British Council was the place to be, if you were in Chennai on the evening of April 24. The city saw metal-heads returning after an invigorating Cradle of Filth concert the night before at Bangalore, only to join the headlong rush of a crowd gathered to hear Chennai bands Totem, Crypted and Blind Image, that opened for the British metal band Cyanide Serenity.
With Yohan David (vocals), Siddharth Raghunandan (Guitars), Harshan Radhakrishnan (keys and effects), Prabhat Arora (drums) and Adarsh Raghuram on Bass, the alternative rock band opened its act with the original ‘Boxers and Wayfarers' followed by an admirable cover of Porcupine Tree's ‘Slave called Shiver'— a love song from the album Stupid Dream , a second original ‘Make it work' and the funky ‘Aeroplane'— cover of Red Hot Chilli Peppers from the album One Hot Minute . Yohan's singing had the trace of Anthony Kiedis's distinct vocals.
Up next was the progressive/technical death metal band Crypted, with Siva Sbk (vocals), V.G. Pranav (guitar), Adarsh Raghuram (Bass) and Vishnu Reddy on drums. First played was Decapitated's ‘Spheres of Madness' cover —a song questioning existence, followed by originals — the latest ‘Distorted Thought Association', ‘Inside the Outsider' and ‘Flesh Eater' from the first EP Equilibrium . The songs are about human psychology and deal more specifically with people's syndromes.
Last opening act was by the extreme thrash metal band Blind Image; with David (Vocals), Shri (guitar), V.G. Pranav (guitar), Krish (Drums) and Shiva on bass. They played a set of all originals: ‘Character Assassination', ‘More than Human', ‘Glitch in the System', ‘Deciphered' and ‘Axioms of Synergy'; ending the set with ‘Black Label'— cover of Lamb of God from the album New American Gospel that heightened the flurry of excitement amongst the crowd.
Synergy and sound
Crypted and Blind Image saw some intense moshing in the form of thrashing and eventually a brief Wall of Death . Although etiquettes were fairly maintained, the real synergy could be felt once the members of the UK technical progressive metal band Cyanide Serenity stepped on stage — Travis Neal (vocals), John Dugmore (lead guitar), Gaz Braddock (lead guitar), Ryan Wyatt (drums) and John Knight on Bass. Opening with the newly-released ‘Consume Me', they followed with ‘Dethrone', ‘Martyr 2010', ‘Conflict from Within', ‘System Failure' and ‘Believe in the Sun'. The intensity and technicality of their music was in one word — stunning, and the raging encore led to a repeat of the song they played that day — ‘Consume Me'. This was also the first time that the new vocalist Travis Neal played live with Cyanide Serenity.
Despite several technical glitches throughout the show, the turnout was good, and the collective hysteria post-event led to a conversation with the Cyanide guys about their work, life, and fidelity to India.
Formed from the band-members of Burnt, Amenti and Fleshold, Cyanide Serenity is, in their words, “a collaboration of focused and mature musicians”. Describing themselves as an “experimental progressive metal machine”, they cited their influences as “Chimera, Shinedown, Staind, Tool, The Police, Sikth and European metal of the likes of Katatonia amongst others. The band is open to shifting genres, and plays what “feels right, and comes out naturally”. They have also experimented with female vocalists, “but it never works out, for obvious reasons”, says drummer Ryan Wyatt laughingly. They expressed interest in exploring the sounds of Indian instruments, especially sitar.
Says vocalist Travis Neal, “When we came to India, we were blown away by the richness of the music and the traditional Indian soul inherent in it (apart from tuk-tuks (autos) and Indian curry).” The band members were impressed mostly by Abraxas, Blind Image, Scribe, Shock Therapy and Inner Sanctum.
Commenting on the concept of moshing, says lead guitarist Gaz Braddock, “Why do people like to mosh? It is definitely the energy doing the rounds. It is such a release for us to be on stage, to make some noise. Likewise, the crowd likes to go crazy. They feed on us, and we off them.” They described the mosh environment back home as a family one, and said “We also have a lot of girls moshing, but at the end of the day, it is the energy that matters, and not the sex.”
They stressed on the importance of being “clear-headed” on the stage. “In order to succeed, you need to stand the test of time. Your music should be liked in the live shows. We are not here to fizzle down,” says bassist John Knight. Definitely, it looks like Cyanide Serenity is here to make more waves. But we are not complaining, for the love is only mutual!
