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NEWS: Stark Denial have released a new track called 'Hyllest Til Kulten'


Indian black metallers Stark Denial have released a new track called 'Hyllest Til Kulten' (Tribute To The Cult).
With the new line-up at work, their EP "War" was partially recorded. In December that year, the band launched the EP at BMK-3.
Post their performance at the Human Garbage Festival in Bangalore in Jan-14, the band started working on new material. Everyone in the band has been heavily influenced by the acts of 'The Second Wave of Black metal' like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Immortal, and the endless list of awesomeness.

So, they've decided to pay a tribute to these Black Metal gods (sorry, had to use at least one black metal pun). The riffs and the drum patterns were all composed and had elements of the second wave. During one of their jamming sessions, the vocalist, Kunal G came up with the idea of tributing this song to Oystein 'Euronymous' Arseth, the late guitarist of the legendary band Mayhem, and hence the title track was aptly named in Norwegian instead of English.

Recorded at Ashwin Shriyan's studio, they've done an exuberant job on this track.

A lyric video for the track is gonna be uploaded soon, and you'll be taken by surprise for sure.
It will also be included in their next full-length release, due next year.



- Piyush Ojha

GIG REVIEW : TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY FEST



TRANSCENDING OBSCURITY FEST was one of the most anticipated gigs that happened in Thane, because of the massive 9 band line-up and the very fact that a record label in India organises a fest for the bands signed with them, which is I must say, a great achievement. Enthusiasts from surrounding cities travelled for the gig, including myself, and boy, it was worth everything.

The first band to open up the pits was SYSTEMHOUSE 33, we got to see the crowd mosh from the very first song for the night. The band played an amazing set, especially the epic breakdowns in 'Resistance'. Their rendition of Pantera's Sandblasted Skin was a kickass surprise.

Next up was Stark Denial. Kunal's raw, powerful screeches can give anyone goosebumps. The band played a tribute song for Euronymous, which was a complete masterpiece. I surely would like to see it make to their next EP/album.

Orion, from Mumbai tore the place apart. Nifty tempo-shifts, the build up to a sudden outburst of immense tight notes stole the show, also the pick-up of tempo and the continuous flow of songs, which was impeccably maintained after a loss of string is worth appreciating.





Cosmic Infusion is a band that has always surprised the viewers, this time with a drummer onboard and a new beastly song, 'Raktha Beeja'. The crowd humming to the melodies from 'Journey' was a beautiful scene to witness.







Grossty was the band that many looked forward to, and to a certain extent It was a bit disappointing. The constant feedbacks from the guitars, over done gore and gross themes and the mediocre riffage killed the mood which the hugely talented drummer was striving to maintain.





Halahkuh from Pune is a band that has gained followers from all around the country in a small span of time, their soul-gripping cover of Civilization Collapse was a treat to watch. Bassist Prakhar Soni's superb tones and Bappi's insane drumming were top-notch.

Fragarak are recently back from their China tour. And they have drastically improved over the years. A set with great leads and solos, a very unique voice texture, and a whole lotta bat-shit crazy drumming was what we experienced.

The mediocre mosh that was happening until then was suddenly lit up when Gutslit took the stage, courtesy of the legendary band Infernal Wrath's vocalist Afaque Azad and the renowned Akshay bar. Aditya Barve's stage presence, raw and spine-chilling squeals with Gurdip's bass pounding, Prateek's pinch harmonics and Aaron's face-melting tightness and out-of-this-world talent, is a combination worth neck-breaking to. The pure aggression that flows throughout their set, be it the OCs like 'Maze Of Entrails', breakdown-king 'Skewered In The Sewer' or the cover of 'Kill Your Mother, Rape Your Dog' , is skull-crushing!

After an approximate half hour of being randomly thrown around by Afaque Azad ,Albatross, the headlining act was up next. They had an hour of complete goosebump-sending covers like 'Holy Diver' and 'Bark At The Moon' and classic OCs, 'In The Court Of Kuru', 'The Dining Table' and newly released 'Children Of The Cloud' with 2 guest drummers ,Aniket Waghmode of Sceptre and Pushkar Joshi of Primitiv and their original drummer Jay Thakkar. The guest drummers did pure justice to the OCs and covers. Vocalist Biprorshee Das's vocals were literally breathtaking.  It is always enthralling to watch these guys live.

Turnout for the gig was average , despite the massive line-up and various freebies. Sound for the whole gig was superb, kudos to Pritesh Prabhune and the team, and the management by Kunal Choksi.

The wait for the next Transcending Obscurity Fest has already begun. And to watch more of such talents sharing and breaking the stage by their mind blowing performances.

Hopefully Kunal Choksi has more plans to keep this city's metalheads alive and united by such gigs!

*Also, check out the event page for 'Blizzard', RSVP here*

‎Review by Kaushik Joshi 
Edited by Navjot Kaur Gill
Picture Credits : Sumedh Gupte 

News : New single out - Diamonds Are Forever

The metal band Diamonds Are Forever just released the first single from their upcoming album.

No more than 3 years ago, the metal band Diamonds Are Forever made their first appearance on the underground metal stage in their local town of Cluj-Napoca, RO. Now, after two EP-s released and a live DVD, the band made public their first insight of the full length album. This is a normal process and it was about time they did just that. Maybe all this process until now was to get them mature enough to embark on such a journey; we're talking about a full album and since this is their first, it better be a good one. So, to cut the tension, here is the first single. It is called "My fragile heart will feed the darkness":
For all of you who are new to this band, they are a metalcore band, based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Their music is a bit different than common metalcore bands out there, since a lot of their style is based on a combination of powerful vocals and guitar riffing with a lot of melodic riffing in between. You may say a lot of metalcore bands do this too, but Diamonds Are Forever don't use a default song pattern. They don't have one! Most of their songs are formed of non-repeating riffs. That's a bit unusual, but it seems they have found the way to manage them into their style. Their songs are like a story that takes the listener from point A to point B, but when you reach that final destination, they make it worth you followed their path.

With a fast growing popularity, sharing the stage with lots of known bands that we all love, like Suicide Silence, Veil of Maya, Betraying the Martyrs, Caliban, and tons more, Diamonds Are Forever is quite an interesting band to listen to and to look upon. We look forward to their album, since the single is promising enough to keep an eye close. It's all up to them! For you to follow them, they can be found here:

INTERVIEW WITH STARK DENIAL


Stark Denial are a 5 piece Black metal band formed in Mumbai and active since 2009.The band is known for its powerful live performances, ferociously raw vocal delivery and actively organising a unique initiative BMK(black metal krieg)dedicated specifically to cater and support black metal scene in the country.They sucessfully put out the 3rd edition of BMK recently in December 2013 in Thane, featuring a mega 9-band lineup.After doing a series of gigs and earning accolades along the way in most parts of 2010/2011,Stark Denial went ahead to release its debut EP "War" in 2013.(Listen to its live stream here):  We candidly chatted with the main boss, vocalist Kunal Gonsalves about the band,their influences,gigs,music and more. Read on.

Metalhead Spotted: Hi Kunal,a warm welcome from Metalhead Spotted! Hows it going!?
Kunal: Hi there, thanks for the greeting, alls going on pretty darn good :)

Metalhead Spotted: Tell us a little bit about the band's history. How exactly did it start and how has the lineup been ever since?
Kunal: Well Stark Denial’s history goes way back to 2006 for people who don’t know is the year in which we actually formed, ever since then we had numerous line up changes as playing black metal is not what everyone wants. In 2009 we had our first proper line up good enough to play live consisting of Ruark  and Vaibhav on Guitars, Felix on bass, Souvik on drums and me in vocals. Even after that we went through changes and the current line up is by the far one of the strongest in terms of dedication, composing music and the most important point is that everyone of us is on the same level of thinking while composing music. We have Paresh on bass and Sunny Heith on guitars who travels all the way from Vashi and Mulund respectively this clearly shows their dedication towards the band, also we have our drummer Vineet Nair who is also very dedicated towards the band, just looking at these guys giving their all for Stark Denial has made me realize one thing that they are not just band member’s but brothers of the same Covenant of Black called Stark Denial.

Metalhead Spotted: Your major influences?
Kunal: Well there are many names that can fill up the space here, but ill keep it short and simple the early wave of Norwegian Black Metal has a major influence on us.

Metalhead Spotted: How did the idea of BMK stem up? How has the response been from the start and do you see Black Metal's popularity and awareness per se increase over all these years?
Kunal: Well the idea of BMK came up just as an instinct to me, i wanted to do something in honor of my parents so i had decided to come up with a show to support the genre which is the most underrated and to give bands a chance to show the country and the world that even we can deliver a taste of a good healthy dose of Black Metal. From the early days as i can remember there used to be a black metal band around by the name Fate. Roshan Kumar on bass and vocals, Nitin Kumar on guitars and Hitesh on drums, these guys had released an EP called Lead us to Darkness with songs such as Deathless, Golden Leaf (Hauptmann’s Sorrow), Lead us to darkness, Nittilai & Whispering Death which was definitely one of my favorite local releases ever since then as per the recent times we have bands emerging from all parts of the country delivering black metal in the own unique styles. We have bands such as Spike Crib who play their blend of Gothic yet Symphonic black metal and the only band who has a female vocalist which really sets the atmosphere for that kind of music, Solar Deity who with their every EP/Single deliver a diff style of black metal, Cosmic Infusion who delivery their music with a strong Symphonic base, Dark Desolation from Bangalore who are the raw satanic with every song they play, 1833 AD from Delhi who have a touch of melody and fast pace to their style and many more bands coming up. So I'd say yes Black Metal is definitely increasing.

Metalhead Spotted: Stark Denial is particularly known because of your loud snarling,screeching vocals.How do you manage to go through the entire set in one go,without damaging the vocal chords?!?
Kunal:Haha i didn't know Stark Denial was known for that :p but thank you for letting me know, well i'm sure every musician would agree when i say that practice makes you better so thats my key and yes also do listen to different bands which gives you an idea and helps me in putting variation in my vocals while i'm on stage or recording. And since i'm a vocalist i do a lot of breathing exercise which helps me sustain my stamina during shows.

Metalhead Spotted: Needless to say, Stark Denial is a pretty unique name.Was there a story behind it or just a random name throwing contest for the band?Any references to atheism/satanism?
Kunal: Well its kind of funny how we came up with the name, but never the less we do not have any references to atheism or satanism. Stark Denial means severe denial which could be against anything in life, however our lyrical themes are based on War, hatred, personal experiences etc.

Metalhead Spotted: Coming to your EP ,its title which is self-explanatory to say the least;does it deal with the issue of war in general or a particular incident inspiring a story?What was its genesis?
Kunal: Based on our Lyrical themes we decided to go with the concept of war for the EP, as war has always been an interesting topic which consist of all the elements to write a metal song for eg, the firing, killing aggression, destruction etc. Our EP is basically the blueprint of a war right from the beginning till the end where in the enemy is defeated and conquered.

Metalhead Spotted: Was the EP well received by fans the time it got launched?How has their reaction been,and any particular crowd favourites,apart from the marduk cover?
Kunal: To be frank i actually don't know how the metalheads have reacted after listening to the EP, but as to what i have got to know from a few sources and friends its pretty good. When any band launches a record its not necessary that it will b liked by all as different people have their likes and dislikes and their points of view. Our song Conquering thy enemies throne was the first song from the EP which was up on youtube for streaming so i would say that one.

Metalhead Spotted: You went out of your way to make sure BMK 3 was brilliantly organised. Has it been bigger and better than the first 2 editions? And will this translate into a regular yearly fest from now on?
Kunal: YES, BMK 3 was definitely bigger than the previous 2 editions held and the main reason were the people and friends involved in making it happen, namely first of all every member of Stark Denial, Itihas Shetty, Narayanan Haridas, Ajaya Bahtt from Frameshift and Kunal Choksi of Transcending Obscurity were all instrumental in helping making BMK 3 what it is today. BMK 1 had 4 bands, BMK 2 had 6 bands, BMK 3 had 9 bands so as you can see its getting better year after year. Yes BMK will be an annual show which we will organize year after year.

Metalhead Spotted: Any particularly interesting gig experiences you want to share?Funny incidents?
Kunal: Not that i can think off but yes one show which we did in Ahmadabad, we were playing the last song of the set, Slayer’s Raining Blood, during the song someone from the crowd threw a can of red paint in the air and it hit the wall and the paint from it came pouring down on our drummer Souvik's head and his hair turned red lol, after the show got over he tried to wash it off and it wouldn't come off tried all the possible solutions, this resulted in him cutting his hair when we came back home :D

Metalhead Spotted: Stark Denial has played in Pune more than once if I'm not mistaken. How did it feel like playing there?And how had the crowd been?
Kunal: Yes
_es we have playing in Pune twice, once in an open air theatre which was pretty kick ass, the second time was in Wakad where majority of the show happen there and that was intense as the crowd there when berserk...!!!! so it was 2 good times and we looking forward for more to play in Pune. edit
Metalhead Spotted: Are you looking forward to play any international gigs?Has it been the band's ambition/long term goal to play abroad and maybe to represent the Indian version of black metal to the global audience?
Kunal: Yes we are definitely looking forward and working towards things which will help up play international gig’s it would be really interesting for a black metal band from India to play in front of international audience. Its been a dream which will hopefully come true soon as i said based on things if they fall in place.

Metalhead Spotted: So whats cooking up in the Stark Denial's altar currently? New songs,new album announcements yet?
Kunal: We have been writing new material to complete the track list for our full length, but before that we will be releasing a very special single details about it will be revealed soon.

Metalhead Spotted: You recently played in Bangalore.How had it been?
Kunal: Bangalore is considered to be another metal hub in India as we were really eager to spread our music there, the show we did was called Human Garbage organized by Simon. Turnout for the show was pretty less something which you can never expect to happen in Bangalore, but we always believe in giving our 100% whether its a crowd of 10,100 or 1000.

Metalhead Spotted: Stark Denial is to play at Transcending Obscurity fest very soon. Any surprises for fans,new songs etc?
Kunal: The Transcending Obscurity fest has a very intense line up with bands of different genre’s from black metal to death, grind, progressive and doom, so this will be an amazing experience for us. Yes we will be playing new songs for this show and all i can say is that if you like black metal then be there to witness us.

Metalhead Spotted: Thanks a ton for extracting time to this interview with metalhead spotted,and best of luck to your future endeavours. Hail Black Metal,and cheers!
Kunal: Thanks you and stay true \m/ cheers from Stark Denial.

 more event details can be seen here

Interviewer- Abhimanyu Watve

INTERVIEW WITH GROSSTY



Grossty are a bangalore based 5 piece nasty grind-core induced death metal outfit who started around 2011 end.The members(Bad Influence, PIMP, Orphan, Monk killa and Kuchi) are known for their funny impromptu gigs and belt out their unique combination of grind/punk numbers.After releasing a 5 way-split in april 2012,they independently released their debut EP in november.After releasing a split CD(jerk off records)called Gen- Noise-Cide by march 2014 featuring international bands,Grossty managed to gain a cult following in the underground circuit.Having signed to Transcending Obscurity records recently, Grossty are pretty much kicked about releasing their brand new album promising more disgust and putridity, apart from playing their gig at Thane's United 21. Read on to find out more!

Metalhead Spotted: Hey guys,how have you been doing?!
Grossty: Same shitty band, different pussy buns.

Metalhead Spotted: When did you form the band?
Grossty:2011 end after our grannies forgot to take their breaths.

Metalhead Spotted:  Describe Grossty's music.How did you come about fusing grindcore with hardcore punk rock style titles and song structures?
Grossty:Its grind/punk. Jaded of listening to brutal music and incepted developing punk lecherousness.

Metalhead Spotted: For the newbies.Introduce yourselves(one by one)
Grossty: Hi there
             Hi there
             Hi there
             Hi there
             Hi there

Metalhead Spotted: Grossty's artwork is hilarious.Who has done the brilliant sketchwork? What was the philosophy behind the booger influenced logo?
Grossty: Choksi got us Baz and He did that artwork for us. It got more science than philosophy. It depicts our trip on hallucinogens. Check him out here .

Metalhead Spotted:  How has GG Allin and the Murder Junkies inspired Grossty? There even seems to be a snippet of Allin's interview in your song jesus christ!You guys into scum punk genre?!
Grossty: Nobody listens to punk without knowing GG. We are no exception.

Metalhead Spotted: How has the response from the Indian fans been so far?
Grossty:Random guys always support random bands.

Metalhead Spotted: After a split,EP;are there any plans for a full length debut?When do we expect the snot,grime and puke filled brand new album?
Grossty: Full length is on the cards. Pressing our cabooses hard to defecate that. It may have some undigested stuff like tomato skin, 25ps coin, spinach bits etc.

Metalhead Spotted: You are scheduled to play at the Transcending Obscurity fest on 11th. What should we expect from Grossty, as many fans or would be fans shall witness you live for the first time. Any possibility of GG Allin covers?Shall getting drunk be of any help?
Grossty:We anticipate ourselves not to suck on stage and We expose our umbilici to fans for sure. Nobody watches Grossty sober.

Metalhead Spotted: How did Grossty come about having 2 vocalists.Do you think it helps in the depth/flow of the songs?And how do you describe the band's vocal style
Grossty:These 2 vocalists met without knowing that they could do vocals. Former thought that latter as a morsing expert and latter reckoned former as an uduku player. Rest of the guys joined and they still been trying to chuck these 2 vocalists off.
“ Our band’s vocal style is too brutal that would make your grannies to visit library".

Naaaaaaaaaaaaa . Its just got growls, screams, gang shouts and punk vocals which are super normal to grannies.

Metalhead Spotted: Are Grossty's EP/split still in production?Where do we find them for purchase/download?
Grossty:No clue about it mate. We don’t  even have a copy of it. Just looking to plunder atleast a copy from a random guy so that it can be used as an adult diaper.

Metalhead Spotted: Any message to the fans at Transcending Obscurity?
Grossty: We are slated 1st at TOF and request you guys to come after that. Message to the fans - Tortoise on the tree.

Metalhead Spotted: We wish you all the very best for your maiden Thane gig.Thanks to take out time for this interview with Metalhead Spotted and see you at the show,cheers!
Grossty: Cheers!!

 more event details can be seen here

Interviewer- Abhimanyu Watve

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