Aditya Mehta | WhatsTheScene

Vile Fest II at Xtreme Sports Bar, Hyderabad

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 headbangers ball for all brutal metal fans, with eight bands from all around the country setting the stage on fire. A night of extreme metal, 2^nd May 2015 was a much awaited Saturday evening. Brutal music, brutal headbanging was the order of the day. The lineup included Escharified from Hyderabad followed by Pisakas, Dark Desolation, Necrophilia and Nauseate from Bangalore, Solar Deity from Mumbai and the grand finale by Breeding Machine from Shillong. Unfortunately, Shock Therapy from Hyderabad could not play due to lack of time.

Escharified, a four piece death metal band, raised the curtain for the evening. Little over two years in the music scene, these guys have established themselves in the Hyderabad music circuit. Their lineup includes Satyabrata on Vocals, Vishnu on the Guitar (ex- Deathnote), Sandeep on the Bass (ex- Negator) and Karthik the Drummer (ex- Human Plague). They played their original compositions starting with ‘Decisive Victory’, and went on to play ‘Diabolical Barbarity’, ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’, ‘Jallianwala Massacre’, ‘Wrath of Brazen Bull’ and concluded with ‘Hendang’r Proloy’. Their music was simple and straight up death metal with blast beats growls and that transcend into screams. Though the start wasnt as impressive, their last track ‘Hendang’r Proloy’ sounded great.

Pisakas from Bangalore are also a death metal band, with Sourav on the lead guitar and vocals, Nilesh on rhythm guitars, Vicky on the bass and Arindam on the drums. Their set included ‘Abduction’, ‘Derogating the God’, ‘Stewmaker’, ‘Sodomized into Dementia’, ‘Closed to a World Below’ (Immolation cover) and ‘Cataclysmic Impalement’. The snare sounded pitchy, giving the overall sound a funny tone. The music, except the vocals, sounded closer to thrash than death metal.

Dark Desolation also from Bangalore, an extreme black metal band with Maggot on the vox, Shredaj and Dharni on the guitars, Jake on the bass and Kartik on the drums endorses some of the biggest names in music like BC Rich guitars, Soultone cymbals, Blackstar amps, Railhammer pickups and many more. ‘Spasmodic Coitus’ was their opening piece. They went on to ‘Patricial Libido’, ‘Sorroricidal Seduction’, ‘Chrism’, ‘Apostatical Misantropy’ and ‘Incestuous Catacombs’. They exited the stage with their eponymous song ‘Dark Desolation’. As a pure extreme black metal band, these guys did justice to their genre with breakdowns and good solos, and corpse-painted faces.

Bangalore-based experimental death metal band, Necrophilia, changed the course of music for the evening. Avinash on the vocals, James Britto on the guitars, Stephen on the bass and Shelton on drums as well as vox brought in variations and technicality with a groovy touch. With a combination of OCs and Covers the set included Invasion, Harvesting the External Life, Judgment Day (Dying Fetus cover), Harlot, Mortal Destruction, Stripped Raped and Strangled (Cannibal Corpse cover). Necrophilia stole the show that night.

Solar Deity, a three-piece black metal band from Mumbai, have been in the music scene since 2011. With 3 EPs and a single in their pockets, Solar Deity is a unique band with two guitarists and no bassist. These guys proved that a band without a bassist can sound so good (though we still missed the bass guitar). With Aditya Mehta on the Guitars and Vocals, Niraj Singh Chauhan on Guitars, Yash Pathak on the Drums, these guys were brilliant. Dressed in black cloaks, Solar Deity gave a theatrical feel to their renditions of ‘Declaration of Satanic Victory and Eternal Reign’, ‘Blasphemous Chanting on a Moonless Night’, ‘Supreme Evil’ and ‘Ceremonial Feast at the Black Temple’. The drummer stole the show with his technique and style.

Nauseate from Bangalore is a mincecore band (grindcore with a socio-political purpose) that started in 2010 as 3-piece band, and they have recently added one more member to their crew. Their lineup has Charlie on vocals, Abhi Maggot on the guitars, Cliff on the bass and Karthik Pabba on the drums. Their set included ‘Your System Is Bullshit’, ‘Genocide of the Propagandist’, ‘Warsore’, ‘Bumlickers’, ‘Superstitious Scumbags’, ‘Multinational Scum’, ‘Stop Bragging’, ‘Eat Money and Die’, ‘Vicious Bliss’ and the last but not the least ‘Nationalist Knobs’. While their theme is impressive, their music was a standard mixture of blast beats, riffs and growls.

Technical Slamming Brutal Death Metal is one long genre name but the boys from the hills will be remembered for more than the title of their genre. Breeding Machine from Shillong was originally Contaminated Error. After a lot of changes the current lineup is Chivalrous Matthew Pyngrope on vox, Kenny Kharkongor on lead guitars, Suraj Pradhan on the bass and Adarsh Pradhan drums. Due to lack of time they played only two pieces ‘Torture Bleeding’ and ‘Bloodshot Gullet’. Technically sound with groovy tones, this band kept the crowd headbanging till the very end of the show.

Though the turnout was small, the musicians and the crowd had great energy. Sound seems to be the hardest thing to get right, but that did not dampen anyones spirits. The best part of the gig was that almost all of the pieces were OCs indicating that metal music in India is evolving. However, when it comes to showmanship, black metal bands still have a long way to go. The crowd fell in love with Necrophilia and Solar Diety. With seven bands coming together to perform from across the nation, it was one hell of a gig. Overall, the concert was a great success and, despite all the odds, the organizers put up a great show.

Extreme Metal Night feat. Reptilian Death, Solar Deity, Albatross at The Blue Frog, Mumbai

Sahil Makhija once told me Mumbai is such a fast moving, vibrant city; it has a sort of rhythmic force. I think thats why we tend to have more metal from sub genres like power groove. While power groove had pretty much nothing to do with the extreme metal night at The Blue Frog last week, the city did. The Blue Frog has always seemed to me as a sort of a cocoon that nurtures an alternative universe – a different kind of universe every time. On the 19th of May if you entered The Blue Frog, it would remind you of a James Herbert book – the venue looked dark and forlorn, adding to this were two rubber monster-heads on stage looking gory and welcoming at the same time. With a surprising amount of coverage in mainstream media as well as music webzines, this was a highly anticipated gig. Only a city that houses the monotonous drone of a perpetual Monday, can subsequently house a public that is more than ready to release their frustrations in the midst of some musically channeled violence. This is why the Blue Frog Metal Nights are such a hit, and the extreme metal night was no different. Frog was packed with an audience uniformly clad in black band tees looking anxious to devour some extreme metal.

Death metal band Reptilian Death was opening the gig with the launch of their album Dawn of Consummation and Emergence. Dressed in black gothic priest robes, the line-up sported Ashwin Shriyan , Sahil Makhija, Prateek Rajgopal and Nishith Hegde, heads covered with hoods while Vinay Venkatesh had his face painted black and white. Their set was pretty well-received with moshpits erupting throughout the hour. Ive heard their single O from this album, and was pretty impressed by it; having said that, they didnt sound as good live. Its always tough to carry off a new look and people will generally laugh when they see something revolutionary and dont know what to do of it. Reptilian Death has a great concept and good music, but the live act seemed to fall a bit flat. Vinay Venkatesh, famous for his power packed stage performances with Bhayanak Maut, looked a tad awkward as the frontman – having to act like a conjurer of sorts on a stage with little space can be a difficult task, and the vocalist maestro barely carried it off. Even so, Reptilian Death played a good set winning over the crowd with well crafted songs like Inchoate, the very explicit Stimulate. Hike. Impel. Tear and my personal favourite Emergence The World, Your Playground.

Next up was Aditya Mehtas self titled band Solar Deity. Having read a feature about them in Bombay Times that stated The band is notorious for performing in costume and doing live rituals during concert, I was pretty excited to see them perform at Blue Frog. Turns out the costume part was true but the rituals began and ended with Mehta drinking (water) from a matka (pot) on the stage. The response to their music was pretty good. There was a good amount of cheering and screaming every time Mehta drank from his pot and there were a few moshes here and there. But Blue Frog was much emptier this time around. This was followed by their song Circling the Moon. With a fox trot beat that walked the band right into a few gujju-garba jokes, and later a social media showdown between Mehta and the people who cracked said jokes; the live rendition of this song has been the topic of much debate. Their songs Blasphemous Chanting on a Moonless Night and Ceremonial Feast at the Black Temple were the highlights of their set. The raw thunderous beats in the intro of Ceremonial Feast at the Black Temple were evocative of a savage spirit and led to a rush of appreciative horns up. It was a good song to end their set with and I heard many humming the hauntingly melodious riff long after the song had ended.

The next up was Albatross, and to put it lightly, they owned the night. Some may say it was due to the fact that they had a clever set list with covers of popular songs like Holy Diver by Dio and Night Crawler by Judas Priest, but it serves well to note that they were exceptionally well done covers. With all their dramatic get ups and on stage rituals Reptilian Death and Solar Deity couldnt nail the theatrics the way Albatross did. Riju Dasguptas moniker materialized, Dr. Hex, could take them all down alone. Vigneshkumar Venkatraman had some amazing tones in his arsenal and Biprorshee Dass vocals could be foreboding and releasing at once. The band was a brilliant package. As a hundred odd fists pumped in unison and people screamed and shouted their heads off, you could see this band had just generated a great amount of respect for themselves. They had successfully stirred the frenzy in their audience with the beginning of every song delayed with screams for an encore of the previous one. They made the night worth the hype. It was a pleasure to be present In The Lair of Dr. Hex that night.

The night saw supporters and friends from numerous bands come to witness the onslaught. Some, it turns out, were not allowed entry owing to their age and had to go back. On the whole, The Extreme Metal night at Frog provided the metal community and its fans with what they need most – a platform and an outlet.

Tag Archives: Aditya Mehta

Vile Fest II at Xtreme Sports Bar, Hyderabad

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Extreme Metal Night feat. Reptilian Death, Solar Deity, Albatross at The Blue Frog, Mumbai

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