A heavy comeback

(From left) Godless members Ravi Nidamarthy, Kaushal LR, Aniketh Yadav and Abbas Razvi at the Wacken Open Air festival in Germany in 2018

This writer was sitting at a table with three others last morning, starting the balmy day off with States of Chaos, Hyderabad-born thrash metal outfit Godless's new album. Two of us were comfortable with the genre. One person's metal quotient was "medium". And the last person's immediate reaction at the prospect of such doom-inducing music was literally, "Not happening, I can't do this." To give credit where it's due though, she eventually acquiesced with the caveat, "You'll have to switch it off when I tell you that I've had enough." But wonder of wonders! She sat through the entire nine-track, 28-minute long record without a word of protest, even going to the length of bobbing her head up and down at times.

It was thus surprising when, talking later to the band's bassist Abbas Razvi, he described their own music as something that metal-averse listeners would find tough to approach. "Some background or understanding of rock makes it easier to accept the guitars and drums. But this is not easy listening; it's not something that you can hear casually. It's different if you're into metal. But someone who is not used to growling and screaming, and fast drumming and choppy guitars will find it difficult," he told us.

But then, he made a pertinent addition to his point. He shared, "Having said that, we have a friend who attended our recent show in Guwahati and really liked it, even though it was his first ever metal concert. That can happen with this music - the energy and intensity grips you if you watch a band live. That's one of the best ways of getting into metal because when you go back and listen to the music again, it seems more legible."

Fair point, and Mumbaikars who view metal with the same suspicious lens as the girl at that table now have a chance to broaden their horizons when Godless plays a gig at a Lower Parel venue as part of their launch tour tonight. It will mark the first instance of the genre being played live in the city after the pandemic's second wave. We have written in these pages before about how jazz bands are also making a slow, but steady comeback. Rock ‘n' roll, too, has returned to places like The Finch and The Stables. And electronic musicians are practically gathering an army of sorts to take over the city's gig space, with DJs spinning tracks somewhere or the other every single night. So all in all, Mumbai's live music space is showing heartening signs of a return unless, of course, Omicron turns out to be a party-pooper after all.

On: Today, 6 pm onwards
At: AntiSocial, Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel.
Log on to: skillboxes.com
Cost: Rs 399 onwards