INDIAN ROCK AND METAL DOCUMENTARIES

From when rock began in India for the very first time till today, we've been a very interesting growing scene. Here are a few videos of rock and metal documented in India, with a few international ones as well. 

Rockumentary - the evolution of Indian Rock was Directed by music journalist Abhimanyu Kukreja during his stint with NewsX, a national English Channel based in India. The documentary was released on national Indian television in the year 2008 and still gets broadcast occasionally. In 2005, while still being in university, Abhimanyu realised that not much was written about Indian rockers as compared to their international counterparts. This prompted him to start his own word of mouth research and document the roots of Indian Rock and Roll music. So by the time, he passed out of University, the script was almost ready. Instead of practicing hard news and make an easy career in the news industry, he decided to be a music journalist. He wanted to make a series that would document the history of Indian rock but unfortunately the channel gave him a 24 minute slot. Approximately 450 minutes of footage was shot but a lot of it could not be aired as news stations in India prioritise hard news over rock music. Not their fault, rock is not exactly a selling point for them. During his time with zeenews.com and NewsX, he is also credited to have shot and interviewed the likes of Wes Borland (Limp Bizkit), Jethro Tull, Boney M, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Chaka Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Indian Ocean besides a host of other Indian and international acts. Since his resignation from mainstream television, he has been working on his second one which is independent, details of which will be out soon.



Part 1

Part 2


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This is the most popular one. 'Global Metal' (2008) is a documentary film by Sam Dunn of Banger Films Inc. Sam studied anthropology and his work mostly focused on the heavy metal culture. He made this documentary after 'Metal: A Headbanger's Journey' (2005). He is also popularly known for the Iron Maiden film 'Flight 666'.

The documentary is on parts of the world where most of the west doesn't really believe metal thrives. Some people still think we don't have Internet. But fuck them, check this one out if you haven't. It's a must-watch for every metalhead. Featured are some popular dudes like Sahil 'Demonstealer' Makhija of Demonic Resurrection, Reptilian Death and Workshop, and heavy metal cooking show Headbanger's Kitchen, Nolan Lewis of Bangalore band Kryptos, Ananth in Prakalp days, Spiked Crib and an amazing gig at Razz in Bombay.


This was shot back when no major headliners had really played, Iron Maiden being one of the first and biggest bands.
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There was something amazing that came out last year, a film on heavy metal in India by Mehr Singh. At the time, Mehr, a Delhi filmmaker submitted this as her final project while she was doing a course in film and design through the Symbiosis Institute of Design in Pune.

This is another must-watch.


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Now Rock el Casbah hosted by 'Yusef Hashish' (I see), had a small episode where he promoted videos of Indian Metal bands like Demonic Resurrection (Mumbai), Scribe (Mumbai), Artillerie (Delhi) and Kryptos (Bangalore).

This guy is epically cute. Please watch! :P



Bhayanak Maut was also playing randomly in the background!
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We are all aware that Iron Maiden had segments of India in Flight 666. There are some other bands that did so too, like Meshuggah and Parkway Drive. Here are the featured parts of India from their documentaries.

Meshuggah played 'Great Indian Rock' in Pune and Delhi in 2010:



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Parkway Drive played Kolkata, India in 2011. This was pretty cool! The crowd was on stage! xD


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And then we have these guys too


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And these guys


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India has also featured in the Lamb of God documentary film 'As the Palaces Burn' with me and a segment from the Indian show, which will soon be out of DVD this year.

That's all for now! :)

ENTOMBED METAL FEST SPECIAL: Q&A WITH PRIMITIV

Today at Entombed Metal Fest volume V, you will witness something very ancient. It isn't old school, no! It's Primitiv. This is like some major stone age shit. Primitiv is a five-piece (6th member is live guitar player) metal band from Bombay.

I did a little interview with these guys, and I'm sure the band is nothing we've heard in the past five years in Bombay. Make sure you catch them live tonight at Vashi. For more details on EMF vol. V, please visit the link at the bottom of the article.

Metalsphere: Hi! What do you like to eat? (yumzlalala)

PRIMITIV:
Riju: Seafood. Loves midnight buffet post Jam

Kiron: Spicy Biryani of all kinds

Avirath: Doesn't eat. On a Diet

Raj: Eats, shoots & leaves! (for Delhi)

Nitin: Archaeopterygidae (small, winged theropods or primitive birds)

Pushkar: Momos 

Tell us about the band (a brief history of how you guys got together)?

Nitin: Rajarshi & Riju who have been part of Albatross earlier had this idea of starting a band which talks about the "brutal stuff which happened in the stone age". But when he started conceptualizing the theme of the Primitiv universe & writing the initial drafts for the songs he realized the potential it had.

He then sent it over to me & three of us got together to write down the first three tracks - Lords of the Primitiv, Taurus & Demon of science.

Raj was also part of Hellwind along with Kiron (guitars) & Pushkar (drums) who then completed the first lineup. Since Raj is currently busy with his work life we have drafted Avirath 'Wrath' Kadam as our Live guitarist. He is quite a livewire!

And you've got a dinosaur on vocals. The last time we saw him was the All-Stars gig with DR and much before that with Morticide. How did Nitin decide to make a come back?

Nitin: Let's say I'm guest vocalist who decided to overstay his welcome! :0
Since 2009 I have done guest vocals at various tribute gigs (Type-O Negative, Slayer) and also with bands/friends like Zygnema, Albatross etc. Post-Morticide, I did a short stint with Reptilian Death and a longish spell with Sledge (Hyderabad based Thrash/Death band) so I was never really out of the scene. Riju's Primitiv universe concept really excited me to be part of a regular band yet again and I love playing live hence I could not resist jamming with the new breed of  talented musicians from the current scene!

Why not old school, why Primitiv!? :P

Nitin: Well, the idea was to basically conceptualize and form the ultimate old school metal band. So it evolved from the fact that ‘we’re more old school than other old school bands’.

We are, therefore, primitive. 

If you like Celtic Frost, Obituary, Morbid Angel and early Sepultura, you’ll probably like Primitiv.

Even our song structures are extremely simple yet intense!

What's the age gap between the youngest and oldest member in the band?

Pushkar: Let's just say that we cover three different generations of Indian metal! ;)

Our vocalist made his live debut in the underground circuit when Avirath was busy watching Kuch Kuch Hota hai at a single screen somewhere in Manpada!

What should we expect from you at Entombed metal fest?

Pushkar: We are excited to play all the four originals live especially Lake Rancid, which is all about hellish monsters created from chemical and magic! ;) Besides that some kvlt covers.

P.S: Pushkar loves me but he doesn't know it yet.

Should we look forward to any releases this year?

Pushkar: Our first release Taurus has got a great response from all quarters of the metal circuit and we will be hitting the studios to record Lake Rancid which should be released towards the end of April. Our current plan is to release singles and we are commissioning artwork specifically for this new track. 

Listen to Taurus here: 

RSVP for Entombed Metal Fest vol. V here.

Visit PRIMITIV on FACEBOOK