Well I haven't been to one in a long time. What am I supposed to do to hang with the cool kids? Is screaming for SKEPTAAAR still relevant and funny? Have you guys been attending any? Good bands around? I heard three decent bands today.

Parachute XVI - might see them on Friday if work goes as planned. I reviewed their demo ep, but they're rocking a lot more now. www.myspace.com/parachutexvi

Drones from the Turbine - digs.by/1bhM Some psychedelic slow buildup leading to a crescendo type thing. Interesting, and they add visuals. Good break from the bad eddie vedder bands, the cheerful extreme metal bands and not to mention all those tracksuit metal played by short people who want to jump and appear taller.

The Bicycle Days - www.myspace.com/thebicycledays I didn't like their first track Zen. Sounded like a TAAQ knockoff, and that's not at all a good thing, but the other two songs are interesting. Rock meets psych meets trip-hop meets tool meets radiohead or something.

I also know:

Inner Sanctum play it a bit safe, and do catchy too-close-to-the-mainstream type metal, but they do it good. They need more solos.

I don't know about live, but Theorized put out a damn good demo ep thang that I reviewed.

More later. Who else?

I'll put together a feature article on KvltSite if we get some good inputs from people and the bands are good enough to be talked about on the site.

*Newish, ongoing bands/projects only.

In rough order of preference/interest:

Another Vertigo Rush This band was brilliant when I saw them at GIR last year. They were IMO the ONLY worthwhile local band to play across two evenings. They are in the entire post blah blah space with lots of Tool and Isis influences but all of it kept very very interesting. Probably the only new Indian band that I look forward to buying music from.

Workshop Sahil's attempt at doing Primus/Infectious Groovesesque stuff. Your enjoyment on this depends entirely on your tolerance level for awful jokes many of which will make sense only to people living in Bombay. This is the most entertaining and original sounding of all of Sahil's projects.

Scribe Their debut EP was good in parts terrible in others, but more enjoyable than not. Their live act is generally fantastic. They don't take themselves too seriously, are brutally tight and a LOT of fun to watch. In the broad metalcorey category but a LOT better than most bands in that space.

Khiladi PMan's vocals could use a little work, but these guys have some pretty good songs. Seen them live twice and they put up a great show both times.

Devoid Caught them live a couple of times and they seem very good on an intital listen. Death Metal with rather too many breakdowns than I would have liked, but they have a aa very effective lead guitar section and seem promising over all.

Nice. MOAR PLZ.

HathyaSaiBaba wrote:
Another Vertigo Rush This band was brilliant when I saw them at GIR last year. They were IMO the ONLY worthwhile local band to play across two evenings. They are in the entire post blah blah space with lots of Tool and Isis influences but all of it kept very very interesting. Probably the only new Indian band that I look forward to buying music from.

Scribe Their debut EP was good in parts terrible in others, but more enjoyable than not. Their live act is generally fantastic. They don't take themselves too seriously, are brutally tight and a LOT of fun to watch. In the broad metalcorey category but a LOT better than most bands in that space.

Devoid Caught them live a couple of times and they seem very good on an intital listen. Death Metal with rather too many breakdowns than I would have liked, but they have a aa very effective lead guitar section and seem promising over all.

AVR and Scribe are fucking awesome liveacts, yeah. Scribe are coming out with a new album in a few months too. Devoid went from being the band that plays ANGEL OF DEAATH 3-4 years back to a way more fun but nothing new band.

Exhumation are great live, VERY boring on record.

Srikanth Panaman wrote:
Parachute XVI - might see them on Friday if work goes as planned. I reviewed their demo ep, but they're rocking a lot more now. www.myspace.com/parachutexvi

This sounds pretty shitty to me. Ananth sounds great though.

You can try Psyborg. Experimental/hardcore/trancy stuff by Manas Ullas of Bangalore. Last I heard, he used to be the vocalist for Stranglehold.
www.myspace.com/psyborgblr

You can try Blind Image too. I'd sent their album to you for review, remember? More Than Human, their 2nd album has Meshuggah, Textures and SiKth influences. Screamo/hardcore/groove metal.
www.blindimage.net

Seize Her put up an unexpectedly good show the last time I caught them, especially for the rather retarded moniker they possess -



Skrat play good live too, I bet Symphony can fill you in more on them.

Yeah, Skrat play a pretty awesome live set. They've got some good energy and their songs have a very sing-along feel to it.

Another good live act is Escher's Knot. They'll be releasing their album soon. Very very awesome music.

Landed up in Andheri (E) on Sunday evening for a metchul gig to launch B69 - a 1200 sq ft hall that sits on top of 3-4 concrete jhopdis. Managed and organised by Bajaao.com founder Ashu (of Xenon / Groovelab / Khiladi / Baba Bangali fame), this one had over 400 kids waiting in a fucking line that went at least a kilometer. The lineup comprised Bhayanak Maut (minus Sunnieth), Demonic Resurrection, and Scribe.

On to the gig then. Bhayanak Maut kicked it off with their brand of Lamb of God derived metalcore and supposedly had the crowd eating from their hands. Yes. Supposedly. That's cuz the venue couldn't accommodate more than the first 200. What sucked even more was that entry got cut off just before me. So while the others who were waiting were told to leave, a bunch of us kept our hopes up, and dialed in our 'contacts' (read: friends / band mates / organizers). In around 15 minutes or so, we were in. Only to be greeted by a Demonstealer asking the crowd to sing along some assinine cheesy crap that went 'Blood and Lace, Shit On Your Face' in a Iron Maiden-esque fashion. Nonetheless, it had 90% of the gig crowd doing the same. Mind you, 90% of the gig crowd were also hormone high pubescent creatures.

Anyhoo, while Saahil and his gang did their thing, what really impressed me was the sound - Top notch. Every chugga-chugga, every pinch harmonic, every bum note, no matter on which instrument, could be heard in pristine clarity. No one was eating on to the other, no loudness duel between guitarists, and the bass was present throughout. What came free though was a meatfest sauna. With minimal ventilation, air conditioners which failed to do their job, and sweat adding to the humidity, you couldn't ask for a better place to lose those extra inches.

After DR was done revisiting its Frozen Portrait through the valley of the ice demons while being brutally butchered at midnight by a horde of elves, in stepped Scribe. By now, the crowd had thinned out a bit, allowing room for some breathing space, which quickly became a pussy mosh pit with some 10 participants. Scribe was its usual electric live self, with Vishwesh's vocal processor making its debut and presence felt on each of their tracks. Akshay's (2nd guitars) banter and Vishwesh's wisecracks kept me entertained through technical fuck ups and in between songs to round off a perfect hour of superb live music.

All in all, apart from the sauna of a venue which made you sweatier than a Churchgate-Virar morning local getting in to Dadar, and the fact that not all who came to see the bands got to, this was a good gig. Met up with lots of old friends, got an update as to what's happening in the 'scene', and had a terrific time overall. Would've been stellar if Malsum could make it as well.

P.S. Gig anecdotes:
- 4 barely out of school chicks who were part of the group that entered the venue with me were brilliant in their conversation. This was their first gig, and they had lied to their folks about this. At least one of them had, i presume, changed on their way here, 'cuz she was busy stuffing her salwar in her bag. Topped it off by asking us what was that thick thing the guy was fingering. The bass guitar, of course.
- The uncle who attends each and every metal gig was there too. Busy swaying to Scribe's numbers. Yeh banda kaun hai? He should get a fan page, or at least some recognition like the ECW Sign Guy.

Yeah somehow was very unenthused by the prospect of trudging to Andheri in the monsoon. Damn. I wish Razz comes back to life.

Srikanth Panaman wrote:


Parachute XVI - might see them on Friday if work goes as planned. I reviewed their demo ep, but they're rocking a lot more now. www.myspace.com/parachutexvi





getting into this topic really late,i for one havent seen a local gig in ages and theres not much hope or future from what i see and hear... but that was a good shot at the tracksuit bands!lol!are there no more bands like Threinody(read:3-nerdy) wearing their ultra tight "rexine" trousers and gurgling honey n pepper concoctions before gigs?
and whats this Parachute XVI,oohh this is more potent that a fistful of valiums!now i know what i have to listen to when i am done counting sheep and still dont get any sleep!:)

HathyaSaiBaba wrote:
In rough order of preference/interest:


Workshop Sahil's attempt at doing Primus/Infectious Groovesesque stuff. This is the most entertaining and original sounding of all of Sahil's projects.

believe it or not Baba, i told Sahil the same thing, this is the only thing which he should be doing as it sounds original and a little bit more creative than all his other third rate "Dummy Burger has doggy sex with Behemoth" riff off music! but your insulting Primus by comparing it with Sahil's music,material like Pork Soda is something he cant even comprehend let alone play! come on pantystealer,give us more of your Do Bade Babble!!!

133T4dip wrote:
Srikanth Panaman wrote:
Parachute XVI - might see them on Friday if work goes as planned. I reviewed their demo ep, but they're rocking a lot more now. www.myspace.com/parachutexvi

This sounds pretty shitty to me.Amen!

I was at that Scribe gig at Bajao too and yeah they were pretty good. That was the first time I saw them perform. I was standing right under an air conditioner so I didn't suffer much given the circumstances hehe. It was so bad that whenever I turned my head to look on the side, my glasses immediately got condensation on them (not sure if that is the right term - I like to call that phenomenon 'fog', childhood thing).

Met Neel there briefly. Cool chap. Who be you Asmo? Ravi developed cold feet as usual. Btw, Ravi how is Razz in Juhu much closer for you than this Bajao place which is 5 mins walking distance from Andheri station?

Because it is easier to get to Razz than to get to anywhere in Andheri. The traffic upto Santacruz/Juhu is nowhere near as bad as the traffic in Andheri. I could get into the specifics of bus routes, but I suspect that would bore you *-)