Vile Fest was started in November 2014 by Prannoi Nonesovile and Kaushik Abhimanyu Rao to support and promote extreme underground metal in India which is according to Prannoi – “strictly black, death, grindcore, extreme punk and sick music”. Vile Fest II, supported by Blackstar Amplification, Soultone Cymbals, Morley Pedals and Railhammer Pickups, was a live gig with video production to help bands establish an international presence. Vile Fest II promised to be a headbanger’s ball for all brutal metal fans, with eight bands from all around the country setting the stage on fire. A night of extreme metal, 2nd May 2015 was a much awaited Saturday evening.  Brutal music, brutal headbanging was the order of the day. The lineup included Escharified…

Ever since alt-rock pioneers Switchfoot announced their three-city India tour, the airwaves had a tinge of nostalgia, ecstasy and excitement. The organisers were flooded with Facebook posts demanding tickets at the earliest, asking about merchandise and other seemingly trivial queries about one of our generation’s most ground-breaking bands. Tickets sold out instantaneously, leaving a large share of the fan base without access to an opportunity that arises once in a lifetime. The day of the gig saw fans waiting outside the venue hours before the gates were scheduled to be opened, ensuring that they would be the first to see their idols play songs that defined their childhoods.  As the gates opened, people began pouring in and after initial hiccups…

Mary Pascaline

The folks at BFlat organized a fantastic evening with the extremely talented Alexis on 27th September. I will be honest, I wasn’t the most excited. I love rock and RN’B never particularly fascinated me except for a couple of tracks, but enter Alexis D’Souza with her powerful voice and my misgivings were silenced. Alexis’ selling point is their subtlety. Even their most powerful tracks ooze simplicity. Their biggest strengths are the leading lady’s vocals and their hard hitting lyrics. For the most part, in my head I was screaming ‘Oh My God! Her voice!’ My only complaint is that they had more covers than originals. They did however try to ensure that they added some of their own elements to…

Peepal Tree isn’t just a band. It’s a supergroup of sorts. I mean, you have some of the best musicians in the independent music scene coming together to make great music. Their very first gig at The BFlat Bar saw them performing to mostly friends and a whole bunch of music lovers. The band’s biggest achievement? “Getting Tony Das (Lead guitar and Backing Vocals) to sing in Kannada and Hindi!” announced vocalist Sujay Harthi. Let us go back in history to the beginning of Peepal Tree. It isn’t all that far back though. Harthi and Praveen Biligiri (Bass Guitar and Backing Vocals) coughed up a couple of great tracks together but didn’t know what to do with it. Voila! Willy Demoz…

The latest addition to the roster of yearly events in Kolkata is The Calcutta Drum Festival. Organized by Bickram Ghosh and the SIDDHA group, the festival is a pleasant surprise to those who have an interest in the rhythm section of any musical genre. This music festival took place at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) on the 18th and 19th of July 2014, where legendary artistes enchanted audiences with their performances. The first day included a powerful jam of the Bangla dhak and the Punjabi dhol, an innovative drums mash-up between Gaurab ‘Gaboo’ Chatterjee and Sambit Chatterjee, a brilliant performance by Clave Mantra, a Latin band fronted by the renowned Monojit ‘Kochu’ Datta who wowed the crowd with a host of…

It must not be easy being a blues instrumentalist in India. But then Warren Mendonsa, the brains (and fingers) behind Blackstratblues (BSB), has not exactly trodden the beaten path. As a bright young spark on the Indian rock landscape, his band Zero (with Sidd Coutto, Bobby Talwar and Rajiv Talwar) released two albums and an EP between 1998 and 2005 and was a big part of the resurgence of the “scene” in that same period. A two-year hiatus to New Zealand followed during which time Warren put together some solo instrumental material that eventually got released as a free-to-download digital album Nights in Shining Karma (2007). Named after the Mumbai-born guitarist’s favourite weapon of choice, Blackstratblues have released a couple…

Thermal and a Quarter have never been ones to rest on their laurels. They were the first in India to release a concept album, they released an album on a custom user-license modeled on Creative Commons and then not-so-long-ago launched their most ambitious effort yet – a triple album. They then decided to raise the bar higher. TAAQ played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival – the world’s largest arts festival, in 2013. If playing 26 nights back-to-back wasn’t impressive enough, they also won the Spirit of The Fringe award. “Maybe someday, we’ll find plan B in a hit movie” – This is it, TAAQ (2008) It was indeed serendipitous when frontman Bruce Lee Mani sang these lines just before the screening…

Charging its way in from Norway, Inferno Metal Festival’s first Indian edition promised to be a huge success. It not only staged India’s finest artists from The Down Troddence, Theorized and Inner Sanctum, but also brought Norway’s very own Nekromantheon and Obliteration. Counterculture has always been the hub of kickass gigs, and has a reputation of playing the perfect host, setting high standards for sound and lighting that aficionados look forward to. Close on the heels of a debut album launch, folk-thrash metal band The Down Troddence was the first on stage. The Kerala-based band has gathered its huge fan base over the past year and needed no introduction. Their sound is characterized by a combination of thrash and traditional…

“I’m astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing; it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will’s surrender. I begin because I don’t have the strength to think; I finish because I don’t have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.” –  The Book of Disquiet , Fernando Pessoa Anyone who has read Pessoa will have enjoyed the pleasure of indulgence, of reading a work that speaks to one so profoundly and consoles them of all their inactivity in life by being a reflection of the…

Photo Credits: Chandra Prakash Higher on Maiden received what one would say, a sonorous Indian invitation, with the microphones and the drum kit decorated with the customary garlands and needless to say, thousands of screaming fans. This UK band has been officially labeled as Iron Maiden’s only tribute band and the night of 12th March validated that. The setlist was dynamic and progressive, as the band opened with ‘Moonchild’. Pure, unadulterated Iron Maiden songs were covered with utmost precision. With Big Dickinson’s theatrics that kept him on a par with Bruce Dickinson in addition to his operatic vocals, and Adrian Muth’s incredible stage presence, the fans seemed to be unnerved by the intermittent pauses due to drummer Clive Blurr’s illness….