Rolling Stone Metal Awards at the Blue Frog

The Indian Metal community came out in full strength to disprove claims of a fading scene at the first ever Metal Awards, carried out by Rolling Stone India on Sunday. While handing out accolades and critical praise to Indian bands was probably given serious thought for a long time, its only now, with the help of corporate and hosting partners that it’s become a reality.

Journo jargon aside, the Metal awards brought out the best metal gig Mumbai has seen in a while. Though the performances were interspersed with handing out of awards and freebies, Blue frog was packed more than ever to witness Demonic Resurrection, Undying INC and Scribe. Each band had a special reason to perform - DR had only just been awarded Global Metal award by Metal Hammer, Scribe were promoting the release of their brand new album ‘Mark of Teja’ which received a launch when they had opened for Lamb Of God in Bangalore last month, and Undying INC were finally playing to the Mumbai crowd after what seemed like ages (counted as the first time for many).

The night was hosted by the scene’s favourite funny man Rohit ‘P-Man’ Periera (PDV, Khiladi and his very own The P-Man Show). P-man established the much needed comfort zone at Blue Frog, which is mostly an alien place to most metal heads. Inducing laughter, picking on random audience members, abusing and unveiling a cut-out of ‘Satan’ (which was actually a Rakhi Sawant cut-out), P-man made the awards section of the night memorable and hilarious. There truly never is a dull moment when he’s around.

The night kicked off (no football-related pun intended) with handing out of awards – With the Metal Legends award being given to Millennium. Power metal band Slain received the best Metal Guitarist and best Metal Bassist awards, a surprise for most. This obviously had to do with the fact that being held in Mumbai, it would only be bands like Demonic Resurrection, Scribe, Bhayanak Maut and Infernal Wrath that received maximum applause as the nominees were being read out. But that was as far as surprise winners went, with best Metal Drummer being handed to JP from Infernal Wrath, and best Metal Vocalist going to Vishwesh from Scribe.

Demonic Resurrection (DR) took the stage after the first few awards were handed out, and played a set that was voted for in an online poll - talk about popular choice. They opened their set with ‘The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance’, which was received warmly and couldn’t have set the brutality bar any higher. They went on to perform (albeit with few technical glitches) favourites old and new including ‘Apocalyptic Dawn’, ‘Omega, I’, and ‘Frozen Portrait’. It’s probably true that the band is synonymous with Indian metal, making it impossible to NOT mention them in any sentence with the words “Indian metal.” DR also got a chance to share the news of their Global Metal award, which vocalist Sahil and bassist Husain travelled to London to receive. Fun fact – this was the first time Sahil introduced the band’s keyboardist as Jetesh(who usually prefers his stage name Mephisto), at the end of their set.

After another flurry of awards and freebies, including the big 3 Popular Choice awards – Best Metal Song going to DR’s ‘The Unrelenting Surge of Vengeance’, Best Metal Album also awarded to ‘The Return to Darkness’ and Best Metal Band going to Infernal Wrath – New Delhi’s Undying INC were finally ready to play. And ‘ready to play’ is an understatement.

An unbelievable and unique mix of Technical Death Metal and Metalcore, it’s only fair to classify Undying INC under ‘br00tal metal’ more than anything else. They brought upon (rather, rained down upon) Mumbai this very same brutality, performing a 5 song set, having only guitar feedback for intervals. They performed songs like ‘Manimal’, ‘Alloy’ and ended with the well-known ‘Breeding Gods’. Vocalist Shashank Bhatnagar made sure to have the crowd eating out of his hands by the end of their set, with vocal skills borrowed mostly from Jens Kidman of Meshuggah. An unreal vocal range, accompanied by crushing riffs from guitarist Biswarup’s 7-string, and the combined speed and precision of bassist Reuben and drummer Yuvraj added up to allow Undying INC to tear Blue Frog apart, leaving most in the mosh pit with injuries they’ll cherish for a while.

Then came the Critic’s Choice awards which were swept by only one band – the same ones gearing up to play on stage at that moment – Scribe. They won the best Metal Band and Album (for ‘Mark of Teja’) and the best Metal Song for ‘DemonPra’. The barrage of gift vouchers and awards seemed overwhelming and quite a shock to the band themselves. Vishwesh joked that they planned to re-sell some of the freebies after the gig. But after emerging the best winners that night, Scribe went one step further, hoping to deliver the best performance as well.

Scribe kicked off with ‘RSVP’, a recent crowd favourite. They then put on their funny faces, with Vishhwesh leading the gags, and calling an old friend of the band to join them on stage for ‘Ate a Banana’. Reluctant at first, the fan was egged on by Vishwesh to do a jig for the song, and only obliged when Vishwesh himself promised to join ‘Uncle’. The chants for Uncle to stay on stage were chorused as Scribe finished with the song. Scribe played another song from the new album, the hilarious ‘1234 Dracula’ which was short and brutal, followed by (the now award-winning) ‘DemonPra’ before which the band ensured that camaraderie prevailed as they played – they instructed a 16 year-old to dive into the crowd and thus gave the crowd a lesson in Crowd-surfing 101, as Vishwesh called it. The crowd nearly tore his undies off, but the kid survived, dignity intact and fun-levels in overdrive.

And after this feat, the band wanted to, as usual, push on, and push up to a higher notch. They called on their backstage fanboy to be mosh monitor and convinced P-man and Mrs. P-man (the Rakhi Sawant cut-out) to lead a dance as they were about to begin ‘One Wing Pencil’. Finally, their calls for Undying INC vocalist Shashank were answered and he was brought on stage to inaugurate the song with his scream, for want of Chole Bhature, which lasted almost 15 seconds. He did really crave it, you know. One of Scribe’s most energetic and mosh-inducing classics, it’s safe to say Scribe peaked that night, that moment.

Not wanting to leave without giving the crowd the new album’s favourite, Scribe dedicated ‘I Love You, Pav Bhaji’ to vegetarians and Gujjus. The crowd joined in a beginning and closing effort to the song, by the end of which one pretty much knew of the (fiercely) admirable fan-following the snack had. “And Pav Bhaji loves you too,” added Vishwesh as the band signed off.

“This is the metal scene,” P-man had proclaimed during the ceremonies. And while awards, irrespective of field, are always open to questions and criticism, it was the performances that provided a boost big enough for this “metal scene.” Blue frog is more used to having patrons that describe the live music experience with words like agreeable, dance-able and more often, trippy. But the words that do justice to The Rolling Stone Metal Awards include brutal, thunderous, crushing and even unreal.

Photo Credits : Roycin D’Souza