It is not always that one visits the dark but fascinating recesses of extreme music. The vaults here contain some of the most intriguing pieces of songwriting written, and explore lyrical themes which are diametrically opposite the commonplace love-and-heartbreak affair. Here, the grotesque machinations of war, politics, and the horrors that ensue are narrated. All this, against the backdrop of a sonic tidal wave. And Godless, an extreme metal band with roots in Hyderabad, executes this well.
‘States of Chaos’ is the metal quartet’s third record which was released last month. Wrenched from these very vaults, the nine-song full length album, according to vocalist Kausal L S, deals with the macabre and as the song Netherworld explains, tech-dystopian wastelands. “The lyrics mostly explore topics based on psychological horror, and the manner in which human beings manifest trepidation precipitated by the macabre,” he says.
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Soon after its release,‘States of Chaos’ climbed up to # 1 on the thrash metal charts, and # 2 on the death metal charts on Bandcamp, a music portal where listeners can directly support bands by buying their music or mechandise. “We never expected that this would happen. I was on the Bandcamp page and saw that we had made it to the top of the death and thrash metal charts. For a band from Hyderabad, being on those charts meant a lot,” says Godless founder member and bassist Syed Abbas Razvi.
A post-tour high
Godless, which comprises Abbas, Kaushal, drummer Vishnu Reddy and guitarist Moiz, recently returned from a tour with performances in six cities – Guwahati, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad and Mumbai. Another India tour is planned next year
But the pandemic has taken its toll on the ‘metal scene’. With no record label to back them, the post-COVID world has been more demanding of independent artistes. Such bands have to be more resilient, self-motivated and fastidious.
“The entertainment industry is the first to close down and the last to open up during the pandemic. To put things into context, death metal is a niche genre. So it took a while to get back. While our first album Centuries of Decadence were released by means of a record label, the second album Swarm and the latest States of Chaos were independently released,” says founder member and bassist Syed Abbas Razvi. “It is more of a DIY for independent bands. It is like a 24x7 job. We have to work harder. But in our case, we have a certain aesthetic and we have full creative control.”
It was in 2018 that the band play at Wacken Open Air in Germany, the world’s biggest metal festival. But far from being content, the Godless say that expectations have only risen, and that the job is to surpass these expectations.
