Metal Special: Nothnegal

Maldivian death metal band brings a little bit of darkness to the sunshine country

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Photo: Mohamed Muha

Transcontinental time zones are immaterial, as Maldivian band Nothnegal is out to prove. The melodic death metal band from Male makes music “in the portal between asleep and awake,” as founding member and guitarist Hilarl explains. The reason Nothnegal works on varied time zones is because since 2009, after numerous line-up changes, the band now includes musicians from across the world – drummer Kevin Talley is based inAmerica, keyboardist Marco Sneck in Finlad and bassist Battery, vocalist Affan, Fufu and Hilarl all based in theMaldives. Hilarl formed the band with his cousin Fufu, who is the band’s lead guitarist, six years ago. 

Despite living like a scattered family across continents, the band released one EP Antidote of Realism in 2010 and more recently their debut album Decadence in January this year. Ahead of their debut album’s release, the band played the Summer Storm Festival in Bengaluru in February, where they opened for the Swedish melodic death metal legends, Opeth.

The brutal snarls in Decadence are decidedly incongruous to the sights and sounds of the beach paradise, where the band is steadily gaining a fanbase. “The Maldives doesn’t get any big bands, let alone one with as large sound a as ours. Heavy metal is obviously not the most popular genre,” says Hilarl.

(To read the full story, pick up this month’s ROLLING STONE India)

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