It was like Sophie’s choice – Testament at NH7 Weekender or Gojira at Indian Metal Festival. After much thought, we landed up at IMF to witness Gojira who are known as one of the finest live metal acts ever. The show that was scheduled to start at 11 am was pushed to 1 pm and then 4 pm; disappointing many who were all geared to catch half of IMF and then head to NH7 Weekender.
Parking was provided at Maanyata Tech Park for a “meagre” 100 rupees. A short walk later, we were welcomed by the booming sound from Manpho Convention Centre. At 5:30 pm, Gutslit from Mumbai kick-started the festival with a short set of only 4 songs, what with the concert starting almost 6 hours late. The band put up a good fight against the terrible sound that they were provided with. Eccentric Pendulum followed, receiving a good response from their home crowd. However, the sound continued to remain dismal. Agnostic and Escher’s Knot, two other Indian acts were cancelled as the organisers didn’t have enough time to accommodate them. I am told that Agnostic travelled all the way from Delhi by train just for the gig and it is truly a shame that they did not get to play in the city.
The international co-headliners then took the stage with Flayed Disciple going first. This thrash act from UK put up a refreshing performance and set off the moshpits in the crowd. Their cover of Slayer’s Angel Of Death was absolutely kickass and got everyone reminiscing about the truly metal year that 2012 has been. They ended their set by pampering the audience with free merch and cds after which Bloodshot Dawn followed. Also from UK, the audience seemed to be familiar with their music a little more than the former. Technically mind blowing, the band put up a really tight set and had no trouble setting the mood for the festival getting the crowd, that had now grown larger, pumped up for the heavy night that was to follow. Xerath was up next with a symphonic theatrical opening that multiplied the December goosebumps. Though their set started off on a soft progressive note, in no time they transformed the grounds into a cloud of dust. The sound however did not do them justice – despite which they managed to bring the crowd to a high that wasn’t getting down any time soon.
Only three hours into the festival, it was already time for the much awaited French metal giants, Gojira. The silence was broken by Explosia exploding off the PA. The sound surprisingly had taken a turn for not just the better, but for awesome. The energy levels were sky rocketing and without skipping a beat, they moved on to Flying Whales. After a quick greeting, they returned to straining our neck muscles for good. While the stage act seemed slightly choreographed, it was nonetheless insanely thrilling. At no point was Jean-Michel, the bassist standing still. His performance was simply awesome. Despite the intense energy, the band managed to keep their sound and set absolutely tight. Their set included L’enfant Souvage, Toxic Garbage Island, Oroborus and more. As usual, we Indians got a taste of a surprise song, this time, Love. The band even dedicated Wisdom Comes to the late Pandit Ravi Shankar. The crowd was a shadow of black in a big dust cloud with an emerging army of horns. Joe and Mario even switched places in the middle to the crowd’s surprise, following which Mario silenced the night with an insane drum solo. I applaud the energy with which Mario performed; he looked like he could go on for another hour or two relentlessly. With a pinch of humour (Indian Motherfucker), a tonne of warmth, brilliant amounts of energy, Gojira were definitely one of the best live metal acts to hit the Indian stage.
Before I conclude with how it was the ideal end to the metal year 2012, there are a few important things that this review would be incomplete without. The organisation of IMF was a complete disappointment. The stage set-up was mediocre and the sound was pathetic most of the time. While Gojira got the benefit of good sound, the earlier acts suffered to a large extent. Two of the Indian acts were made to give up their slot due to time constraints, since the gig started almost 6 hours late. And the icing on the cake had to be the apology that they posted on their facebook page. A little shout-out to organisers, the last thing you want to do when you have failed at meeting the expectations of your fans and artists is to blame it on someone else, especially calling them ‘fucked up people who were more concerned about money’. It was just plain unprofessional, especially to go on to justify your intentions. Things went wrong and we get that, it happens and at this moment, the solution would be to accept that you took on more than you could handle. And as for us critics who are reviewing your work, we would just like to say that it doesn’t matter what you attempted, what matters is what you did. Instead of shutting us out, taking our criticism constructively would work better in your favour.
Last but not the least, we were very surprised to learn that our friends at Headbangers India were not given media entry to cover the concert but were in fact made to purchase tickets. As pioneers in the field of Indian metal journalism, this was a real shocker and we stand in solidarity with them against the level of unprofessionalism that Sweet Leaves Events delivered at the festival.
