Band with a bang

They have seen their seniors at school form their own music bands. When it was their turn, they didn't have the confidence to form a metal band, and started off with hard rock.

Sandeep Nair and Vimal V., classmates at the Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan School in Thiruvananthapuram, found members but the line-up kept changing.

The boys looked up to bands like 'Chaos', formed by their school seniors a long time ago. As time passed, they evolved into a thrash metal band and named it 'Blind Fate'.

Sandeep became the vocalist, Vimal the lead guitarist while Jairam, a junior from school, joined on the drums. They jammed for a few months without a bassist until one day, Vineeth joined them from a death metal band called 'Decaying Humanity'. Months passed without incident.

And then they heard 'Chaos' was planning a comeback gig.

“They had shifted base to Bangalore with most of the band members taking up jobs there. Some time ago they moved back to Thiruvananthapuram. And then we got a call from our friend Nirmal, brother of their lead guitaris Nikhil. He asked if we could open for their comeback gig We were only too happy!"

Nikhil and the others were very happy with their juniors.

“We had that mutual respect that comes out of playing the same genre." And having gone through the same hurdles of running a metal band in Kerala. “The metal scene is still very poor here. We get some college gigs but the turnout is poor. There maybe five or six metal bands in all. Most of them disband after college," adds Sandeep.

But they did get to perform at some prestigious venues like IIT Chennai, IIM-Bangalore, Gathering Storm in Kochi, and Trendkill Fest in Thiruvananthapuram.

Finances pose a problem too. Making an album comes at a price.

“We have our songs but had not recorded anything until recently. We came to know that Vinod -guitarist of 'Pathayam' Band -had a home studio. We have started recording our single "Purge the Gods" which is expected to release next month. Once we get a suitable producer we wish to bring out an album."

For now, they are happy playing the covers of Slayer, Pantera and originals like Repugnant, Soul Liberation etc.