For all the rock and metal music fans in Mumbai, here is a reason to rejoice. Mumbai is now ready to get its very own metal music festival, BIG69. Supported by Pepsi MTV Indies and managed by BAJAAO Consulting and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd., BIG69 will bring the biggest names in the rock music arena to India. In its very first year, BIG69 will showcase UK’s leading heavy metal legends Carcass and progressive metal act Sikth as the headliners. The festival will take place at the Richardson & Cruddas industrial compound in Byculla on the 17th and 18th of January, 2015 and the lineup includes Italian metallers Fleshgod Apocalypse and UK rap metallers Hacktivist along with some of the biggest Indian bands such as Bombay Metal Project and Joint Family, who will be reuniting for this festival after seven years of being defunct.
Carcass is one of biggest influences in the death/grindcore and melodic death metal genre. After disbanding in the mid 90s, Carcass reunited in 2007 for touring purposes, but the reunion became permanent in 2012 with a new lineup as drummer Daniel Wilding and guitarist Ben Ash joined founding members Bill Steer and Jeff Walker. With a 2013 release ‘Surgical Steel’ the band sets foot in India for the first time this January.
SikTh, who disbanded in 2008, have made a triumphant return in 2014 with a headlining set at the Download festival and are considered by many to be the godfathers of modern progressive metal. Vocalist Mikee Goodman said: “It has always been a dream to travel the world and play shows for myself and the rest of the band. It is an honour to be here right now. I heard some bands were recently coming to India to play. At last this chance has come for us and we are very excited to see and play in India!”
Fellow headliners Hacktivist who are considered to be one of the rising stars of the UK progressive metal scene and Fleshgod Apocalypse from Italy will be the other two international bands performing at the event.
This festival will also give a platform to some of our very own Indian bands who have been performing in this genre. These include Nepal’s Underside and Indian metal biggies Demonic Resurrection, Undying Inc, Zygnema, Kryptos, Devoid and Noiseware. There is also something that young aspiring bands can look forward to. Pepsi MTV Indies is conducting a band hunt to choose two promising bands who will get a chance to play at the festival.
Apart from music, the festival will also have a special focus on art, with well-designed stages, art installations and the Indies KVLTure project - a special showcase of visual art, photographs and iconography associated with heavy metal. This will involve a number of collaborations with some of the finest artists and designers from the Indian metal scene who will create artwork and designs especially for the festival. Artists already on-board include Reuben Bhattacharya aka Visual Amnesia, Aaron Pinto, Avinash Jai Singh, Anirudh Singh aka Nuclear Puke, Gaurav Basu aka Acid Toad and Aaquib Wani. Limited edition prints of their artwork will be available for sale at the festival, along with special Indies KVLTure project merchandise and much more. Festival managers BAJAAO were the company behind the now-defunct cult underground venue B69, which is still remembered fondly by the city’s metalheads. BAJAAO, along with the festival’s promoters and partners, is very excited about this upcoming new event that is to be added to the city’s annual calendar.
Festival promoter Ashutosh Pande said: “We’ve had a long association with the Indian metal scene. BIG69 is our effort to take metal to the masses and to fill the void that B69 left behind. We intend to replicate the B69 experience at a much larger scale by giving Mumbai its very own metal festival.”
Festival director Himanshu Vaswani said: “Mumbai hasn’t had a big music festival in a long time and we’re very excited to be doing a metal festival on this scale. We’re making sure that everything – from the line-up and stages to the whole experience – is as big as it gets.”
Early bird tickets are available at www.insider.in/big69 at Rs. 2500 for a two day pass. School and college students can avail of a special discounted pass at Rs. 1500. You can find all the details at www.big69.in.
Carcass
Carcass are a British extreme metal band from Liverpool, UK, who formed in 1985. They are one of biggest influences in death/grindcore and melodic death metal. Carcass started life as a goregrind band. They released two pioneering albums (Reek of Putrefaction and Symphonies of Sickness) with that sound before moving to a more death metal approach. Their fourth album ‘Heartwork’ released in 1993, is considered by many to be a classic and one of the first melodic death metal albums ever released. Carcass disbanded in 1995, before their album ‘Swansong’ even hit the stores. The album was released by Earache Records in 1996. The band reunited in 2007 for touring purposes, but the reunion became permanent in 2012 with a new lineup as drummer Daniel Wilding and guitarist Ben Ash joined founding members Bill Steer and Jeff Walker. With a 2013 release ‘Surgical Steel’ the band sets foot in India for the first time this January.
Sikth
SikTh is a six-piece progressive/technical metal band from Watford, England. Formed in March 2001, the band released their debut EP ‘Let the Transmitting Begin’ in 2002, followed by two unforgettable albums ‘The Trees Are Dead and Dried Out…Waiting for Something Wild’ (2003) and ‘Death of a Dead Day’ (2006). The band was one of the main influences of the djent movement along with Swedish giants Meshuggah, creating a unique blend of genres like experimental, mathcore and hardcore. The band split in 2008 but reunited earlier this year.
Fleshgod Apocalypse
Italian tech death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse formed in 2007 and are currently signed to Willowtip Records and Nuclear Blast. Their unique blend of technical death metal with symphonic elements have quickly made them a favorite with fans and critics alike. They have built a reputation as a formidable live act and have played sets at Wacken Open Air, Inferno Festival and Hammersonic Festival.
Hacktivist
Milton Keynes based Hacktivist is a five-piece experimental rap metal act that was formed in 2011. Their latest single False Idols reached No. 1 on the iTunes Metal chart within hours of release. They have also played at some of the biggest metal festivals in the world, including Sonisphere, Download Festival and Rock am Ring.
Hacktivist vocalist Ben Marvin said: "We are very excited to be coming to India for the first time. Not only are we honoured to have been offered to play but we are high up on the bill too! It's definitely going to be one of the best things we've done in our lives. Let's hope the crowd are as crazy as the rest of the world. We're sure they will be!"
About BAJAAO
BAJAAO CONSULTING & ENTERTAINMENT PVT LTD (BCEPL) is the services division of BAJAAO.COM, India's largest direct online retailer for music equipment with a revenue of $2.1 MIllion, and selling to a network of over 100000 independent musicians and sound engineers. BCEPL provides acoustic and audio visual consultancy services, and also works as an entertainment agency that creates brand experiences, undertakes turnkey event production, programming, and artist management. All BAJAAO properties have a strong focus on independent music. Their clients are generally high profile brands who globally align with live music as the core platform for their experiential activities.
