Sambit Chatterjee and Bishwadeep Sikder are Kurta-Clad Bengali Boys Playing Djent as FireWillReign

At their live debut in March in Kolkata, metal duo FireWillReign took the stage wearing white kurtas, with guitarist-producer Bishwadeep Sikder and drummer Sambit Chatterjee playing a slick show in support of American prog duo Jason Richardson and Luke Holland.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that FireWillReign were perhaps coming in straight from a wedding or family function and perhaps had to skip on a wardrobe change. But Chatterjee – also part of post-rock band Aswekeepsearching and metallers What Escapes Me – says the getup was very much intentional. “The day I was listening to [Sikder’s] EP Discrete, I was speaking to my dad and he was looking at some photos from a band photoshoot and said I looked good in a white kurta. So I thought why can’t we wear nice, aesthetic kurtas on stage? It’s very Bengali.”

A welcome change from the traditional black that dominates metal gigs, it made Chatterjee declare that FireWillReign is pretty much “two Bengali boys wearing white and playing djent.” The drummer and Sikder finally met in January this year, although the guitarist had been trying to contact Chatterjee since 2015. “He [Sikder] had sent music to me but it often gets lost in the virtual world. Arindam [Sen, guitarist for What Escapes Me] was the initiator who made me hear his song ‘Solaris.’ He said, ‘I know what you’re thinking and you should do it,’” Chatterjee says.

So much is Chatterjee’s praise and respect for Sikder that they decided to perform the latter’s solo EP Discrete for their first gig. “It’s one of the greatest instrumental djent EPs I’ve heard in India,” the drummer says. As they began speaking, they found a lot in common, especially their early love for prog bands like Dream Theater.

Getting their name from an episode of fantasy series House of the Dragon, Chatterjee says he had 15 days to pick up the material and rehearsed with Sikder for five days. “He’s had sour experiences with band members in the past so he asked that we keep it to just the both of us. I thought it was great because it will also make sense tour-wise and economically,” Chatterjee adds.

With a live video performance for the song “Pluto” out from their gig, FireWillReign have begun writing new material, even as they prep Sikder’s solo EP for shows. “We might play in other cities to get the word out, but we’d like to release material by the end of the year,” the drummer says.

Watch the video for “Pluto” below.