Demonic Resurrection to Play at Wacken Open Air

Demonic Resurrection frontman Sahil Makhija aka Demonstealer. Photo: Prashin Jagger

Mumbai extreme metallers Demonic Resurrection will perform at one of Europe’s biggest metal festivals, Wacken Open Air, Germany, in August this year. The festival appearance will be part of DR’s upcoming Europe tour, supporting the release of their fourth full-length album.

Demonic Resurrection will be the fifth band to perform at Wacken Open Air, following old school metal band Kryptos’s main stage set last year and winners of band competition Wacken Metal Battle India, including thrash/death metallers Devoid, prog metal band Eccentric Pendulum and thrash/groove metal band Zygnema, which started in 2011. Says DR frontman Sahil Makhija, “We’ve been mailing festivals all over the world for a chance to play since 2010 and our Wacken gig was actually confirmed three months ago, but we had to keep a lid on it until they [Wacken] announced it first.” DR has previously performed at festivals such as Inferno in Norway and Brutal Assault in CzechRepublic in 2010. In 2012, the band performed at UK’s Bloodstock Festival. Compared to playing on one of the main stages at Wacken, Makhija feels that the Metal Battle competition stage is as much a big deal for Indian bands as well. Says Makhija, “On the day of the Metal Battle, no other bands are playing, so they [bands] get a lot of crowd coming in and they don’t have to worry about their set times clashing with other big names.”

This year’s international festival appearances for DR include Dubai Rock Fest on May 23rd, Scotland’s Les Fest in June and Wacken in August. Says Makhija, who is finishing  DR’s fourth album, “We’re working on club shows at the moment, since most of the festivals have already booked all their bands.” Makhija adds that at Wacken, he hopes to catch black metal veterans Emperor, who are reuniting at the festival, and Polish extreme metal band Behemoth.