Photos: Zygnema Live at Hard Rock Cafe Worli, Mumbai

Mumbai groove/thrash metallers Zygnema live at Hard Rock Cafe, Worli. Photo: Bryan Jacob Daniel

If crowd rage dynamics are any parameter of a metal band’s on-stage ferocity, it’s safe to say that the aggression level at a Zygnema gig never dips below the customary moshpit–the Mumbai metallers are known to raise riff-chugging, groove-slamming hell at their live shows. And their hour-and-a-half, 17-track set last night celebrated a decade of exactly that energy. The band also marked the sixth anniversary of their 2010 debut Born of Unity‘s release and an entire year since their 2015 rager What Makes Us Human Is Obsolete was out.

But before their set inspired a few stage dive attempts and bruised limbs, Zygnema were preceded by power metallers Gaia’s Throne, who won an online voting contest to play the opening set. The Pune band brought their top-speed shredding and Sci-fi A-game with epics like “Crisis I: Bereavement” and “Contact” to a growing front-of-house audience, while thrash metal band Unholy Grudge followed with a few originals and hit-and-miss covers of Death’s “Crystal Mountain” and Iron Maiden’s “Hallowed Be Thy Name”.

One song into their set, however, and Zygnema already had their faithful legion riled up and chanting the signature refrain of “Who gives a fuck?” from the song “59”, and only proceeded to wreak havoc with stompfests from across their two-album discography. With a little help from fellow musicians — drummer Varun Sood and vocalist Shawn Pereira of alt rockers Blakc, bassist Gurdip Narang of brutal death metal band Gutslit, guitarist Shezan Shaikh of metallers Providence and their own sound engineer Akash Sawant playing the guitars — the band raged on everything from “Scarface” and “Theory of Lies and Negation” to “The Phoenix Effect” and “Reform Rebirth”, only reinforcing why they’re one of the India’s strongest acts.

Photos by Bryan Jacob Daniel

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