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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

 

Big 69 : India’s First Metal Pilgrimage

Metalheads who think the scene is dying… there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! Mumbai is now ready to get its very own metal music festival, called BIG69. Supported by Pepsi MTV Indies and managed by BAJAAO Consulting and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., BIG69 will bring the biggest names in the rock music arena to India. In its very first year, BIG69 will showcase UK’s leading heavy metal legends Carcass and progressive metal act Sikth as the headliners. The festival will take place at the Richardson & Cruddas industrial compound in Byculla on the 17th and 18th of January, 2015 and the lineup includes Italian metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and UK rap metallers Hacktivist along with some of the biggest Indian bands such as Bombay Metal Project and Joint Family, who will be reuniting for this festival after seven years of being defunct.
Carcass is one of biggest influences in the death/grindcore and melodic death metal genre. After disbanding in the mid 90s, Carcass reunited in 2007 for touring purposes, but the reunion became permanent in 2012 with a new lineup as drummer Daniel Wilding and guitarist Ben Ash joined founding members Bill Steer and Jeff Walker. With a 2013 release ‘Surgical Steel’ the band sets foot in India for the first time this January.
SikTh, who disbanded in 2008, have made a triumphant return in 2014 with a headlining set at the Download festival and are considered by many to be the godfathers of modern progressive metal. Vocalist Mikee Goodman said: “It has always been a dream to travel the world and play shows for myself and the rest of the band. It is an honour to be here right now. I heard some bands were recently coming to India to play. At last this chance has come for us and we are very excited to see and play in India!”

Fellow headliners Hacktivist who are considered to be one of the rising stars of the UK progressive metal scene and Fleshgod Apocalypse from Italy will be the other two international bands performing at the event. This festival will also give a platform to some of our very own Indian bands who have been performing in this genre. These include Nepal’s Underside and Indian metal biggies Demonic Resurrection, Undying Inc, Zygnema, Kryptos, Devoid and Noiseware. There is also something that young aspiring bands can look forward to. Pepsi MTV Indies is conducting a band hunt to choose two promising bands who will get a chance to play at the festival.

Apart from music, the festival will also have a special focus on art, with well-designed stages, art installations and the Indies KVLTure project – a special showcase of visual art, photographs and iconography associated with heavy metal. This will involve a number of collaborations with some of the finest artists and designers from the Indian metal scene who will create artwork and designs especially for the festival. Artists already on-board include Reuben Bhattacharya aka Visual Amnesia, Aaron Pinto, Avinash Jai Singh, Anirudh Singh aka Nuclear Puke, Gaurav Basu aka Acid Toad and Aaquib Wani. Limited edition prints of their artwork will be available for sale at the festival, along with special Indies KVLTure project merchandise and much more.

Festival managers BAJAAO were the company behind the now-defunct cult underground venue B69, which is still remembered fondly by the city’s metalheads. BAJAAO, along with the festival’s promoters and partners, is very excited about this upcoming new event that is to be added to the city’s annual calendar. Festival promoter Ashutosh Pande said: “We’ve had a long association with the Indian metal scene. BIG69 is our effort to take metal to the masses and to fill the void that B69 left behind. We intend to replicate the B69 experience at a much larger scale by giving Mumbai its very own Festival director Himanshu Vaswani said: “Mumbai hasn’t had a big music festival in a long time and we’re very excited to be doing a metal festival on this scale. We’re making sure that everything – from the line-up and stages to the whole experience – is as big as it gets.”

Early bird tickets are available at www.insider.in/big69 at Rs. 2500 for a two day pass. School and college students can avail of a special discounted pass at Rs. 1500. Find all the details at www.big69.in.

Watch this space for updates!

Zygnema releases new single

Zygnema- The Mumbai based thrash / groove metal band who have also represented India at the Wacken Metal Battle in 2012, have just released a brand new single. Titled “Shell Broken Hell Loose”, the single is available for streaming and also free download.

You can check it out here:

Free embed music player from ReverbNation.com

The powerful single has been receiving positive feedback and a lot of reshares on Facebook. The band is currently working on their second album, and the new song along with the response is an indication that good things are to come from the Zygnema camp!

For updates, visit them on Facebook.

Winners: Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2011

Here are the list of winners for the (very controversial) Rolling Stone Metal Awards that took place on the 19th of June in Mumbai:

Best Metal Keyboardist– Jonathan (Slain)
Best Metal Bassist- Rohit Bhattacharya (Guillotine)
Best Metal Drummer- Yuvraj Sengupta (Undying Inc.)
Best Metal Vocalist- Shashank Bhatnagar (Undying Inc.)
Best Album Artwork– ‘Engravings’ (IAFWAY)
Best Metal Guitarist– Prashant Shah (Exhumation)

Popular Choice Awards:

Best Metal Song– “Theories of Lies and Negation” (Zygnema)
Best Metal Album– ‘A gods lie’ (Devoid)
Best Metal Band- Zygnema

Critics Choice Awards:

Best Metal Song– “23” (Noiseware)
Best Metal Album– ‘Aggressive World Dynasty’ (Undying Inc.)
Best Metal Band– Bhayanak Maut

Let the war of comments begin!

Gig Alert : Cyanide Serenity (UK), Zygnema and Providence to play at B69, Mumbai

UK metallers Cyanide Serenity are playing in India again, and this time the venue is Mumbai’s B69, where they’ll be supported by Zygnema and Providence, the latter being a band consisting of members from Bhayanak Maut, Chronic Phobia and other Mumbai based bands.

Entry – Rs 150
Gates open – 7PM – 29th April, Friday.

Below is the link to the facebook event page for more details.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=202730266434655

NYDM India Meatfeast


NYDM India presents Metal death metal fest consisting of

Bloodsoaked (U.S.A)
Orator (BANGLADESH)
Exumation (INDIA)
Zygnema (INDIA)
Gutslit (INDIA)

Bloodsoaked is a North Carolina based Death Metal band concentrates on purely old school, no frills, straight forward, skull crushing Death Metal in the most raw and primitive form! There are no “slam till you can’t slam no more breakdowns”, no pig squeals, no arpeggios; simply classic Death Metal, nothing more, nothing less.

The fest is scheduled to take place in Goa and Mumbai at the following venues-
In Goa @ Kali The Musick Bar on 16th March 2011
In Mumbai @ B69 on 19th March 2011.

This sure as hell promises to be a literal death feast,just 2 months after the largely successful Undergrind held in Bangalore, which was headlined by Putrid Pile. The rest of the details for the above are coming up soon, so wait for it.

Tribute to the Beast III

Vincent Pereira was a local Mumbai boy, born on May 26th 1985. He was known for his Gratefulness, Modesty and Musicianship. Till date Vincent is still recognized as a true friend by every musician in Mumbai. He was fondly known as “The Beast” by all. He was a prime member of Prakalp and played a major role in the band as he kept pushing his band members constantly to be different, in their playing patterns and genre, which no other band had done before. They were the first “Hindi metal band”. He also played with bands like Atmosfear (Death metal), Primal Rage (Thrash metal), Spiked Crib (Black metal) and also was a part of a Gospel rock band. He was, and still is a true inspiration to the youth and is a reason why so many of us want to pick up the bass.

Vince passed away on 22nd October 2007 at a very young age of 22. His death sent a huge wave of shock amongst all the musicians in Mumbai. One can only wonder what all he could have done if he was still with us. However short he had led his life, he lived it to the fullest. And to celebrate his life, his undying spirit, that should be alive in every musician, we planned to do a concert as a tribute to him called “Tribute To The Beast”.

The show was organized the first year on 8th Nov – 2008 at Bayview in Borivali, Mumbai and had an amazing turnout of about 350 people. The bands that played that night were Spiked Crib, Zygnema, Demonic Resurrection, Atmosfear, Devoid and Blakc. A video put up by the ITN channel on that event can be viewed here.

We had to do the event on the 16th of January 2010 on the second year as we had issues in October 2009. And we once again were overwhelmed with the response that we got from the crowd that night. Again more than 350 people showed up to pay tribute to him, with a lot of them clicking pictures and uploading videos on youtube, facebook etc. The bands that played that night were Infernal Wrath, Abraxas, Zygnema, Devoid, Atmosfear and Spiked Crib.

Thanks to all the people who have supported our cause selflessly and made it worthwhile, it is you people who drive us to do this every year. Keeping the spirit of the Tribute gig alive, this year we plan to make it much bigger and better for the people to have the best of this event. This Year we are making the show into a two day event with one Rock Night and a Metal Night, and will be held at the best underground venue in town – B69 at Andheri. Per day entry pass will be for 150 Rs. and dual day pass is for Rs. 200.

Like Vince once said “The show must go on”.

4th February 2011:

Blakc

Split

Goddess Gagged

The Hoodwink Circle

Summerpint Junkie

5th February- 2011:

Zygnema

Abandoned Agony

Atmosfear

Devoid

Spiked Crib

Venue: B69, Andheri (E), Mumbai

Time: 6:30 PM Onwards upto 11 PM

Price: Rs 150 for one day Pass, Rs 200 for dual day pass.

Hammerfest III – National Disaster Tour

Hammerfest IIIHammerfest is all set to storm the cities of Pune, Bangalore and Mumbai in it’s third edition! Sponsored by Blue Track Entertainment, RATPRO Guitars, bajaao.com, the National Disaster Tour, as it is being described(inspired by Zygnema’s National Disasters?) is also promoting Zygnema’s new album”Born Of Unity” at 150 bucks(with free poster and a sticker). The details are as follows. 1469