Hacride vocalist Luiss Roux
June 13, 2022: Torrential rain, a short circuit, fire extinguishers and even Bumblefoot couldn’t deter the premiere edition of Bombay Asylum at Club Escape in Andheri, Mumbai. The new series of fortnightly gig brought to you by metal programming division of Culture Shoq, Aaargh could have easily ended in a disaster. But once the metchul got on stage, there was nothing stopping the monster. Mumbai horror metal act Albatross, Maldivian death metal act Nothnegal and French heavy metallers Hacride performed perfectly precision-ed, some improvised, moshpit-inducing and really loud setlists. Both the international bands performed as part of the ongoing Deccan Rock III India tour. Albatross opened the night with a mixed setlist and their damnably brutal cover of Holy Driver easily won them the night. Their signature track Uncle Sunny At The Tavern found us singing along with vocalist Biprorshee Das. Nothnegal played a more sober 45-minute setlist mostly with tracks from their upcoming self-titled EP that released July 9. Drummer Kevin Talley was missing from the band on the tour as he is playing with Metallica at The Orion Festival. But the night clearly belonged to Hacride, who could have easily sent us to the lunatics ward. Their one-hour pummeling stage attack had sections of the crowd breaking into multiple, periodic moshpits. As soon as new frontman Luiss Roux began his blood curdling growl on their new song Introversion, all necks, fists and limbs belonged to the band. Guitarist Adrien Grousset’s fender-bending antics made sure the energy didn’t drop for the duration of the set.
Pictures: Sukrit Nagaraj
