Tag Archives: Rohit Chaturvedi

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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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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Interview with Kryptos

Kryptos is a melodic/thrash metal band from Bangalore. It was formed in 1998 by Nolan Lewis (vocals/guitars) and Ganesh Krishnamurthy (ex- vocalist/bassist). The band went on to release their debut album Spiral Ascent in 2004 and eventually went on to become one of India’s biggest Metal bands. In 2008,Kryptos released their second album The Ark of Gemini, under Old School Metal Records. Their music is an amalgamation of aggressive riffing, melodic lines and ambient drumming.

WTS: Tell us about how your band got started and took its first steps musically?

Nolan: The band started around ’98, it started with me and our ex-vocalist, his name is Ganesh. We were both classmates in Josephs Commerce College. He had another band, they used to play just covers and stuff, and they needed another guitarist so they asked me. But then that band broke up. Then we decided to do something on our own and we found this drummer from the north-east his name is Ching Len. We had put up an ad on one of our local music magazines and he answered that advertisement 8 months later! (laughs) Luckily by then we hadn’t found anyone so he joined us. It was just three of us in the beginning. We used to practice at the drummer’s place in Frazer town. It was a really tiny place, a small garage and we had terrible equipment, everything was terrible! (laughs) We were just doing it for fun that time. It was just like a hobby. There were quite a few metal bands back then like Millennium, Warden, Vulcan Haze, Crimson Storm, plus we had the other bands like Angeldust, Thermal and a Quarter etc. who used to play a lot.

Rohit: Around the same time that we started out, bands like Threinody and Myndsnare started. They started slightly before us, and we picked up after that.

WTS: How has the band evolved in terms of band members and how has that affected the music?

Nolan: Our drummer had to go back and take over family business, last we heard he’s into politics and stuff. (laughs) Ganesh lasted for quite a long time, he was with us for 8 years, but then had his own priorities and couldn’t dedicate enough time for the band so we just decided to part ways. Ryan joined in 2002-2003 and these guys joined in 2006.

Jayawant: November 2006!

Nolan: November 2006! (laughs) Yeah! Before that we had a guitarist called Akshay who was with us for 2 years or so and then he left. When Ryan joined we weren’t doing much, we were just playing competitions, playing covers and a few originals here and there. After he joined we started writing more stuff, it started becoming very stable, after we released our first album the other guys joined. Luckily it happened at a time when we could manage everything!

WTS: Was thrash metal a natural option for you to start off with?

Nolan: When we started off we didn’t know what we were playing actually. We had no idea what we should be playing. We used to just play covers, and the usual stuff – Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Metallica. Nobody used to play originals then. Bands that played originals used to get booed. We had originals that we wrote which were pretty bad and whenever we used to play them at freedom jam and stuff people used to boo us, throw stuff at us, quite sad! (laughs) Back then we had very different preferences, I was more into thrash, Ganesh was more into blues, hard rock AC/DC stuff, our drummer was more into progressive music.

WTS: Were there other genres of metal that fascinated and interested you?

Nolan: Yeah, there was a point in time when Cradle of Filth and bands like that were really big in Bangalore for some reason. We also tried our hands at that, just to see how it goes. Back then we didn’t have a certain style, nothing. We even got a keyboardist for some time to see how it sounded. But then later on we figured out we’re no good at it! (laughs)

WTS: What bands could you consider as some of your influences or inspirations? Would you say that some of those influences are visible and can be tracked down in Kryptos?

Rohit: I hope that doesn’t happen! (laughs)

Nolan: Actually the good thing about our music is that our influences are all the old bands but we also put in some of the extreme types of music like doom, little bit of thrash, death metal here and there, so it’s like a mix. It sounds familiar but you can’t exactly pinpoint.

WTS: Are there any Melodic/Thrash Metal bands that have inspired you?

Nolan: Not really. The thrash bands weren’t that big of an influence. It was more like the 80s bands like Maiden, Priest. Maybe you could say Dark Tranquility was a big influence because they mixed death metal with the 80s metallic stuff. So, Dark Tranquility, In Flames and bands like that have definitely inspired us.

WTS: Could you tell us about your music making process?

Rohit: What we do is sit down and jam and whenever a song is good to our ears, we usually keep that. Let’s say Nolan has a riff, Ryan comes with a rhythm backing and if it sounds good to our ears then we build on it.

WTS: What are your rehearsals generally like? Do you guys have a set time during the week for that?

Ryan: We usually jam at 6:30 in the evening and it has worked out really well for all of us because even though these guys are working they put in a bit of effort and finish their work by 5:30-6:00. All of us make it for practice at 6:30. This happens every week, unless we have an interview or something! (laughs)

WTS: Tell us something about the releases you have had so far and what kind of plans you have for your future releases?

Jayawant: We got 2 albums down so far. First was in 2004, before Rohit and I joined the band; that was the old line up. With the new line up one of the first things we did was come up with new material. We recorded our second album in 2007 and finally launched that in 2008. We are currently working on our third album that we plan to record in February and hope to launch in March next year. We are experimenting a little with the lyrical content. As far the music goes, we’d like it to be more melodic, but we wouldn’t like to deviate from what we have already established as our genre.

WTS: How much has internet helped to get your band name around to people’s lips? What are some of the disadvantages of the internet in your opinion?

Nolan: It’s probably the most important factor in getting our stuff out. We actually had a tough time. The internet started becoming a useful tool only around 2005-2006. For the first seven years or so it was very tough. There weren’t any cellphones back then. At that time we didn’t know how to get in touch with people, nobody knew we existed. It was very difficult unless someone actually sees you. We only had landlines! If they had to call us we had to wait at home and wait till they call us. Of course, the main disadvantage is the downloading. Some bands don’t give their full album for download. They may give two or three songs. But now its picking up and people are buying a lot more CDs but college kids are the ones who usually download stuff. It’s alright to an extent because the music gets places, but it hurts the bands because they don’t make any money from whatever they invested in the first place.

WTS: What are the key elements of your sound?

Jayawant: A little bit of Lithium and Potassium…

Nolan: All the metals (laughs) Of course, the most important element is melody. Our songs have to have some melody, have some catchiness to it. There’s no point taking a bunch of riffs together, if it doesn’t make sense. We try and balance out the melodic stuff with the aggressive stuff, that’s exactly what our sound is actually. Back then most of the guys used to listen to old bands and stuff but now because of the new bands that are coming out, they are getting more brutal and aggressive and the audience is of course tuned into it. But today a lot of them are getting back into the old stuff. They get into that and start working their way backwards.

WTS: What is the most challenging and hardest thing for you in terms of song writing?

Ryan: Sometimes one of us has an idea, and we share it with the rest of the guys while jamming and then it is just inspiration and spontaneity. We just try different stuff out and we work it by ear. Sometimes a song works itself out. If you’re having a bad day you have to keep doing it over and over again, that is the tough part. When it’s a good day, we get it in just like one or two shots.

WTS: What are the main themes/topics in your songs?

Nolan: We are not a death and destruction sort of a band. That’s too clichéd, that’s a stereotypical image that people have. For our first album Ganesh wrote all the lyrics and he had this very abstract way of writing lyrics. We tackled a lot of subjects like child abuse, sci-fi stuff and things to do with philosophy – he was totally into philosophy and stuff. For the second album, I started writing the lyrics. I’m very anti-religion, anti-politics, so those were some of the topics, mythology and a lot of environmental stuff too, there’s one song which deals with what the world will end up like if people continue to destroy the environment.

With the next album, the concept is a little weird, is sort of occult based and how it fits into the global scenario. Who is actually behind the scenes? Everyone thinks there’s good and evil. There’s God, the Devil, and the man stuck in the middle. But the next album is about how evil actually controls both sides. It’s like, God and man are puppets of the Devil. But he himself is the puppet of someone else who nobody knows. This kind of answers the question, why do so many bad things happen in the word and if God was actually there then why he doesn’t do anything about it? So he pretty much doesn’t exist. He is actually a creation of the Devil who himself is the creation of somebody else. (laughs)

WTS: Your last studio album ‘The Ark Of Gemini’ was released in 2008. When are you planning to record some new material?

Ryan: We are planning on recording the third album in Feb. I personally, want to get everything right this time. So I don’t mind taking the extra time and effort when it comes to practicing and of course, finding the right studio, getting the right sound, getting the right sound engineer and figuring out how much it all costs. I just don’t want to do the album and let it die down. Together all of us are planning things in such a way that we can do an album and start touring after that, and get shows so that everything works out in a sequence.

WTS: Tell us all about your tour across Europe. Was your music well received?

Jayawant: The tour… they were pleasantly surprised. What basically happened, was people expected something very Indian to be delivered as a part of our performance, but when they saw that it was genuine old school stuff, for a lot of the older guys it was a feeling of nostalgia which made them come right to the front and head bang, and for the younger crowd even though they were into different genres of metal they were still able to appreciate this as being something true and genuine. We got a fantastic response and got great feedback to the extent that they want us back again next year. Three different tour managers were interested in having us back there and play in a different set of clubs and festival venues. The response was really encouraging. It’s only the question of us saving up money so that we can go there and play again.

WTS: You’re the first Indian metal band to be signed by an International label. How did that happen?

Ryan: It happened because Nolan spent a lot of time on the internet!

Nolan: Actually back then we didn’t know much about labels. I had a fair idea about who would be interested,. Write up of our babnd and stuff. The name was Old School Metal Records and it was very obvious that that. This is how it used to be done, they were pretty impressed. They liked the music straight away. Next thing you know they’re sending us a contract.

WTS: Despite being the biggest Indian metal band and having an international label, why do you think it’s been generally hard for you to sell records overseas? Is it mainly the lack of touring?

Nolan: The main thing is the media exposure. You need a lot of marketing, promotion. The label that signed us is not that big a label. Their distribution reach is pretty limited. There’s a lot of work that can get people intersred, a lot of hype that goes into actually promoting a band out there. A lot of our CDs got sold over there, so it worked out quite decently.

WTS: How important is interaction among bands in India, do you think it’s necessary?

Ryan: It is necessary because when we started out all of us used to help each other, passing on a show to somebody else which you couldn’t do. Everybody used to do that. As far as I’m concerned I still do that. People have more attitude now, or…I don’t know! I’m pretty much in touch with everybody . Especially Rohit and Nolan… these guys make it a point to meet other bands and stuff like that.

WTS: What do you have to say about the current metal scene in India?

Nolan: They all split up. That’s a big problem actually. Bands get disheartened easily and there’s a lot of societal pressure. So bands crumble to that pressure.

Priyanka Shetty

Priyanka Shetty is the founder of What's The Scene? Follow Priyanka on Twitter @priyanka_shetty

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