Album Review: Workshop – Made Love To The Dragon

[easyreview cat1title=”Made Love To The Dragon” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Sahil Makhija aka the Demonstealer got together with bassist Rohit ”˜P-man’ Pereira to form the comedy rock band, Ramshackle, in 2005. While the project was short-lived, Makhija formed the “heavy mental/comedy rock/random” band Workshop in 2008 that has quickly gained a following.

With his priorities set on his black/death metal band Demonic Resurrection for most part, Workshop has been a side project with a changing lineup, which, for their latest album Made Love To The Dragon, includes guitarist Devesh Dayal of post-hardcore band Goddess Gagged and bassist Aditya Kadam from heavy metal band Hellwind. The only other permanent member apart from Makhija is sessions drummer Hamza Kazi.

Made Love To The Dragon is out three years after their hilarious debut effort, Khooni Murga. If tales about a psychopathic rooster didn’t get laughs, the second album features songs about life in the suburbs [“Down To Dahisar” includes metal breakdowns for good measure], haunted houses [in, what else, a song called “Bhoot Bungla”] and moral policing [in the dance-rock tune “Munni Jawan Vs Sheila Badnam”]. The sound is mostly straight-up rock with influences of metal, jazz and blues, meant to draw metal fans from the band members’ main projects for a laugh. If you listen to Makhija’s vocals on the album, you’d find it tough to picture him as the frontman of a death metal act – the Workshop album has squeaky clean vocals by Makhija, who can bend them to will to sound like pretty much anybody be it a character from Tales From The Crypt or an American blues singer. 

The guitar parts have evolved too. “Blues Motion” features guest solos by blues/jazz guitarist Christophe Godin and Swedish experimental metal band Freak Kitchen’s guitarist Mattias Eklundh. The track “Gajanand Dhige” features one of the more heavier breakdowns set to Makhija rhyming: “He’s got ants in his pants/Making him dance/He’s got ants in his pants/ Tutti Frutti /Shake that booty/Does a little dance.” There are several more punch lines that need to be heard on Made Love To The Dragon, a nine-track album that has everything Indians like to laugh about ”“ sex, toilet humor, and geeks. Not to forget, dragons.

Key tracks: “Down To Dahisar,” “Bhoot Bungla,” “Gajanand Dhige.” 

Made Love To The Dragon is available for pre-order here.