Tag Archives: Ganesh Krishnaswamy

Kryptos 15th Anniversary Celebrations at Max Mueller Bhavan, Bangalore

Goethe Institut, Bangalore witnessed Indias heavy metal band, Kryptos extended 15^th anniversary celebrations on the 25^th of January. The Saturday was a tribute to old school heavy metal with Bangalore-based thrash metal band Theorized opening for Kryptos, and vocalists from Bhoomi, Dying Embrace and Witchgoat making appearances as special guests, to the delight of fans.

The evening began with Theorized ripping the stage apart with Ankit Suryakanths shredding lead solos. Yash Kumars drumming served as the backbone of Theorizeds music. They had a fully fledged set list, with fast paced riffs, and tempo and count changes that could not allow the crowd to stand still. Soon enough, they began to grow brutal, in response to the Yashs high speed double kick drumming. Ankits extraordinarily extended guitar solos was worth paying homage to. Though initial sound issues were an encumbrance for the band, what it lacked was powerful vocals contributing to the dark atmosphere.

Less than ten people were moshing at first but later, an aggressive and brutal crowd filled the area, leaving gaps for none. Heavy metal clogged the air with Nolans raspy vocals, Ganeshs bass, Rohits extended solos and Anthonys powerful triplets and hammer blasts. Their songs Nexus Legion and The Mask of Anubis with its progressive riffs conjured a moshpit too ferocious for the place to handle. Rohits dexterity made people headbang at his feet, while Ganesh besieged his fans with his skill at the other end.

Nolan kept the crowd mesmerized with the bands Wacken tales, and soon enough, Kryptos was joined by vocalist Sujay Harthi from Bhoomi. The events that followed next were of pure metal consequence as the gig time travelled to the days of Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Metallica. The Trooper shook the place with Sujay s vocals almost in lieu with Bruce Dickinson.

As it ended, Dying Embraces Vikram Bhatt took possession of the stage. Bhatt covered Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, while enticing the crowd to sing along and headbang throughout. Bharad Ravi from Witchgoat gave a neck–wrenching performance of Creeping Death and Seek & Destroy. Anthony Hoovers drumming was adrenaline- inducing and the covers were perfect. Kryptos performed a final song, accompanied by Rohits complex solo. The clock struck 10 before the crowd knew it, and it was long before the blend of melodic metal and thrash metal music could leave them undeterred.

Kryptos and Theorized kept the evening going and Nolans conversations kept the audience engaged. The continuous technical issues which Rohit faced were the only things that did not go as planned. All in all, Kryptos made sure that its 15^th anniversary was celebrated with a huge metal bang!

Kruthika Swaminathan

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Bevar Sea by Bevar Sea

Ishan Vartak

Firstly, to all the old school metal Nazis out there – I am no patron of old school metal. I happened to stumble upon the band Bevar Sea when I was in Bangalore this summer. The name, which means bastard in Kannada, immediately caught my attention. So I went to their Facebook page and was blown away by a lot of their art work, branding and promotion strategies, and of course their music. This five piece Stoner/Doom metal outfit from Bangalore comprises of Ganesh Krishnaswamy on vocals, Srikanth Panaman on lead guitars, Avinash Ramchandar on bass, Deepak Raghu on drums and Rahul Chacko– who plays the guitar and does all the cool artwork for the band.

The band has been around for two years now and although they are almost unheard of up north, the band is making all the right noises in the city where it matters most Bangalore. With their self-titled debut album, Bevar Sea has proved that they are no pushovers in the Indian metal space and have, beyond a doubt, played a key role in pioneering the stoner/doom metal genre in India.

The album consists of four tracks – no, its not an EP – and clocks in at a little over 40 minutes and is an intriguing mix of heavy, stoner, psych and doom metal. Srikanth and Rahul competently create thick, heavy tones with their low tuned guitars to create the soul of the song, while Avinash plays some massive riffs in accord to form a bass-heavy wall of sound. Another characteristic of the album is its focus on slow tempos and large amounts of distortion to produce a heavy, grinding sort of sound. However, the most fascinating part of the album for me is the lyrical themes adapted by Ganesh Krishnaswamy in the song writing process. The writing is generally pessimistic and includes various themes of suffering, gore, fear and anger.

The first track of the album, The Smiler, gives you the first glimpse of what to expect in the next 30 minutes or so. Much like the rest of the album, The Smiler almost takes you through a nostalgic journey through the 70s, but the track doesnt fall into the 70s genre: it is no nonsense modern-day music with massive riffs, 70s rock inspired clean vocals and enthused lyrical themes sung with a sense of desperation and despair.

The second track on the album is the anthemic crowd favorite – Abishtu(Brahmin term for a retard). The song is about a dwarfed serial-killing biker who goes around killing hipster douchebags without any remorse. If Bevar Sea gigs are anything to go by, this song already has a lot of takers. Musically, the song retains the characteristics of the album with long groovy riffs, heavy bass lines, minimalist guitar solos and heavy distortions. This song was my favorite Bevar Sea track for the longest time till I heard Mono Gnome.

The next track of the album is Universal Sleeper and the song clocks in at slightly under 10 minutes. This song arguably has the catchiest of all riffs in the album. However, the riff sounds too familiar for comfort. Every time I hear the song I get an uneasy feeling that Ive heard the riff before but still havent been able to put a finger on it. Musically, the song has a bluesy chilled-out feel to it, which adds depth and versatility to the entire album. Lyrically, the song is aspirational for people who like sleeping which is probably everyone.

The next track on the album is my new favorite and also the album ender Mono Gnome, which is 17 minutes long. In an era where the demographics of music fans are changing so rapidly and music is being produced according to what listeners want to listen to, hats off to Bevar Sea for writing this song. The song is about a gnome who has an enthralling affair with the devils mistress. This seventeen minute epic ends with the witch setting the world on fire after making love to the gnome on top of a mountain what an end to a debut album!

If I had to rate this album out of 10, Id give it an 8 because theyve set the bar so high for other Indian bands in terms of production quality, branding, merchandising, art work and even distribution.

I would definitely recommend this album to anyone who has $3 to spare (for digital download, physical copy options start at $8). However, is this the best metal album of the year so far musically? Well perhaps – although I really liked Limit Zeros album too.

Ishan Vartak

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TrendSlaughter Fest II at The Kyra Theatre, Bangalore

Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan Siddharth Nagarajan

It was a pleasant surprise that the second edition of the TrendSlaughter fest was going to be held barely ten months after the first. Unlike a majority of the smaller metal gigs held at Bangalore so far, TSF comes across as an excellently organized one. The billing was great – 4 local and 2 international acts, all chosen to make sure that a lot of different genres, spanning across the spectrum of metal were on the table – they had everything from sludgy doom to thrash to old school death to grind. The stellar line-up consisted of Djinn & Miskatonic, Dhwesha and Gorified providing support to the headliners – Cauchemar, Dying Embrace and Abigail. The organizers, Cyclopean Eye Productions, were not one bit cheeseparing when it came to the nitty-gritties like having nicely printed tickets and posters. Other things like having pick-up points for the tickets, the excellent merchandize stall, starting the gig more or less on time and finishing it on time, were much appreciated as well.

All the bands, with the exception of Djinn & Miskatonic and Gorified, had something for the merchandise section. Dhwesha had a new tape (their very first release) along with a new poster featuring the album art, Dying Embrace also had a new poster and a DVD featuring a few songs from their previous performance at Riff ’em All, Cauchemar managed to bring CDs and patches of their debut album and Abigail had stocked a fair number of albums on both CD and Vinyl.

The first band on the bill was the unorthodox Djinn & Miskatonic, playing their eerie brand of doom which, while many may not be accustomed to, caught the attention of the slow trickle of people turning up (that and, possibly, the lack of a guitarist).

The slow, lumbering elephantine riffs, the droning vocals and massive drumming worked really well. All the four songs they played that night (including the new ‘7-year Itch’) sank in well with the crowd. If only they had added some cool background art, better coordinated lighting to their creepy, muddy doom they would have been a real treat to watch!

Dhwesha took stage right after and ploughed right into their set. Even though the band has had only two prior performances to their credit, they certainly know how to put on a show. There was a marked improvement from their previous gig, notably with respect to audience interaction.

To their usual setlist of ‘Hoy!Sala’, ‘Yuddabhumi’, ‘Ugra Narasimha’ and ‘Dhwesha’ new song additions in ‘Neeney Alu’ and ‘Sattva Bali’ were made. Add to that an excellent cover of Obituary’s ‘Slowly We Rot’ and you’ve got one helluva show on your hands – old school death metal done well!

Goregrind veteran band Gorified was next to take stage. Having seen them quite a few times last year they really didn’t have anything new to bring to the table but put on a brutal show for all the gore fiends in attendance nonetheless.

As is usual with Gorified, violent moshing started right from the opening note of the first song, ‘Engorged the Disfigured’. The fact that Shreyas was missing behind the drum kit didn’t deter Gorified from playing a longer set than usual. They ended their set with an announcement concerning the upcoming Undergrind Fest and stated that Wormrot from Singapore had been confirmed as the main headliners and were to be supported by local talent in Anorectal Ulceration, Bad Taste, the recently reformed Perforated Limb and Gorified themselves.

Cauchemar, the Canadian doom metal band, was the first of the headliners to play. They are probably the first international traditional doom metal act to play here in India. Due to the fact that their drummer wasn’t able to join them and that Annick didn’t play live bass for the band, Ganesh Krishnaswamy (Bevar Sea) and Deepak Raghu (Bevar Sea/Dying Embrace) provided drum and bass support for their sole Asian gig. It was really heartening to see how well the Bevar Sea guys gelled with Annick and Francois, learnt the Cauchemar songs in such a short notice and made the band feel like a cohesive unit.

Cauchemar’s sound is predominantly rooted in old school doom ethos à la Black Sabbath, Saint Vitus, Pagan Altar and a ton of other doom legends with Judas Priest-esque interludes and passages in a couple of the songs. Their set consisted of the five songs from their debut EP La Vierge Noire as well as ‘Under the Oak’, a Candlemass cover.

They started off with ‘Magie Rouge’, a slightly melancholic number which with Annick’s vocals (which were in French) sounded magical. The next song, ‘Valse Funebre’, continued in the same vein – it was some quality doom that these folks were playing! ‘Les Ailes de la Mort’ brought an up-tempo swing to set, following which they reverted back to playing slow doom in ‘Les Gardiens de la Terre’. The Candlemass cover came next and the band ended their splendid show with ‘La Voile D’isis’. A performance par excellence, without doubt.

The legendary Dying Embrace finally took stage to a crowd cheering and applauding thunderously, this being their first show after Riff ’em All in October. They started off their set with the crushing ‘As Eternity Fades’ followed by a chilling performance of ‘The Passing Away.’ In keeping with the dark atmosphere they’d conjured, the next track in their arsenal was ‘Blood Rites’.

Then came the iconic, blood-curdling, hair-raising shriek from Vikram that meant ‘Grotesque Entity’ was on next. This was followed by the much-awaited ‘Dagda – His Time Has Come’, mainly for Jimmy’s disorienting, blistering solos. Just like their previous performance at TrendSlaughter, Vik had a surprise for the fans. This time around the giveaway was a DVD (Carrying the Burden of Doom) of their previous outing (before this, it was a special re-issue of their EP Grotesque).

They seemed to have wrapped up the set with ‘Spawn of the Depths’, ‘Oremus Diabolum’ and a tribute to their idols Autopsy – a brilliant cover of ‘Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay’. Back for the encore, they had yet another surprise – a new song titled ‘Ascendence of Namtar’, that had the added pressure of living up to DE’s legacy and it didn’t disappoint. It was almost as though the decade, that had passed since they had last written any material, never happened, or didn’t matter. The song was heavy as f**k – some good old school doom metal with Persian/middle-eastern vibes. And, on that high note, they ended their performance of the night. Kudos to Deepak Raghu for playing so well with no break immediately after Cauchemar’s set.

The final band to play that night was Japan’s Abigail. Raw, abrasive, highly energetic thrash is what this three-piece band dished out – Motorhead of the east as some of the people at the gig quite rightly put it. The first half of their set consisted of numbers that leaned towards punk/thrash, while quite a few from the latter half were more black/thrash in nature.

They put on a charged high-octane performance, interacting well with the crowd, who after a couple of minutes started massive, back-breaking, neck-snapping, frenzied mosh pit- a fitting response for a song titled ‘Satanik Metal F**king Hell’. Their entire set was a raucous, loud thrash attack, what with the aggressive riffing and angry solos that accompanied them, the shrill battle-cries that formed the vocals and drumming that simply sought to bludgeon everything in its path!

While there was a communication barrier of sorts, the more or less incomprehensible howls of the frontman Yasuyuki were taken by the crowd as a sign to raise hell. They played a massive set of around twelve songs without showing any signs of fatigue or wearing down. The encore, consisting of three songs, was just as lively as the main set. And, for their very last song – ‘Rocking Metal Motherf**kers’, they had Vikram from Dying Embrace and Annick from Cauchemar join them on stage to take on vocal and bass duties respectively and play their hearts out, which was as good an end to the show as one could expect.

Allowing the crowd to hang out and freely interact with the international bands was a good thing to do on the organizer’s part – the fans who purchased merchandize managed to get it autographed and the bands were more than happy to oblige. A fairly large number of posters were distributed to the crowd after all the bands had performed and quite a few people stayed back to either get more autographs or photographs along with the band members.

The show ran smoothly with no hiccups, with each of the bands putting forth a great performance. All in all, it was a great showcasing of Bangalore’s Metal underground while introducing bands from around the world to the Indian scene. Attendees indeed got their money’s worth and here’s hoping to more such gigs in the future – kvltest show of the year indeed!

Siddharth Nagarajan

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XXX’Mas at The Kyra Theatre, Bangalore

The XXX’Mas gig held on Christmas Eve, more importantly on Lemmy’s birthday, was supposed to be a tribute to those artists born in December who had inspired the bands playing that night. The artists being paid tribute were Dave Murray, Lemmy Kilmister, Ozzy Osbourne, Kirk Hammett, Lars Ulrich, Marty Friedman, Randy Rhoads, Daniel Antonsson, Jari Maenpaa, Mille Petrozza, Chris Barnes, Chuck Schuldiner, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison.

There were a few hiccups before the gig began – Corrode (covering Dark Tranquility/Wintersun), Pushing Tin (covering Jimi Hendrix/The Doors) and Theorized (covering Metallica/Megadeth) pulled out at the very last minute. Shepherd, Djinn & Miskatonic and Dhwesha pitched in and agreed to play even though it was at such short notice.

Shepherd was a few minutes into their set when we walked into Kyra. Since we were not familiar with the band due to last minute changes in the line-up, the first couple of minutes were spent trying to figure out what they were called. Though they have a characteristic doom-laden sound, the down-tuned, but heavily distorted lead guitars and the processed, yet abrasive vocals were very much reminiscent of YOB, or even Acid Bath. The throbbing bass was prominent in the mix, and even though most of the tracks lasted a bit over six minutes, the sudden tempo changes surely made for an interesting set. We later found out that this was their very first gig, something that was perhaps evident from the zero interaction the frontman had with the crowd. Shepherd is certainly a band to look forward to in the future, especially for the sludge-like vibe from their sound.

Djinn & Miskatonic was the second band of the three last-minute additions that evening. They have a very interesting and unconventional line-up that consists of a drummer, a bassist and a vocalist (yessir, no lead/rhythm guitars!) D&M’s sound is primarily bass-driven (duh), with the rhythm section playing a tight, but plodding version of traditional doom rock grooves. The vocals range from laboured, almost drone-like sections sung clean, to low-pitched growls. The feel, if we could use the term, is one of horror films of days gone by, to be honest. Their brand of ultra-slow, trudging doom is not everyone’s cup of gin & tonic, and will certainly confuse a metalhead who sticks to the conventional riff-based gloom perpetrated by the likes of Sabbath, Pentagram and Candlemass.

Dhwesha was the third band in queue and put on a great show even though it was only their second live performance and they had little time to practise. They kicked off their set with typical, old school death metal ferocity and ‘Hoy! Sala’ was the first of the original compositions that they played. After enthralling the crowd with ‘Dhwesha’, ‘Ugra Narasimha’ and ‘Yudhabhumi’, they even managed to squeeze in a rousing cover – Bolt Thrower’s ‘Those Once Loyal’. Together with Djinn & Miskatonic and Shepherd they provided an excellent opening for the rest of the bands lined up.

Up next were Gorified, one of the bands from the original line-up. They were paying tribute to Cannibal Corpse and Death, more specifically Chris Barnes of the former and the Chuck Schuldiner of the latter (Schuldiner wasn’t born in December but passed away that month). As is their standard, they got the moshing started in no time giving the crowd a nice, strong dose of their brand of extreme metal. Their brutal onslaught included intense covers – Cannibal Corpse’s ‘A Skull Full of Maggots’ and ‘Stripped, Raped and Strangled’; Death’s ‘Denial of Life’ and Napalm Death’s ‘Scum.’ They ended their savagery with a song from Gani and Charlie’s older project Cremated Souls.

Mumbai’s Albatross were the next band on stage and their set that night was a tribute to Ozzy Osbourne and Randy Rhoads. They took a while to get started and set up but once their set began they were a sheer thrill to watch. The vocalist – Biprorshee Das has a solid set of pipes and terrific stage presence; he was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the night. They started off with classics ‘Bark at the Moon’ and ‘Crazy Train’ and had quite a few people singing along. Switching gears, they played Sabbath much to the crowd’s delight. Following their commendable covers of ‘Sabbath Bloody Sabbath’ and ‘N.I.B.’, they had a surprise for the crowd – Ganesh Krishnaswamy from Bevar Sea joined them for a brilliant rendition of ‘Paranoid’. Reverting back to Ozzy one last time, they played ‘Gets me Thru’ and ‘Mr. Crowley’. They had one last cover for the night – Wolf’s ‘Voodoo’ – and did quite a good job of it, especially Biprorshee, who nailed those falsettos with ease. The set ended with ‘In the Court of Kuru’, a song from their debut E.P.

Headliners Kryptos were doing an Iron Maiden tribute set (celebrating Dave Murray’s birthday). Much like a Maiden gig, they had U.F.O’s ‘Doctor, Doctor’ playing on the P.A. before taking stage, something that rather unfortunately went more or less unnoticed by a large chunk of the crowd. They started with ‘Ides of March’ and proceeded to play ‘Wrathchild’ and ‘Killers’ with Ganesh taking over vocal duties the second time that night. Nolan Lewis attempted the formidable task of singing songs from Dickinson-era Maiden and did quite a good job with ‘Children of the Damned’ and ‘Flight of Icarus’. Biprorshee joined Kryptos for a phenomenal cover of ‘The Trooper’, and everyone in the crowd was chanting along fervently with the band. Ganesh was back on stage once more to round up the set with ‘Running Free’ and ‘Iron Maiden’. Kryptos were hands down the best set/performance of the night. They were also the only band to play only covers that night (Pillbox 666 doesn’t count given that they’re a cover band).

The last act of the night, Pillbox 666, took to the stage to a reduced and slightly sluggish crowd. Their set was a tribute to the mighty Lemmy from Motorhead and Teutonic thrash legends Kreator (Mille Petrozza), though the original billing had them doing a Rolling Stone tribute too. Vikram Bhat, the vocalist, couldn’t make it and the vocal duties were taken over by Ganesh and Bharad Ravi (ex-Culminant). The first half of their set comprised of Motorhead covers, Ganesh pulling of an uncannily good impression of Lemmy, playing ‘The Chase is Better than the Catch’, ‘Killed by Death’, ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Going to Brazil’ before handing over the reins to Bharad who closed the Motorhead set with ‘Overkill’. The next half – the Kreator tribute set – was equally fun to watch (more so since the songs were from Kreator’s first two albums) with them performing badass covers of ‘Under the Guillotine’, ‘Son of Evil’, ‘Total Death’ and ‘Tormentor’.

Despite the last minute changes in the line-up and the fact that almost half of the bands ended up performing original material instead of covers, the good turnout and the nostalgia associated with some of the artists that were being paid tribute to, made sure the audience had a good time. Given how city-centric the metal acts in our scene are, it was a refreshing change to see a band like Albatross to come over all the way from Mumbai to play here. Certainly something everyone would like to see more of in the days to come. No milk and cookies here for Mr. Claus though, beer and cigarettes are more rock n’ roll! Bet Lemmy would agree.

Siddharth Nagarajan

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Riff ’em All at The Kyra Theatre, Bangalore

Riff ’em All was scheduled one day prior to Metallica’s much-looked-forward-to concert in Bangalore and was meant for all the out-of-towners who had descended upon good ol’ Bangalore to see what would hopefully be Metallica’s maiden show in India, and also for some Bangaloreans who were planning to skip the Metallica concert. Riff ’em All held a lot of promise and was all set to showcase some of Bangalore’s best metal bands.

After battling the rains that evening, I walked in right when Culminant had just taken stage (I had unfortunately missed Corrode’s performance). I’ve seen quite a few of their performances this year, and this is one band that has grown stronger with every performance. Starting off with ‘Wrath of the Fallen’ they held everyone’s attention and electrified the stage with their very first song. They played two more OCs – ‘Innate Instinct’ and ‘Realm of the Tyrant’ much to the crowd’s delight. What was supposed to follow was their cover of Slayer’s ‘Raining Blood’ which didn’t happen because the bass drum’s skin gave way and since there seemed to be no alternative means of going ahead, their set came to an untimely end. The band said their goodbyes, apologized for the short set and left despite people cheering for more.

The next band on stage was Gorified, Bangalore’s mainstay goregrinders. They played a longer set this time around, which included two covers. Gorified gave the crowd a good, strong dose of brutality and put on a pretty intense show despite the usual sound problems that plague Kyra, playing seven OCs. The first and the last songs from their setlist, ‘Autopsy Devourment’ and ‘Vulgar Display of Genital Flatulence’ elicited the best response from the crowd. They finally ended their set with two covers – Cannibal Corpse’s ‘Stripped, Raped and Strangled’ and the other surprisingly, Metallica’s ‘Damage Inc.’ this time with former Abandoned Agony drummer Shreyas Kamath on drums. They were the first and probably the only band that night which managed to get the crowd into a violent mosh!

The mighty Dying Embrace, one of the oldest bands in Indian Metal, the grand-daddies of the scene so to speak, finally came on stage. This performance was highly awaited and they did not disappoint. The horns thrown high up in the air and frenzied chants of ‘Dying Embrace’ stood testament to this fact. They played quite a great selection of songs, their set had ‘Blood Rites’, the Sabbath inspired ‘As Eternity Fades’, ‘The Passing Away’, ‘Spawn of the Depths’, ‘Dagda – His Time has Come’, ‘Grotesque Entity’, ‘Oremus Diabolum’ and they ended with their tribute to one of the bands that have inspired them, a cover of Autopsy’s ‘Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay’. Great music apart, the showmanship was brilliant, each song had its own artwork displayed, Deepak’s drumming was impeccable, Jimmy’s solos were met with wild cheering and applause and had the audience hungry for more while Vikram Bhat absolutely owned the stage with his spirited performance. The set finally ended with them stating that their next appearance would be alongside Japanese Black/Thrash band Abigail in 2012’s edition of the Trendslaughter fest. Dying Embrace was most certainly the highlight of that night.

Bevar Sea, the penultimate act of the night was up next. The band has only played a handful of shows and yet is popular for its stellar performances and this night was no different. They kicked of their set with ‘The Smiler’ and the riffs and thundering rhythm sections hit the crowd with the force of a sledgehammer. The heavy onslaught continued with them playing ‘Universal Sleeper’ and finally a cover as was the trend that night, Black Sabbath’s ‘Lord of this World’. ‘Abishtu’ was up next and had a majority of the ecstatic crowd screaming along. What followed was a pleasant surprise – Bevar Sea, fresh from their Sabbath tribute in Chennai, decided to play yet another cover – this time it was Sabbath’s ‘The Wizard’. They played one of their original compositions ‘Mono Gnome’ and just when people thought their set had finally ended, they pulled yet another Sabbath number from the hat, ‘Sweet Leaf’. Though the set had a couple of fumbles along the way, it was one of the best that night.

The headliners Kryptos took stage after a slightly lengthy sound check. Decked out in trademark denim and leather, they brought forth their brand of blazing, old school metal. Their setlist for Riff ’em All was slightly different from what they had played throughout this year and it included two songs from their upcoming album The Coils of Apollyon. They started off with ‘Satyr-like Face’ and then played songs from the first two albums including ‘Order of the D.N.A.’ and ‘The Revenant’. ‘The Mask of Anubis’ and for the very first time ‘Spellcraft’ from Coils followed. ‘Tower of Illusions’ and ‘Forgotten Land of Ice’ were up next and the band had a surprise in store for the crowd, not another cover, but ex-member of Kryptos and current vocalist of Bevar Sea, Ganesh joined them on stage for the final song of the night ‘Descension’.

The organizers had arranged a massive merchandise stall which had everything from CDs, t-shirts and posters from a variety of bands, which included bands that were playing that night among others. It also served as a great place for interaction with fans and bands from other cities. All in all, the gig was great, had a responsive crowd with a massive turnout of around 350 people and some brilliant performances – a perfect prelude for the Metallica concert.

Siddharth Nagarajan

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Impending Doom II : A doomed original bill but still a good show

Around two months after its first edition as Impending Doom, the much awaited sequel event, aptly titled Impending Doom II, was recently held in Bangalore. Back to probably the best venue for metal in the city, Kyra Theatre, the original bill had included a stellar lineup of bands from Bangalore and from outside the city, with an eclectic mix of genres for both the mainstream and underground metal audience, but all the out-of-city ones were cancelled due to one reason or the other. Undying Inc and 1833 AD from Delhi had to pull out due to lack of funds since one of the sponsors for the gig backed out. Silver Tears from Guwahati were added in as replacement; but their shows in Bangalore got cancelled probably due to the notices that were served to pubs in Bangalore. Lastly, Exhumation from Mumbai backed out due to their guitarist Prashant Shah catching a bout of Malaria just one day before the gig. Bangalore bands Dark Desolation, Final Surrender and Theorized were pulled in, making it an all Bangalore affair.

Dark Desolation kick-started the gig; seeing them for the first time after Signs of Chaos, it appeared to me that they had dropped the grindcore songs from their set and were now focusing on their brutal version of black metal instead. To probably adhere to that image, they have started wearing face paint and this time their lead guitarist was spotted with face paint too. It was ironic to see them having a myriad of riffs in their music while the song they chose to cover was a one-riff song – ‘Satanic Blood’ by Von. They were great technically and were able to create an atmosphere but their songs appear to lack the memorability they once had.

Familiar groovy drum tracks heralded the arrival of the next band; deathgrinders Gorified were doing their soundcheck, this was their first show after Trendslaughter I. They delivered a great set; the sound was not very overwhelming but intense enough, the volume levels were good. Although there weren’t moshes compared to what Gorified usually get, the adrenaline pumping brutality unleashed by the band was in no way any less. I don’t know if it was due to their absence from gigs but Ganesh’s guitars during ‘Obliteration Quandary’ just seemed so much more fast and furious! It was Charlie’s birthday and his friends in attendance didn’t miss out on the opportunity to sing the birthday song for him.

Pillbox666 surprised us with a speedy opening, by covering Slayer’s ‘Black Magic’, which was apt considering the speed with which the previous bands played. Their usual covers of Black Sabbath, Metallica, Motorhead and Autopsy were there. A new cover was added to the setlist and this time it was of a band whose imagery the Pillbox666’s imagery matches the most – Sodom’s ‘Ausgebombt’. They sounded as relentless as the German thrashers did on ‘Agent Orange’. The crowd was up against the stage in no time, the backing vocals aptly coming in from the front row. We were later told they had an ace of a cover up their sleeve which wasn’t played due to shortage of time. Next Operation Pillage, may be, aye Vikram? The kadets are waiting in their trenches.

Salman U. Syed (one of the organizers) was up on the stage next, asking people to behave as there were cops in the house. With the recent scrutiny on the local live music scene by the cops from namma Bengaluru, this wasn’t entirely unexpected. One of the two major gigs in the city that particular day, both marked as a protest to the notices issued by the police, we were anticipating cop trouble later in the day. But this warning was only followed by Final Surrender who came dressed in police uniform to parody the cops. They played metalcore in a style similar to probably As I Lay Dying along with some mathcore as well as progressive influences. The guitar solos seemed to owe a great deal to 80s melodic rock. Musically, they were a cohesive unit, with both the guitarists displaying a bit of virtuosity, even though the expressions of their faces were in contrast to each other, which was rather funny.

Just as Theorized started, one of Sandeep’s guitar’s strings gave way but the set was saved by Kryptos‘ Rohit sharing his guitar. The band got on with the music which was a melting pot of their influences of melodic death, thrash, math and probably metalcore. Their twisted brand of metal isn’t everyone’s cup of tea; add to it, their new single ‘Genetic Variants’ which even has a Jazz-esque feel to it; especially in the solo. Madhav was very enthusiastic to get the crowd going, by jumping into the pit. Personally, I felt they don’t create a lot of thrashing tension and seeing them live, the influences seem a bit mashed up rather than natural. Having said that, there was indeed a lot of virtuosity on display with the extremely complex riffs and progressive/technical thrash elements.

Bevar Sea took the stage immediately after Theorized. They played four of their songs this time. With less than 10 live gigs under their belt, most of which have comprised of originals, you would NOT expect the audience to sing along, but guess what? Almost everyone in there seemed to know the words to ‘Abhishtu’! Their new bassist Avinash fits in perfectly in the band. Their doom-laden sound has a certain infectious groove to it, while sustaining the heaviness that seems right out of the books of Mr. Geezer Butler & Co. Ganesh Krishnaswamy at the helm of affairs has proven to be a very enigmatic frontman. The artwork projected on the screen worked great with Bevar Sea with a different one projected for each of the ten-minute whoppers. This time, I noticed Rahul’s leads were markedly different from the ones on the demos and I still found them entertaining. Perhaps the most apt moment during their set was when Ganesh cried out while introducing the band “We are Bevar Sea and so are you!”

The headliners Kryptos took the stage at last, to slightly dwindled numbers in the audience. In the beginning, it took time for the band to get the right sound, but once they got that, with a good setlist for that night, they ended up putting on a great show. They started off with a couple of songs from their first album before they played their more of staple live songs ‘Sphere VII’, ‘Heretic Supreme’ and ‘Descension’. The crowd, a tad exhausted from supporting all the six acts over the past five hours, seemed a bit low on energy compared to the guys on stage, all the headbanging and the beer that had flowed through the day had certainly taken a toll on them. Kryptos’ blend of classic heavy metal with thrash influences is catchy enough for the new kids on the block, yet heavy enough for the old school-ers as well. They didn’t play any songs from their upcoming album for which they’ll hopefully do another show!

If you are someone who likes to have a variety of genres in your metal concerts then Impending Doom II would’ve been perfect for you, ranging from black/death metal to stoner tinged doom. The turnout could have been better, but this one was a gig worth attending.

Tushar Sharma

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