The Rise and Rise of Metal In India

I am shopping for independent label CDs at Furtado’s in Mumbai. Sahil Makhija, the 25-year-old founder-owner of India’s first label dedicated to metal, Demonstealer Records, works here. Makhija has a bustling presence and a reputation for hard work. Displayed on one wall are CDs put out by his label: A Darkness Descends, Defaced & Split, Fine Tuned Disasters. On the opposite wall hang huge framed pictures of a beatific-looking Jesus. I tell Makhija of the view held by some in the metal fraternity, like Kryptos’ Nolan Lewis, who believe that a real scene involves labels putting out albums, and people buying them. This, he feels, is not going to happen here anytime soon and the west is the way forward. Kadangode Padmanabhan Krishnamoorthy alias “KP,” Myndsnare’s frontman, points out that the Latin American scene opened up after Obituary saw Sepultura playing somewhere and got them to open for them. Maybe an Indian band needs a big break like that. And that break might come from the West.

Makhija, on the other hand, is convinced there will be a two-way movement, that Indian metal bands of the future will play both in LA and in Lucknow. He often gets orders from labels in Japan for Indian metal acts on his label. He sees the scene here growing and feels it needs a genuine tour network to take it to the next level. At the moment he is trying to get his bands endorsements from the world’s biggest equipment brands. Mapex Drums, for instance, will soon be putting up profiles of Indian musicians (Rahul Hariharan from Bhayanak Maut and Virendra Kaith from Demonic Resurrection) on their website. These profiles will feature alongside those of international heavyweights like Lamb of God’s Chris Adler. The idea, Makhija explains, is to bring our musicians up to some kind of universal standard as far as equipment is concerned. Support has been coming from other sources too. Shops like Furtado’s and Onstage have been supporting select bands. Shashwat Gupta, who sings for Narsil and manages four of Delhi’s top metal acts, acknowledges this. “When you play metal there is plenty of wear and tear: strings snap, sticks break, amps burn out”¦ when you have support you don’t have to worry about these little things. You know they will be replaced and the band is not going to go bankrupt in the process.”

Many others in India’s metal community feel that the West is not an option, that the scene here needs to be cleaned up. There are far too many unscrupulous middlemen and fly-by-night operators in the business; payments are often delayed; sometimes the organisers go absconding after the gig as it happened with the Rain Festival in the North-East. No one doubts the huge market potential that metal offers in India. As Sumit Sharma, who plays with Ashtoreth, puts it, “Of course, there is a large market here. The 50,000 Indians who turned up to watch Iron Maiden live – that’s our market.” Vasandani, too, feels that the West is a different ballgame. “I heard rumours that Megadeth didn’t think much of Indian metal acts. If they are true then I’m saying fuck Megadeth, fuck Dave Mustaine. Hum unki khichri paka kar unhi ko khilayenge. And we’re gonna do it from here.”

This story originally appeared in the Rolling Stone India October 2008 issue.