Worldwide Metal: India
In another edition of Worldwide Metal, I head to the country of India. A huge country that populates the greater part of southern Asia. A land heavily impacted in religion and diverse culture, along with a burgeoning entertainment scene of movies and music known as Bollywood. With the catchy, dance-influence heavy music, how is the metal scene in the country? Does it have any acts that venture into the extreme side of metal? Today, I am gonna answer that question with an astounding yes. Covering everything from thrash, to brutal death metal to even Indian folk metal.
The first band i’ll be covering delves into the darkness of black metal. The band is 1833 A.D. . With a tone and aesthetic of classic second wave black metal acts like Gorgoroth, with elements of modern black metal acts like Mgla, the band has only released one album. 2012’s My Dark Symphony features a strong, heavy and jagged album of aggressive and dark black metal. Truly capturing the roots and origins of black metal. Vocalist Nishant Abraham Varghese has such a visceral, snarling vocal delivery that is just hits like a ton of bricks amongst the walls of distorted guitars ringing throughout the album. Though the band laid dormant in 2019, the band reunited in 2022, but no new music or album has been announced. Hopefully new music will eventually come out since the album was such a good record and I’d love to hear more from the band.
Now we head into the thrash/death metal direction with our next band Yuthak Wah. Formed in 2009, the band takes true inspiration from the death metal heavy hitters of death metal like Obituary and Cannibal Corpse, while combining thrashier elements. The band’s latest album was 2023’s Lurel. The opening track “Whore and Valor” delivers a brash, harsh and hostile energy in the musicianship and vocals. At just over thirty minutes, the album is just a constant barrage of chugging palm-muted riffs and double bass that would make any thrash/crossover fans happy.
DIRGE crawls from the depths of sludgy doom metal that hits like the weight of the world with every drum hit and guitar strum. Formed in 2014, this act is consistent in creating heavy, sonic soundscapes of depression and sadness akin to the NOLA sound of acts like Crowbar and Eyehategod. With cavernous vocals and a bass-heavy chug fest behind it, the band delivers that weighty, unhappy, slow-burn headbang feeling you get with a good low-and-slow sound. With two albums under their belt, 2018’s Ah Puch & 2023’s Self-Titled, this is a band that instantly got my attention as a sludge/doom fan myself. A true band to check out if you want that doom crawl of heaviness to blast in a good pair of headphones.
Now we come to the brutal death metal section of the piece with Gutslit. Brutal in nature and heavy as all hell, the riff machine of Prateek Rajagopal, combined with a barrage of drum fills and blast beats from Aaron Pinto truly give the band a sonic one-two punch combo with each album. With each album so far having different vocalists, each album creates a unique sound with each vocalist. Some moments sounding like Brodequin with the deep gutturals, to modern death metal acts like Aborted. I originally got into this band with 2017’s Amputheatre, but the band’s most recent record Carnal also delivers that technical/brutal death metal itch I just love to scratch. Definitely if you are a fan of Dying Fetus, Severe Torture or Disgorge, then you gotta check these guys out.
The last band I’ll be covering is probably the band that has blown up the most in the last year or two and that is Bloodywood. Formed in 2016, the project combines nu/rap metal with elements of folk metal and even some djent elements into a unique, multicultural heaviness that works so well. Their second album, 2022’s Rakshak, blew up with the success of the album’s lead single “Gaddaar”, with over 8 million Spotify streams at time of writing and over 5.5 million views for the music video on Youtube. The band has blown up in popularity since the album’s release. The band recently collaborated with Kawaii-metal girl group Babymetal on the song “Bekhauf”.
Spotify
That’s going to do it for my time visiting India and another edition of Worldwide Metal. Did you dig some of the bands I featured in this edition? Were there any bands you think other readers should check out? You can also let me know what country I should travel to next, so I can stamp my metal passport on my journey to discover Worldwide Metal.
