There’s an old saying that your actions in the very first seconds of January 1 become the theme for the rest of your upcoming year. Never had I given this aphorism much of a thought until this year. As the countdown to 2012 began, I was standing at one of those local gigs held in a pub as a mug full of beer was clamped to my hands. The year had commenced and little idea I had that it’s going to be this huge and so full of metal for me or perhaps for any metalhead in the country. Not only the number of international gigs happening increased exponentially but there was also a gigantic wave of local bands coming out with small and big releases, travelling across the country in aid of promotions. All in all, we all had a lot of fun in drinking up and moshing around.
It all began with one of India’s most awaited college fests, Saarang which has an event known Rock Show. It featured Inner Sanctum (who are everybody’s number one choice for an opening act), Blind Image (Chennai’s No.1 on ReverbNation), the pav bhaji lovers Scribe and the Swedish djent monsters Vildhjarta. The madness from the show wasn’t over that just a week later the underground kings Dying Embrace pulled us to India’s largest underground fest which was headlined by the mighty Abigail from Japan and Cauchemar from Canada. Again after a gap of seven days, I was there in Bangalore on February 5 to witness the progressive giants, Opeth who headlined the Summerstorm Festival.
The craziness continued after Lamb Of God played in Bangalore for the second time. But sadly, this event did not take place in Bangalore’s or rather India’s metal haven Palace Ground as the Karnataka government had banned any sort of live shows taking place on that piece of land. This issue raised a lot of voices from the fans and it also caused even more trouble for the organizers to get a decent venue to host their gigs. One such event was Bangalore Open Air, the Indian edition of the great Wacken Open Air, headlined by the German thrash legends Kreator. The sudden ban from the authorities must have given the organizers a nice run and might have ended being a reason for such a poor turnout despite of such a promising line-up.
Nolan Lewis, the voice and guitars of Kryptos, says, “The ban on concerts in Palace Grounds is ridiculous. Basically it’s just a scam to extract more money from the owners of the grounds. While the local government gives lame reasons like traffic jams and crap, they have no problems hosting political rallies there and clogging all roads leading to and from the grounds. It’s a total joke.” Also during this time, certain American acts such as Nile and Iced Earth were finalised by organizers. The announcements were made and tickets were sold too. But the shows were forced to cancel due to denial of visas to the band because some “undisclosed” issues in the Indian Embassy in the States. Iced Earth was supposed to headline Bangalore Open Air along with Kreator and Suidakra was called in to fill up their spot.
After all this mash-up, a fair question was raised in everyone’s mind: “Will there be any more gigs in India?” The question was answered shortly by DNA Networks who are the pioneers of music event organizing in India when they announced that Slayer would headline Rock ‘N India 2012. And shortly after this, something opposite of “no more gigs” happened. Within weeks, bands like Megadeth (NH7 Weekender, Noida), Children Of Bodom (The Great Indian Oktober Fest), Gojira (Indian Metal Festival) and Testament and Periphery (NH7 Weekender, Bangalore) were announced and a surge of exhilaration ran among the heavy listeners throughout the country. The last three months were so packed up with shows that people had to make really difficult choices like Children Of Bodom or Megadeth and Testament or Gojira. This unnecessary war between the organizers might have landed us in difficult situations but we sure did enjoy to the core.
Does this mean that India has now become a recognized destination for artists on tour? Will we get marked on the tour map of every band? Time will tell us that. This is not the only thing that these gigs have contributed to but they have also helped local bands a lot by giving them opportunities to open for these international acts. Inner Sanctum, a Bangalore based band, has gained a lot of recognition recently as they shared stages with Metallica, Slayer, Cradle Of Filth and Testament. They outnumbered the old school nobles Kryptos in a vote-out held on Facebook and opened for Slayer in Rock N’ India along with Brahma. Eccentric Pendulum, who performed in Wacken Open Air last year, have played their sets before the likes of Opeth and Gojira.
The large no of shows have not only helped Indian bands in achieving fame but they have also targeted a lot of people and created an awareness of this form of music. This has led to an increase in no of local gigs which generally have a good turnout. Devashish Dutt, frontman of Wintergate, a progressive death metal band from the pink city, Jaipur says, “This year has been very important for us as we saw the invasion of so many international acts. This must have had a big impact on the people in accepting the metal culture in India. I’m sure it has pushed a lot of zeal in young musicians too. And I just hope it keeps rising. I wish to see more bands from different genres to come up too.” Wintergate came out with an EP titled ‘Dis-Illumination’ this year and they are now working on a full length album which is expected to be released early 2013.
In terms of releases, 2012 has done fairly well in all subgenres of metal. We saw the old school giants, Kryptos releasing their third album, ‘The Coils Of Apollyon’, through a German label which received very positive reviews both in India and Europe. The doom/stoner metal band Bevar Sea released their self-titled debut album in October. Skyharbor, a band invited by Lamb Of God themselves to open for them, released their debut album featuring the likes of Marty Friedman (ex-Megadeth), Dan Tompkins (ex-Tesseract)and Sunneith Ravankar (Bhayanak Maut) among the guest musicians. This year was a treat for black metal lovers as artists like 1833 AD, Solar Deity and Heathen Beast came out with some brilliant releases. So, in short the events of this year have made the Indian metal scene pretty hot. They have been a boon for local artists with upcoming albums and have driven many bands to come out with releases. I believe that India is going to see a lot of metal next year.
