU plan to be there, YOU need to start planning right now.
Until next year, Wacken!
Heavy/power metal band Blood & Iron are back in a re-energized way with their third offering ‘Voices of Eternity’ which is now available for digital download from OK Listen’s website. The album took 2 years to make with Australian vocalist Giles Lavery taking up vocal duties, guest vocals from Youmni Abu Al-Zahab from Dubai-based band Ascendant and Vin Nair from Vin Sinners, also from Dubai. Albatross‘s now iconic bass player Riju Dasgupta provided guest bass on the song ‘Eternal Rites’.
Yes, that’s right! Headbangers India are official press partners for the legendary Wacken Open Air 2013 in Germany, where we will not only cover the event for our fans in India but also support our country mates Devoid and Kryptos as they rain hell over Germany.
The 24th edition of WOA features Alice Cooper, Deep Purple, Rammstein, Soilwork, Lamb of God, Devildriver and a host of other legendary bands at a 5 day long metal pilgrimage.
Blood & Iron, the heavy/power metal band originally from Chennai, are all set to unleash the third album ‘Voices of Eternity’ on heavy metal fans all over the world. They have released a promo containing snippets from 5 of their songs off the album. The new line-up of the band is:
Vikram Bains- guitars
Praveen Kumar- drums
Ashish Shetty- guitars,bass
The album features vocalist Giles Lavery from Australian power metal band Dragonsclaw, and guest bass by Riju ‘Dr Hex’ Dasgupta from Albatross, among others. Listen to the promo right here:
It suddenly seems to be gig season in Bangalore, with four continuous weeks of metal gigs happening in and around the city. The latest of these was the much awaited Evilution. The USP of this gig was that it was the comeback show for many older Bangalore bands- Threinody, Neolithic Silence, and also in a way. Bhoomi.
The show was to begin at 5PM, but earlier in the day, the Facebook event made an announcement about a surprise opening act- an Iron Maiden cover band, who were to begin at 4:30. So after hurriedly scurrying to the venue, which was again Ion Bar & Kitchen, most of us managed to make it on time for the first act- Killers Breed. Sriram from Djinn and Miskatonic, who also played guitars for the band, was supposed to do vocals as well, but throat issues forced him to step aside for a bunch of guest vocalists to take over. Killers Breed started off their set with “Wrathchild”, with Bharad (Witchgoat) and Mahesh (Shepherd) joining in for a dual growl attack. Sujay (Bhoomi) took centre stage during “Trooper” and boy, was he good! I started looking forward to Bhoomi’s set even more after this particular performance. The Iron Maiden cover band then decided to cover a Slayer song as a tribute to Jeff Hanneman. Bharad came back for their rendition of “Seasons in the Abyss”- a song that finally got the crowd pumped up. Killers Breed wrapped up their set with Biprorshee Das (Albatross) joining in for “The Evil that Men do”. Though he seemed like the perfect choice for the track, it was a tad bit disappointing. However, on the whole, Killers Breed had a great debut. The covers were well done, but the crowd reaction was poor. I didn’t expect such a weak response to an Iron Maiden cover band.
Next up on stage was Neolithic Silence. I hadn’t watched them since the days of March Metal Mania, so I was eager to see what they had to offer. And cliché though it may sound, I was far from disappointed! The band is back, sounding very different from their earlier avatar. Their introduction was powerful, and once they started, I noticed that they had taken on an all new thrash sound. Suraj was particularly good on guitars, and Anthony’s drumming was super tight! Surprisingly, theirs was a covers-heavy set, with some Kreator and Sepultura thrown in. Siddharth (Threinody) came in for the Slayer cover- “South of Heaven” this time. His vocals were a little off time though, but on the whole, it got the audience headbanging and finally showing some life at the gig! Neolithic Silence suffered some sound issues however, and I don’t know if it was this that made Jayant’s vocals almost inaudible at times. But it was good to see Neolithic back in action, and better, by leaps and bounds, than they were before!
Black metallers Dark Desolation came up next, with some of the members adorned with face paint and spikes. It is a general tendency to instantly judge a band like this, but the band makes sure that the jokes take a backseat once they start playing. They are currently one of the tightest bands in the country and do perfect justice to their brand of atmospheric, speed-driven black metal. The vocalist of Dark Desolation stands behind the rest of the band, and though that takes getting used to, it throws the spotlight on the dexterity of the guitarists. They started off with some of their originals like “Dark Desolation” and “Apostatical misanthropy”, and moved on to more mood driven stuff like “Suicidal Ritual” (Besatt cover), “Incestuous catacombs” and “Cathecatical Somniloquence”. In my opinion, Dark Desolation was one of the best performances of the evening.
It was time for Sujay to get back on stage with the rest of the guys from Bhoomi in tow. They have always been one of the few bands to play some good old fashioned heavy metal, but even their set at Evilution brought out their new, more prog-influenced sound. Unfortunately, they took a while to set things up, so they didn’t play for too long. But it was a set of all newer songs, like “Obsession”, “The Last Resort” and “Illusion”. The band seemed to have quite a female fan following as well, with girlie squeals ringing in the air every time guitarist Tony played one of his solos! Sujay’s vocal range is truly amazing, and even the instrumentalists in the band are in full form. Bhoomi was fantastic, and I really think they should start playing more often now. We’ve had a long enough silence from them all this while!
Djinn and Miskatonic went up next. Quite a few of us had watched them just the previous week at Sonic Doom, but to many in the audience, their newer, heavier sound came as quite a surprise. In my opinion, they didn’t fit in well with the rest of the line-up, and this, primarily because their sound is not high on energy unlike the rest of the names on the bill. If you’ve heard Djinn, you’d know that their music is chunky, rhythmic and heavy, and this is perfectly complimented with the vocal style. Though they might have been out of place in terms of genre, they put up a good show nevertheless.
“Thrash is alive!” “Thrash is back!”- This was the gist of how people reacted to the band that performed next. I’m talking about Threinody, the act that most of us were really looking forward to that evening. I have even lost track of when I watched them last, but they are far from rusty! They are now a four-piece band, with Josh Daniel joining Premik and Siddharth on guitars, and Shreyas Kamath taking over drum duties. Threinody now sounds fuller and heavier than they did earlier, and it was great to have an out-and-out thrash band on stage, ready to pack the punch into the second half of the evening. They started off with their originals, including the popular track “In Extremis”, and the crowd went berserk. Just after that, it was their turn to pay tribute to ‘Uncle Jeff’, but… the power went out. People shouted “Jeff is here!” and for a few minutes, people waited, chattering. But slowly, that died out, and people started trickling out. Apparently, the generator wires had been chewed up by rats, and we were all left at the mercy of the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company for us to continue what had so far been a power packed (puns intended) Sunday evening. Soon, more than half the crowd had left, and only a few of us remained, waiting and hoping that something would happen. And thankfully, it did! The electricity came back, and Threinody stepped back, despite not having completed their set, to allow Albatross to perform in whatever little time was left. That was mighty awesome of them, and though we were all really disappointed that we didn’t get enough of the band, we’re hoping this will only be an excuse for them to play again, really soon!
It was almost 11 o’clock, but I think arrangements had been made to push the deadline a little bit because of the power failure. That was when Albatross went up to conclude the evening with a short set, again. They don’t play in Bangalore too often, but they surely seem to be becoming a better live act with every passing gig. They managed to squeeze in a cover of “Holy Diver” soon after they began, and the vocals had me floored! Ronnie James Dio would be proud! Both guitarists- Vignesh and Nishith, were phenomenal, and the drummer Jay was also supremely tight! Bassist Riju also was dressed in his bloodied lab-coat and stood making menacing gestures at every break in and in between songs. “Uncle Sunny at the Tavern” seemed to be a crowd favourite, and if “Holy Diver” wasn’t enough to bring the few people from the bar up front, this did the trick. The thing about outstation bands is that you don’t get to watch them too often, and when you do, you certainly don’t want them to go off stage after a few songs. But circumstances were beyond the organizers’ control, and I think we just have to be happy about watching them perform!
In all, Evilution was a good gig. Sound issues were recurring though, and this became a little distracting after a while. Though the tickets were priced at an affordable 500 rupees, the turnout was lower than I expected, and I think the rain was an important factor in that. The power issue was unforeseen and one hell of a bummer. I wish that venues would be better equipped for this sort of an emergency, especially in a city where power cuts are rampant! But metalheads- guys and girls, you really need to start showing up for gigs! Don’t be there just to “support the scene”. Be there for the music, and become a part of the community! Don’t sit back, not involve yourself and then complain about the “scene” dying. Show up! And headbang!
We’ll see you next at Doom Over Bangalore!