EDM rules the roost this weekend with almost every music venue in the city hosting a DJ or an electronica act, but that’s where Bengaluru’s very own classic heavy metal band Kryptos comes to the rescue with a two-hour special set of headbanging hits.
With Nolan Lewis on guitars and vocals, Rohit Chaturvedi on lead guitars, Ganesh K on bass and Anthony Hoover on drums, the band is putting up a two-hour heavy metal spectacle at bFlat this Sunday titled ‘Run For Cover’.
“This gig should be fun,” emphasises frontman Nolan. “While the first half will mainly be songs from our last few albums, the next one hour will be covers of songs by all the bands that we grew up on including Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Metallica and others. Everyone has something good to take away.”
The most important takeaway for headbangers in a Kryptos concert, Nolan says, is to have a good time. “When people come to our gig, we want them to destress. They should get away from the hassles of their work. We will be on stage having fun and we want everyone else to get involved and have fun with us. You should feel good about going to a gig and listening to music. That’s pretty much what heavy metal and rock ‘n’ roll should be about. And with how Bengaluru is with its traffic, we want to put on a good show, be a stressbuster and help people go home energised for the week ahead.”
Formed in late 1998, the band has been one of the spearheads of the Indian heavy metal revolution. Fighting the good fight for almost two decades, the band has released four critically-acclaimed albums, supported some of the biggest names in metal and toured Europe multiple times.
Being in the scene for a long time, Nolan says, has been a pretty good experience. “We are going to Europe again in July. We’ve been going there regularly; at least once every year. And we are doing shows in the country too. So things are looking good for us. We can’t complain,” he sums up cheerfully.
So is the scope for Indian bands abroad broadening? Nolan wonders aloud: “You know how it is in India. People don’t have time to invest in a band. A lot of us actually put in tons of work to just get the foot through the door. But once you’re in, the prospects are definitely worth the effort.”
On how they’ve seen the scene develop in the country, Nolan points out that, in actuality, the number of venues seem to have gone down over the years. “There seems to be a dearth of good places for gigs. Also, I think a lot of bands are concentrating more on releasing their music rather than playing live. They do a gig here and a gig there and that’s it. Once upon a time, bands used to play almost all over the country to promote their music. I think this phenomenon is mainly because other forms of music like EDM are becoming popular and the listener base is gravitating to the digital space.”
But, he quickly agrees that the scope for metal will never fade away. “There’s always going to be a die-hard fan base. It’s actually quite interesting because we stuck to our music even though we got older. Now, we see kids who are our age back then, who still come for our shows, buy our music and keep the band going. They further get into bands of their own and keep the ball rolling. The die-hard fan base is not big, but it’s there. The city is very supportive that way with a hardcore following, especially for the old styles of heavy metal.”
In future, Nolan says the band would love to tour exotic hotspots for music. “We’d like to branch from Europe to South America and Japan among other places which we can only dream about playing in. We’ve also been writing new material and by early next year, we should be bringing out a new album.”
Catch Kryptos live at bFlat, Indiranagar, on June 18 from 8 pm onwards. Call 25278361.
