Mizoram’s Third Sovereign Return with Nine-City Tour, Long-Awaited Album

Third Sovereign. Photo by Hrishikesh Singh.

The past year has been an eventful one as far touring is concerned. It witnessed full-fledged multi-city tours put together not just by bigger artist management firms but also independent organizers ”“ from the 2Stroke Tour to pan-India gigs by local bands such as Delhi psych rockers Peter Cat Recording Co. and up-and-coming Bengaluru alt rockers White Mug.

Metal bands aren’t far behind. In an added bonus, it’s not just the same old headliners who have been chosen for the nine-city Blood and Roots tour. Two of the best known death metal bands from the North East ”“ Aizawl-based act Third Sovereign and Shillong’s three-member band Plague Throat ”“ will join a host of Indian metal outfits as they make gig stopovers at Guwahati [among other North East cities], Bengaluru, Mumbai and South and West of the country between December 10th and 26th.

While Plague Throat released their new single “Dominion Breach” last week, Third Sovereign will be promoting their first new material since their 2010 single “Sarcophaga.” Says vocalist Vedant Kaushik Barua about their second album Perversion Swallowing Sanity, “We wanted to give it a better finish since it was our first release after our hiatus. We are not a band that follows any trends, so we like to take our time.” The nine-track album, comprising older, unrecorded material like “Burnt Epitome” and newer songs, the Mizo war cry, “Grave of Humanity,” is set to release on underground metal label Transcending Obscurity India in November.

Blood and Roots tour is co-organized by Bengaluru event management company Sound Awake, along with local hosts in each city, ranging from ennui.BOMB in Mumbai to Hard Rock Café in Hyderabad. It will also include performances by Bhopal death metallers Elemental, Mumbai brutal death metal band Gutslit, among other acts. Says Sound Awake co-founder Preetham Rao, “It was quite difficult to make this massive tour happen, mainly because there isn’t the right infrastructure to organize a touring circuit, especially when it comes to metal bands. We had to create our own tour with the help of the right organizers. Preparations started off very well in advance. We got in talks with other organizers, bands etc. from mid-June itself. It’s good to see things shaping up well.” Although the tour almost scaled up to include 14 cities, sponsors and venues were difficult to lock down.

The other big inclusion for the Blood and Roots tour is a special visual production by Toadlabs, who are creating hologram visuals for performances. Says Kaushik, “We’ll be traveling with hologram boxes and they’ll be placed on either side of the stage. We have animations that will interact with the crowd. There’s visual mapping and other stuff too. This might make it [the performances] much more meaningful than a normal visuals and backing lights.” Rao adds, “We believe that a good creative production may attract more ears and give death metal some recognition in the commercial front, and also bring respect towards this form of art.”

Blood and Roots Tour 2015 w/Third Sovereign and Plague Throat

December 10th ”“ Shillong w/Lucid Recess, Syphilectomy

December 11th ”“ Guwahati w/ Lucid Recess, Syphilectomy

December 13th - Bengaluru ”“ Insurrection ft Inner Sanctum, Eccentric Pendulum and more

December 17th – Hyderabad

December 18th ”“ Kochi w/Amorphia, Occultism

December 19th ”“ Chennai w/Blood Covenant, Vidyut

December 20th ”“ Mumbai w/Gutslit

December 21st ”“ Pune w/Gutslit

December 26th - Imphal

Find more details here.