Abaddon, Devoid Announced For Bengaluru’s Twisted Metal Fest

Mumbai-based thrash metallers Devoid. Photo: Akhila Shankar

With DIY gigs becoming increasingly popular these days, most musicians are now looking to organize their own fests, whether it’s the prototypical crowd-funded Control Alt Delete series, or the Outrage Festival in New Delhi, organized by Colossal Figures guitarist Karan Mehta. Joining the trend is the Twisted Metal Fest organized by Bengaluru-based Threinody guitarist Premik Jolly, hosting its second edition this August. On the topic of self organized gigs, Jolly says, “I think musicians understand musicians – we have a certain way that we expect our gigs to be done, production and pay wise.”

Last year, the maiden edition of Twisted Metal Fest [TM] saw a varied lineup that included doom metallers Djinn and Miskatonic, prog metallers Bhoomi, comedy rock band Live Banned and others. However, the fest focuses on sub-genres this year as the organizers announce an exclusive thrash edition. Says Jolly, “We decided that TM is going to take place every three or four months a year or at least bi-yearly. So we will start out with thrash and go on to cover more editions later.”

So far, the line-up includes Bengaluru metallers Abaddon who most recently performed as part of the Bangalore Open Air [BOA] pre-gig series in May. One of the headlining acts also includes Mumbai-based thrash band Devoid, who previously visited Bengaluru to compete and win band competition Wacken Metal Battle in 2013. Although the band cannot confirm whether they will be playing any new material, vocalist Arun Iyer says he’s definitely looking forward to playing in Bengaluru after so long. Says Iyer, “We wish that we could have come up with more new material, but the circumstances are such that we can’t. However, we’re really looking forward to playing TM, especially considering the fact that we haven’t played in Bengaluru since BOA which was almost two years ago.” More bands, including an international headliner, will also be announced for Twisted Metal Fest in the coming weeks.

Twisted Metal Fest will take place on August 23rd at Pebble, Bengaluru. Event details here.