Demonic Resurrection: The Darkness Ascends

(clockwise from top left) Sahil ‘The Demonstealer’ Makhija, Virendra Kaith, Ashwin Shriyan, Nishith Hegde, Mephisto. Photo: Aneev Rao

One of the first break­throughs on A Dark­ness Descends was the addition of drummer Prashant Paradkar aka JP, from metal band Dis­embodied Corpse and later, death metal band Infer­nal Wrath, and key­boardist Mephisto in 2003. DR had been through numerous lineup changes in­c luding guitarist [Prashant] Shah, bassist [Aditya] Mehta and drummer [Yash] Pathak between 2000 and 2003. Infernal Wrath’s guitarist Pradeep Pande played with the band brief ly be­tween 2006 and 2008. In 2002, however, Makhija roped in bass­ist Husain Bandukwala after play­ing with him as part of death metal band Reptilian Death [RD] in Bengaluru in 2001. In their 14-year-long career, DR’s longest lasting lineup was once between 2003 and 2006, broken after JP sudden­ly left citing musical differences [Makhi­ja says, “He just got bored, I think.”] and later between 2008 and 2012, when things changed up after Bandukwala left due to family and work commitments. In January this year, lead guitarist Rego, who joined the band in 2008, left to pursue his inter­ests outside metal. Finding replacements now has become much easier, says Makh­ija. He adds, “The level of musicianship in the country has changed a lot now. There are a lot of younger kids who want to play metal and can play it well.” Leaving no pe­riod of inactivity, the frontman found a re­placement in 19-year-old guitarist Nishith Hegde [from heavy metal band Albatross and Makhija’s death metal band Reptilian Death]. The band currently compris­es Makhija, Mephisto, bassist Shri­yan [then-bassist with death metal band Blood Meridian, who replaced Banduk­wala in 2012], Hegde and drummer Kaith, who joined in 2007.

Both Shriyan and Hegde have joined DR after being recruited for Makhija’s other project, Reptilian Death. Shriyan has joked in the past that “RD is like an audition for DR,” but Makhija says it’s only been a coincidence that he’s roped in the same members. Kaith, too, had played a one-off show with DR in 2002 when Pathak was unavailable for a show at Independence Rock. Says Kaith, “It was a small scene at that time and everyone knew 80 percent of the people who were in bands and went to gigs. Sahil was a friend and I was a DR fanboy, but more than anything, I wanted to play that gig [in 2002] be­cause it was at Rang Bhavan. PDV played there the previous year and I wanted to go back.” It was at this gig that Mephisto ”” a clas­sically-trained vocalist and harmonium play­er, who was warming up to metal by tuning into the likes of Slay­er and Dimmu Borgir ”” saw DR for the first time and liked what he saw. Says Mephisto, “I did a quick background check and learnt that Nikita had lef t the band.” While writing to Makhija to apply for the band, Mephisto had heard that the DR frontman “had a lot of attitude,” and ended up writing a “nasty email.” Says Mephisto, “I told him [Makhija] that the band’s music was bad and they should hire me.” Makhija didn’t reply to Mephisto’s email. Says Makhija, “I read it and thought, ”˜Who is this douchebag who has so much attitude?’ I pret­ty much avoided him.” Mephis­to, still keen to play in the band, tracked Makhija down at IIT Bombay’s an­nual cultural festival Mood Indigo in late 2002 and auditioned in January. Says Me­phisto, “At that point, I thought if I could play songs from Cradle of Filth, I could play with a proper band.”

Makhija’s reputation does exceed him sometimes, es­pecially now with his online presence on social media gaining his band fans from across the world. Says Makh­ija, who has been on every forum and social media platform available to pro­mote DR’s music, “At first, when you’re a smaller band it does get into the possibly spam-y level, but after that, you have your own fanbase.” Makhija’s online promo­tion overload might have led Mephisto to believe the vocalist was a bit arrogant, but the only way the DR frontman sums him­self up is, “No one is going to work as hard for my dream as I am. I hate to sound like a dick, but for me, everyone is dispens­able.” Despite that, the band’s current lineup says they will always stick around. Says Mephisto, “For the longest time, DR was the only thing I looked forward to. I formed a bond with these guys. Even the past members, they’re all still part of the DR family.” Kaith adds, “For me, every album has been a chal­lenge as the drumming gets more difficult and intricate. I actually feel like I’ve had a workout playing with DR. Plus, I get a real high from knowing so many people are watching me play this kind of stuff.” Even Rego, who has now left the band after writ­ing all the material for The Demon King, including his second song “The Shattered Equilibrium,” written sole­ly by him, says he misses the idea of playing live with DR. Says Rego, “When we were writing for the album, I was still very much into metal, but I knew that after ”˜The Shat­tered Equilibrium,’ I didn’t have another metal song in me. I found my interests moving elsewhere.”

If you ask Makhija what the most popular DR song is until date, he’ll say it’s a tie be­tween their 2003 song “Apocalyptic Dawn,” and their 2010 single “The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance.” “Apoca­lyptic Dawn” got most of its attention after being featured on the soundtrack to 2007 documentary Global Metal, directed by Canadian anthropologist Sam Dunn, who traveled the world to track the internation­al metal scene. The music video for “The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance,” ever since it was released in 2010, has amassed over 134,000 views and become the best set closer for the band.

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