GIG REVIEW: Undergrind Fest 2012
I was really looking forward to this year’s Undergrind Fest as one of my favorite Grindcore bands Wormrot, were going to perform there, I always considered myself a second generation Grind fan and was more influenced by bands like Insect Warfare, Nails and Wormrot then Napalm Death and Carcass, in fact these guys were the band that got me into the genre , I used to sit practice my “air blasts” late at night to their songs, and the fact that I would see them live was nothing short of a dream come true.
But before Wormrot, there were many other bands who would take the stage, the festival would start from 2:30 in the afternoon to 10 at night hence it was going to be a long day, one which started with Pornogrind band Semen Commando, a three piece band featuring Charlie from the notorious Bangalorean deathgrind duo Gorified on vocals. They played a very simple style of Pornogrind with slow guitar riffs accompanied by even slower skank beats and Charlie’s somewhat Juvenile vocals. Now to be honest here, this is not something that I really enjoyed as I am not really a huge fan of the Gore/porn genre, and their songs lacked variety, as each one of them had exactly the same groove and exactly the same, albeit slightly modified guitar riff, which was something that didn’t really interest me that much.
Next up were Purgation - A slam/brutal death metal band from Kolkata, which were pretty all right but somehow, one could make out that they were a fairly new band and were not really confident about themselves. They were not really very tight as a unit and there were many times that I thought that the brutality was a little amiss, but nonetheless they played some good covers by Dying Fetus and Cannibal Corpse which redeemed somewhat redeemed themselves.
Things got a little better when Warhorse Chained from Cochin came and played some very epic, Sludgy Death Metal which had emphasis on strong intelligent song writing rather than just Brutal Slamming all the way, they had some pretty heavy stuff, I could still remember the riff which sounded like a loud shrill, gave me the chills at that time. Pity though that they didn’t play many originals and stuck to covers. I would have loved to hear more.
After that it was time for some bass oriented Grindcore, which at first I thought would be pretty interesting as I always admired that kind of stuff like Water Torture and Inerds, as the bass generally brings out the heaviness of the genre, but Grossty seemed to have missed the mark, I liked the idea of having dual vocals, which worked very well for them as they sounded very intense, but the bass guitar just felt a little out of place. It seemed that the dude didn’t really understand the nuances of the bass guitar and try to use that in Grind, but just picked up the bass and started playing it like it was a guitar, which was a little odd, perhaps the only thing which I liked about their set was their Cover of Anal Cunt’s Hitler was a sensitive man which was quite funny.
It was close to evening now, and welcoming the setting sun were Hyderabad slammers Shock Therapy who were pretty successful in gathering the somewhat dead crowd together and headbang along to their music, their style of music was pretty straightforward, nothing out of the ordinary but it was played well, the band worked well as a unit, and this gave rise to some pretty entertaining Slam/Death, which, although not too profound, was perfect for the moshpit.
The Day was getting darker and the moshpit that Shock Therapy had created would be nothing to the next band which would be the first of two to create a phenomenon of sorts, Jugaa from Nepal came on stage and despite a few problems created some of the dirtiest, filthiest, Power violence/Hardcore that I have ever witnessed, their sound was very primal, very raw, but at the same time some of the heaviest that the festival had witnessed up till now. Their performance as well was very energetic with their guitarist jumping around the stage from one place to the other and the vocalist joining the audience in the moshpit and remaining there for most of the performance, even though, I could barely spot any Hardcore fans and could mostly see Brutal Death Metal T-shirts, the entire audience was in awe of their performance and they got a thundering ovation from the crowd.
Up next was Charlie and Crew again, this time around for Bad Taste a “Horror Grind” band in which he was joined by the bassist and drummer of Grossty. Now Bad taste for me was pretty hit and miss some tracks were pretty decent grind tracks which retained the energy and intensity of the genre to some extent whereas others seemed to drawn out and too elaborate, therefore sucking out the very essence of the genre, while the cheesy song titles were indeed fun for a while it got boring for after a while.
Next up were Agnostic, a Death Metal band from Assam, I had recently reviewed these guys for a internet webzine and although I did find their music quite interesting, it did have a few flaws when it came to the production, those flaws were nowhere to be seen that night, Their sound was heavy, their guitar riffs hit the ears like molten steel, and the drums were massive. Everything about these guys that night was just perfect the sound, their performance, their stage act, it was hard to believe that this is a new band who had just released their debut E.P. In my utterly honest opinion, I think this is a band that is ready to conquer any stage in the world.
After that the show continued with Anorectal Ulceration, a Bangalorean Grind this time around with Charlie’s brother Hermon, the band was a three piece consisting of a guitarist vocalist and a drummer. Their style of goregrind was a little less simplistic then the bands that played before, having a certain sense of structure, which made their sound much more wholesome, but then they needed to be much tighter, especially the drummer who I could see was not really comfortable playing this style of music. But then again the band did have some highlights like the time Charlie and another vocalist got on stage to do some vocals which were quite exciting.
The last band before the headliner's took over was one which I had a lot about from people in the scene, I have heard people say that they are very tight and play some really crushing brutal death metal, all of which are absolutely right, Perforated Limb proved to be one of the tightest bands of the night playing Technical Brutal Death Metal in the vein of Deivos and Dying Fetus with almost metronome like Precision, although I could barely headbang as I was tired of doing that all day I thoroughly enjoyed their performance.
And then it was time, to finally meet my maker, to see the band that inspired me to play Grindcore, the band that I have looked up to , and what I witnessed was nothing more than a miracle. Their set was far from flawless, there were times when Rasyids guitar got squished between the drums and the vocals, Wormrot seemed to be suffering bouts of fatigue between songs, but the absolute intensity and pure, raw aggression of the band made up for all of these flaws, you could make out these guys played music that came from their heart, that they weren’t there for fame or for money , they just wanted to do what they love, and when they did that they were in a completely different zone , which is honestly just beyond anything, and can’t really be put into words. These guys played simple music, nothing technical but played with a lot of energy and speed, everyone in the audience was just stunned at their level of playing, they got a great response and even got an encore.
This just goes to show that you don’t have to play something technical or “odd timed” to do something exciting in extreme music, you just have to play what you believe in and play it as if it’s a matter of life and death. So ultimately for me Undergrind 2012 had its ups and downs but ultimately was a great learning experience and made me understand a lot of things about the scene and the genre that I play, here’s hoping the next Undergrind would be more brutal!
But before Wormrot, there were many other bands who would take the stage, the festival would start from 2:30 in the afternoon to 10 at night hence it was going to be a long day, one which started with Pornogrind band Semen Commando, a three piece band featuring Charlie from the notorious Bangalorean deathgrind duo Gorified on vocals. They played a very simple style of Pornogrind with slow guitar riffs accompanied by even slower skank beats and Charlie’s somewhat Juvenile vocals. Now to be honest here, this is not something that I really enjoyed as I am not really a huge fan of the Gore/porn genre, and their songs lacked variety, as each one of them had exactly the same groove and exactly the same, albeit slightly modified guitar riff, which was something that didn’t really interest me that much.
Things got a little better when Warhorse Chained from Cochin came and played some very epic, Sludgy Death Metal which had emphasis on strong intelligent song writing rather than just Brutal Slamming all the way, they had some pretty heavy stuff, I could still remember the riff which sounded like a loud shrill, gave me the chills at that time. Pity though that they didn’t play many originals and stuck to covers. I would have loved to hear more.
After that it was time for some bass oriented Grindcore, which at first I thought would be pretty interesting as I always admired that kind of stuff like Water Torture and Inerds, as the bass generally brings out the heaviness of the genre, but Grossty seemed to have missed the mark, I liked the idea of having dual vocals, which worked very well for them as they sounded very intense, but the bass guitar just felt a little out of place. It seemed that the dude didn’t really understand the nuances of the bass guitar and try to use that in Grind, but just picked up the bass and started playing it like it was a guitar, which was a little odd, perhaps the only thing which I liked about their set was their Cover of Anal Cunt’s Hitler was a sensitive man which was quite funny.
The Day was getting darker and the moshpit that Shock Therapy had created would be nothing to the next band which would be the first of two to create a phenomenon of sorts, Jugaa from Nepal came on stage and despite a few problems created some of the dirtiest, filthiest, Power violence/Hardcore that I have ever witnessed, their sound was very primal, very raw, but at the same time some of the heaviest that the festival had witnessed up till now. Their performance as well was very energetic with their guitarist jumping around the stage from one place to the other and the vocalist joining the audience in the moshpit and remaining there for most of the performance, even though, I could barely spot any Hardcore fans and could mostly see Brutal Death Metal T-shirts, the entire audience was in awe of their performance and they got a thundering ovation from the crowd.
Next up were Agnostic, a Death Metal band from Assam, I had recently reviewed these guys for a internet webzine and although I did find their music quite interesting, it did have a few flaws when it came to the production, those flaws were nowhere to be seen that night, Their sound was heavy, their guitar riffs hit the ears like molten steel, and the drums were massive. Everything about these guys that night was just perfect the sound, their performance, their stage act, it was hard to believe that this is a new band who had just released their debut E.P. In my utterly honest opinion, I think this is a band that is ready to conquer any stage in the world.
After that the show continued with Anorectal Ulceration, a Bangalorean Grind this time around with Charlie’s brother Hermon, the band was a three piece consisting of a guitarist vocalist and a drummer. Their style of goregrind was a little less simplistic then the bands that played before, having a certain sense of structure, which made their sound much more wholesome, but then they needed to be much tighter, especially the drummer who I could see was not really comfortable playing this style of music. But then again the band did have some highlights like the time Charlie and another vocalist got on stage to do some vocals which were quite exciting.
The last band before the headliner's took over was one which I had a lot about from people in the scene, I have heard people say that they are very tight and play some really crushing brutal death metal, all of which are absolutely right, Perforated Limb proved to be one of the tightest bands of the night playing Technical Brutal Death Metal in the vein of Deivos and Dying Fetus with almost metronome like Precision, although I could barely headbang as I was tired of doing that all day I thoroughly enjoyed their performance.
--
Reviewed By,
Mohammed Kabeer
0 comments: