I’ve been out of the current local gig scene for about a year now. Haven’t attended any gigs last year except the second edition of Trendslaughter Fest. I wanted to start the year with some fun and there it was; The Pit 2. What made this gig stand out from all of the rest was the line-up. Not focusing on a single sub-genre, but covering many at once. The initial line-up was:
- Broken Membrane
- Thrash
- The Velvet Trap
- House Of Penelope
- Nihilus
- Traces
- Orchid
- The Down Troddence
- HERETIC (Co-Headliners)
- De’Sat (Headliners)
The Velvet Trap pulled out of the gig for some reason not known to me, so we were left with 9 bands performing; which was good enough for me. The gig started a bit late, which is normal for all gigs. I reached half an hour late than the scheduled time and Heretic were doing their sound check then.
The show finally started with Broken Membrane; a 3-piece band hailing from Bangalore. A hard rock band with a drummer vocalist, something you don’t see often. They played a set of 4 songs, including a cover of One Day Remains by Alter Bridge, which was really impressive. They were tight throughout.
Second up was Thrash. First thing that struck me was the 7-string guitar and the 5-string bass. The Old School Death/Thrash band from Bangalore played a set of 5 songs, 2 covers and 3 originals, pretty tight all out, but they lost some momentum in the last song due to the drums being totally out on the monitors. The vocalist sportingly apologised for the same in the end.
Next up was House of Penelope. This is the only band in the evening which did not impress me much. They are still very amateur and it was evident. The clean vocals were really nice, but the growls sounded like a frustrated teen screaming. Some control is needed in that area. The bass was magnificent.
Nihilus – a Technical Death metal band from Bangalore. They played a set of 5 songs, with a Necrophagist and a Behemoth cover. The 6-string bass looked intimidating to me from the first sight, and frankly they didn’t disappoint. The Behemoth cover was top notch and Nihilus got the distinction of being the first band in the evening to get a pit started.
Like I said before, the thing that impressed me about the gig was its line-up. To lighten things up a bit, taking the stage next were two progressive outfits – Traces and Orchid. Both played a set of 4 originals each. Traces had more of a psychedelic sound while Orchid had some progressive sound mixed with a little brutal-ness; which earned them the second pit of the evening.
The crowd started building up and there were just three bands left – The Down Troddence, Heretic and De’Sat.
Hailing from the small and peaceful town of Kannur, I have known The Down Troddence for some time now. But this was the first time I would be seeing them live. Opening up with their famous psychedelic intro – Ortniavis (which is actually Siva Intro spelled backwards, bet you didn’t know about that), they had amazing energy throughout their set; Munz’s interaction with the crowd did the trick. Death Vanity and Shiva were outstanding. They managed to get two pits and the only wall of death!! What more can a band ask for? Ashwin, their manager, helped out Munz with the vocals in Perpetual Emotion. And to end it all, Nezer said he wanted to watch his band live, so he transferred the bass to Vickram Kiran from All the Fat Children, and moshed with us in the pit. Their setlist was –
Ortniavis
Hell within hell
Death Vanity
KFC
Muck Fun Mohan
Perpetual Emotion feat. Ashwin
Naagavalli(Malayalam movie song)
Shiva
Ever since they released their album, everyone has been talking about Heretic. Their brand of Alternative Metal is something you don’t see too often in India. They played 7 out of the 9 songs in from their new album – Words to Epilogues. One thing I really appreciated in their set was the fact that they maintained the exact sound from their studio album. All musicians are aware that recording in a studio and performing it live is a totally different thing, but Heretic did it with ease. The growls sounded better live than in the album. Here is the setlist –
Reprise
Choice
Slaves of the system feat Munz from The Down Troddence
Alone
Thoughts
Ring of colours
Words to Epilogues
It was getting late and there was still one band left – De’Sat. By the time they took stage, 70% of the crowd had left the venue and some were still leaving. But regardless, they carried on the show and made sure everyone who stayed back got their money’s worth. Starting off with 3 songs dealing with social issues, they covered Bed of Razors by Children of Bodom, to pick up the momentum and then played a quick medley of legendary metal songs, the crowd joined in and we all sang the part of Symphony of Destruction (Megadeth) in unison. They had three more songs left, two originals and a cover, the choice for the cover was left to the crowd – Ruin or Laid to Rest; both by Lamb of God. Ruin was the obvious choice and they covered it to perfection. The gig came to an end with a nice melodic song – Nostalgia. Here is their setlist –
Power
Gaurdian Riot
Impious Jihad
Bed of Razors – CoB cover
Juke Box (Medley)
Run Too
Ruin – LoG cover
Nostalgia
The gig was pretty well organised, though there were some issues with the sound at times but nothing stopped the show. The bands were all great and put up their best for the show. It was really sad to see that so many people leaving after the Heretic set. I know it was late and even I had to go back around 14 kilometres to reach my home. But I wanted to stay back and see the show. Even I was hungry; all I had all day was 6 slices of bread, 3 pieces of chicken nuggets and a glass of Rum. But when you stay back and support the bands and they acknowledge you for that, anything else doesn’t matter. Hope to see more similar gigs in the coming months and hoping to see a sporting crowd too. Cheers
