Interview with India’s only horror metal band, ALBATROSS

Greetings from MetalIndia Magazine. How are you doing? Please introduce your band to our readers.
We are actually doing quite well, we had a brilliant 2 city launch tour and we’re working on some new material. Greetings to beings of this world and those of realms beyond. We’re Albatross, and we’re India’s only horror metal band. We delight in making you piss your pants and stay up at night. Biprorshee Das is our lead vocalist and resident feminist, Rajarshi Bhattacharyya our multi-millionaire lead/rhythm guitarist, Mrudul Kamble our lead/rhythm guitarist who gets erections when you mention Opeth,  Jay Thacker our topless, alcoholic drummer and my name is Riju Dasgupta, I play bass and I am your worst nightmare.

Your debut EP ‘Dinner Is You’ has recently released via Demonstealer Records. Please tell us more about it.
Well to start off with, it’s probably the greatest album ever. Haha, Dinner is You is a concept EP dealing with the Kuru Disease, a laughing disease which affects cannibals. It’s been mixed by our guitarist Rajarshi and mastered by the legendary Andy LaRocque from King Diamond. The album is a twisted tale of a man called the master, who is a gentleman in every sense…except when he’s eating you. He’s cooler than Hannibal Lecter and has a bigger appetite than Gene Hoglan. Check out the album for more.

What inspired you to write the lyrics on ‘Dinner is you’? Could you please explain in brief the concept/story/idea behind the EP?
The story of Albatross actually begins in Planet M, CST, Mumbai where I picked up King Diamond’s Abigail. I was a Mercyful Fate fan before this, but I was completely blown away by the conceptual nature of Abigail. I used to get turned off  by half-baked concept albums which focused on the abstract or subjects personal to the musician themselves, which were a pain to follow. Abigail was an out and out Hollywood worthy concept and it completely changed my perspective on writing lyrics. I’ve always been inspired by authors like Poe, Lovecraft, (Stephen) King, Koontz and always wanted to write my own horror stories. And the horror concept album seemed the perfect outlet for it since it’s hardly been attempted across the world, much less in India.

The EP follows the tale of a cannibal called the master, who calls people to his house and eats them(The song called the Dining Table on our Myspace page-  deals with the same). He is presented in court in the next song- ‘In the Court of Kuru’ for cannibalism, where the judge doesn’t show up. Why, you wonder? Well it’s because he’s been seasoned and cooked. He’s thereafter served to everyone seated in the courtroom, who are deriding the master for cannibalism while eating human flesh. Exasperated, the courtroom sentences the cannibal to death among the cannibals…and there’s a slight twist in the tale. You’ll know when you get the CD.

The first song on the CD- The Great Plague of the 21st Century is not really based on the Kuru concept, but it’s a twisted version of ‘Ring-a-ring-o-Roses’ which, allegedly, was written during the great plague of England.  For instance, ‘Husha, husha, we all fall down’ refers to people sneezing and dying of the plague.

Your style of music (Horror Metal) is something new for metalheads in India; no Indian band has played such music before. How has been the response to this new form of music? Are you ever worried about its acceptance?
Very mixed, which I don’t really mind at all. Universal acceptance would mean that the music is mainstream and commonplace, and Albatross is the complete antithesis of the mainstream mode of songwriting. But at the same time, thankfully there’s a vast contingent of people who’re very interested in our kind of music. CD Rack tells me no album has sold as fast as ‘Dinner is You’ since Demonic Resurrection’s ‘A Return to Darkness’. It’s encouraging that there’s such a huge mass of people interested in the music, even if it’s so obtuse. Am I worried about it’s acceptance? All the time! But at the same time we’re a band which does what we like and we don’t bow down to trends, so it’s all good ?.

King Diamond has been a great influence in your music, which other bands do you look for inspiration?
We all have different influences to be honest, and Judas Priest is probably the only band all of us like. Apart from King Diamond and Mercyful Fate, I’m very influenced by bands like Wolf, Iced Earth etc., Raj likes more modern sounding bands like Soilwork and Ihsahn, Jay and Mrudul are big fans of Dream Theater and Opeth, whereas Biprorshee loves bands such as Iron Maiden and Manowar. In our music, you can find influences from all these bands.

You recently performed with NERVECELL and DEVOID, how was your experience? Any memorable events?
I’ve personally known Devoid ever since my first band Old Monks played Campus Rock Idols with them, and it’s awesome to see how far they’ve come in these 5 years. Their album is awesome and they’re total crowd pullers. Nervecell were a complete revelation, the guys are the nicest ever and their drummer is inhuman yet probably the most soft-spoken guy I’ve ever met. And boy oh boy, do they slay it onstage. The Blue Frog gig packed to the brim was an experience in itself. But what was a completely hilarious experience was when our vocalist Biprorshee Das was introducing the band, he turns around to introduce our drummer Jay and he’s suddenly at a loss for words. Meek, timid Jay is sitting there half naked.

What’s next on the plate (no pun intended) for Albatross? When can we expect a full length release?
We’re going to start writing more material next week, and I’ve a vague idea of the concept of the next album in my mind. I’ve already discussed the idea with Biprorshee, Mrudul and Jay and they all agree that it’s much crazier than the current concept. The songs will explore a lot of territory we haven’t explored before; with Raj bringing in his progressive metal influences and Mrudul, our newfound wonderkid also contributing to the riffage. The album should be out by the end of 2011 or early 2012. I’m also planning some collaborations on some tracks, I will announce them if they do happen. If they do happen, it’ll be epic beyond words.

Few members of the band play in other bands? Which bands do they play for and how do you manage to come out with a sound completely different from other bands?
Jay and Mrudul play for progressive metal band Colossus and I play for Workshop . Biprorshee and Rajarshi are currently in no other bands. When I created the band, I made sure the lineup would be interested in being creative, original and thinking out of the box. And hence, this lineup is perfect.

Like I said before, all of us have different leanings, me and Biprorshee more towards the power metal side of music, and Jay, Mrudul and Raj towards progressive metal. Hence, the final sound is an alloy of all our metal influences. Here’s a small warning: our music is only going to get crazier.

Where can one get hold of your EP?
You can get our music at: CDRack.in or The Flaming Skull Distributions . For international orders, you can mail demonstealerrecords@gmail.com or thedemonstealer@gmail.com

Any message for our readers/your fans.
We’re really humbled and grateful that you guys are open to a new genre of music and that you’ve accepted us with open arms. But by doing so, you’ve invited an ancient evil beyond description into your homes. As Bruce Dickinson once said- the good that men do if oft interred with their bones, but the evil that men do lives on. Stay evil, my friends.

Cheers to MetalIndia magazine. We wish you all the best.