Exclusive Premiere: Mumbai Metallers Targe Call on The Demonstealer for ‘The Cortege’

A metal band without a growler is an outlier, especially in India. Mumbai metallers Targe haven’t been able to recruit a fulltime, long-term vocalist ever since they came together in April 2019, but it hasn’t stopped them from finding a way to put out music.

While their debut single “Regenerate,” released in April last year, featured erstwhile vocalist Atul Pandey, Targe’s guitarist Ivin Viegas tells us that by August they were looking for a new vocalist. “The journey was really shaky up until this point but it was well worth all the efforts,” the guitarist adds. The lineup is completed by drummer Naman Sachdev and bassist Somesh Prakasam.

By the time they set out to begin work on releasing their second single “The Cortege,” it was February 2020 and they called on Mumbai’s seasoned metal musician The Demonstealer aka Sahil Makhija. Viegas says, “Luckily for us, Sahil loved the track and immediately agreed to record vocals for us. When we first spoke about this, Sahil recorded the vocal track and shared it within 45 minutes. It really pushed us to work even harder and give this release all we got.” Makhija explains that lyrics (written by Viegas) and a vocal reference track were already in place, which made his job easy. “Plus, vocals seem to be the easiest thing to do for me. I was coming up with backing vocal ideas and layers, so that’s what I brought to the table,” the guest vocalist says.

Unlike Makhija’s work with his bands Demonic Resurrection or Reptilian Death or even his solo work, Targe’s sound on “The Cortege” is different, so it’s refreshing to hear his voice adapt to a new space. Targe amp up grooves, double-bass drumming assaults and scathing riffs that bring together death metal, modern metal and groove metal. Produced by Mumbai metallers Zygnema’s guitarist Sidharth Kadadi and mixed and mastered by Akash Sawant, Viegas says they lucked out even on that front. “We’ve had the blessing of meeting the right people at the right time and we’re very happy with the way the song has finally turned out. Both Sidharth and Akash really went out of their way to produce this track for us,” he says.

Recorded and prepped for release by mid-March, Targe waited a while to scope out how the coronavirus pandemic related national lockdown would progress before finalizing a release date for “The Cortege.” Viegas adds that there are more tracks written and waiting to be recorded. “But due to the current situation we may have to take things slower than expected. Nevertheless, we will back with a bang,” the guitarist says.

Listen to “The Cortege” below.