By Srishti Das
A few years ago, being a metal lover in India was hopeless, specially in terms of the possibilities of getting to witness good live metal. Today, things are much better. With acts from India showing the international world their musical abilities and blogs, webzines and promoters being hard held on not being left far behind, India is slowly creeping in on to the global metal map.
A few weeks ago, facebook was taken over by a status update about a new music festival coming up for the Indian metal followers called Big69. Soon after, a section of the lineup was released which had Italian technical death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse and UK rap metal band Hacktivist. As if that wasn’t enough, the next announcements by Big69 stated that UK Progressive Metal band SikTh would be the third band on the bill. With one more international band yet to be disclosed, Indians are taking their guesses at who the fourth name might be. All three bands have announced their excitement, having never played in India before, while Indian metalheads have gone on to express their pleasure through and through.
The festival is being organised by BAJAAO Consulting and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and supported by Pepsi MTV Indies. Top-notch Indian bands Demonic Resurrection, Undying Inc, Zygnema, Kyptos, Gutslit, Albatross, Escher’s Knot, Inner Sanctum, Providence, Noiseware, Devoid, Chronic Xorn, Plague Throat and Grammy Winning Effort, along with Underside from Nepal, will also perform at the festival. In addition, MTV Indies will carry out a nationwide search to look for two promising Indian bands to play at the festival. Thus, not only will it be a great opportunity for the metal crowd to attend a great festival, but also many aspiring Indian bands will be given a chance to share the stage with such big acts.
Festival organisers BAJAAO have had a long association with the Indian metal scene. They were the company behind the now defunct cult underground venue B69, which is still remembered fondly by the city’s metal heads. Festival director Himanshu Vaswani stated that Big69 would try at closing the void that B69 left many years ago. The festival will take place at the Richardson & Cruddas industrial compound in Byculla, Bombay. Tickets are already up on pre-sale. If you’re Indian and you love metal, you know where you want to be on the 17th-18th of January 2015.
Big69 links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram