Inner Sanctum - Provenance(EP)

Inner Sanctum! That one name that instantly conjures up violent images of broken arms, bruised head and limp bodies from a delirious moshpit. Inner Sanctum! Now we've all witnessed the imposing force that is the band in its prime form in their live acts. Channeling their never-ending energy to one huge binding force that soon overwhelms the audience, gripping them in their control when all the while they are furiously headbanging to their thunderous beats; Inner Sanctum,Bangalore based tech death/thrash outfit are unarguably one of India's best death metal bands. They've always kept up to the audience's expectation giving power-packed performance in each of their single gigs, winning many of them all the while playing with an almost God-like stature.

While crowds drove in hordes( by Indian standards) to their gigs, there was a greater expectation to be met by the band for the headbangers out there. And they finally kept upto that likelihood when their debut EP Provenance released this month. Offering the same intensity of their live gigs, Inner Sanctum play a brilliant 4 track set, blowing your ears to smithereens. The production quality of the EP is by far one of the best in any Indian metal releases and this lends an extra credibility that Inner Sanctum are indeed a formidable act. And that's not it, unlike many other numerous Indian metal acts selling their 'original' stuff, Inner Sanctum's authentic sound rides high on the album aping no other acts. This is in fact is one of the many highs of the EP.

Now its not every time you get to hear a song that too a metal one on one of the most influential villains portrayed on screen- Dark Knight's Joker, however Sanctum go on to do just that playing a smashing mid-tempo track in Agent of Chaos. With soaring riffs and lofty double bass beats the track instantly sets up the mood for headbanging. The riffs in fact are razor sharp, slicing through the guitars thanks to their guitarists Chintan and Rajeev. Their pile driving riffs continue to assault your senses alongside Gaurav's guttural vocals in their next tracks Quarantine and Human Disregard. In fact the killer drumming by Abhinav in Quarantine, which was available for streaming on their MySpace/Bandcamp page for streaming, immediately sets you to the temper to mosh. Human Disregard is by far the best track on the EP that plays on a groovy note. The EP ends on a vehement note with the Eye of False that has some catchy riffs in its intro.

No point in the EP will you ever stop saying yourself. 'Wow', 'Incredibly tight' 'awesome' with horns raised in the air, 'cause that's what they actually are - an abrilliant tight act. There's not a single moment in the EP that leaves you disappointed except in the end where you are left standing exhausted from all that headbanging asking for more intense stuff from the band. But then you cant expect more tracks in an EP. The artwork by Gaurav is quite well done too. Overall Provenance is an excellent debut EP which's great to headbang to. After a brilliant venture like this, the band sure has more expectations to live upto in their next album. Till then grab yourself a copy of the EP and break your neck headbanging to it.

Headbang To Metal Mario

Inner Sanctum Cover Art

Two Words:

FUCKING AWESOME!

Gnr's India Tour Confirmed

Ok now i agree that GnR is nowhere close to metal, but then who hasn't crooned to ''Sweet Child of Mine'' or ''Paradise City'' in their childhood/pre-teenage days!

What was perceived as a hoax in the beginning has been turned to a confirmation. About a week back the website www.rhapsodyinc.in claimed that GnR would be touring India and playing in Bangalore on 7th November.

And now the owner of the site Mr.Raj Sinha has confirmed the news in this specified news article in Deccan Chronicle.

And although we'll see a bunch of musician noobs (Slash,Izzy and mcKagab quit the band long ago) accompanying Axl Rose the sole founding member of the band, watching them live will be a dream come true for many fans of this legendary hard rock act.

Amogh Symphony - Abolishing The Obsolete System

These days its very rare to find musicians who strive to take their music to the next dimension. Its even more rare when it comes to the modern technical Death genre, where every band sounds like every band, falling dreadfully into the pit of recurring sounds. But what makes this particular album in contention even more rare is the simple fact that its from India, a land where most bands are busy aping their western counterparts.

And this where Vishal J.Singh's Amogh Symphony enters the scene, bringing with him a brand of music that has changed the face of technical Death/Progressive Metal genre forever, leaving the listeners in a state of amazement with their jaws dropped. Vishal J.Singh is a musical genius handling all the instruments with adept skills in his first full-length release.The basslines heard in the album are possibly some of the best you can ever come across and not forget the his skillful drumming which simply establishes him as a drumming virtuoso. The riffs heard in the album including the acoustic ones heard in the closing track ''Post War Symphony'' also go on to prove nothing but Vishal's a guitar wizard too. And its not just the instruments which he handles so well, the album's wonderful sound production is all due to Vishal's fantastic efforts again.

What makes the album so different from other acts of this genre is the simple fact that Vishal plays an intricate style of technical Death Metal in the album fusing Jazz elements wonderfully alongside Indian classical music influences as well as techno-synth sounds as heard in tracks like Cyborg Activation and Abolishing The Obsolete System. And its the inclusion of such structures that soon engulfs the listener in a cosmic atmosphere, making him anticipate each track with such a zeal that pretty soon he may find his head banging to the beats of the album.

The whole album unquestionably sounds like one great song where every track sounds like a part of a greater track, with every track maintaining it's own unique identity. And this is where lies Amogh Symphony's beauty. Single masterpieces joining together in greater harmony to form a larger magnum opus. So far as vocals are concerned, they are a scarce commodity in album except in Swallowing The Infected Sun' where its performed by Ramki (vocalist of Chicago based Prog Death outfit Noesis) and in ''Greenhouse Effect'' by Prashant Vadhyar.

And even without all the growling/throaty vocals one expects in a Tech-Death Metal album, "Abolishing The Obsolete System" carries the Tech-Death Metal vibe. In fact the album manages to sound pretty neat minus the vocals. All in all Amogh Symphony pulls off a brilliant masterpiece in his new album without any flaws worth mentioning. The magic Vishal spins with his skills is simply awe-inspiring and I just cant stop imagining how his next album might sound like after his latest venture that was Abolishing The Obsolete System.

Porcupine Tree in India

Veteran British prog rockers Porcupine Tree are slated to play their first ever gig in India on 21st December in Mood Indigo festival in IIT,Bombay.

After getting Finnish melo-death metallers Ensiferum to headline their fest last year, the nerds supremo at IIT have managed to pull in another heavyweight in their own genre in the form of Porcupine Tree. But then the Ensiferum gig was apparently a big fuck-up considering the negative audience response( that was bound to happen, afterall when free passes are handed out then even your next door neighbour's father is bound to end up in a show, be it even a metal one) and seeing that I am now wondering if the Porcupine Tree gig too is headed in the same direction.

However their Chennai counterparts did a better job in in hosting Opeth, which witnessed a huge turnout and the response too was on a larger and positive note.

Eitherways I am even more perplexed by the fact that bands of such status actually come down to India to play in college fests on invitation rather than performing in their own tours or any music festivals. In short this is another disappointing sign that metal music is heading the commercial way with bands coming here only for the money!

Vader - Necropolis

A band generally closes its door when almost all its members walk away maybe leaving behind only a single guy back. But sometimes that one guy is more than enough to carry on the band's legacy. And thats exactly what frontman and founding member of Vader Piotr '' Peter'' Wiwczarek did when everyone quit the band, move on. With new recruits in form of Vogg from Decapitated taking over the guitars,Reyash of Incantation managing the bass and Pawel Jaroszewicz of Hell-Born fame handling the drums, Peter's Vader has delivered another power-packed performance in his 8th full length release, Necropolis. The fact that they have come up with the album within a year of Peter losing his entire backing band makes the album even the more worth giving a hear.

Even after a complete revamp of the lineup, the band manages to retain the same old Vader-ish sounds as seen outright from the starting track Devilizer that contains those usual pile-driving riffs and the throaty vocals alongside the thunderous double bass beats, which had first got Vader noticed. With plenty of furious riffing at chugging fast pace and throaty,dry vocals Vader sound every bit like a polished war machine obliterating everything in its path. Blastbeats too are plenty inducing the perfect mosh atmosphere in tracks like Impure alongwith equally mosh inducing riffs. An interesting aspect about the album is that there are more solos than previous releases and each of these solos are executed with such focus that has been the trademark of the band that it makes you pump your fists against the wall in the pure adrenalin rush you get listening to it.

Also the album is shorter than usual, clocking just over thirty minutes mark. However this does not piss me off as long as tracks like Blast and Anger provide the infuriating moments of headbanging experience. We Are Horde and Rise Of The Dead are some of the tracks that showcases everything that is Vader. There are also some un-Vader points in the album in tracks like Impressions In Blood and XXV where keyboards outline the compositions. Also the band takes a more traditional heavy metal path in the closing track When The Sun Drowns In Dark, also its the only track that clocks over seven minutes. Venom's Black Metal and Metallica's Fight Fire With Fire are executed in pure Vader style in the end after all their own compositions are completed.

Although you would be done through with all the headbanging & moshing listening to Necropolis, in the end you might find yourself asking more from the band. Just over half hour, the album could have expanded more over Vader's style. But nevertheless Vader produces a top notch album in Necropolis without losing any grounds that once again goes on to show why Poland's Vader are still considered as death metal gods.