Czech Metallers Modern Day Babylon to Make India Debut
The djent band will perform in three cities in September, courtesy of event agency BlueTree
Czech metallers Modern Day Babylon will make their India debut next month. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
The country’s prog and metal fans have more reasons to rejoice this year, as Czech Republic trio Modern Day Babylon are set to visit India for three shows between September 18th and 20th.
Following the likes of Australian guitar whiz Plini’s tour earlier this year, event agency BlueTree have booked a somewhat lesser known but reliable metal band like Modern Day Babylon to perform in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru right after their Japan tour.
Created by guitarist Tomas Raclavsky in 2010 as a one-man project, Modern Day Babylon have been steadily building a following in the modern metal world. Three albums and one EP into their career, the band – currently including drummer Peter Hatas and bassist Radim Vladek – released their latest EP Undefeated in March this year. Known for their hard-hitting djent style, Modern Day Babylon puts fist-tight rhythms at the center, alongside soaring prog guitar leads in the vein of metal bands such as Periphery, Monuments and TesseracT. Raclavsky says over email about their shows in India, “Our setlist is prepared for one hour of pure joy. We will perform our songs from all albums so I think we could accost a wide range of taste. From smooth melodic parts to heavy bouncy riffs, I think that every person will find something interesting in our set.”
Poster for Modern Day Babylon’s India tour in September. Art: The Nautilus Shell/Sohail Nawaz Khan
Although not yet among the globally top-tier names in modern metal, Modern Day Babylon have collaborated with the likes of Plini (on “Water Drops,” off their 2015 EP The Ocean Atlas) and toured alongside Periphery, French electro-metal producer The Algorithm and even Indian-American prog band Skyharbor. In 2016, they toured Canada and earlier this year, the trio performed in China. Raclavsky says, “Every time we are touring outside Europe, we feel so excited and hyped to see a new culture, new people and not at least cool places.” For their shows in India, they’ll be joined by prog act Yatin Srivastava Project in New Delhi and the Jatin Talukdar Project in Mumbai.
BlueTree founder Uddipan Sarmah (also frontman of post-rock band Aswekeepsearching) says he and tour promoter Karan Mehta were keen to bring down “this stellar band.” Sarmah says they looked into the streaming stats and found a sizeable number of fans in Bengaluru and Mumbai. “If you notice, everyone is busy getting very known artists with a solid fan base to India at this point of time and play it safe, but no one is looking at taking risks with a little niche or upcoming acts. BlueTree has never been only about doing business with sold out shows.” The company – which has previously put together tours by virtuoso group The Aristocrats, Australian prog band Twelve Foot Ninja and more – says they’ll continue to “pushing things out of the box.” Sarmah adds, “There are a lot more [tours] to be announced. A big one maybe for the post-rock fans soon.”
BlueTree presents Modern Day Babylon India tour 2019
September 18th – Turquoise Cottage, New Delhi w/Yatin Srivastava Project (get tickets here)
September 19th – Above the Habitat, Mumbai w/Jatin Talukdar Project (get tickets here)
September 20th – Fandom at Gilly’s Redefined, Bengaluru w/Project Mishram (get tickets here)
Hear the latest EP ‘Undefeated’ below.
