eccentric pendulum

Tag.

GODLESS, new death metal act from Hyderabad to release debut EP

From Hyderabad, India emerge Godless, a new death metal band formed by members of Skrypt, Shock Therapy, and Eccentric Pendulum. Promising a new sound, None other than Joe Haley of Psycroptic (Australia) fame has mixed and mastered their debut EP, in addition to doing a guest solo on this debut album. A statement from the band reads:

We are proud to announce that our debut EP Centuries of Decadence has been mixed and mastered and is ready to be unleashed. This is 18 minutes of fast-paced, skull-crushing, thrash-laced death metal with a shit ton of riffs. We’ve got a lot of exciting announcements coming up soon. Check our Facebook page to stay updated.

Track list for “Centuries of Decadence”:

1. Infest
2. Ossuary
3. Replicant
4. Oneiros

Godless EP cover

The album art is based on the second song of the EP, Ossuary.

Ossuary talks about a wretched creature that dwells deep in the catacombs in a state of suspended animation, about to complete its last phase of hibernation to wreak havoc onto the world. The lyrics are a metaphor for nefarious covert organizations within the governments of today.

Replicant, as the title suggests, was inspired by Blade Runner (1982).

Oneiros speaks of the shaper of nightmares. This particular version has been inspired by Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman.

 

Watch the teaser of the EP right here:

Top 13 Tracks of 2015: Headbangers India staff picks

The year is new again. It is time for use to look back on the year that was in terms of metal and release another staff pick list. This time, we chose to have everyone pick 13 tracks instead of albums because while the experience of a good album is undeniable, there are often songs that stand out so tall that one keeps wanting to go back to them instead of sitting through the remainder of the album. We also managed to get opinions from the founding couple of this website and that’s a big deal because they usually like to stay low key. So without wasting further time, here are our lists. Click each track name to enjoy it and see what the fuss was all about.

 

Subhramani & Vilasini

 

Madhav Ravindranath

 

Adarsh Ravichandran

 

Manaswi Gundi

 

Ishaan Kumar

 

 

 

* Song unavailable for online streaming
Original image from www.pixabay.com|Edited by Ishaan Kumar

 

More new music from Eccentric Pendulum

Arjun Mulky (guitars) and Vibhas Venkatram (drums) let us in on another promising new snippet of new progressive material titled ‘Resisting Another Equation”, from Eccentric Pendulum. Watch the video from the Furtados Guitar Clinic conducted recently by Arjun Mulky, right here on Headbangers India.

Eccentric Pendulum release new material rehearsal footage

Bangalore’s progressive metal commanders Eccentric Pendulum have released a video shot during their rehearsals of a new song ‘Tellurian Concepts’. The video shows guitar player Arjun Mulky and drummer Vibhas jamming to the song and you can view the video right here:

 

 

Review: The Indian Metal Festival, 2012

The great metal weekend has just wrapped itself up. In a once in a lifetime occurrence, two major international bands headlined two major metal festivals, happening in the same city and at the same time, at different venues. Some headed for Testament at NH7 Weekender in Bangalore, and the rest, like me, chose to attend the Indian Metal Festival, headlined by Gojira.

As soon as I reached the venue, I had an intuition that I’d made a mistake. Two wheeler parking was about half a kilometre away from Manpho Convention Centre, and was priced at an exorbitant 100 rupees, with no security guaranteed. A man in a suit was handing out parking tickets, which was ridiculous in more than one way. But that unpleasant surprise was just the beginning. The venue was shoddy, with no impressive backdrop or even a stable looking stage. I felt a tinge of embarrassment to think that a band as huge as Gojira would have to play up there! But we all just kept our fingers crossed that the sound would make up for it.

The second shock came our way when the gig, which was supposed to begin at 1PM, was pushed to 4PM. And as expected, the opening bands had to cut down their time on stage. To make things worse, Escher’s Knot and Agnostic did not play at all. Gutslit started things off at the Indian Metal Festival, but they struggled with sound issues, and despite it, put up a good show. Eccentric Pendulum also went up for a hurried 20 minutes, (in place of an hour, as they’d been promised earlier). At this juncture, I would like to pose a question to all gig organizers around the country. Why do you always compromise only when it comes to our local artists? Do you realize the amount of practice, among other things, that these bands put into making a good show? Why do you always make them pay for your lack of good organizational skills? It’s about time that Indian artists get the same quality of sound as international acts, and also, the same amount of time on stage. If your gig is running late, then work things out, but without making our artists be the ones to give up on something.

IMG_9809

Now, continuing with the review… After not watching Agnostic and Escher’s Knot, the international co-headliners, or opening acts… however you’d want to address them, came on stage. Flayed Disciple went up next, and they killed it! They were the second highlight of the evening, after Gojira. Tight and super heavy, they played a set that roughly lasted 40 minutes, ending with their death metal version of ‘Angel of Death’. Bloodshot Dawn took over after them, and were fairly good too- especially their drummer/ vocalist. They won over the crowd though, and the band members showered the audience with t-shirts and high fives. Xerath followed, and though their dramatic opening was followed by an unsatisfactory beginning, (due to some sound issues, again), they settled in quickly and put up a tight set. The vocalist couldn’t help but remind many of us of Soilwork’s ‘Speed’ Strid.

After they wrapped up, Mario’s drumkit was unveiled, and Gojira’s set up began. Thankfully, not much time was wasted, and the French prog/ death metallers invaded the stage. They sounded powerful as they opened with “Explosia” from their newest album L’ Enfant Sauvage. They played a perfect mix of the old and the new, and here’s a picture of their setlist:

Gojira setlist

But the band didn’t stick to this, and surprised us with a couple of unplanned songs like “Love”. Another highlight was the fantastic role-switching act, when frontman/ guitarist Joe Duplantier took over the drums, and brother Mario Duplantier took over guitars and vocals. They didn’t seem out of place at all, and had the audience in a happy frenzy during this little interchange. The drum solo, the dedication to Pt. Ravi Shankar, their energy on stage, their interaction with the crowd and the “shukriya”s, and of course, their tightness as a live act showed us why Gojira is currently one of the biggest metal bands around the world. No goof-ups, not a single sloppy second… very few bands can brag about this!

It was a mind-blowing performance, and Gojira saved the day for IMF. If not for them, and probably Flayed Disciple, I’m pretty sure that angry fans may have torn down the venue.

The organizers- Sweet Leaves Events, also fucked up with issuing media passes, by making some webzines (like ours), purchase tickets, when letting in their friends and some other media companies for free. Favouritism? Well… when asked about it, the organizer says “I don’t know why I did that”. They also lashed back at criticism on Facebook by sending out an apology:-

To all Indian Metal Festival Attendees,

Firstly,However it was, we hope you enjoyed the gig! We’re sorry for the mediocre management. Involvement of many fucked up people who were more concerned about money than music led to many unavoidable problems.

For the bands who couldn’t play, we are more sorry than we could express.Agnostic,we had called them all the way from the north east because we wanted to expose the brilliant metal scene up there.We could have got well-known metal bands too to increase out footfalls,but we wanted to g


All in all,we understood where we went wrong,and we shall definitely put up a better gig the next time.ive you guys a chance to go on a big stage to show your talent.To show the obnoxious metal scene how you guys are so passionate about the ‘metal’.But the situation and the politics that happened at the last moment,we were just helpless.We hope you forgive us and we shall surely try to get you guys a bigger gig the next time.

Up the horns \m/

P.S. For the critics, it’s easy to criticize on a social networking site,but it’s really tough to do something like the Indian Metal Festival.

See the post here.

IMG_9932If it’s “really tough to do something like the Indian Metal Festival”, then why attempt it in the first place, do a bad job, and then point fingers at others and play the blame game? It only seems like the team behind IMF tried to bite off more than they could chew, and then pushed the blame on others, without taking the onus for whatever happened as one crew. Rumors float around about how the international acts, including Gojira, cut down on their setlist to accommodate the Indian bands, and if true, it’s amazing that they did that. We wait for the day when event organizers here learn a lesson or two in professional event management, and learn to respect our artists, the fans and the media, because without them, you wouldn’t have an event to run in the first place. IMF scraped through thanks to the bands and the decent turnout, but dear organizers… learn this. If you don’t get your act together, you’re going to lose the little support that you’ve been getting. And if you think you are a blessing to the Indian metal scene… well, we’re sorry to burst your bubble, but you are not. Bands and fans can stand together, like they always have, and do a better job than you have been doing.

PHOTOGRAPHS BY: Subhramani S.

‘Kingfisher Presents Summer Storm 2012’: A review

Usually, when I sit down to write a post-metal gig review, I’d be struggling to hold my neck up straight thanks to the after effects of headbanging. But now, quite surprisingly, I’ve watched Opeth and their sober, yet surreal concert has only caused a hangover with a less physical aftermath.

After bringing down Lamb of God to India for the first time in 2010, Overture scored again in 2012 with Opeth at Kingfisher Summer Storm 2012 in Palace Grounds, Bangalore. Honestly, like most other fans, I didn’t know what to expect from the gig. ‘Heritage’, though a brilliant album, stands apart from the rest of the band’s discography. Also, recent setlists gave me a feeling that Mikeal doesn’t growl anymore, so I went expecting a very mellow show. But what we eventually got was one hell of a surprise!

Gates opened at around 4PM, and the first band up was Theorized. It’s been a while since they played live, and a majority of their set was comprised of new songs. Any opening band faces a battle with the audience, a section of which always come only to watch the headliners. But frontman Madhav tackled the chants cleverly, and kept the show going. The band has gotten tighter, without doubt, but they should have included a mix of the older stuff, like “Venomous Tormentia” and “Blackout” along with the new tracks for audience recollection value. The band has also released t-shirts and special edition ‘False Hope of Tyranny’ CDs, which you can get here.

Eccentric Pendulum was up next, and kicked off their set with “Sepia Drown”. Unfortunately, they were missing one guitarist, so their sound lacked the fullness it usually has. But despite that, they were spot on. Their setlist mainly comprised of songs from ‘Winding the Optics’, which you can get here. The only drawback about both the Indian bands was that they were not loud enough on the P.A. We’ve seen this earlier at G.I.R. and many other gigs, so I’m hoping that the organizers and sound engineers responsible for this would make sure that this is not a recurring problem.

Maldivian heavy metal band Nothnegal took over the stage after Eccentric Pendulum. They were definitely the surprise of the evening, and were quite impressive. They were followed by the German Celtic metal act Suidakra, who were pretty mediocre, but had the crowd amazed because of their bagpiper! The mere inclusion of the folk element had the audience dancing (very unlike what you’d see at a metal gig) for their songs. They cashed in on the excitement and teased the crowd with the “Raining Blood” riff. The band even started off another of their own songs, and faltered majorly on stage less than a minute after they started. In short, Suidakra was just about average.

After a short and not-so-painful wait, Opeth came on stage at 8PM sharp. The lights were still on around the venue, and the very Indian classical sounding backing track started playing when they walked on stage. They kicked off the show with “The Devil’s Orchard”, the first single off ‘Heritage’. This led into “I feel the dark”, and it was only after these two songs that Mikael started the talking. He introduced the next track as one from the ‘Still Life’ album- the first record to feature bassist Martin Mendez. And that’s when the surprises began, with “Face of Melinda”. The entire audience was standing still, almost like they were mesmerized by Åkerfeldt’s voice, which sounds nothing short of heavenly live.

Mikael then went into his trademark rambles, and spoke of how he’d noticed that it was cool to have a moustache in India. He also mentioned how Mendez “is too chicken-shit to have only a moustache” and how he has a beard to cover up his double-chin! He introduced the next song as being a tribute to Ronnie James Dio, and that led into “Slither”- a track that he said was very typically influenced by hard rock and heavy metal.

No Opeth show is complete without Mikael’s jokes, and he continued to talk about how the band had been around for 22 years, and how he still looks like he’s 22- young and handsome. After that, it was time for “Credence” from ‘My Arms, Your Hearse’, followed by “To rid the disease” from ‘Damnation’. All through the show, Mikael was getting the crowd to shout out “Fuck you Mikael”, and he finally gave us a little reason to actually do so- He messed up the order of the songs! After saying how contrary to what people think, they still love death metal, and partly ruining the suspense about them playing some of the heavier stuff, he revealed that he had mixed things up a bit. So it was back to ‘Heritage’ with “Folklore”. But after that, they progressed into the heavier side of the set with “Heir Apparent”. Next, it was time for some ‘Ghost Reveries’  with “The baying of the hounds”.

Åkerfeldt then spoke of ‘Blackwater Park’ and introduced the song that was coming up as a hit single of sorts from the same record. They started off with “The Drapery Falls” which had the audience in frenzy.  Ten minutes later, they said their ‘Thank you’s’ and went off-stage, only to come back for the final track, the encore. If you’d been to the previous gig at IIT Madras, you’d remember that they started off this song the same way, with the strumming that eventually led into “Deliverance”. Midway through this, they lost their timing a little bit, but jumped back on track and made it a mind-blowing end to a fantastic show.

Overall, I’d say that Summer Storm 2012 was very well organized, and it was nice to see how everything was on time and running smoothly. The only minor detail that had been missed out on was trash cans, the lack of which resulted in the venue becoming quite filthy by the end of the day. In terms of sound- as I mentioned earlier, Theorized and Eccentric Pendulum could have been louder. When Opeth started off, the volume was quite low, but it eventually picked up. There were complaints about how this gig wasn’t as loud as Metallica, but it would be unfair to compare the two. Opeth, as a band, is not as loud as Metallica, and their sound is all about concentrating on the finer details, like Axe’s jazz touches, Mendez’s bass licks and of course, Mikael’s voice. The setlist was packed with surprises, and most of the songs that they played were what we would have least expected them to! But I have no complaints. On the whole, however cliché it may sound, Kingfisher Summer Storm 2012 was an experience we will never forget.

 

Pictures by: Subhramani

Eccentric Pendulum on the bill for SWR MetalFest 2012

Bangalore’s multi-talented progressive metal act Eccentric Pendulum have been confirmed as part of the line-up for the SWR MetalFest in the city of Barroselas, Portugal. The festival runs from 26th to 30th April. The show is headlined by Norwegian black metal heavyweights Immortal and other international giants like Hirax, Candlemass, Gorod and Cerebral Bore. Here’s hoping for a performance that will turn more European heads towards the Indian scene. May their existence become less and less anonymous. The confirmation can be viewed on the festival’s website here.

Cypher 16 India tour 2011

Cypher 16, a U.K. based metal band, is returning to India for the third time for a tour of three cities to promote their recently released EP ‘The Metaphorical Apocalypse’.

If you haven’t watched them earlier, and couldn’t catch them at the Octoberfest last year, don’t miss them again!

The dates for their tour are below:

18th – Blue Frog, Mumbai

Supported by:
Bhayanak Maut
Providence

Entry: Rs. 200

23rd, Kyra, Bangalore

Supported by:
Eccentric Pendulum
The Down Troddence
Abandoned Agony
The Velvet Trap
Verses

Entry: Rs. 200

24th, Geoffrey’s, Chennai

Supported by:
Escher’s Knot
Blood Covenant
Chaotic Oblivion
Vidyut

Entry: Rs. 200

Check out this video, and you’ll know why we’re telling you to be there!

Orders open for Eccentric Pendulum’s ‘Winding the Optics’

Finally, one of the biggest releases of the year is almost here. And we’re giving you a chance to book your copy before it goes out of stock. (Trust us, by the way the orders are going, that seems like it will happen sooner than we imagined!)

All you need to do to reserve your copy of the upcoming Eccentric Pendulum CD ‘Winding the Optics’ is click on this link and fill in the details. There is no online payment required at this stage, so don’t let it bother you if you don’t own a debit/ credit card. Just book, and the band will coordinate with you post-booking and ensure you get your copy.

For those of you who didn’t know this already, Eccentric Pendulum represented India at the Wacken Metal Battle at W:O:A in Germany this August (2011) and were very well received by their international audience.

Watch the video here.

‘Winding the Optics’ is their first full length album, and a follow-up to their EP ‘Sculptor of Negative Emotions’. The album contains over 45 minutes of progressive metal written over a span of 2 years. It promises to be big. Listen to the track “De-engineer the prevalent” and you’ll know what we’re talking about!

Eccentric Pendulum reveal album details

After quite a delay Bangalore based Eccentric Pendulum have announced the coming of their album. The album titled Winding The Optics is a follow up to their 2009 debut EP (EP’s debut EP, haha) The Sculptor of Negative Emotions. All tracking work has been re-done and completed under the supervision of Ankit Suryakanth [Theorized]. The post production work on the album will be done by Daniel Bernath from Germany. Though there has been no particular date set for this release, the album will however be ready by the end of July and the band has settled for an independent release for the debut full length effort.

The tracklist for the album is as follows-

1: The Axioms Of Aphotic Expressions
2: De-engineer The Prevalent
3: Paragon Impermanence
4: Become Me
5: Mathematicians Of Ambient Waters
6: My Eucalyptine Depth
7: Anonymous Existence

Artwork and concept of Winding The Optics by Arun Natarajan.

EP are also gonna be contesting at Wacken Metal Battle in Germany. The line up will however feature ex guitarist Ashish Kumar instead of Faheem. Watch this space for more updates on that. Cheers for now!