Photos: Devoid, Bhayanak Maut and Blind Image at Blue Frog, Mumbai

Mumbai thrash metal band Devoid. Photo: Satya Naren

There’s something interesting about the turnout at Metal Night at Blue Frog, Mumbai on February 3rd, which featured performances by thrash metal band Devoid, deathcore band Bhayanak Maut and thrash/groove metal band Blind Image. Devoid, who launched their EP The Invasion, opened the show and brought their own set of fans with them, only some of whom stayed back to watch the other two acts that night. Clearly, those who were there for Devoid’s heavy duty mix-and-match style of old school and modern thrash metal were not disappointed, as the band played the EP in its entirety.

But the crowd size diminished slightly, as Bhayanak Maut belted out their steady setlist of songs from their debut album, Untitled Bhayanak Maut Album and Metastasis EP, as well as tracks such as  “I Am Man” from their upcoming album. The guttural twins Sunneith Revankar and Vinay Venkatesh, attired in their matching Deftones t-shirts, matched each other growl for growl, dedicating almost every other song to bands, the audience and Shikhar Manchanda [guitarist of metalcore band Reverrse Polarity].

By the time Chennai thrash/groove metal band Blind Image started their set, the turnout had thinned considerably, although the band ran through songs from their two albums Psychobabble and More Than Human. Drummer Srikrishna Natesan tried to drum up crowd enthusiasm with a tribal improv jam, with vocalist Noble Luke even getting into the crowd, but there’s only so much metal an  exhausted crowd can take in. Only when Afaque Azad, vocalist of death metal band Infernal Wrath, came along to start a few mosh pits that things peaked for the band.

Setlist:

Devoid: “Intro,” “The Invasion,” “Brahma Weapon,” “Battle Cry,” “Possessed,” “Pandemonium Is Now,” “The Beer Song,” “The Grand Design”

Bhayanak Maut: “Chakna for Church,” “Ranti Nasha,” “I Am Man,” “MNS Messenger,” “Ungentle,” “The Becoming,” “Blasted Beyond Belief,” “Dear Eshwari”

Blind Image: “Dread,” “Sepia Tone Sunrise,” “Semper Infideles,” “Allegiance in Defiance,” “Glitch In The System,” “Deciphered”

Photos: Satya Naren [Devoid, crowd photo] and Prashin Jagger [Bhayanak Maut, Blind Image]