Artist: Workshop
Album: Made Love To The Dragon
Release Date: January 16, 2013
Mastered and Mixed by: Sahil Makhija at Demonic Studios
Label: Demonstealer Records
Official Band Website | Official MySpace Profile
Letâs go back to the era when metal in India just resided in little pubs at the corner of dark alleys. Not only there were negligible amount of fans/musicians but those who were, they did not have any sort of platform to perform or enjoy live music. This is when some musicians stepped up and helped India score on global metal scene. Sahil âDemonstealerâ Makhija was one such artist who gave the country a hope in the form of Demonic Resurrection. But I wonât get into that because the album which I have today is neither by Demonic Resurrection nor is proper metal album, but from a bone-tickling side project of his, called Workshop.
Workshop was formed back in 2008 when Sahil, along with Hamza and Riju, started providing guitar clinics. Soon, Raj was added to the line-up and Workshop released their first, absolutely hilarious, album âKhooni Murgaâ in 2009. With tracks like âBunty Aur Mallika Sherawatâ, the band received critic and public acclamation and entered the studio for their second studio album, âMade Love To The Dragonâ. After going through a couple of line-up changes, the current members of the band are: Sahil âDemonstealerâ Makhija on guitars and vocals, Devesh âDeveshtatorâ Dayal guitars, Hamza âHamzoidâ Kazi on drums and Aditya âAbominatorâ Kadam on bass.
Like their previous album, the band succeeded in coming up with some really cheesy and rib-tickling themes, touching some social topics. The title track itself tells us how innovatively their minds work. âDown To Dahisarâ is about a man who wants to buy an apartment but the sky-rocketing property prices in Mumbai lead him to a Dahisar, a place in outskirts of the city whereas âShe Cameâ is about arranged marriages and adultery. âBhoot Bunglaâ is about a trip to a haunted house and Gajanand Dhinge is about a typical fat guy from rural India who likes to scratch his gigantic ass. The album also has kind of voluptuous and erogenous tracks like âBlues Motionâ, âNaagin Ki Nazarâ and âMade Love To The Dragonâ which would make you roll on floor with laughs. The Persian track is sort of Arabian version âBunty and Mallika Sherawatâ with some non-decipherable vocals and we all know what âMunni Jawan v/s Sheila Badnaamâ is about.
Coming to the musical aspects of the album, it consists of really groovy, upbeat and some downright catchy progressions to support the witty lyrics. The album is primarily hard rock with some metal elements like palm-muted riffs and breakdowns. We can witness some fine compositions throughout the record; be it the heavier tracks like âGajanand Dhingeâ, âMunni Jawan v/s Sheila Badnaamâ and âNaagin Ki Nazarâ or the melodic ones âMade Love To The Dragonâ, âBhoot Bunglaâ and âDown To Dahisarâ. The record also offers some variety with a brilliant metal-blues fusion in the track âBlues Motionâ and somewhat jazzy first minute of âShe Cameâ. The album features splendid work on guitars with great riffs and ground-breaking solos on every single track. Check out the leads on the track âBlues Motionâ, which feature incredible guest solos by Mattias AI Eklund and Christopher Godin.
The production of the album is just about average; it exhibits fair amount of dynamics with proper panning but lacks bass. The patches selected for guitars should have had more gain; they are apt for hard rock but they sound a bit blunt at certain places where palm-muted riff are played. However the patches used on solos are perfect.
Summing up, the album is darn good and surely deserves a nomination for Comedy Awards, 2013; highly recommended for all types of listeners and comic freaks.
P.S. Look out for the âbonutsâ instrumental track after the ninth track.
