Technical melodic death metal torch bearers from U.S,share their thoughts with us.
Kindly read on-

Hello guys! How are the things at your end?
Hello Metal India !!! First of all, we would like to thank you for the opportunity provided, to reach our fans from the sub-continent. Things are really great at our end. Played a show last week with the support of Joey Belladonna (Ex-Vocalist of ANTHRAX) and had great fun. Few more gigs lined up for the next few weeks. Looking forward to it. we are composing some new crazy songs (one coming up soon), and we recently started promoting ourselves more and more.

Firstly we would like to know about the current scene within your genre? Do you get shows easily?
There are quite a lot of metal bands around here, but not so many that play technical stuffs. Shows aren’t difficult to get, you just need to ask around.
But reaching the right kind of crowd is important too. So, we make sure to find the right place for gigs. A show every two months for the right crowd is much preferred than having more shows in a month. Moreover, we don’t play too many at this time, because we are just too busy with our lives. School, work, and other activities are just too time-consuming. The music scene in USA for technical melodic death metal is not really the best compared to other genres. It’s definitely not at par with the scene in Scandinavia and other European counties. People here do like our creativity and the technicality in our music. Some of them do visit our concerts on a regular basis, irrespective of the venue and the duration of the set. Technical melodic death metal do inspire some people here, but is definitely not the most popular among the genres in the USA.

Which all bands have you played with? Which is your dream band that you would like to open for?
We just played our first gig with an international star on March 23rd. We won the Chicago Metal Wars at #2 and got this opportunity of playing with Joey Belladonna. (Thanks to all our supporters from India for the votes). Our dream band to open for would be Skyfire.

What kind of attendance is there at shows that feature you? And do you see numbers growing in years to come or is it your cult audience that will keep turning up at them?
The attendance is not that great. Like I mentioned, its a real problem to find good audience for the type of music we play. We have some devoted fans that follow us to every show. The numbers on the shows are slowly growing. People recognize us, which is sort of surprising, so I’m hoping it will only get better and better. We have just starting promoting, and our name is finally getting out there. Hopefully we will see more fans attending more shows in future.

Lyrically what’s your ideology, what all do your lyrics talk about? Who does the writing? What gigs and festivals would you like to play inside or outside of US?
Ramki takes complete charge of the lyrics. The ideology just started to develop and the prime focus is on social issues, divinity, war and people. Indian culture has been the most recent addition to the ideas and we are starting to enhance our base on this. Each of us have a dream festival to play in. Kamil would like to play at the Metalmania in Poland, where all the great Swedish, Norwegian, and Finish bands play. Mike’s dream venue is Tuska-Festival in Finland. Ramki’s dream festival would be to play at the GIR !!!

Which all bands influence you on a personal level? And how do you cement your influences on a common platform?
We are influenced by many great bands for different aspects. Cynic, Death, Skyfire, Metallica, Megadeth, and Rudra are a few that comes to my mind at this time. Kamil loves trash metal and Kirk Hammett’s soloing, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Joe Satriani, and Yngve Malmsteen. Stan would say Skyfire. Mike would say Inflames.

What weightage does showmanship carry in bands of your genre? How important is the intensity? What kind of practice schedule do you follow to achieve that?
We practice monotonously until we all are able too play it with our eyes closed..just kidding. We target high importance on tightness and coordination. Bad notes happen from time to time, but if you are in the rhythm you’re ok. We try to give as much energy on stage as possible, which is not always possible due to the technicality of our songs. A practice session usually consists of playing an hour set, like in the show, and then learning new stuff, and correcting old. We also use some software for metronome reference. We make sure its important for everyone to attend practice. We play when we get a chance, but things get in the way, such as school, and having a job. If everyone is able to make it to practice, we will play every one of our songs once, then work on corrections. If someone does not show up, we work on learning new material, and compose some stuff.

Are you aware about the Indian metal scene? Any bands you have heard? Do any bands from rest of Asia interests you?
Kamil and Ramki says…..RUDRA RULES!!! We actually went for Rudra’s concert in Minneapolis. It was great to meet the guys, have fun with them and then listen to their music at their concert. They were great. Ramki is from India. He shows us different bands he knows about. It’s really great. Hopefully they will soon be switching from playing covers to writing original songs(a humble and polite suggestion), because there is a lot potential there to do that.
Mike says… I have heard of the Indian metal scene, I’ve heard of many bands from Ramki, but 2 that stick around in my mind are Rudra, and Sledge. Maybe NoEsIS could be a part of the Indian metal scene one day.

Whats your first reaction as soon as I utter-
a) Iron Maiden & their recently concluded ‘A matter of life & death tour’ which included ‘Desert rock feast’in Dubai & Edfest in Bangalore, India! –
NOESIS-Finally !!! I heard not big bands visited India before. Maybe this is the turning point !!!
b) Metallica-
NOESIS-Wish we could meet them.
c) Death metal in US-
JNOESIS-dead
d) Norwegian black metal-
Kool, but too many bands play the same shit over and over.
e) Slayer-
A lot of their songs sound similar to one another, but there are a few selected songs that we enjoy.

Any plans of playing in India? Can we expect more studio recordings from you in form of an album? Have you planned a tentative date or schedule for launch?
We would love to play in India. We know we have a huge fan base there. We even have offers to play several shows and big festivals there. However, at this point we have to clear our residency status in U.S. We are basically stuck here for probably the next 6 months. We are composing songs to be added to our EP “Excerpts of Vidhya”. We don’t know how long it will take to compose another 5 songs. We write stuff that is very complicated and technical so that each and every song provides a challenge to us. Hence, it takes quite some time to finish. We do not have a release date in our minds yet, but we are hoping to complete an album within the next 12 months from now…well at least composing the songs.

 
Any special message you would like to give to your fans in India & abroad?
Kamil and Ramki says …A special thanks to all the Desi Metal Heads, who lead us all the way to #2 in the Chicago Metal Wars !!! Thank you for all the support you have given to us at all times. It’s very valuable to us and we appreciate all your interest in our music. You are way cooler than people in U.S. (well..with few exceptions).
Mike says … Thanks Metalindia for having us in this issue, and thanks to all our fans in India, Its great knowing we have some people that like our music, in other parts of the world.

Thank you so much for your time! All the best from Team Metalindia!
Thanks !!! Ohm Shanthi Shanthi Shanthihe !!!

Interviewed by-Atul Sharma