The Hyderabad/Bengaluru band channel old-school death metal with a modern sheen
India’s topline death metal act Godless have released their latest single “Amorphous Mass,” a cutthroat song that nods to old-school death metal. The song is out just ahead of the Hyderabad/Bengaluru band heading off on a multi-country tour through India, Dubai and Europe this month.
Written in mid-2023, bassist and founder Abbas Razvi says the band – also comprising vocalist Kaushal L.S., guitarists Moiz Mustafa and drummer Vishnu Reddy – were experimenting with guitar tones and effect pedal collections to arrive at the old-school death metal sound heard on “Amorphous Mass.” The bassist adds, “We also wanted to slow things down, in terms of tempo.”
The song – which comes with a music video featuring footage from their set at metal festival Bangalore Open Air earlier this year, joined by guitarist Siddhartha Ramanathan (from Bengaluru metallers Escher’s Knot) – is also Godless’ first with drummer Vishnu Reddy. Also part of experimentalists Maneating Orchid with Kaushal L.S., Reddy spent a lot of time sitting together with Razvi to figure out how to “retain the essence of how a Godless song was earlier but also bringing his elements to it,” according to the bassist.
“Amorphous Mass” is going to lead into the upcoming second Godless album, the follow-up to their 2021 album States of Chaos. It was around the time of releasing their debut album that Godless intended to tour Europe, but as Razvi admits, the “momentum was completely broken” due to the pandemic and its travel restrictions. “Things were still very dicey at that point. We weren’t sure about how things are in Europe and we wanted to wait for a bit,” he adds.
Now, nearly five years after their maiden international tour, Godless are finally getting back to Europe. Following a kickoff show on home ground in Hyderabad on May 10th and a set in Dubai on May 11th, the band will embark on a nine-city tour through Czechia, Poland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Although largely club shows, Godless will also perform at Nice To Eat You Deathfest in Czechia on May 16th. Dates in the U.K. were also originally announced but were subsequently canceled.
Razvi still maintains that as much as it’s a natural step for Godless to tour overseas, putting together an international run of shows, especially in Europe, is a “big risk and expense” for Indian bands. He adds that they’re now looking to put an annual schedule in place that will take them to Europe every year. “We’ve already worked on a 2025 tour, for April and May. We’re looking at different countries and territories that we haven’t done before,” he adds.
Preparing a setlist for the tour has also become more time-consuming, now that Godless have two EPs – Centuries of Decadence in 2016 and Swarm in 2018 and an album (States of Chaos), plus new material that they want to road-test at shows. “There are certain songs you can’t not play, you know? So we put that in first and fit everything around it. It should have a flow around it, too. That’s something we’ve worked on,” Razvi says.
Once they’re back, Godless have a few more shows in India through June and July and possibly a few international shows through 2024.
Watch the video for “Amorphous Mass” below and stream on more platforms. Get Godless’ Europe tour details here.
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