MetamorphiK Productions signed the groove metal band, Deathember, for their upcoming ventures in 2014. After 2011’s critically acclaimed EP ‘A Thousand Flatlines’, the Stockholm-based Swedish groove metal band released their debut full length album, ‘Going Postal’, earlier this year. The album consists of eleven power packed tracks, including several featured guest performances by the likes of Daniel Ädel (Vildhjarta, ex-Uneven Structure) and Ralph Santolla (ex-Deicide, ex-Death, ex-Iced Earth, ex-Sebastian Bach, ex-Obituary). Deathember will likely be touring India in 2014, so the organizers who want to book them for shows can contact Sumeet Suvarna of MetamorphiK Productions:
MetamorphiK Productions is an artist management and event organizing company, founded by Sujay and Sumeet Suvarna in August 2010. Since then, the firm has been instrumental in managing, organizing and promoting numerous shows and venues in different cities across India featuring artists from India and across the globe. In February 2011, MetamorphiK Productions entered the Hyderabad market by booking Swedish Metal band, Degradead for Pearl 2011 (BITS Pilani annual cultural fest). In June 2011, MetamorphiK Productions organized their first pub gig in Hyderabad at Xtreme Sports Bar. And since then has been instrumental in reviving the live music scene in Hyderabad.
After a rather long halt, the Thrash metal outfit, Theorized, from Bangalore are back to metal up our holy arses with a new line-up and a few killer gigs. After having a quite exciting season last year, Theorized had to bid farewell to its guitarist, Sandeep, who left the band due to some personal differences, which forced the band to take a break for a short while. But now, the band is back and they have a full-length release in the corner for their fans, which is expected to be released later this year or early 2014. The following statement has been issued by the band:
“2012, we did some crazy gigs like SummerStorm Festival with Opeth and Bangalore Open Air with Kreator. We took some time off later to sort out shit, but we’re back now stronger than ever. We just had a line-up change, as our guitarist Sandeep quit the band due to personal reasons. As we had already started tracking the album and time was too short to audition, after loads of practice and a few rehearsals, Madhav took up both vocal & guitar duties.”
The current line-up is:
Madhav – Vocals / Guitar
Ankit – Guitar
Sankalp – Bass
Yash – Drums
As stated earlier, the band is currently half way through wrapping up their debut full length album! This will be their next release ever since the monster, ‘False Hope Of Tyranny’ EP which was out in 2009.
Textures are all set to make their third visit to India and this time they’ll be performing in two cities: Pune and Kolkata, at Bacardi NH7 Weekender fests. We caught up with Stef Broks, the band’s drummer in a nice and long chat about the Indian tour, the band’s ongoings and Stef’s life outside of Textures. Read on!
Eight Octaves: Hey Stef! How’re you doing?
Stef Broks: I’m fine! I’m having lunch! Pasta, salmon and spinach!
EO: Wow! That sounds good!
SB: Yeah! I have to be strong, get more muscles. Like Popeye!
EO: Haha, alright! So what’s your schedule for the day?
SB: Well, after lunch there’s some work, then some scheduling, bookkeeping, making invoices. Actually Thursday is my day off; so I can do my own business. So yeah, that’s kind of a relaxing day for me!
EO: Okay! Talking about the tour, this will be your third time in India in four years. So, I can just go ahead and assume that you people are in love with the country!
SB: (Laughs) Yeah we do! It’s always special. It was really special to just go there at first, but now even after the two gigs, I guess it will continue to be special to go there for us. So yeah, we love the country!
EO: That’s good to hear! So, how was your experience the last two times in Bangalore and Delhi?
SB: Well! It was really really really good; the crowd was really enthusiastic and it seemed like it was all really new to them. I thought we were playing like maybe in the first underground metal festival there in India. The thing is that I thought only Iron Maiden and all those big bands went over there and not much of underground bands, like us. So the crowd was really enthusiastic when we took the stage and so were we! We never had even thought of going there. It was so funny that this one guy had put this fake flyer on the internet with us on top and so many responded to it that in the end that we got invited to a real metal festival and we ended up being on the real flyer.
EO: That’s awesome!
SB: Yeah! So the Bangalore and Delhi trip was kinda amazing! Especially the experience! I mean going to the other side of the world, seeing people that are so enthusiastic and you can make people happy with your music; you can go the very core of what music is all about, you know! You can go into what rock ‘n roll is all about! It’s good to see how people can gain inspiration in whatever form out of your music; well all that was really happening I guess!
EO: Well, then you’ll be a bit happy to know that the scene has actually improved in these three years. And Pune is one of the heaviest cities of India and Kolkata is known for its rich music and arts culture. So you’ll be going to the most welcoming venues in the country!
SB: Yeah! That’s great! I’m really curious that how the Indian people feel like the scene has actually improved, but has it actually improved?
EO: Well yes! The fanbase has expanded, more number of people now visit the concerts, more number of concerts happen. So yeah, that’s how it has got better in a way!
SB: Well that’s great! I can imagine that here in Europe, we have that sort of infrastructure for metal. We have the venues, we have the magazines, we have television, we have good webzines and we have a shit load of bands; we even have education for metal for students and stuff! So, we even started a study here in Holland especially for metal musicians. So we have that infrastructure here in Europe. But in India, you guys have to start from scratch it seems, you know. You need to have specialized venues, special programs. But I guess it’s all exploding now, right?
EO: Yes, I hope we develop a similar scene here in the next five or six years.
SB: Yeah, that’s great! But it’s a lot of work! (Chuckles)
EO: Well, of course! So what’s your setlist going to be like for the shows? Would you perform more songs from ‘Dualism’ or would it a mixture of old and new songs?
SF: It’s going to be a mixture of everything; but not very focussed on ‘Dualism’. It’ll be a mixture of ‘Silhouettes’, ‘Drawing Circles’, a bit of ‘Polars’ and a bunch of ‘Dualism’ of course. Yeah, it’s not very special in that way but we try to play the heaviest songs that are most cool for live performances.
EO: Indians are in for a lot technicality and heaviness in the music, so I guess you’ll know what to play…
SB: Definitely! Textures’ music has always been eclectic, you know; eclectic sound, eclectic style! We always try to mix the best of thrash metal, death metal and math metal; you know it’s all sorta combined in Textures, even in the softer part. So if people wanna go for a nice, well… (Chuckles) well nice concert with a lady, then they can go to a Textures show, and if they want to go to a show with real fat moshpit, then they can also go to a Textures show, you know it’s all there.
EO: Haha! Well that’s true! So… The departure of Jochem came as a bit of shock to the fans around the world. He was the founding member of the band, along with you and Bart! How close were you with him?
SB: We were very close! We’ve been in the band together since 2000 and even before that I knew him, since he was 16 years old. So we were sort of friends, not very good friends, but you know… but especially when we started Textures, we became really really close. We spent 10 years really close to each other doing shit loads of stuff like building studios and making songs and all that things that happen in a band. But we also share the interests; we were very much interested in the World War II, history and all the different cultures and stuff. So we were close to each other, we all over, but since Bart, Jochem and I are there from the beginning, we have this special touch!
EO: Well, it must have been pretty shocking when you must have heard the news from him.
SB: No, not really shocking! We saw it coming and Jochem was very open about it. He was like, “Guys, we have doing this for 10 years now. My interests are going that way (points in one direction) and you guys wanna go that way (points in other direction).” Yeah, at some point he just had to cut it and that’s what he did it, in last December; almost been one year now. But yes, for the band, it’s a big loss.
EO: Well of course! But I read somewhere that he’ll be involved in the production side of the next album.
SB: Yeah! But with a different role I guess because he’s not in the band anymore and we also have another producer in the band because Bart has been running a studio now for a few years now and he has become quite experienced in it. So I guess he’ll probably share the job with Jochem, with him doing the recording mainly and Jochem giving the final touch. But it’s a really long way to go. We first have to write the songs by the way! (Laughs)
EO: Ohh! You haven’t started that yet?
SB: No! It’s kinda going very slow, especially with the new guitar player (Joe) and the other two members, Daniel and Uri, who really couldn’t contribute a hundred percent of what they can do to the last album. So we want to be sure that it isn’t that way this time.
SB: He’s doing fine! He’s a really quiet guy though. Sometimes we would play some old songs and then in the middle of the song, he’s doing some different kind of solo and we’re all like “Ohh yeah! Let’s put it in.” but he’s a very modest and he says like “No, the old stuff is good”. So… But yes, he can play really good and that’s nice for the band. He will surely have a lot of input to the next album. We’re actually really curious about the whole process of writing songs and being in the studio with him. It’s all new for him and for us too but the characters match so that’s the best you can get.
EO: Yes, of course! So in the new album, would there be any notable differences in the sound?
SB: I don’t know! Right after Polars we evolved into a band which produced music which was more song-based. Every song had a specific tempo and specific kinda vibe, you know but maybe for the next record, we’ll have more in-your-face kinda songs, maybe not so much mid-tempo, but more diverse in tempo and I guess that’s a good thing.
EO: Well the fans will love it surely! So Stef, you’ve worked with Exivious on their debut album; how was your experience in working with them?
SB: Well, it was great! You know, for a lot of musicians, it’s kinda hard getting one band together and finding the right musicians and when Tymon (guitarist) asked me to come and form this band, I found myself in two really nice befriended bands. It was just amazing!
(Pause)
But there was this problem I had, I was in two really great bands that I wanted to continue in but then it was just not possible to do it anymore because Exivious wanted to tour in Europe constantly and Textures was also happening. It wasn’t really working out. So, in the end I wanted the guys to have a band that really can push forward and can do whatever they want. I was like “I’m holding you back and you need a new drummer, so just do it because if we keep on doing this, it would be just making it complicated for two really nice bands.”
So, now they found a drummer, Yuma (ex-Pestilence). He’s great and I’m really happy that a very cool guy can do it. The guys at Exivious are really satisfied with him, so we’re all happy.
EO: Do you have any other side projects currently?
SB: Well yes, I have this weird side project, which is not actually really weird! (Laughs) In Holland we have this tribute band for Iron Maiden called Maiden uniteD. It was founded by Joey Bruers; he’s from the south of Holland. They play with a lot of different kinds of musicians, which come from various scenes. So we play with various famous musicians that come from all over Holland and one of them is Ruud Jolie from Within Temptation. But that band is just for fun; I’m totally not into Iron Maiden, I have to admit, I’m sorry! (Chuckles) I’m totally not into Iron Maiden, I mean give me some Sepultura or Morbid Angel, I dig that! But it’s fun hanging around with these guys and doing cool shows.
And besides that I have Cube X, but that’s more like free jazz improvisation and we just play in small cafes. It’s all improvisation and it’s totally weird, I can say! (Laughs) You know, we have a saxophone, a guitar player and sometimes a bass player and drums and we just start the gig like, “Ok guys, what are we going to do!?” “Well I don’t know” and then I start playing something like this (makes drums noises)! Then the guitar player plays something and then we just start jamming there! Well that’s really fun but that’s not really like a band with a record label; it’s just a freak show (chuckles)!
EO: I see you’re into jazz?
SB: No, not really! I like more fusion kinda bands or progressive rock bands. I was raised with a bit of jazz and Pink Floyd and after that came Meshuggah and Tool and that kinda stuff. I like jazz but it’s not really the kinda stuff I play. I like music to be more hyped up with way more energy than jazz. Well some jazz artists have that, of course, like Buddy Rich! That’s kinda like hyped up, you know, high speed is what I like. So that’s what we also do with Cube X most of the times; and also with Exivious and Textures. So you know what I’m all about – energy!
EO: Have you heard of any Indian artists lately?
SB: Haha! Yeah a lot! Actually we get so many emails from Indian bands that we have to stop it! (Laughs) But yeah I had a guy from Inner Sanctum; he’s a friend of mine. I got in touch with him since India and I know that band. They’re nice! But for the rest of the bands, I really had to stop it! (Laughs) Right now, I have 5000 friends on Facebook; I guess that’s the maximum. 3000 of them are Indian people and they’re always like “Hey Stef! You have to hear this!” Every day there are like five to ten people and it goes totally over a top. I mean it’s crazy but it’s nice! It’s nice that something is going on there and it feels like you have to go there to experience it! There’s a lot of work here and I cannot do it; I cannot get back to each one of them. But I appreciate it and I really try my best to give a reply.
EO: So, what plans have you got when you come here to India? Maybe some sightseeing?
SB: Well, last time I came here, I went to the Himalayas and before that we went to Goa. I don’t know what we’re going to do this time because we still have to read about stuff that we can do in Pune or in Kolkata. I don’t what’s happening there, your country is so big and for every city or part of a country needs a different guide. So if you have got some tips for us, like “You have to go there or you should visit that place”, bring it on!
EO: Well I could just start but that would take me a long time and this interview would turn into the great Indian tour guide, so maybe we can discuss it after wrapping this thing up!
SB: Haha, well yeah it’s a large country! It becomes a little hard for us to decide where to go. There are so many places that we can visit. So somebody has to help us; it can be a good job for you, you know!? (Laughs)
EO: Haha! Well of course! So let’s wrap this up first? Do you have any message to give to the young fans and musicians in India?
SF: Well yeah, I would just like to say that the Indian people/bands really have to be aware of the fact that they are in the booming phase. We have seen that phase here in Europe, with The Beatles maybe or with the punk revolution but there would still be many people who are not aware of the scene or some who will be like “No, the bands in Europe are more cool!”, but you have to be proud of what you are and what you have because this is the time when everything is settling and this is the most pure and cool time you experience because in 20 years, it will all be different! Be happy with it and be proud of all the bands that are so happy and proud to play in each festival and each gig. It’s a really great enthusiasm which comes from Indian people. In Europe, it’s almost dead. People are not that excited to go to gigs, whether bands like U2 or Iron Maiden are coming or any underground band like Cannibal Corpse, you know, there’s a lack of enthusiasm. But for Indian people, it’s still very fresh, so make the most of it!
It’s October and the festival season is just around the corner and by that I don’t mean Dushehra or Diwali, I mean the NH7 Weekender Festival series. Yes, they are back this year – meaner, bigger and this time with four cities, adding Kolkata to their ‘Cities conquered by NH7’ list. Now, I am pretty sure that if you are reading this article, you are aware of what the festival is about, but for those who just stumbled upon this page when they were searching for nude pictures of Scarlett Johansson or were looking for pictures of cute dogs in funny costumes, let me summarize it for you. What if I say that NH7 Weekender festival is for music lovers as porn is for guys and shopping for chicks! Ok, I know I shouldn’t be exaggerating so much, so I’ll give you 8 reasons why NH7 Weekender is so awesome (Porn and shopping still rule BTW \m/)
Stage Hopping is good for health – The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of all the NH7s that I have been to is the number of stages and the wacky lineup on those stages. It’s like when you are extremely hungry and you get all the delicious dishes but you don’t know which one to eat first. Running from one stage to another to catch your favourite artist is what NH7 weekender is all about. Oh yes, running also means keeping healthy! Testifying this, I heard some guy, the other day, tell his friend “You know what dude, last year at NH7 Pune I lost 30 Kgs only because I was running from one stage to another, I know it doesn’t show now coz I hogged at McD later but yea dude it felt awesome”. The fat boy who went slim says it all.
Place for metal-folk-EDM-fusion-heads – In this era of music where categorizing music lovers into genres becomes more and more challenging, NH7 takes, the already complicated scene, to another level by putting all kinds of weird ass genres known to mankind under one roof. It’s basically serving you a multi-cuisine buffet and letting you decide what you want to eat. Talking about eating, stage hopping will get you thin! don’t worry J
Star struck – If you think Rahul Ram and Raghu Dixit are bigger celebrities than Shahrukh Khan or Hrithik Roshan then this is the place for you. Don’t get surprised to see Vir Das standing next to you attending a Tough on Tobacco gig, Rahul Ram getting his hair done or Monica Dogra (Shair + Func) getting sloshed at the bar. P.S. Pictures speak louder than words.
Festivificaion of Happiness– It ain’t called the happiest festival for nothing. The moment you enter the festival arena, you are surrounded by such happy vibes with crazily dressed people, smiling faces and exquisitely designed stages. The whole arena is like a beautifully painted picture contributed by different artists from all walks of life. The best thing I saw last year at Bangalore was the NH7 Kabootar, which was basically a tempo painted psychedelically to act as a messenger for the artists.
Meeting of like minds – Now who doesn’t like a random conversation with a random stranger at the bar, at the gig or for that matter in the same shared auto! Finding like minded folks is what we strive for and that is exactly what we get in abundance at NH7.
The Red Bull tour bus – This is one thing I am looking forward to this year. Red bull has come up with an innovative concept of a tour bus which will open into an already set up stage. The tour bus will be parked in all the four NH7s and it will be fun to see bands perform on the roof of a bus.
Drink from a bucket – This is one thing I personally like a lot, the Bacardi Bucket, my prized possession. It just gives you those Hic…Hic!!
Check out the video of how the NH7 Kabootar happened, notice the festival arena while you are at it:
Skrat: Here’s one upcoming band calledSkrat which I got a chance to check out last year
The year is being somewhat plagued by cancelled concerts/performances. First the massive Fly Music Festival (featuring Anthrax, Limp Bizkit, Mastadon etc.), which was cancelled two weeks prior to the actual date and then Sodom backed out of the Bangalore Open Air on the eve of the concert, due to some payment issues, and now we find out that the news of Scar Symmetry playing at The Great Indian Oktober Fest is as fake as a three dollar bill! Yes, this hasn’t been officially declared as of yet but there have been multiple instances of the band denying of having any shows for the rest of the year.
A few days back, a journalist from New Delhi inboxed band’s guitarist Per Nilsson on Facebook, asking him whether Scar Symmetry would be playing in India. Per denied having any shows lined-up for 2013 as the band is busy in the studio recording their sixth studio album. And now today, a fan posted a similar query on Scar Symmetry’s Facebook page and a reply from the band clarified that there was mix-up on the management side of the organizers and they aren’t line-up to perform r the show. The statement from the band is:
“We just got word from the promoter that there was a mix-up, they sent our agency an offer for the show but we had to turn it down because we are not doing any more shows this year. Somehow, someone didn’t get the memo and accidently put our name on the bill… They are correcting it now” “We wish to come to India in 2014! Hang on there!” Per added.
For all those metalheads who were looking forward to it, the release date for Through The Never, the movie, is finally out. The 3D feature film by the American heavy metal legends, Metallica, hits the theatres throughout the country on October 16, 2013. The story of the film revolves around a silent protagonist named Trip (played by Dane DeHaan), who being a part of the band’s road crew, sets out on an adventure while delivering Metallica’s cargo in a truck. It also features concert sequences which were shot in August 2012 at two shows in Vancouver, Canada with the stage containing elements of many of Metallica’s previous live productions from the past 30 years.
Through the Never made its world premiere at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie was mainly made for IMAX theatres and was released across United States on September 27, 2013, marking the 27th death anniversary of the band’s late bassist, Cliff Burton. It was expanded to other theatres on October 5, 2013. Till now, the reception of the movie has been fairly good with critics giving it a high score and declaring the live clips to be Metallica’s best till date.
As a part of the promotion, the band made a surprise appearance in Detroit at the Orion Music + More Festival, to promote the film by playing their debut album, Kill ‘Em All, in its entirety. They were officially announced to play a headlining set to close out the festival on June 9 but took the fans by surprise when they entered the stage under the name Dehaan, after the lead actor Dane DeHaan, and started off with the song ‘Hit The Lights’.
Lars Ulrich, the band’s drummer, tells the Revolver Magazine “I think that Metallica fans that are really into action films and movies with a lot of energy are going to be blown away. This is a very unique film. I don’t know what people are going to think of it. I like it. But obviously I’m biased.”
The soundtrack, which features a number of Metallica classics performed live in the movie, was released on September 24. The two-disc CD came out on Blackened Recordings, Metallica’s own label and was also rolled out in digital and vinyl formats.
A great man once said, The Beatles ‘are more popular than Jesus’. Well, I don’t know about that, but their influence on us has been so huge that even after 44 years of them recording their last album, their presence can still be felt around us. Be it a mention in some song by some band or a poster hanging around in some café or one of their 213 songs being played in any of the pubs or lounges that you are chilling at. So 26th September, 2013 being the 44th anniversary of the Abbey Road album, I wanted to find out how much is the Indian music scene influenced by this phenomenon called The Beatles.
The phrase ‘what goes around comes around’ makes perfect sense with India and The Beatles. They came to India, learnt about the culture, our music, made a few songs and left, and all the songs that they wrote either in India or anywhere else has had such a lasting influence on our Indian music scene that it’s hard to neglect it. Be it frequent tribute concerts or bands naming their songs ‘Lucy’ (Zero has a song called Lucy. Listen to it here), The Beatles influence never seems to fade away. Tough on Tobacco actually has a song called Forest of Doom where they explain a magic mushroom trip by using these words (listen to it here):
‘Cellophane something and marshmallows too A gathering of insects in the sky with Lucy, do you remember me? Lucy, sweet strange lady friend me ‘
Warren ‘Blackstratblues’ Mendonsa posted on Facebook, ‘When I was a kid, I think I felt more sadness at the fact that The Beatles were no longer a band than at the fact that Santa was a myth’.
I asked a few Indian Musicians of how they felt about The Beatles and the age old question, ‘Who’s your favourite Beatle?’ This is what I got:
Micheal Dias (Vocals / Guitarist, Mad Orange Fireworks) – I think the most amazing thing about The Beatles is the melody and harmony in their songs. It’s absolutely brilliant how all of them are such amazing singers and songwriters. There is so much that any musician can learn by just figuring out Beatles songs. I’m not too sure who my favourite Beatle is as I love John’s singing the best among the four but I love George’s songs more than anyone else.
Kaushik Kumar (Bassist, MOF) – I like the way all their songs, and most of their albums always have that quintessential ‘Beatles’ sound – their signature sound, but still manage to sound so different from each other. At no point in my Beatles listening was I ever bored, or nothing ever sounded overdone or similar to me. That, to me, is pretty damn amazing. Favourite Beatle- I’d have to say Ringo. Paul’s basslines are crazy beautiful, but Ringo was the one who kept the groove.
From Lagori, the band that recently pulled off a ‘Let It Be’ on the Bangalore crowd, the lead guitarist, Geeth Vaz, had to say this: I’ve been listening to Beatles a lot! I think no other band has been able to deliver catchy music, album after album like them other than Queen of course. Favourite Beatle: George Harrison.
Sriram T.T (Guitarist, Skrat) – The Beatles were not just a popular band they started a way of life. I can listen to their songs every day. Hooks after hooks coming at you with every song. I don’t usually fan a band unless I like them, I don’t usually get influenced by existing fans trying to make me fan a band. Didn’t work with the doors, and most definitely didn’t work with Pink Floyd. The Beatles though it did. Favourite Beatle – George. While most Beatles fans fight between John and Paul, and Ringo is usually the guy nowadays is cool to like. Without Harrison, The Beatles would have been just a bunch of decent song writing from John and a charismatic marketing man from Paul. George was the cake. John was the icing, and Paul was the cherry.
The number of metal releases in our country has clearly increased over the past couple of years, which is a good thing because this clearly indicates that the culture is spreading out. But as they say quality is better than quantity, I have rarely experienced an album which weakened me in the knees, gave me Goosebumps or made me believe that the money I spent on the album was of total worth. When you listen to a particular band, you judge them with respect to the amount of uniqueness their music possesses and how different their sound is from their influences and trust me, amongst the myriad bands, there are only a few who score in this criteria.
SystemHouse33 is one such band which makes an effort to put something new on the table with its latest grind. Hailing from Nagpur in September 2003, SystemHouse33 infuses a considerable amount of groove and thrash elements in its strategically technical riffs and offers quite a new sound for us to hear. Being in the scene for almost 10 years now, the band shifted its base to Mumbai in their early years and has given us three studio albums and one EP till date. With Samron Jude (Sceptre) on vocals, Daniel DSouza on guitars, Leon Quadros on bass and Atish Thomas on drums, the band releases its third studio album, ‘Depths Of Despair’.
Starting off with ‘Abstraction’, Systemhouse33 is yet another Indian band which goes forward with the idea of starting their album with an ambient electronic instrumental before they give us the real deal. It is followed by a track called ‘Depths of Despair’, which pushes in with odd-timed thrash/groove riffs and goes into a long section of breakdown. The track, being a treat for the technical fans, offers pretty interesting riffs which stream with a great flow. ‘Death Wish’ is more on the thrashy and straightforward side rather than embracing technical sections. The track features fairly innovative progressions which are power packed with a lot of grooves, a thing you’ll always find about the bands in Mumbai. However the guitar tone is pretty muddy and this makes the riffs, not only in this song, but most of the songs, pretty obscure.
The next two songs ‘Stark Revelations’ and ‘Courtesy And Protocol’ have a quite good construction when compared to other songs on the album. The songs offer us a perfect balance between technical sections and straightforward sections. The drum lines have been laid perfectly on each riff, which are rather innovative and catchy. Though, the vocals are a bit disappointing as the screams seem to be a pretty austere and crude. ‘Resistance’ adds an element of variedness in the album as it is mostly based on a low tempo and is comparatively quite melodic. Besides the skull-pounding breakdowns, the song offers pretty catchy riffs and melodic portions which have been crafted perfectly. Samron has added a bit of darker tone to the album with his growls put over the main riff and breakdowns, which sound much better than the screams which we hear in the rest of the album.
The production of the album is just about average. As stated earlier the guitars sound a bit muddy, obscuring some good riffs with less amounts of chugs. Besides that the tracks lose dynamics at some places, but the overall sound is satisfactory. The work on guitars is quite good; I won’t say that it offers something totally new but it appears to be quite fresh when the compositions are put together. However, a better take on the sound of the song as a whole would definitely help the album be more innovative than it currently is.
So the verdict is that the band’s music is definitely something new and exclusive but what keeps this album from being an excellent album is the tiny lack of innovativeness in its sound, which I believe won’t be much of an issue for a band that has been in the scene for 10 years.
Mastered and Mixed By: Ankit Suryakanth of Theorized (confirmation required)
Release date: August 2012
Forming a band, composing songs, playing gigs and above all sustaining oneself while doing that is not an easy process altogether, especially in our country where fan base is so little that often these bands find no motivation to move forward. Our tradition has always placed music as secondary and no individual (except for Sahil Makhija) builds his career on it alone. Crafting of quality music requires patience, dedication and money and with people doing jobs and going to colleges, it really becomes a tough job. Hailing from our country’s own metal haven, Bangalore, is a Melodic Death Metal Band called Corrode, which was incepted in the industry in 2007, but it was not until 2012 that we saw a release from them.
Drawing inspiration from Children Of Bodom, Dark Tranquility, Arch Enemy, Insomnium, Lamb Of God and Omnium Gatherum, the band’s sound amalgamates elements from melodic death metal and metalcore. Since its year of formation, Corrode has played in many events from college fests to professional shows like Riff ‘Em All and Brute Fest, has been through several line-up changes, got endorsed by Steve Clayton and released an album titled ‘Lapse Into Delirium’. The current line-up of the band is: Aditya Rajan on vocals and guitars, Vinay ‘Goldy’ Ganesh on guitars, Nikil Kumar on bass and Ashwin Alexander on drums.
‘Lapse Into Delirium’ deals with the phase in which a man dissolves into distress and emotions, a bit which everyone goes through in his/her life. The album starts off with the title track, a beautifully crafted, sorrowful and slow instrumental. This requiem dawns with gorgeous clean guitars laden with a stunning bassline and keys in background and transcends into a distorted harmony which is reminiscent of the clean guitar progression, giving a magnificent start to the album. The next song up is ‘Laconic’ which starts off with a nice groovy melody supported by a nice bass track. The song has got a nice essence of tunefulness except for the bridge which is kind of dull and muddy and the solo which is pretty mediocre.
‘Casting Shadows’ starts off with a heavy riff braced with a lead and growled vocals and merges into a thrashy yet melodic section followed by the dulcet tone of the chorus. The song is pretty pleasant sounding if you ask me but it doesn’t offer much variety and gets kinda monotonous as you proceed towards the end. The fourth song in the album is the self-titled track, ‘Corrode’. The track has a very gloomy and chaotic kind of atmosphere which doesn’t suggest that it is from a melodeath band. It incorporates use of dark and shadowy scales in its progressions and creates a black metal-ish environment, especially with high pitch screeches appearing halfway through the song. The song is also pretty progressive in nature and has many changes. The song may be unfitting but certainly is a good one to hear.
The album ends with a metalcore number, ‘A Place Called Death’. The song begins with a fast riff in the verse but chorus gets a bit dull and tedious. The slow down after the second verse contains a nice section filled with effervescent bass progression and an easy on ear guitar harmony but the solo following is a bitter disappointment in my opinion. The work on bass has been splendid throughout the album, which is really a rare thing to see in India. The compositions are, frankly speaking, are just about average, although there are some good bits in each song but on a whole, they are pretty ordinary. The production is also below standards; each song has been excessively layered and instruments don’t gel together.
Summing up, the album is a good effort by the band but with more effort, they would certainly kick some ass.
Saarang, the annual cultural festival of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), is all set to feature the British metalcore giants, Architects. The Brighton-based band will be performing at the Open Air Theatre (OAT) inside the IIT-M campus on January 11, 2014 as the headliner of the festival’s pro-event, Rock Show. The festival, one of the biggest in South India, is known for bringing in massive rock and metal bands every year to create a stir among the music lovers. Opeth, HammerFall, Pain Of Salvation, Vildhjarta and Anathema are few artists that rocked the crowd in the last few editions.
Architects are known for their downright melodious tracks which are loaded with power-packed galloping riffs, ingenious keyboard harmonies and of course stupendous combination of clean and harsh vocals. The band was formed in 2004 and has released their five full length albums and one split EP with Dead Swans. The band currently consists of the vocalist Sam Carter, drummer Dan Searle and his twin brother, guitarist and keyboardist Tom Searle and Alex Dean on bass guitar. They are currently running an Indiegogo campaign to fund One Hundred Days – Almost World Tour, a film documenting their extensive 2012 world tour.
They released their debut album ‘Nightmares’ in 2006 on In At The Deep End records. After their original vocalist, Matt Johnson, left Carter joined and made his first appearance on Architects second album ‘Ruin’, which released in 2007 through United By Fate records. ‘Ruin’ was also voted as the album of the year by Radio One and received massive critical acclamation. The band released their next three albums, ‘Hollow Crown’ (2011), ‘The Here And Now’ (2011) and ‘Daybreaker’ (2012), through Century Media before ending their terms with them. The last studio album, ‘Daybreaker’ marks a music shift back towards the technical sound of their earlier albums; particularly Hollow Crown’ and received mixed reviews from fans and critics.
