Albatross Get Ready to Release New Album ‘Fear From the Skies’

Albatross. Photo: Courtesy of artist.

There’s a big change coming for Mumbai heavy metal band Albatross as they ready their full-length album Fear From the Skies. Bassist Riju Dasgupta aka Dr. Hex says that he’s getting sick of horror ”“ a genre that has always been linked to the band, right from his own blood-splattered stage attire to their previous releases such as Dinner Is You and The Kissing Flies. What’s more, he says their upcoming album will be their most accessible album. Says Dasgupta, “It’s still as eccentric as we like to be, but it’s more listener-friendly ”“ we’ve got big choruses, and it’s more heavy metal.”

There’s still a horror story edge to the two concept stories that are part of the six-track album. Dasgupta came up with stories for three songs, while drummer Jay Thacker wrote the story for the other three dabbling in everything from murderous clowns to Dr. Hex’s origin story. The band, who recruited a third guitarist, Varun Singh in August last year, began recording in 2013 with bassist-producer Ashwin Shriyan from Mumbai extreme metallers Demonic Resurrection. Says Dasgupta about Singh joining, “Varun has become the value addition guy. All the riffs were done by the time he joined, but he’s added one solo on ”˜Jugglehead the Clown’ and added layers on a song called ”˜The Raptorsville Fair’.” Dasgupta adds that they decided to add Singh after they realized guitarists Nishith Hegde and Vigneshkumar Venkatraman are often busy with their other bands, including Demonic Resurrection and prog death metal band Orion.

Now with three guitarists on board, it’s no surprise to hear that among the six tracks on Fear From the Skies, they have 16 guitar solos, four of which appear on “Jugglehead the Clown,” a story about a clown who can detach and juggle his head. Says Dasgupta about the song “Empire of Albatross,” which begins with a western classical-influenced guitar lead by Venkatraman, “It’s good that our guitarists have radically different styles. It almost became a thrash metal song, since that’s Nishith’s biggest influence.”

In the run-up to the album release on Mumbai underground record label Transcending Obscurity India, Albatross are playing a covers-heavy set at Cult Lounge in Belapur to celebrate five years since their first EP, Dinner Is You, launched. Former members such as Shrikant Sreenivasan [from prog rock band Coshish], Raj Bhattacharyya [with Dasgupta in his heavy metal band Primitiv] and guests such as Sunneith Revankar [from metallers Bhayanak Maut].

Fear From the Skies tracklist
1. “The Raptorsville Fair”
2. “Jugglehead The Clown”
3. “Children of the Cloud”
4. “In the Lair of Dr. Hex”
5. “Tale of Two Tyrants”
6. “The Empire of Albatross”

Albatross, Mindshift, Hellwind, Guns Reloaded perform at Cult Lounge, Belapur on March 29th, 2015. Entry: Rs 500 [full cover] Event details here.