Photos: G-Shock Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2016

Zygnema took home the awards for Best Album and Best Band at the seventh edition of G-Shock Rolling Stone Metal Awards. Photo by Ron Bezbaruah.

Second time’s the charm ”“ whether you’re Mumbai thrash/groove metallers Zygnema winning the Best Band trophy twice over [they first took home the Gibson Flying V trophy in 2011] or Bengaluru thrash/death metal band Inner Sanctum breaking the jinx from the inaugural 2010 edition where they returned empty-handed to pick up Best Guitarist [Chintan Chinnappa and Suraj Gulvady] and Best Drummer [Abhinav Yogesh] at the seventh G-Shock Rolling Stone Metal Awards.

Zygnema also picked up the Best Album award for their 2015 album What Makes Us Human Is Obsolete, something that guitarist Sidharth Kadadi says took them about four years to plan but about 40 hours to record. Kadadi adds, “It took a lot of time, a lot of coordination. Trying to get the guy [vocalist Jimmy Bhore, who won Best Vocalist at RSMA 2014 for their single “Shell Broken, Hell Loose”] from Sangli to Bombay and write lyrics took a while. Distance was our enemy.” The band were coming in to RSMA on a high from performing and co-organizing their own gig, Party La La La on February 27th. Kadadi says, “It felt like the biggest thing ever. After that, getting here and winning was a great surprise.”

The only thing that stopped Zygnema from completing a haul of all three top honors were Kolkata metallers Yonsample’s trippy modern metal song “Tibro,” which won Best Song. Unlike previous years, this edition’s awards combined the Critics Choice and Public Choice awards, giving a 50/50 weightage to both results.

RSMA 2016 broke away from the clean sweeps which we’ve seen in previous years, from Bengaluru-based folk/groove metallers The Down Troddence in 2014 and Delhi prog metallers Skyharbor in 2013. This time, there were winners across the board ”“ from stone-age metallers Primitiv’s Nitin Rajan bagging Best Vocalist, while his bandmate, bassist Riju Dasgupta won the Best Bassist award for his alter-ego Dr. Hex on heavy metal band Albatross’ full-length album Fear From the Skies. Check out the full list of winners.

Held at Hard Rock Café Worli, Mumbai ”“ the seventh RSMA featured some of the country’s most impressive emerging metal bands ”“ from Mumbai tech-death metal band Gaijin gnashing through their four-song opening set to the grimy, trudging by Bengaluru sludge band Shepherd [who took home the Best Album Artwork award]. Delhi hardcore party-starters Grammy Winning Effort performed minus jokes from frontman Dayus Madhan who was running a fever, but still screaming his throat out, while the night closed with nominees Primitiv bringing the house down by performing their doom/death wrecking ball of an album Immortal and Vile in its entirety.

Photos: Himanshu Rohilla and Ron Bezbaruah

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