Listen: Disciples Of The Old Monk’s Dramatic Debut ‘All That’s Left’

Disciples Of The Old Monk. Photo: Harsh Parmar

Mumbai-based progressive rock outfit Disciples Of The Old Monk [DOTOM] are proof that writing serpentine eight-minute-long songs doesn’t necessarily make you old-school. The band have just released their debut track “All That’s Left,” which draws from varied influences such as alt rock and heavy metal even as it touches the marathon 8.51 mark. Says the band’s drummer Akshaye Sridhar, “The song is a mix of prog rock and a lot of effects.”

DOTOM came together in October 2014, when the members were students at IIT-Bombay, to compete in the popular band hunt Battle Of The Bands at Mood Indigo which they went on to win. Apart from Sridhar, the band consists of vocalist Anurag Kureel, keyboardist Nikhil Abraham, bassist Yash Rohra and guitarists Debayan Das and Abhijit Mahishi. Earlier this year, DOTOM were also declared winners at the Mumbai regional rounds of Hard Rock Rising. This contest was also the band’s first gig with their own sound engineer, Sreejith Menon.  Sridhar says, “It was a good overall experience and we got to learn a lot from it.” The positive response they got on that stage was motivation enough to release “All That’s Left.”

The track opens with eerie sound of gun shots, helicopters and a soldier under attack blaring mayday on a transceiver. “It is basically a song about those who die in war and the veterans who return, and the things they have to face after the war.” Born out of a random thought that struck vocalist Kureel, “All That’s Left” traverses a vast sonic-scape, from winding solos to even mid-song quotes from former US President Franklin D Roosevelt referring to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings in Japan.

Sridhar recorded drums for the track with noted session musician Gino Banks while vocals and bass were tracked at Benchmark Studios at Thane. Guitars and keyboard were recorded by the band at home. The track was mixed and mastered by American sound engineer Jamie King who is known for his work with progressive metal bands The Contortionist and Between The Buried And Me. DOTOM are currently planning to release a music video for the single as well as an EP in the near future.

Listen to “All That’s Left”