The venue merits some description…it was a garage, making the whole thing look very underground etc…ill lit, definitely not very well ventilated, but the organizers had taken pretty decent care of things nevertheless, and nothing we encountered was irritating enough to stop us from enjoying the whole thing. Atmosfear came on at about 8:00, and played four of their songs…each one more brutal and headbang-worthy than the one before…they ended with “Hell On Earth” with some relatively slow yet extremely catchy riffs, the drumming being top-notch. Ulhas on vocals was pretty good as well, screaming his head off and getting the crowd to mosh about.
Spiked Crib were the band I hadn’t heard much about..but the keyboardist indicated symphonic/power metal…but once they got started, they reminded everyone present a lot of Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir, which indicated that this was symphonic BLACK metal, an interesting change, Catchy tremolo picked riffs, somewhat bluesy(?) solos, the occasional backing female vocals all in all were interesting enough to catch everyone’s attention. Though rudely interrupted once by cops(demanding that this blasphemy be stopped, and that the noise and smoke was causing distress to the neighbours who obviously preferred silence to good music(wonder if garba night would have elicited similar reactions), they kept a tight performance with songs like Bloody Baby, The Butcher’s Prayer etc…
The last act, and the one which everyone was waiting for with much expectation, Zygnema, seemed to be having some trouble with the soundcheck at first, but once the difficulties were resolved, the guitarist checked the sound with the “Cowboys” riff, which essentially was an indication of what was about to come…they had solid grooves, and a tight performance. They played the audience favorites, namely “Scarface” and “59”.
All in all, a very good gig. The garage floor slippery with sweat by the time it ended…looking forward to the next one.
P.S. Great job by the organizers, managed to surmount the insurmountable, a.k.a amchi Mumbai police. Deserved the donations they asked for so that the next gig could be at a better place. \m/
