Northlane burn a hole in the Indian metal platform with their debut tour-with supporting act Ksetravid charging the crowd to feel the heat.
Open scene, a wet evening in Bangalore. Before reaching the event, most metalheads have already consumed their staple of 14 packs of cigarettes. A hard hitter has landed in town, and the body needs to be up to speed already. Bighorn Festival returned with another act that split the skies, and are we happy it rained riffs?
Checkout our interview with vocalist Marcus Bridge of Northlane > “We Just Do What We Want to Do” – Marcus Bridge on Emotion, Experimentation, and Coming Full Circle with Northlane
Damn straight, we did! After what we experienced with the first edition of Bighorn with Jason Richardson and Luke Holland, it was only expected that they have to keep the energy. Enter metal mammoths from the land down under. The Modern and Prog Metal Holy Land that is Australia. Northlane packed the punch, and made the stone walls of Gylt, Bangalore shake with electro-metal rage.
Though Gylt is located extremely far away, across seas and blankets of traffic in Bangalore, a lot of the citizens of the tech capital that need to let loose lives quite close to the place. I (Nishant) arrived 5 minutes before Ksetravid unleashed all hell. I hadn’t even got my earplugs in. They were promptly blown off. Although the tech death band don’t really gel with the style of the headlining Northlane, they were able to turn the heat up for the crowd that trickled in with the drizzle outside as their excuse.
Ksetravid lay down some dark fierce prog tech death ambience
The tech death band gave us a barrage of tracks, echoing from their inspirations. Anamnesis, Man-Made Crisis, Third Eye were some highlight performances for me personally. Though many fans weren’t there for tech death, there are sections of Ksetravid’s music that can truly make you bop with a kink in your neck. They also announced their album to be released this year, though that’s something I missed on account of being distracted with understanding the sound quality in the arena.
Though Gylt acts as an extension to Byg Brewski, they follow an aesthetic which doesn’t really hold the standard for acoustic design.
The interiors are clad with stone, reverb is an enemy every sound engineer bargains with. At the mezzanine and 2nd floor, the vocals and guitars eventually fade away, giving you an enthusiastic buzz of the instruments with the drummer going batshit. Compared to venues like White Lotus Superclub and the city’s staple Fandom, Gylt works well with music that echoes and flows into each other as elements. For things as technical and precise as metal that look for atmosphere changes in a switch? Might be difficult.
Without further ado, let’s get into how the headliners brought their charisma in:
And Northlane erupts
Northlane began with their usual set opener, Carbonized. This was followed by the dark electro djent fare that is Miasma. The band’s signature blend of electronic, ambient, and industrial texture with the tasty metalcore djenty goodness had no one in the audience disappointed. Guitarist Jonathon Deiley on the synth pads in tracks like 4D and Kraft, was a treat to savour. They were wild, intense, and relentless and I couldn’t stop headbanging, and neither could the crowd. Marcus had the audience parting like the Red Sea for some serious walls of death. Their jubilant set ended with their biggest hit Clockwork, and they were kind enough to treat the fans with an encore.
What was left to be desired were the vocals. Clearly not audible in the mix, others in the audience agreed as well. Luckily, that didn’t affect the overall performance and experience substantially. That said, Ksetravid had the better mix that night with Yogi from Pineapple Express as their FOH engineer. We have no idea what magical juice he’s using on the soundboard, but his mixes sound otherworldly. Ksetravid is now arguably in the top-tier list of Indian metal bands and one of my (Rubin) favourites to catch live.
Northlane sure have scorched the Indian metal landscape with their debut tour, and Ksetravid lit the fuse with their explosive opening set. With Textures and Steven Wilson as their next acts, Bighorn is making more than a dent on the progressive rock and metal scene in India. We’re going truly global (not in the mass appeal of pop music sales like Coldplay and Ed Sheeran maybe). But Metal has as much of a home here, and we sure are on the map!
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Self professed metalhead, moderately well read. If the music has soul, it's whole to me. The fact that my bio could have ended on a rhyme and doesn't should tell you a lot about my personality.
