Metalsphere: June 2014

These are the nominees for the Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2014.
Voting for best song, best album and best band (Popular choice) is open here on their event page, so RSVP too.

Cosmic Infusion
6 nominations
Best band
Best album 'Cosmic Infusion'
Best song - Burial of Thy Own
Best vocalist - Sushan Shetty
Best guitar player - Amnish Lohire
Keyboardist - Sushan Shetty

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For the full song, visit their Bandcamp page, the embed link wasn't working.
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Gutslit
6 nominations
Best band
Best album 'Skewered in the Sewer'
Best vocalist - Aditya Barve
Best guitar player - Dynell Bangera
Best drummer - Aaron Pinto
Best bass player - Gurdip Singh Narang

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Reptilian Death
7 nominations
Best band
Best album 'The Dawn of Consummation and Emergence'
Best song - O
Best vocalist - Vinay Venkatesh
Best guitar player - Sahil Makhija
Best drummer - Sahil Makhija
Best bass player - Ashwin Shriyan

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Reverrse Polarity
4 nominations
Best band
Best album 'Reverrse Polarity'
Best song - Cross Poly Nation
Best drummer - Gautam Deb

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The Down Troddence
6 nominations
Best band
Best album 'How are You? We are Fine, Thank you'
Best song - Nagavalli
Best guitar player - Varun Raj
Best drummer - Ganesh Radhakrishnan
Best keyboard player - Sushin Shyam

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Undying Inc
4 nominations
Best song - Ironclad
Best vocalist - Shashank Bhatnagar
Best drummer - Nishant Hagjer
Best bass player - Reuben Bhattacharya

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Zygnema
4 nominations
Best song- Shell Broken Hell Loose
Best vocalist - Jimmy Bhore
Best guitar player - Sidharth Kadadi
Best drummer - Mayank Sharma

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Theorized
1 nomination
Best bass player - Sankalp Narayanan

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When Stories End
1 nomination
Best bass player - Gaurav Roka

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Dark Helm
1 nomination
Best keyboard player - Aniketh Shankar

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Lunatic Fringe
1 nomination
Best keyboard player - Gaurav Dutta

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Slain
1 nomination
Best keyboard player - Jonathan Wesley

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Rolling Stone India
Rolling Stone Metal Awards

\m/ May the best musicians win! \m/

Do understand that in spite of taking the effort to think, there was no 'best band' here. Every band got onstage and played some of the tightest sets yet witnessed by us. There were gangs of people from the most unexpected places, Indore and Sangli, plus our amazing Nashik ka public, Pune, Delhi boys and many more.

The gig was no less of a broken shoulder, sprained legs, a guy in the men's washroom taking a selfie of his blood-stained face (don't ask me how I know that), and then blood and sweat, hair everywhere, shirtless ranti fuckers, blood clot bruises (something I don't go home without), and so much that I can't describe.

Outside Blue Frog, 5.30pm

(Photo courtesy: Roydon Bangera)

The gig began with Reptilian Death. Not their tightest gig yet, but it was good. Nishith Hegde did a great job with Reptilian Death yesterday, maybe the tightest I've seen him play so far. It was great to see so many people even for a first band with a gig that started in BLUE FROG at 5.30pm! Sunday brunch was cancelled so that soundchecks could be accommodated throughout the day. There were so many musicians worth praising because even after standing for 6+ hours, it was disappointing to even think of sitting down when anyone was playing.

Many people watched and even heard Grammy Winning Effort for the first time, and it was indeed a great experience. With Anupam Roy making them sound ideal, I totally dig the band after this show. They had this badass Sick of it All meets some groovy breakdowns vibe and were pumped as fuck. Great band. We'll be looking forward to seeing more of them sooner.

Gutslit hit the spot. This is when all the wounds officially began. Those were some of the most brutal vocals I've seen live. Barve fails to disappoint onstage. Prateek was spot on too. Every pinch. Special mention to Aaron for having murdered the drumkit with Gutslit and Providence!

CHECK THIS OUT FOR A BRUTAL MOSHPIT DURING GUTSLIT'S SET

Noiseware's new material was sounding great, along with some great hair and synchronized headbanging. This 8-stringed powerhouse needs to release something real soon!

Providence completely tore the place down. I feel like it's the tightest I've seen them play yet! So much power. Vivek has finally blended with the band as a vocalist and a frontman. Vinay Venkatesh (Bhayanak Maut, Reptilian Death), Shawn Pereira (Blakc) and ex-vocalist Karan Pote joined in on vocals for Slipknot, while Shawn also sang Pantera's Cowboys from Hell with them. I'm walking around proud today with 'Bleed Motherfucker' written on my back! :D It was also Kanti's last gig with the band, unless they do land up playing somewhere before he leaves for Musician's Institute, Los Angeles! Congratulations fucker!

"We live in Mumbai. I've grown up in Mumbai and we know what shit goes on around us everyday. We have every fucking reason to be pissed off!"

- Shezan

Devoid was insane, one of their best sets yet too! Arun had a lot of inspiring things to say as well, and much respect to him. :) Also, Frank (ex-Devoid bass player) joined Devoid onstage for 'Possessed'!

Undying Inc slaughtered the venue. They are one of my favourite bands in India and they're also consistently one of the tightest bands I've seen, playing as a single murderous unit live. It was great to see them so soon again after I last did at Inferno Metal fest, Delhi. I absolutely love these guys. Shashank's effortless vocals backed by that insane motherfucking drummer Nishant! Oh my fucking God! SOOOOO tight broooo!

The sound for Zygnema was the best, and as usual, they played a great set. The stage dive during Scarface was another moment most of us who were there will remember.

Following all of this was a chilled after-party, courtesy Shikhar Manchanda (guitar player, Reverrse Polarity). I can assure you, I survived this and many others did too. It was a struggle, but was one totally worth it. \m/

A big shout out to Himanshu Vaswani, Shadaab Kadri, Rishu Singh, Nikhil Udupa and everyone involved who made this gig a grand success and something to look out for!

A few pictures of what went down.