Review: Inferno Metal Festival 2014

Obileration live at Inferno Metal Festival 

                  I've been a very regular RSJ(Rock Street Journal) reader right from when it was in black and white edition to when it changed to the colour edition, RSJ being the brainchild of the late Amit Saigal the man who established a metal/rock scene in India,He put out this magazine in 1993 and its been in continuous regulation from then and has took a life of its own. Last year in the midst of a RSJ metal night they announced that they were trying to get Norway's Inferno Metal Festival to Delhi and every reader knew Inferno was one hell of a festival, in a few months the details were slowly being disclosed and it seemed RSJ had succeeded again. No sooner the line up was revealed, Obliteration and Nekromantheon from Norway along with Devoid,Undying Inc. and Halahkuh were the bands playing and a proud thrasher like me had flames burning on my head out of excitement.We reached the venue, bought the tickets, got an Inferno badge free in return, we spotted the merch stall circled it like scavengers and bought all we could and the we headed into the auditorium. The crowd was clad in battle jackets, geared up to mosh and bang their heads, then first came onstage HALAHKUH who had won their slot through a competition organized by the sponsor MTS none the less they kicked off with their relentless Death/Thrash fury vocalist Prakhar screamed his guts out over slabs of twin guitars and the machine-gun drum kicks, even a mini wall of death took place,there were many girls to be seen in the crowd and they did a mellow jazzy section dedicated to the ladies,sadly the set ended for these Pune bruisers but being the youngest band tonight they prove that age is not a factor and they don't fail to impress.

            The mighty Norse NEKROMANTHEON come in next they start with their black-thrash attack and the seem to know the art of kicking the crowd squarely in the jaw, they bring out the thrasher in everyone with their sheer ferocity and whip like riffs along with their earthquake drumming, the venue is half blown apart as the set ends. The fact that tonight hadn't sold out was kind of worrying for me none the less Inferno was too underground of a thing to be breached by mainstream posers but by then Mumbai's death-thrash force Devoid already began with brutalizing the stage even Shashank Bhatnagar of Undying Inc. joins the band for a cover of Exodus's "riot", attempts at a circle-pit dissipate as the audience crushes themselves, frontman Arun talks about how ugly political posters are swallowing the billboards in Delhi and Bombay ,they belt out hits like Brahma Weapon and then the intense pandemonium comes to an end. Death metal has been a force for almost three decades now and thanks to bands like OBLITERATION old-school death is still alive and the genre remains in rude health. As soon as 'sadistic nekroabortion' starts the venue called "kingdom of dreams" turns into the "purgatory of nightmares" as red miasma rises from the stage ,this band are one of the tightest tonight and belt out their death/doom/sludge they even have a inverted cross onstage to enhance the experience, the drummer is one of the most consistent tonight,he goes on with his blast beats and double bass and they play the longest set of the night and by the time they end headbangers are looking for painkillers. Homeground heroes UNDYING INC. begin with their garangutan-himalaya like riffage which turns the crowd's tiredness into a lava of horn-throwing stampede,despite microphone failures and technical difficulties Undying Inc.don't fail to deliver and send us all stumbling into the night battered,bruised,satisfied and certainly elated.

Photos by Stanzin Namgail