It has been a pretty dry year for gigs this year in Bangalore. Compared to last year, the major gigs have dried up, but the underground gigs still go on steady and easy, like always. After a very successful Doom Over Bangalore, Bangalore Doom Syndicate were out with their second gig of the year – Echoes From Beneath. Bangalore city’s hunger for metal was definitely restored by Echoes From Beneath. 7th of September perhaps has witnessed the most extreme and biggest underground gig hosted in Bangalore for quite some time. With the super heavy Indian line-up of Djinn and Miskatonic, Witchgoat, Shepherd and Bevar Sea it also featured two of the most extreme bands from Sri Lanka – Manifestator and Genocide Shrines.
It started with a good note of a very gloom filled day and why not even the eternity was crying seeing the underground just exploding. The scene just exploded with “Bass-Driven Droning Doomroid Rock” by Djinn and Miskatonic. The band just mesmerised us with their heavy bass driven music and Oh boy! What vocals! Looking at Jayaprakash, the bassist, people commented – “Hendrix with the bass”. Well, why won’t they? After all he is left handed and holds the guitar exactly like Sir Jimi Hendrix himself. Sriram, who was seen rocking it with a B.C. Rich, made it felt that he was a part of the band right from the beginning! He has gelled in very well with the band and the band sounds better than before! The headbanging which was slow at the beginning increased with the bass drums kicking in at the end.
Setlist –
- Weird Tales
- Book of the Fallen
- 7 Year Witch
Next up was Witchgoat. This Black/Thrash band is the dirtiest of them all. They missed out during the inaugural Doom Over Bangalore, but made sure they make an impact during Echoes From Beneath. Their blazing fast performance was a real kick to the balls. The vocals were raw, powerful and hard to handle. But among all the chaos, one could feel they were having fun while performing. You could easily find Goat Krvsher fooling around while he was playing the bass. It would be injustice if i call it a mosh pit, it was a real CARNAGE. These goats with bullet straps all around them surely gave me a serious neck pain. The crowd response was tremendous! Even Necromaniax’s broken guitar string was cheered!
Setlist –
- The Old Rugged Cross
- Sacrifice (Bathory Cover)
- Apostles of Baphomet
- Death or glory (Motorhead Cover)
- Goatspawn Militia
- Tormentor (Kreator Cover)
- Into the Black
Witchgoat was followed by Shepherd, who unfortunately performed as a 3 piece band due to some issues. It was more of a jam session with some extraordinary melodious guitar playing by Namit. However, they called upon Ganesh from Bevar Sea as a guest vocalist, who was in a quirky mood and didn’t fail to address the ladies in short skirts. Ganesh performed 2 songs with the band and after that 3-piece moved ahead and did covers of The Melvins. It was an excellent exhibit of drums and vocals together by Deepak. It reminded me of Blue Cheer.
Setlist –
- Crook
- Turdspeak
- 10000 Years (High on Fire Cover)
- Blank (Eyehategod Cover)
- Undergod Dog
- Bogslime
- Night Goat (Melvins Cover)
- Wretch Salad
- Stalebait
Then came the Sri Lankvlt giant Manifestator! And man, they were ready from the word go. Wartek was superb! Correction, he was electrifying! They addressed the crowed very well and categorised their music as Speed meets Black/Thrash and Doom. The crowd’s fantastic response was awarded by a stage dive from Wartek. The guitar playing of Blashphemous Wargoat reminded me of some iconic guitar solos of Exodus. Just when I was thinking about it, they covered Slayer! Being my favourite band I burst out into tears, they followed it up with a cover of Turbonegro to end the set. Khaoshiva was looking evil with his bass. They thanked the Doom Over Bangalore crew for their hospitality during their, a very rare scene, you rarely get to see bands thanking the organisers these days.
Setlist –
- C.V.L.T.
- G.O.D.
- Terrorstorm (Witchaven Cover)
- Piece By Piece (Slayer Cover)
- Killing Magnet
- I Got Erection (Turbonegro Cover)
Manifestator was followed by our very own stoner boys from Bangalore – Bevar Sea and the crowd cheered to hell. Clearly the crowd favourites (till now), they started the gig with their signature addressing style – “We are Bevar Sea, so are you”. They played their new song – Bearded and Bizarre, which has a different kind of drumming which I have never heard in any other Bevar Sea song. I need to say Ganesh was the busiest person that day, as this was his 3rd performance of the day. It was sad to see that they couldn’t perform Abishtu due to time constraint and that was mainly due to the late start which was a result of a monitor blowing up during pre-gig preparations. Overall, a kickass performance as always and the crowd favourites still keep their tag.
Setlist –
- Bearded And Bizarre
- The Smiler
- Where There’s Smoke (There’s A Pyre)
- Universal Sleeper
- Sleeping Pool
Then came the moment we were all waiting for – Genocide Shrines. They came, they performed and they just conquered. Their stage presence was totally out of the world and the interaction with the crowd was just brilliant. Their performance transformed the place into a black worm-hole. It was just one of those performances that would really standout from the rest for quite some time be etched in the viewers mind for a long time. The drumming was loud and ear shattering, Blashphemous Wargoat (also the guitarist of Manifestator) my suggestions for the weak hearted would be to wear ear plugs. They were loud and looked evil in the mask. Tridenterrorcult’s vocals were real Death, the echo-delay effect on the vocals made it sound even more evil. Khaoshiva (also the bassist of Manifestator) looked straight out of hell. Most people in the crowd had just one thing to say – “This is the most evil band”. They were just killing it with one song after the other and were dedicating their songs to our very own Dying Embrace (horns up for them till death). Genocide Shrines reminded me of the early garage days of any big 4 metal bands, it was like they were to just blow up the place.
Setlist –
- Devanation Monumentemples
- Apparitions Of Spiritual Obliteration
- Shivatandaviolence (Cleansiege)
- Nectars Of Tantric Murder
- Gasmaskgauthama (and other assorted ressurections) – Song from the upcoming album
- INRI (Sarcofago cover)
- Militant Thrishul (eradiction pooja) – Song from the upcoming album
- Lord of the Void (Archgoat cover).
.
Echoes From Beneath, just like Doom Over Bangalore, was a flawless event; both in terms of management as well as execution. And a special mention for the hospitality, they planned out everything for even the outstation attendees! The Bangalore Doom Syndicate deserves a big pat on their back for yet another successful gig. A pretty impressive turnout of around 160 people, these 160 people got their money’s worth for sure. Looking forward to the next edition of Echoes From Beneath, and some rumours about it have already started circulating. Just in case you haven’t been confronted by any of the rumours, let me tell you, you are in for a HUGE surprise.
A big shout out to Argha Kamal Ganguly for filling up as the reviewer in a short notice, we are grateful for your inputs. And a huge thanks to Danish R.D. from Danz Photography for the awesome set of pictures!
