Live
Resurrection V: The Best One Yet!
Date: April 9, 2006 | Venue: Razzberry Rhinoceros, Mumbai
I arrived at Resurrection V half an hour late, confident that Sahil and Co. would not be able to get the show started on time, and was punished for my tardiness by missing out on what seemed like one of the better bands of the evening. From the last couple of songs I heard by Cosmic Infusion, I gather they are in the symphonic black metal vein, and do a very good job of playing it. Keyboard players in this genre almost invariably end up with the cheesiest of sounds — I could swear some of them cadge entire sections off our more popular soap operas: the parts where something evil is happening like characters eavesdropping on, or sleeping with each other. This, I’m happy to report, was not the case with CI’s keyboard player.
Next up were Exhumation, a band whose talents in the studio seems permanently AWOL every time I’ve seen them live. It’s only the absolutely tone-deaf who’d find Exhumation’s shrill wall of noise representative of ‘br00tal’ death metal (and luckily for the band, there appear to be quite a number of these people). It’s certainly a very evocative sound — visions and images filled my head as my brain tried to make sense of this staggering drunken cacophony. I saw bulldozers mating with tractors, large iron dogs chasing each other and tearing each other apart, and my childhood hero, Giant Robot, (a character familiar to most people lucky enough to be growing up in the 1980s) scratching his giant robotic balls. Yash who is a remarkably talented drummer sadly spent most of his time bashing away at his China cymbal (I might be wrong about the specs but my old buddy Ummagumma came up with this diagnosis after my very sketchy description of what it sounded like), and its harsh dissonant crashing drowned out just about everything.
MyndSnare put up a competent enough performance — getting Vinay from Bhayanak Maut to handle the vocals on “Strength Beyond Strength” was a great idea, but I’ve seen these guys play so much better that there was little to hold my attention.
Few things can match my determination to like Acrid Semblance’s performance — I was quite let down by their gig at GIR earlier this year. Many of the same problems carried through to Resurrection V. The keyboards wandered in and out purposelessly, prating on in a tiresome manner before they’d fall silent with similar abruptness, kinda like the less important panelists on an inane news channel discussion. I tried going close up to the stage, the centre of the venue, the corners of Razz, upstairs and then found the perfect spot — outside. This was again a performance that was very inferior to the best gigs I’ve seen by the band.
Demonic Resurrection seemed to have learnt their lessons from being the last band to play at previous Resurrections — some of their most enjoyable gigs have sadly been to audiences of just over a dozen people. Their lead guitarist continues to be an uncomfortable graft on to the band and his off-key solos are quite distracting. Their performance was disrupted by a minor riot — unfortunately enough, these seem to be becoming a regular feature of Resurrection. It’s the natural fallout of having large, retarded, repressed metalheads in the audience, who, excited at the sight of so many of their ilk in such close proximity, decide to get acquainted by such brute shows of affection as flinging themselves on each other. The least the organisers can do is make these assholes pay for all the damage they cause or get the bouncers to beat the living crap out of them. I totally loathe moshpits and most of our venues are frankly too small and fragile for them to be encouraged. I left DR’s performance shortly after the riot and weighed the options of rushing out for dinner, but didn’t…
The first time Third Sovereign played was to an incredibly tiny audience and they ripped all of our heads off. I daresay these guys are the best death metal band I’ve seen in India so far, one of the few who seem to understand that there’s more to being heavy than just being incredibly loud or distorted. Every member of the band could be heard clearly even through the most ‘busy’ parts of the songs — bassist Jonah is exceptional, very in the Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) vein. The band is greater than the sum of its very formidable parts though and given they were launching their debut EP ‘Horrified Visions’ at the event, the setlist tilted heavily towards originals. ‘Horrified Visions’ is a great EP by the way, worth a LOT more than the 50 bucks the band’s charging for it.
Fresh on the heels of a record deal with Old School Metal records, Kryptos played a set that was a great mix of songs from their debut ‘Spiral Ascent’ like “Forgotten Land of Ice” and the crowd-favourite “Descension” along with newer material like “Liquid Grave”. The music was mostly top-notch with several nods to traditional heavy metal, thrash and melodic death metal. I honestly believe the band works better as a four-piece though, with Akshay on lead guitars. Nolan, a few bum notes notwithstanding, is no slouch on the lead himself, but the band sounded much better when Axe was around. I kept hoping he’d materialise in a Spinal Tap reunion moment but no such luck. It was still a very enjoyable performance and a good one to end the show with.
Not much else remains to be said but this was definitely one of the best organised gigs I’ve ever been to. In a country where bands consider it a matter of pride to tune up on stage and take the better part of an hour to set up, we had seven bands, with a reasonable amount of playing time and all at a very manageable entry price. Which is what pisses me off about assholes who go around breaking stuff up while ‘moshing’ — they’ll just make shows like this more difficult to arrange… but that’s a rant that could go on forever and so I’ll stop right here.
Honest and unbiased review …
Kiss My Ass!!……..Exhumation own you!! .|..
Hey Ravi,
fantastic review,
“I saw bulldozers mating with tractors, large iron dogs chasing each other and tearing each other apart, and my childhood hero, Giant Robot, (a character familiar to most people lucky enough to be growing up in the 1980s) scratching his giant robotic..”
is probably the classiest descrip ever of a moshpit. But i suppose its cool, We Indians watch Phirangi videos and have to have that experience once atleast.
Overall, what a classic review. Its not everyday one reads unbashed critisism so well written.
Awesome review. Am however disappointed at the lack of belligerent exhumation fans.
Whow @ ummagumma - He has evolved into the rainman of drumming before our very eyes *-)
haha!good one ravi.i’m surprised you din’t mention the fact that we stepped out during Acrid’s first song and returned during the last,only to find the SAME riff playing.’twas a good gig though.Kryptos more than made up for.well…everything else.i’m still wondering why Myndsnare covered Arch Enemy. :-/
Excellent review !!!
brilliant review.its like straight-in-your-face.gret job,mate.well,i was there in razz only to watch iiird sovereign as they belongs to north-east(my homeland).simply incredible stage act with accuracy in their technicality of playing.
about exhumation,unfortunately expected a lot.but they are good too.but i think music compositions are pretty good.but a bit tightness require in their live-set.plus….poor sound.Not to 4gt,prashant is a great death metal shredder.
acrid semblence…well…sorry to say….need to be very tight…especially the drummer.but they are good because their songs are awesome.
Myndsnare are great.honestly,i stepped out during their 2nd song.so no idea at all.
Kryptos….at that time,had conversations with JP regardin some drum techniques and licks.
Once again,nice review.Ressurection 5 was nice.
-Vishal
I’m glad I didn’t go, I much rather listen to Bloodbath at home, rather than going and lose my experience because of a bunch of ball-less retards.
fuck you neel, support the scene!