Blind Image storytellersSomething old yet something new. On a Sunday evening in the basement of a bank, one of India’s best metal bands Blind Image decided to give their fans a little more than their music; their story.

The band shared their experience with their fans on a personal level, playing music from their debut album ‘Psychobabble’ as well as the recently released second album ‘More Than Human.’ After starting the set with the title song from the debut album, vocalist David started narrating the story behind the song; how the song was made during an early morning jam session which happened in one of their close friend’s house in Chennai. Following this, the band played ‘Skin,’ one of the most popular songs from the debut album. The intro riff was met with a thundering response from the crowd and David continued the story telling; how the song reminds them of their former guitarist Prashant Mathias (who is at the Musician’s Institute in LA now)

Soon after that, Christo, the vocalist of the city based funk rock band Public Issue joined David on stage for ‘Read My Lips,’ another track from Pyschobabble. He had recorded the vocal harmonies on the album too and it was quite interesting to watch the song played live. Christo exuded a certain charisma that captivated the crowds, after which the band took a mini-break to down tune their guitars while David continued the story telling.

Restart: Down tuned guitars, mean aggressive faces and wham! The band kicked into the title track ‘More Than Human,’ which was followed by ‘Glitch In The System.’ This song featured Blind Image’s ex guitarist Arvind Muralidharan (ex-Crypted) on guitars and despite the lack of space in the small jam room, a mini-moshpit erupted. ‘Ominous,’ was next, and David spoke about how the song was to have been removed from the album but was re-included right at the end.

What came next was a sort of surprise for the crowd- the song ‘Epitaph’ which is a mellow song from the album. This song has never been played live earlier, and the response that followed was also something they would’ve probably never seen earlier- silence! But things were brought back on track when they continued with ‘Deciphered’, with the crowd singing along during the chorus with David. This led into ‘Circle of the Unique’ which was only proof that Blind Image can sound just as tight as they do on the recording, live! And this with respect to the heavy and the soft tunes.

The band finally ended the show with the song ‘Say No More’ from the album ‘Psychobabble’. It was unusual and interesting to see a metal band ending a set with a very soft song, and like David said, a one like this that had lyrics that seemed so apt!

Blind Image has come a long way from their first album. The maturity in song writing and the change in sound shows how they’ve evolved with time. The story of the band described their passion, their commitment, their perseverance and their love for what they do.  Smack-dab in the middle of shit storm – a perfect story teller gig and the first one by an Indian Band.

Editor