MORE MUMBAI METAL

Yesterday we posted some news about a promising metal band from Mumbai, India, called Demonic Resurrection. Astonishingly, that short piece drew more visits than any other post we’ve written, save one, since we began this blog last November. One of those readers, “Infected0718,” urged us to check out another Mumbai band called Bhayanak Maut, and we did. Today we feel compelled to write about them, too. (We received other recommendations, and we’re also following up on them.)

Metalheads well know that we’re in the middle of an extreme metal renaissance (and NO, we’re not talking about Axl Rose taking the stage again or Slash releasing a new album). In recent years, we’ve seen an explosion in the number, quality, and popularity of bands putting out the kind of music we love.

That phenomenon is not confined to North America and Western Europe. It’s happening throughout the world. And to us here at NCS, there’s something reassuring about that. As fucked up as the planet is in so many ways, and as many religious, cultural, and political barriers still divide people around the globe, music is a common language. Even in our tiny corner of the music universe (where a ridiculously small percentage of all people are thoroughly hooked on this brand of music), we have brothers and sisters everywhere who speak this demented language.

As a pretty random set of examples, we’ve written here at NCS in the not-too-distant past about bands and artists from Italy (Hour of Penance, Psychofagist, and Carnal Rapture), Hungary (I Divine), Romania (Negura Bunget), Moldova (Neuromist), Costa Rica (Sight of Emptiness), Finland (e.g., The Jasser Arafats), Sweden (Soreption and Valkyrja), Greece (Rotting Christ and Gus Drax), Indonesia (Bloodshedd), Germany (Thrudvangar), Norway (Shining), France (Eryn Non Dae), South Africa (Haggis and Bong), and — well, you get the idea.

Not so long ago, we never would have known of bands like this or had any realistic chance of hearing their music. But thanks to the miracles of modern technology invented by Al Gore, they’re now just a few clicks away. And that brings us back to Bhayanak Maut.  (stay with us, after the jump . . .)

“Bhayanak Maut” seems to mean “Terrible Death” in Hindi. And they do play some fucking mean, groove-oriented death metal. They released a self-titled album last August on a Delhi label called Grey and Saurian, and it appears they released a couple of EP’s before that. It’s the new album we’ve been listening to since yesterday.

The music is fast, the playing is tight, and the songs are well-constructed to deliver a thoroughly headbangable experience. There seem to be two vocalists — Vinay Venkatesh and Sunneith Revankar — and they deliver a rapid-fire blend of death-metal gutturals and shrieks. The two guitarists (Aditya Gopinathan and R.Venkatraman) are quite adept at churning out some infectious buzzsaw riffage, infused with memorable melodic leads that give each song a distinctive edge.

But this music is mainly about rhythm and groove, and the band features a jackhammer rhythm section (Vinit Bharucha on bass and Rahul Hariharan on drums) that propels the whole enterprise forward with compulsive power. It’s a formula designed to make you wanna jump up and start snapping your neck.

Bhayanak Maut aren’t breaking any molds with their music, but man, we’re having some serious fun listening to what they do. Judge for yourself: Here’s a sample song from the new Bhayanak Maut album:

Bhayanak Maut: Ungentle

If you like what you hear, more songs are streaming on the band’s MySpace page, and you can buy and download the album here.