<p>That Bangalore enjoys its fair share of metal-heads was amply proved recently at ‘Bangalore Open Air’, a festival dedicated to the genre which was recently held in the City.<br /><br /></p>.<p> The festival included a cocktail of metal bands, both Indian as well as Western. From well-known classics to new and contemporary numbers, the music scene at the venue gave metal-heads every reason to make sure they were there.<br /><br />The festival began in the morning and by late afternoon, the Indian bands had begun to take stage. The line-up was fairly impressive: bands like ‘Albatross’, ‘Dying Embrace’, ‘1833 AD’ and ‘Kryptos’ took to the stage one after another, belting our numbers that sent Bangaloreans wild. <br /><br />The energy at the venue was palpable — both from the scores of black T-shirt-clad heavy-metal fans, who were head-banging to the beats as well as the artistes on stage.<br /><br />Once the selection of Indian bands had finished their portion of the festival, excitement levels began to increase. Two of the German bands — who were headlining and co-headlining the festival — were trash-metal giants ‘Kreator’ and melodic death-metal wizards, ‘Suidakra’. <br /><br />It was easy to see that this was the real reason the crowd had gathered. Although ‘Suidakra’ has made a prior visit to Bangalore — they played along with ‘Opeth’ a few months back — this was ‘Kreator’s first trip to the rock capital of the country and the fans couldn’t have been more thrilled about it.<br /><br />The first German band to take the stage was ‘Suidakra’ and the crowd was in for a huge surprise. <br /><br />The band, which prides itself in creating ‘melodic death-metal’, creates music with a unique and seamless blend of Celtic folk and traditional metal-fare. In fact, they began their stint on the stage with a rather unusual instrument: the bagpipes. The soulful tune of the pipes began at a slow pace and was soon combined with a few riffs on the guitar, creating a practically unheard-of sort of music. <br /><br />Their repertoire for the evening included a few new numbers as well as those which made them popular — such as ‘Wartunes’, ‘Auld Lang Syne’, ‘The Fall of Tara’ and ‘Stone of the Seven Suns’. <br /><br />The energy on stage was at an all-time high as Arkadius, the band’s vocalist, head-banged and pushed the crowd to a frenzy. He wrapped up the first song and then said, “It feels so good to be back, my friends. You know why? Because you guys rock!”<br /><br />Next up was ‘Kreator’ and by this point, the noise levels were soaring. The band was met with cheers and screams and ripped right into some of their best-known numbers — ‘Violent Revolution’, ‘Hordes of Chaos’, ‘Phantom Antichrist’, ‘From Flood into Fire’ and ‘Enemy of God’.<br /><br /> They kept the tempo up the entire evening and wrapped up their stint on stage with the ever-popular ‘Flag of Hate’ from the album ‘Endless Pain’.<br /><br />Raghu, a software engineer who was at the show, was visibly excited. “It’s been awesome — I’ve been here since the morning and watched all the local bands, which I thought were pretty good. I came especially to watch ‘Kreator’ and I loved it,” he stated.</p>
<p>That Bangalore enjoys its fair share of metal-heads was amply proved recently at ‘Bangalore Open Air’, a festival dedicated to the genre which was recently held in the City.<br /><br /></p>.<p> The festival included a cocktail of metal bands, both Indian as well as Western. From well-known classics to new and contemporary numbers, the music scene at the venue gave metal-heads every reason to make sure they were there.<br /><br />The festival began in the morning and by late afternoon, the Indian bands had begun to take stage. The line-up was fairly impressive: bands like ‘Albatross’, ‘Dying Embrace’, ‘1833 AD’ and ‘Kryptos’ took to the stage one after another, belting our numbers that sent Bangaloreans wild. <br /><br />The energy at the venue was palpable — both from the scores of black T-shirt-clad heavy-metal fans, who were head-banging to the beats as well as the artistes on stage.<br /><br />Once the selection of Indian bands had finished their portion of the festival, excitement levels began to increase. Two of the German bands — who were headlining and co-headlining the festival — were trash-metal giants ‘Kreator’ and melodic death-metal wizards, ‘Suidakra’. <br /><br />It was easy to see that this was the real reason the crowd had gathered. Although ‘Suidakra’ has made a prior visit to Bangalore — they played along with ‘Opeth’ a few months back — this was ‘Kreator’s first trip to the rock capital of the country and the fans couldn’t have been more thrilled about it.<br /><br />The first German band to take the stage was ‘Suidakra’ and the crowd was in for a huge surprise. <br /><br />The band, which prides itself in creating ‘melodic death-metal’, creates music with a unique and seamless blend of Celtic folk and traditional metal-fare. In fact, they began their stint on the stage with a rather unusual instrument: the bagpipes. The soulful tune of the pipes began at a slow pace and was soon combined with a few riffs on the guitar, creating a practically unheard-of sort of music. <br /><br />Their repertoire for the evening included a few new numbers as well as those which made them popular — such as ‘Wartunes’, ‘Auld Lang Syne’, ‘The Fall of Tara’ and ‘Stone of the Seven Suns’. <br /><br />The energy on stage was at an all-time high as Arkadius, the band’s vocalist, head-banged and pushed the crowd to a frenzy. He wrapped up the first song and then said, “It feels so good to be back, my friends. You know why? Because you guys rock!”<br /><br />Next up was ‘Kreator’ and by this point, the noise levels were soaring. The band was met with cheers and screams and ripped right into some of their best-known numbers — ‘Violent Revolution’, ‘Hordes of Chaos’, ‘Phantom Antichrist’, ‘From Flood into Fire’ and ‘Enemy of God’.<br /><br /> They kept the tempo up the entire evening and wrapped up their stint on stage with the ever-popular ‘Flag of Hate’ from the album ‘Endless Pain’.<br /><br />Raghu, a software engineer who was at the show, was visibly excited. “It’s been awesome — I’ve been here since the morning and watched all the local bands, which I thought were pretty good. I came especially to watch ‘Kreator’ and I loved it,” he stated.</p>
