‘Mecca of metal music in India’ to host Uprising 2023 in Bengaluru on October 13

Come Friday, Bengaluru, being described as 'Mecca for metal music in India', by fans and bands, will host the second edition of The Uprising, an indoor metal music festival.

This year, the festival will see an international act, symphonic metal legend Fleshgod Apocalypse from Italy, perform for the first time in the IT hub.

However, this is not the first time in India for the band. "We played in Mumbai back in 2015. So, it has been a while. But we heard good things about Bengaluru. We absolutely loved the warmth and hospitality of the people here. And the culture is very appealing. Indian food is definitely something we are looking forward to," Francesco Paoli, leader of the band, told PTI via email.

"India has always been noted for having an increasing metal fan base over the last few years," added the musician.

Incidentally, the festival was also held in Mumbai last year. But due to an 'underwhelming response', the organisers said they have decided to hold the festival only in Bengaluru this time round.

"The band was also not available for the Mumbai dates, so that is one of the challenges that we had," said Hitesh Mittal, co-founder of Bengaluru-based India Artists Collective, which is organising the festival for the last two years.

But both Mittal and his co-founder Chintan Chinnappa agree that Bengaluru has definitely proved itself to be a hub when it comes to heavy metal music.

"Bengaluru has always been the rock capital of India. And I think from the early 2000s itself, the metal scene in Bengaluru has definitely boomed out. And today it stands at its absolute peak. We’re seeing a greater number of shows happening than ever before. We have a lot of more organisers and promoters coming into the scene trying to bring in many more international acts," said Chinnappa, who is also part of Bengaluru-based metal band Inner Sanctum.

Mittal and Chinnappa trace the evolution of Bengaluru into a metal destination to Sunday jams held in the early 2000s.

"Sunday jams brought in live bands. So, this kind of just opened up the whole scene and youngsters like us back then would look forward to going to these jams to watch bands play. And that’s also where we picked up instruments and formed bands," said Chinnappa.

Although initially, it was more rock music than heavy metal, with time, very early metal bands from India started popping up in these jams, introducing people to a new wave of heavy metal music.

They also said the big Anglo-Indian community in Bengaluru played a part in pushing western music, including rock and metal, into the mainstream.

"It started very slow where you had a lot of people listening to The Doors, The Beatles and all of that. And it graduated from that into metal like Iron Maiden and Metallica," added Chinnappa.

Mittal, who started his own death metal act, Abandoned Agony, way back in 2006, said the metal audience is still evolving in India.

"I think with rap and R&B and all of those new forms of music sort of picking up a little more pace in India, the metal did take a beating at some point in time. But now there is a revival, which we are also assisting through the Uprising fest," added Mittal.

Although Paoli said a lot of international metal bands are fascinated by the colourful Indian culture, India is still a long way from becoming a sought-after destination by popular international metal acts, said the organisers.

"India is not a part of the tour route for most international bands. I mean, initially, big metal bands like Metallica were coming to India. But then that sort of stopped for quite some time. So, one of our objectives is actually to get India back onto the tour route. Now, they usually go to Dubai and they skip India and go directly to China or other Southeast Asian countries,” Mittal said.

Part of the reason is the overhead cost, which makes organisers hesitate to bring in artistes from outside India. But the biggest hurdle, however, is the bureaucracy, said the organisers.

"We have a lot of rules for our live venues, which sort of takes away from the overall metal experience. To give you an example, indoor venues in India do not allow pyrotechnics. This is permissible in Bangkok and other Southeast Asian countries. As it adds a lot of value to live acts, big bands prefer doing that and going to venues that offer them that," said Chinnappa.

As for Bengaluru, with the Trevor Noah show exposing the lack of infrastructure in some of its venues, the organisers said they had been careful about the choice of venue.

"We have chosen an indoor venue (White Lotus Club in HSR Layout) that can host about 1,400 people. We are hoping for at least 1,000 to turn up. This is a proper live venue, so the acoustics are fully treated," added Mittal.

The Uprising 2023 will also feature two Indian metal bands – Bengaluru-based extreme metal act ‘Moral Collapse’ and up and coming tech death band from Hyderabad, ‘Septic Isle’.