Chennai has always been known for churning out top music acts – be it in the realm of Carnatic, Indie, or Metal. In recent times, the city has been witnessing a metal revival of sorts, with a greater focus being given to creating and nurturing homegrown sounds and talent. DC tracks this trend.
“I used to be a metal photographer and attend all the shows that happened in Chennai. Over the years the metal scene in the city became really low — let alone playing in gigs, I didn’t even find any shows to click pictures of,” says 24-year-old Nehemia Johnson, the current vocalist of Chennai-based metal band GODIA. He is however, delighted that the scene is slowly enjoying a revival, thanks to more venues opening their doors to this genre of music. “I am a true metal head so am obviously stoked at being able to play again.
In our latest show, we performed four songs from our EP, as well as two covers – Lamb of God and Breakdown of Sanity,” says this metal enthusiast who performed in the city yesterday.
Mumbai-based Zygnema, who were in the city to launch their latest album What Makes Us Human Is Obsolete, say they’re happy to be here. “This is the first time we’re performing in this wonderful city and we’re super excited to be here,” says Jimmy, the vocalist of the band. “In fact, we’ve heard great things about this place and we’re hoping it’ll get crazy at our performance.
Yeah, Chennai is a city that embraces traditional Indian music and may think we metal heads are just a noisy bunch, but this trend is clearly changing,” he says adding, The young metal fans and musicians here are very talented and it’s because of them that our genre is being revived. I hope to hear a lot of fresh music and have high expectations of Chennai.”
Siddhartha Ramanathan, the guitarist of Escher’s Knot, another city-based band says, “It is awesome that a big band like Zygnema is launching their second album in Chennai and Blind Image is returning to the stage after two years, all within the same time span.” He feels that top bands choosing the city as one of the places to launch their album is really great indeed.
Siddhartha added, “It is definitely helping the metal scene in Chennai — small bands get an opportunity to start and get a stage, and fans get to see bands from city as well as outside.” “The main reason metal faced a dip in Chennai was because of the lack of venues,” says Eddie Prithviraj, the organiser of Raw Power Edition II, an event where metal bands from the city and outside will get to display their talents. “But this is slowly changing; people are becoming more open-minded and they’re realising that metal guys are not angry alcoholics,” he smiles. More sponsors are opening up about supporting and hosting metal gigs, and so are venues. “In fact I think our silent yet strong fight to get recognised is finally paying off,” he concludes.
(With inputs from Devika Gowri)
