Heretic Release Full-Length Album

Heretic

Like a lot of other bands, the wait to record and put out an album has been a long one for Bengaluru alternative metal band Heretic. The band started writing their album Words To Epilogues in 2006, but eventually released it in December last year. Compared to six years, spending two weeks to record is much shorter for them.

Guitarist Abhijit Namboodiripad attributes the delay in putting out Words To Epilogues to lineup changes and other commitments: “We had six songs by 2008, and for two songs we had the lyrics and material written. We couldn’t finish it because our drummer left and our bass guitarist had moved to Delhi for a while. Plus, I was managing Motherjane up until six months ago.” In 2010, the band played no gigs, but still jammed to polish their skills. “If you listen to “Bleed To Heal,” which was one of the first songs we wrote, and “Ring Of Colours,” the last song we wrote, the layering and tracing is quite different,” he says.

The band roped in Skyharbor guitarist Keshav Dhar to produce the album. The two weeks spent recording have a special place for Namboodiripad: “We were all staying at our bass guitarist’s place, all five of us kind of cramped. But I will never forget the time that we had ”“ I was literally living in the guy’s kitchen. We used to just get up in the morning and record.”

Heretic cites Metallica as an inspiration more than an influence, leaving that space to be filled by bands such as groove metal band Sepultura, metalcore band Killswitch Engage and melodic metallers Trivium. “Of late, there’s been Textures, Karnivool, Opeth and Porcupine Tree. We’ve been fortunate enough to watch a lot of these acts live and their energy probably got on to us. These bands have also mixed a lot of melody into their music recently, which is what we like as well. You can hear a lot of melodies and hooks on our album, but also heavy parts. We find it boring to play just metal; there has to be some dynamism to it, an alternative side,” says Namboodiripad.

The band is playing at the second edition of the day-long metal show The Pit 2 on January 5th, alongside folk metal band The Down Troddence from Kannur and progressive metal band De’Sat from Bengaluru, among seven other bands. Heretic also head to Chennai later this month to open for UK prog metallers Anathema at IIT Madras’s annual festival Saarang on January 12th.

Heretic play at The Pit 2 on January 5th, 2012 at Dugout, Bengaluru from 2pm onwards. Entry Rs 250. Event details here. The band also plays at IIT Madras’s Saarang ”˜Rock Show’ headlined by Anathema on January 12th, 2012 at the Open Air Theatre, IIT Madras from 6.30pm onwards. Tickets at Rs 400, Rs 600 and Rs 1,000 are available here.

Download Words To Epilogues on OK Listen! here.

Watch Heretic’s music video for “Thoughts” here