Premiere: Demonstealer Teams Up with Members of Aborted and Blood Red Throne for ‘The Propaganda Machine’

Divisive politics and the malicious effects of fake news are in focus on Mumbai metal act Demonstealer’s new single “The Propaganda Machine,” featuring drummer Ken Bedene from death metallers Aborted, bassist Stian Gundersen from Norwegian death metal Blood Red Throne and keyboardist Anabelle Iratni.

The third single released from The Propaganda Machine, Demonstealer aka Sahil Makhija keeps things short and incisive on the title track, invoking the damaging effects of war, economic tumult and how people in positions of power “exploit stupidity.” He added in a prior interview about the lyrics, “I can say it’s about India, because it is and I can also tell you, it’s about the world because it is literally the state of the world today.”

The eight-track album – releasing on March 31st via Black Lion Records – features a host of new collaborators in addition to the ones heard on singles so far. Lead guitarists include Alex Baillie from U.K./Austria death metal band Cognizance and Indo-American axeman Sanjay Kumar from tech-death band Wormhole, among others. Understandably, Makhija says it’s a lot of work to find the right musicians. “I don’t think I ever stopped scouting. I think I find the musicians first and write the music later,” he adds. Factoring in aspects like the budget for collaborations and whether it’s affordable as a recurring investment to bring in guest artists, Makhija says he thinks of it as a “realistic musician.” He adds, “It’s not like I want to make one album… If it doesn’t recover the money or whatever, then I can’t do anything else after that.”

One thing that’s changed with the release of The Propaganda Machine is that Makhija has signed with a record label like Black Lion Records to handle a lot of work, especially in terms of distribution. Along the way, the label also helped him take decisions about singles and videos differently. “I’ve been putting out everything every two weeks until the release date [for previous albums]. This time it’s different. Half will come out before and half will come out after [the album releases]. I do videos for every song, and it’s going to come out over a six-month period now,” Makhija says.

Watch the video for “The Propaganda Machine” below. Buy/pre-order the album here.