Fighting metal ki maut

(Left to right) Aditya Gopinathan Nair, Venkatraman Ramalingam, Aman Virdi, Rahul Hariharan and Ishaan Krishna of Bhayanak Maut

With both their vocalists relocating and moving out of the band in 2017, Mumbai-based metal outfit Bhayanak Maut not only have a new line-up, but have also switched to a single-vocalist set-up with Pune-based Aman Virdi. This has paved the way for a lot more backing vocals in their new tracks, the first of which was released in June after a break of five years, and the second last week, called Attack of the Roachsmokers.

"We had one less person to worry about!" jokes Aditya Gopinathan Nair (guitars), before explaining that their new songs are proof of the amount they have now experimented with their sound. "If we had two vocalists, this concept would have made us feel like we are under-utilsing our resources. We had a lot of music written between 2015 and 2017 that didn't have a vocal line. Now, we're finally working on them and plan to release them as singles every three to four months, given the audience's short attention span," Nair tells us.

Attack of the Roachsmokers retains their hardcore metal vibe, while giving way to clean vocals and a bridge - a first for the outfit. The song also marks the debut of the outfit's other guitarist, Venkatraman Ramalingam, on backing vocals. The lyrics are a play on how human beings have become over-liberalised or intolerant, swinging between the two extremes. "There's no limit or understanding of whether something is good or bad as we don't understand its detrimental effects - be it the demand for legalisation of cannabis or the consumption of electronic goods. We keep going on and on without realising what kind of monsters we are turning into," Nair shares.

While they are looking to start touring in October, hoping to start with Mumbai, there's a dearth of live venues for the genre, which has led to a decline in the number of metal bands. "It's easy to form a band, but difficult to sustain it. When we started off [in 2003], the scene was better. You had venues like Blue Frog. Today, there's just Scribe and Demonic Resurrection who are sticking it out. There aren't any new bands that have the same kind of intensity as they just want to play what's in vogue," explains Nair. Venue owners and rookie metal outfits, are you listening?

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