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Guest review written by: Abhishek Bhattacharya
Firstly, thanks to metalbase for letting me come up and allowing me to speak my views on a very impressive band around us but like always we fools hardly notice good things and keep on ranting about which is pretty far-fetched most of the time.
I watched Gingerfeet last Friday night at Jamsteady at Princeton opening for a band from Nepal called Tumbleweed. But this review is mostly about Gingerfeet.
To recount Gingerfeet’s performance last friday left no doubts in my mind that at this current hour they are the best band from Kolkata right now, and when it does come to the point where we need a proper band to represent Kolkata at a revered festival, say NH7, it always has to be something as delicious as Gingerfeet.
Backed by a super strong line up, they are churning out tunes better than anybody in the scene right now. They are heavy as fuck when they want to be and are perfectly capable in submitting a metal band into a cowering corner or could switch to a melo-mode and annihilate your senses with some super tasty guitar licks or a heady groove or purely by the splendour of Abhishek Gurung’s delightful voice. I have been watching Gurung for around 7 years now.
Image by – Nabarun Sengupta
Firstly, with Cynical Recess, another terrific band back from the days in 2007-2008. This dude was made of sparkles and magic back then with that unbelievable pitch and even today he sounds like a billion dollars, a voice to die for. Peeps, those who haven’t heard him yet I wish I had the vocational skills to make you understand how good this guy really is. He is modest and humble about his success and his intention to always remain under the radar off-stage, while being an absolute ambassador of his brand of music on stage, has made him a legend for me from this scene. His consistency is a lesson to be learnt by all young, budding, intelligent musicians who are serious about their potential. I have watched Abhishek Gurung hundreds of times now and I have never seen him off-colour ever in my life. I am sure he practices hard and tries tooth and nail to get where he wants to be. I don’t think there are good enough adjective in the English grammar that are etched out somewhere to describe the genuine talent of Mr. Gurung.
Next, I was completely swept off my feet by the sheer talent of Vedanta Razz, the lead guitarist of the band. Fuck comparisons, Vedanta Razz is one of the best guitarists across all genre that I have seen play live in front of me, and I have seen a lot, trust me on that. The band owes it sound to it’s axe-man extraordinaire, Vedanta Razz. He knows his skills and he knows his guitar and he knows he is fantastic. And he displays it all on the stage with all the virtuosic glam-cadenza that he is capable of. On his night he is a God of the Stage, wielding his axe and hacking you down bone to bone while you delve deeper and deeper into his world of perfectly timed delays and arpeggios and all those fancy guitar terms I can throw in to make this write up look special. In simpler terms if you haven’t watched this man play you are missing something really awesome.
I have a special word of mention for Abhinandan Mukherjee, drummer of the band. I know him for a long time now. Leader, motivator, manager, guide, you can call him all. He has improved his skills as a drummer by leaps and bounds since his heydays at cynical recess, racking awards left, right and center. Last night I saw him up close and personal and to reply to the question ‘Is Abhinandan a far better drummer today than yesterday?‘, the answer would be an overwhelming yes. Blessed with far-sightedness and his tendency to see potential and harness the maximum talent out of his band members has made him stand in good stead everywhere like always. If Gingerfeet has an enviable line-up today, all credits go to Abhinandan to assemble such a phenomenal group of musicians together.
Lastly, Lokesh Mangar and Dibya Raj Mukhia – the duo that complete the outfit that is Gingerfeet. Abhinandan in a conversation with me last night after the show owed his improvement to Lokesh, the Bass-Monster of the band. Super-charged, this man can crank up the voltage anytime he wants with his electrifying skills on the bass fretboard. Last night I spent a remarkable amount of time watching Lokesh slap and pop his bass enroute to pure, unadulterated fun which was total and absolute in all its meanings. Tough as nails and wild as a beast, Lokesh turns into an animal when he is in that zone of musical delirium that seems like cutting him off from the real world in front of him and time-shifting him into his own labytinth of funky and infectious grooves. More suited to be a bassist in a Metal Band, Lokesh plays his part to near perfection in Gingerfeet, which maybe as loud and heavy as any Good Metal Band, but then we fucking mortals love our ridiculous tags.
Coming to Dibya, this chap is a dream band-mate. I have also seen him perform for a Groove Metal Band from Sikkim called Damagera. I am sure plenty of people know about the band because they absolutely set The Pit on fire the last time they performed in the city. On his guitar, he is the perfect foil for the clearly superlative Vedanta. Maybe he doesn’t always get his share of labour in the band as sometimes his contribution seems forgotten by onlookers while the other four dazzle their way to glory but without a shroud of doubt Dibya lends solid support to the main cast playing out the show on a particular night. He is a solid musician and an even better guitarist who knows his role and that is to play his part when the script demands so and exit stage to make room for his more illustrious colleagues when that mad groove kicks in.
I can keep on racking praises for Gingerfeet as a Band and keep on going on and on about their professionalism and seriousness in their music but I guess I need to pull the brakes and bring this wagon to a halt. But allow me to acknowledge the support of Rahul Maity, aka Putai, friend and bassist par excellence who has time and again lend solid backup to the band whenever it has looked out of sorts. Be it covering for an absent bassist or standing in the crowd howling for the band this dude has gone up and done it all. In a conversation with Abhinandan he kept on going on about Putai’s massive contribution in the evolution of Gingerfeet and the kind of behemoth it has now turned into in terms of sheer talent and showman ship.
All in all I would like to rephrase my statement that yes, according to me Gingerfeet, at this current hour is the best band from Kolkata right now and I will be very proud every time they represent Kolkata in shows and festivals that are revered nation-wide, and I will know that the name of my city is in very good hands. My request to the “krazy Rock Lovers of Kolkata” is to get behind this band every time they play and support them with raised hands and loud cheers because Gingerfeet is a band that is not capable of making mistakes and letting you down anytime sooner.
My advise to the band as a fan is to keep sticking to each other and continue this project as long as they all can in their own capacity.
Thanks GINGER!!
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Click on the play button below this to listen to the track.
The Multiverse Concept releases their track ‘Chasing Echoes’ from their upcoming album.
All music written and arranged by Aksheya Chandar
Voiceover- Sanaya Chandar
Flute samples- Mr. Raman Iyer
Production– Adhiraj Singh at refractor studios
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Dipankar Mohanty reviews the new album from Destruktor titled Opprobrium, released via Hells Headbangers.
Black/Death Metal walks at arm’s length to mediocrity, sometimes embracing it gleefully and at other times stepping in and out of the mire at regular intervals. As a result, some albums are salvageable while others are laid to rest rather quickly. The approach to creating black/death varies from band to band. It is a static genre and the interesting bands are the ones which incorporate and showcase riffs, give direction to their songs and are not stationary. I think in a genre where boundaries have been already solidified, it pays to stick to the basic structure of making it riff dominant. Destruktor do exactly that. They are one of those bands who don’t hide behind the murky one-dimensional song patterns. The riffs and drums are crystal clear on the record as the band takes the listener on a ride with riffs blazing left, right and center and never deviating from its course. Destruktor keep it tight throughout with riffs and blastbeats working in complete sync without overpowering each other. The pummeling effect is amplified and is held together solidly by the vocals as well. The best thing about the songs is that they do not sound one-dimensional. Yes, similarities between songs exist and are easily detectable during the course of the album, but they are made up for by clever changes in tempo and riff patterns. Songs do not stay on the same course for an extended period of time, and although the parts move in cycles the great riffs in there ensure a great experience. The band has got the duration of the album and the length of songs spot on, unlike ‘Nailed’ which was a bit lengthy. Surprisingly, the band also gets into a bit of melodic mode in their last song ‘Forever the Blood shall flow’ and they pull it off with ease, as it is the best song on this album with some brilliant sequences in the middle. So, Destruktor manage to create one of the best black/death albums in recent memory. This is not a 123,123, 123 and repeat pattern album, something which a band like Black Witchery does. The band keeps things interesting in all the songs and is sure to garner some praise from other forums.
RATING : 4/5
This mighty tome will resurrect the dead, but it may not turn lead to gold
Greetings brethren!
2012 was the last year that I truly enjoyed many a release. There were quite a few interesting releases from a lot of new bands say Pallbearer’s debut, Indesinence, Black Cobra, Svartidaudi, Stoned Jesus, Threshold, Amenra and the like. It seemed as if every other genre had something to offer. And yet successive year, including this one, there seems to be a gradual reduction in decent to good releases. There were some brilliant and yet they were all riding atop vast oceans of mediocrity, which has made finding them all the more harder. I have no clue whether it’s the musical overload that has been eating away at my capacity to listen to albums. There’s just too many and too little worth taking notice of.
That is not to say 2015 hasn’t washed up any good releases. It most definitely has. But neither has it been quite large in number. Here are 3 of them which we (The Slumbering Ent) found to be imbued with a certain replayable quality. A quality that is as elusive as the Loch Ness monster, usually bloated up by wishful thinking and too many hype trains than anything worthwhile to fall back on, like all good music should be.
– Editor
Artwork by Misanthropic Art
1. Chapel of Disease– The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art (F.D.A Rekotz)
Ingraining influences only from Morbid Angel, Pestilence, Morgoth and Asphyx was not enough this time. The band tinkers around with doomy crawls and melodic passages similar what bands like Execration and Morbus Chron are doing at the moment. Its still very much an old school death metal album and it is slightly different from their brilliant debut ‘Summoning Black Gods’ as the band tries to expand their template with some experimentation. I hope they don’t go beyond this. A warning to green death metal fans – this is not progressive nor experimental which might be the flavour of the season, but some great death metal.
– Dipankar Mohanty
Artwork by Cloven Hoov
2. Fórn– The Departure of Consciousness (Gilead Media)
Fórn is a five-piece from Boston. They play a combination of funeral doom and sludge with spurts of black metal thrown in and a strong emphasis on melody. The Departure of Consciousness sounds accomplished, introspective, disconcerting in parts and yet above all, beautiful. The music here shows piercing intent, its poignancy especially is what is most striking. For me quite honestly, this is funeral doom done to perfection. The album came out sometime last year on Vendetta Records but is being re-released on CD by Gilead Media. Boy, are they having a good year!
– Anoop Bhat
Artwork by Andrei Bouzikov
3. Bio – Cancer – Tormenting the Innocent (Candlelight Records)
A legitimate door crasher, Bio-cancer is a no-holds-barred frontal thrash assault that’ll leave you developing fine globs of aneurysm. Steeped in the melodic/frenetic finesse of latter day Teutonic thrash and the pace of crossover thrash, a la Municipal Waste, one might as well admit that catchiness is probably the defining factor here. Almost all of the riffs do stick with you well after the songs come to an end. And yet what sets them apart from the wilfully retrograde thrasher crowd are the vocals of Lefteris. It’s Dani Filth manning up for a thrash audition (check out Chance Garnette from Skeletonwitch) and contrary to what one might expect, it owns. Coupled with gang shouts this is the stuff that invigorates even the bedridden into spasms of intermittent headbanging. Tight!
– Deckard Cain
“Everyone has a ‘chalta hain’ attitude. The problem is though that due to the lack of training it is impossible for an event organizer to understand the need for certain requirements as simple as a drum throne whose height can be adjusted!”, Naveen Deshpande speaks from bitter experience when he is asked about the problem event organizers in India face. You can almost hear the despair and irritation in the seasoned man’s voice. However, Naveen is clearly not one of those guys who just sits back and complains like there’s no tomorrow! Five years ago, Naveen started juggling his job as an in house RJ in a reputed music store with a part time profession as an artist manager in Mumbai! Five years later, he now leads the formidable Mixtape team, his brainchild and one of the youngest artist and event management start-ups to have made their mark in the Indian music circuit.
Mixtape founder Naveen Deshpande
Mixtape is associated with some of the biggest names in the business including Scribe, Bhayanak Maut, Monica Dogra,OX7GEN,Vice Versa, Sky rabbit and Donn Bhat + Passenger revelator! Indus creed frontman Uday Benegal fondly recalls meeting Naveen Deshpande way back in 2009. Naveen presently manages both Indus creed and Uday’s acoustic project “Whirling Kalapas”. “Naveen was the right guy for both bands. His operation expanded quickly enough, from a single-dude setup to a fully staffed organisation featuring a bunch of really good people”, Uday seems to be full of admiration for team mixtape. And Uday is clearly not the only satisfied client, Bhayanak Maut adds “Mixtape is professional. That’s why get along with each other!” Donn Bhat+ passenger revelator shares similar sentiments and equates their experience with Mixtape to “having a blast!”.
Naveen clearly believes in celebrating in style, and Mixtape celebrated its fifth anniversary through a unique five city concert featuring some of the best artists from the Mixtape family that spread across the month of June in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai, Mixtape@5 turned out to be one hell of an experience! But even after five successful years, Mixtape clearly has no plans of slowing down. “The primary focus has been to change how India and the world consumes independent music being produced in India and to give music producers and bands the recognition any international artist has access to”, Naveen clearly dreams big and we can only hope that in the coming years, the Indian music industry will see more game changers like Mixtape!
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