From the port city of Visakhapatnam in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh comes this hard-hitting “balls-to-the-wall” four-piece band formed in 2014. Some people spend their days walking on Ramakrishna Beach with mango lassi in hand gazing out over the ocean’s vista and the rough rocks the beach is known for whilst these guys were draining the city of its electricity one amp at a time trying to electrify the world with their tracks.
India may not have as comparable a sized rock culture as Europe/US but there some really good bands from there “that are putting out killer music that’s on par with the best in the world.” Like fins on a shark, their music comprises a little bit of thrash attached to the belly of a large old school style rock-influenced body creating their own version of a super predator. “We play traditional heavy metal which is neither happy nor dark (think Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Accept, Motorhead).
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The band is made of Siri (Vocals, Bass Guitar), Shasank (Lead Guitar), Sravan (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar) and Noble “The Animal” John (Drums).
To get the album out of the band had to deal with the realities of the reigning pandemic. Initially, the album was meant to be released as an EP in 2020 “so we recorded the first 5 songs in 2020, got them mixed and ready for release”. Then the world got its innards pulled out. Because of restrictions placed on them, they were unable to release the EP as panned so they wrote more songs to create a full-length album. The majority of the album was recorded in their home studios except for some vocals and drum tracks that needed a larger space. “The album was mixed and mastered at Domination Studio in Italy.” The album art is was done by All Things Rotten based in Croatia who has done all their covers and t-shirt designs thus far.
And it’s with the ‘Animals’ fury that the album with which on the first track “The Sound of Violence” kicks in with some bone crushing drum beats before the guitar breaks in to lead the thrash-rock commentary of human beings primal thirst to watch and be entertained by violence such as gladiatorial combat. This energy then runs rampant throughout the album.
These guys pay homage to the old warlords of rock in a tight-knit fashion. All of the instruments swarm together in unison as they assemble their auditory sting operation. For me, surprisingly, the whole album has a largely uplifting tone despite the distortion and tempo. I likened them to the feeling you get when you sing the songs while in a German rock bar drinking steins of ale while singing with strangers who are the closest of friends when united by the music. Despite this air of positivity that the album exudes the bands says that “all our songs are in a minor key and we don’t shy away from darker tunings or notes.”
The vocals on this album are well presented leading us along vocal journeys with highs and lows. The constant adrenal draining rate of the album doesn’t allow much appreciation for any lower and slower but then they probably just wanted to rock out without brakes. But we do have the benefit of two lead vocalists giving some variation to each song feel. Primary vocal creds go to Sravan on “The Sound of Violence”, “Out for Blood”, “Call to War”, and “Metal or Nothin'” and Siri on “Speed Demon”, “End of the Line”, “Sword of Power”, “Fearless”, and “War Hero”.
The penultimate track “Fearless” has one of the thrashiest feels of the whole album while most of the others have a classic rock feel. A guest appearance of Billy Sheehan on bass can be heard on “Out for blood”. Billy is was rated #1 by Guitar Player magazine as the Best Rock Bass Player five times and has played with the likes of David Lee Roth and Mr Big. When asked about how he came to be on the album it turns they just got in touch with him through a friend of a friend. ” ‘Out for Blood’ was our choice because the song has an 80’s metal/hard rock sound to it which suits his playing style perfectly. We sent him a demo and he loved the song and agreed to play immediately’. Never hurts to ask.
These guys have gone on through much adversity and painstaking attention to detail to bring you an album that they are really proud of. When reading this in future we will have no doubt had the opportunity to get to them and many other bands to appreciate the charisma behind the album.
Better watch these guys soon while the venues are still small…
Shout out to Shasank for the quotes.
- The Sound of Violence
- Speed Demon
- Out for Blood (feat. Billy Sheehan)
- Call to War
- End of the Line
- Sword of Power
- Metal or Nothin’
- Fearless
- War Hero
Against Evil: Facebook
Release Year: 2021
Label: self-released
Category: EP
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Byron Lotz
