Wednesday, December 23, 2009






Review in Nxg "The Hindu'


Unseen Underground in association with Fa Men Xtreme created a history in Chennai by organizing the first ever whole night live rock show, Ragnarok ‘09 ,at the New Year’s Eve on the 31st of December, 2009 at Geoffrey’s Pub. The show featured 7 bands from across the country. The Rock fans of Chennai had a splendid time throughout the show and some new listeners’ felt the vibrations on the various genres of rock music. As Chennai people were used to electronic music all these years in this season in all the pubs and resorts, Un-seen Underground Ragnarok was a unique show that made its fan-base confess that it was the best way to start a new year with pure music and live performances. The crowd was huge. The Bands from other cities too looked forward to this show as there was not one full night live band performance happening anywhere across the country on the 31st of Decem-ber. And this was the key for the success of Unseen Underground Ragnarok. The idea was new and unique; no wonder it was accepted by hundreds of people, from Chennai and its neighboring cities, who came all the way to witness the finest bands from across the coun-try, enticing them with 6 hours of unadulterated rock and metal music.

After a long wait Crypted, a Chennai based progressive death metal band started the show with great fervor. Their music triggered the youngsters to come forward and bang their heads to their powerful riffs and vocals. Soon everybody got mesmerized by their music and started moshing.
Next up was a progressive metal band, Purple Blood all the way from Trivandrum to rock the people of Chennai. This young band left the crowd awestruck with their brilliant show-manship.

Rampazze, a Rock N Roll and Hard Rock band based in Delhi was not new to the crowd of Chennai. When they took the stage next, the long awaiting fans of this band got much more than what they expected this time. Age no bar, everyone came and joined their journey to old school and rock and roll music. Their music was produced by using some of the best In-dian made guitars of HMI. It was amazing to see that their original songs were familiar to most of the crowd, who started to sing along with the band.

After this rock and roll journey Abandoned Agony, a technical brutal death metal band from Bangalore took the stage to create a thunder with their original songs. This band has made a strong fan base after their first show in Unseen Underground Pub Fest V. The place was in fire and got packed with lot of people, much more than what the organizers had pre-dicted. The clock struck 12 while they were playing and everyone started greeting each other, including the band. A great beginning to a New Year filled with lots of hope.

Right after that, the stage was taken by Atmosfear a death metal band from Mumbai. In spite of their first gig in the city they had an excellent crowd support. With their performance, they left the crowd baffled.

Chennai’s own Blind Image, a Contemporary metal band came next on stage to ensnare their fans with the songs from their new album “More Than Human”. The scene was just inexpressi-ble. The fans of the band lost themselves to their music in the early hours of 2010. Everyone seemed to be happy about such a commencement to a New Year with their desired music float-ing in the air. Of course it was something new to the Chennai crowd present in the show. But this was no end. T-Man of Nova Sanctum Fame from Eastern India took stage with his bass guitar jamming session. Addy from Armour of God joined him on stage. Time was a hindrance as there was one more band in the queue. But the crowd wanted more with no sign of winding up. Then, Bangalore based band Kaashmora delivered their best even though time was a constraint for them.
The mass was unwilling to leave but it had to end. The show came to a halt with a message of prosperity and inspiration for all; to look forward to 2010; for 365 days of exhilaration and non-stop metal mayhem. We are sure that Unseen Underground has lots more to deliver this year af-ter the success of Ragnarok 09. Fingers crossed!


Pre event coverage in Expresso (The New Indian Express)


Pre event coverage in Chennai Times


AD PUBLISHED IN CHENNAI TIMES

[Please Note: The above ad creative and publicity of the ad was by the Host and not by Unseen Underground]

PRE EVENT COVERAGE IN METRO PLUS "THE HINDU"

PRE EVENT COVERAGE IN Nxg "THE HINDU"

Online Media Coverage :

If you are in Chennai on 31st evening you should feel proud of the city as the top 9 Rock bands from across the country are coming down to welcome the new year with us in an unique way that had never happen in this city before in this occasion . This New Year’s eve will trait many pub events, where the localities, especially couples are invited for a party with dance and music. This is nothing unusual for Chennai as it happens regularly every year with a fair amount of price. If you had enough of such parties and bored to go to a mediocre event like that, then you should consider for the real music fest. The best option would be the Unseen Underground Ragnarok’2009 organized by Unseen Underground in Association with Fa Men Xtreme, Kingfisher, HMI,SS Music, DOOHM & Rock and Raga at Geoffrey’s pub at 31st night. This event promises to bring you the best New Year’s party ever with some of the greatest rock musicians from the country performing live. The line-up for this event will feature 9 bands from all the major cities from the country, all geared up to deliver 6 hours of pure rock & metal massacre. Featuring bands are listed below.
1.RAMPAZZE ( Delhi / Guwahati)
2.ATMOSFEAR (Mumbai)
3.PURPLEBLOOD (Trivandrum )
4.KAASHM0RA ( Bangalore )
5.ZYGNEMA ( Mumbai)
6.ABANDONED AGONY ( Bangalore )
7.BLIND IMAGE (Chennai)
8.CRYPTED ( Chennai)
9.T-MAN'S HMI PRIMA BASS GUITAR WORKSHOP ( Guwahati / IIM-Kozhikode )
Date : 31st December '2009 .
Venue : Geoffrey's Pub ,
RADHA REGENT .
# 171, Jawaharlal Nehru Salai.
Arumbakkam, Chennai-106
Time : 8 pm till 2am
This is an unique event happening on 31st Dec evening for the 1st time in Chennai. So lets make a history.
For more details of the show mail Nicky at unseenunderground@gmail.com

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Unseen Underground Pub Fest - V



Review in Explocity 044 magazine



Review in Chennai Times


Review in Nxg The Hindu


METAL AT IT'S VERY BEST

The fifth edition of Unseen Underground Pub Fest underwent at Geoffrey's pub last Sunday was nothing less than a complete extreme metal treat for the Chennai fans. The gig was sponsored by Kingfisher, co-sponsored by Levis Strauss *Signature* and Lavazza, supported by HMI guitars,SS Music and Radiomirchi 98.3FM. The gig featured four extreme metal bands - two Bangalore and two more from Chennai. All the four bands displayed their unique talent in their own sub-genre of metal. They all stood to their reputation of delivering their best heavy numbers to the crowd and keeping them wild until the end of the show. Heavy rainfall did not stop the local metal heads to gather at Geoffrey's. It was a good number turned out for an underground metal event. HMI’s new rage of Metal guitar display in the venue added extra attraction to the ambience of the place. Many aspired musicians tried their hands on the HMI guitars and special mention Shri (Blind Image) replaced his ESP guitar with HMI 4RR32 and Madhav (Escher’s Knot/Theorized) used HMI Prima HP5C bass for the entire show.

Escher's Knot opened the gig with their third consecutive appearance in Unseen Underground Pub Fest. They started with a cover song by Textures called Drive. With Textures confirming recently about their performance in India soon for the Deccan Rock Fest, this cover song gave the taste of their music to the local crowd. The shouting style of hardcore vocals and the driving guitar riffs provided an excellent head banging experience. The next one was their own composition called This Page Has Been Intentionally Left Blank. Abhijeet expressed his skills in vocal varieties, right from black metal style screeches to death metal's trade mark growls. Then they followed with Break The Cypher and then with The Mayan Calendar two tight tracks delivered without a flaw. Sepultura's Territory was played next. This song is not new for the Chennai metal heads as it has been played in almost all the gigs featuring Manu as the drummer. The band had very little place on stage as the crowd shrank the place as they moved forward in a mosh. Finally they finished their set list with Up For Nothing.

The next band on stage was Bangalore based brutal death metal fit Abandoned Agony. It was complete brutality at Geoffrey's. This band reminded plenty of Cannibal Corpse especially with their short evil guitar solo riffs. Their first song was their title song from their only demo album Infected Unborn. It was a pleasant shock to the crowd to hear brutal death metal. The next song was Genocide,which is again a very typical death metal song with merciless brutality. Then they followed with three quick numbers Terror Assassination, Sadistic Pleasure, and Deformed. The vocalist Rajesh also took the bass guitar duties. He made it look very easy, which is normally not for an extreme metal band. Then there was a Cannibal Corpse called Skull Full of Maggots. It was a flawless performance. The only thing missed is their second guitarist to fill the blank areas during the short solos. Their last song was Barbaric Killing, probably the lengthiest song in their set list. It started smoothly and all the way to back to violence. Good tight performance overall.

Blind Image released their first album at Unseen Underground Pub Fest II and they are back to edition 5 to promote their recent second full length album More Than Human. They started with the title song from the album. It clearly showed a huge change in their sound from their previous album. Blind Image has evolved a long way and now they moved on to progressive hardcore metal in their experimental music journey. The melodic interludes are new addition to their music. Then the next track was Deciphered. The band did not over-leverage on their ability to do it all the time with the necessary distinction and elegance of their instrument handing capabilities. Then they satisfied the longing crowd's request by playing a Lamb of God cover called Black Label. Ominous was the next track. It build up the necessary tempo and aggression like slow motion adrenaline. Then they followed with Now You Have Got Something To Die For, a good headbanger from Lamb of God. Crowd was very excited to hear Lamb of God cover again. They finished off with Glitch In The System but there wasn't any in their music.

The last band on stage was thrash metal band Theorized from Bangalore. This band has a good fan base in Chennai. It was a treat to see them live. First song in their set list was Dark Incarnation. There is no need to explain how old-school metal should sound like when you have Theorized on stage. It was more than just perfect. Next two tracks were Raise The Dead and Thought Experiment. The crowd was not at all tired even after listening to three extreme metal bands on stage. It was evident when a huge mosh almost dismounted a huge standing loudspeaker. The band didn't give rest to them as they followed with Death's Pull The Plug. The old-school metal fans had a good treat listening to this masterpiece. Their last two songs were Blackout and Venomous Tormentia. On the whole this is one band everyone should look forward for their future work.

It will not be a long wait until the next edition of the fest as the organizers seems to be doing it every month bigger and better every time. If you haven't been there for the previous fests then you better start looking out for the next announcement from Unseen Underground.


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Unseen Underground Pub Fest - IV

Pre event coverage in Deccan Chronicle


Review in Nxg The Hindu


Review in Chennai Times


Unseen Underground Pub Fest-IV .

Sunday evening hundreds of metal fans gathered at Geoffrey’s Pub to enjoy their favorite music as the fourth edition of Unseen Underground Pub Fest was taking place. The Unseen Underground Pub Fest has become one of the most awaited events for metal and rock music lovers of the city. The fest featured four bands; of which each band showcased its own unique knack on Metal. Another lure of the event was the display of HMI’s new range of guitars for the 1st time in India. In spite of heavy rain and festive moods people turned up for the show to prove their sincere passion for music.

The fest began with Blood Stain, an original composition by CRYPTED. CRYPTED is a recent progressive / trash metal band formed this year. Though it was their first performance in Unseen Underground Pub Fest the crowd was fascinated by their excellent performance. The band displayed their powerful energy on stage through Backbone –a cover song of Gojira. The audience started head banging along with the guitar riffs of Arvind and Shiva’s vocals which raised a terrific atmosphere. Vishnu displayed his dexterity on drums in their original composition called “Equilibrium” and “Held by chains”. They also covered “Black Label” which pulled the entire crowd towards them.

Amour of God the next band on stage started with “Journey” their original song dedicated to their former guitarist Late Arjun Vasudevan. They made the crowd bang their heads when they started playing “Destiny” and “Dawn of the reapers” the songs that are already familiar to their fans. Mark came and joined them on stage for a Metallica cover song “For whom the bell tolls”. Addy and Gene displayed their talent on guitars with “Scars of heaven” and Boskey showcased his finesse on keyboard for their new untitled number. Leon’s astounding act on the stage and his drumming skills were appreciated by the gathering .The crowd went wild and requested them for COB cover “Every time I die” which was their last song for the evening.

Then the stage was taken by the night’s most awaited band Blood and Iron with Manu on drums, Vivin on keyboards, Arun on base guitar, Ashish on guitar and Mark on the vocals. They played their own compositions from their first and second album. They started with In darkness a song from their second album followed by Blood oath a song from their first album. The crowd seemed very excited for their next tracks like Promised Lands, Dynamite World & Anarchy all from their 2nd album “Dynamite World” during which Ashish replaced his Jackson guitar with HMI king V.Just after Fear of The Dark medley they wrapped up with their self titled song from their 1st album leaving the crowd asking for more.

Last band of the evening was Escher’s Knot, a technical death metal project of the band Carnage. The band has gained a good popularity among the metal crowd within a very short span of time. They started with Textures cover Drive followed by their original track Up For Nothing. Their original This Page has Been Left Blank Intentionally has too many technical and complex stuff, which was well coordinated by Anshuman with his 7 string guitar and Manu’s drum patterns. It was not the scene where you slowly loose the crowd as it gets late in the night, in fact people still did not want to leave the place after Escher’s Knot concluded the Fest with a beautiful original track called Break The Cypher.

If any of you have missed this Concert wait for Unseen Underground Pub fest-V, there will be lot more new bands and music coming up to you.

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Unseen Underground Pub Fest - III

Pre event coverage in Metro Plus


Review in Nxg The Hindu


Review in The New Indian Express



Review in Chennai Times


A Well Paid Tribute to Opeth!

It has been just six months since Opeth played their very first concert in Chennai. The fans of the progressive metal can never get enough of their music as its varieties are almost close to infinity. When the starvation was still on, Unseen Underground organized a tribute show to Opeth in association with Geoffrey’s last Sunday. Unseen Underground Pub Fest III – A Tribute to Opeth concert featured members from the bands Soundscape, Blood & Iron, Escher’s Knot, Skrat and Third Harmonic. Frankly speaking covering Opeth songs is one of the toughest things to do. One would expect that local bands may not be able to play such complicated compositions and so it was a sceptical scenario for all the Opeth fans before the tribute show. But they were all proven wrong by the young lads of the medley band after the show got over.

It was a full packed house at Geoffrey’s even before the band members started doing the sound check. It was a delayed start because of some technical issues. Escher’s Knot took the stage first before the medley of bands started playing Opeth numbers. They played some of their original compositions. Abhijeet’s vocals was very brutal and he is sure capable of doing a Cannibal Corpse. However, he chose to be little modest and settled with a rhythmic type, which made him as one of the best candidate to sing Opeth. Then the members from other bands joined the stage to pay tribute to the Progressive Metal giants. The first song was The Grand Conjuration, which was a shocker when most people were expecting something from the Damnation album as it would be much easier to cover and melodic. Vijay from Soundscape did the soft vocal parts along with the bass guitar role. It was even more shocking when the fans realized how well they covered this track and most of them were awestruck to listen something that is impeccably closer to Opeth. The second one was Windowpane; it was the first mellow song of the day. Rudy took the in charge of vocals department. It was a good change in decibel level and well performed. What followed after that was again a bolt from the blue, a track from Morningrise called The Night and the Silent Water. Vinay and Varun brothers absolutely nailed the twin guitar harmonies. Rudy came to the stage for a second time and again one would expect a melodic number but not on a day when the band decided to keep shocking the crowd. It was Bleak from Blackwater Park another heavy number. Rudy’s other side of vocals was revealed for those who saw him for the first time. He totally deserves applause for doing growls that were too sweet. Mikael Akerfeldt would have given him a pat on his shoulders, if he were present there. The next one was from the Still-life album called Face of Melinda, a harmonious starter and shifts suddenly to a spine chilling heavy guitar riffs. Vivin’s presence came into spot light with the next song Burden from Opeth’s latest album, Watershed. The crowd paid good respect to the band by staying calm and enjoying this beautiful soft number. May be the band doesn’t like that calmness to last long as they followed it with Demon of the Fall, considered to be Opeth’s biggest hit. The calmness to wildness was not a kind of shift you would too often see in a metal concert. Demon of the Fall totally brought in demon at Geoffery’s as the people moved towards the stage and did a wild moshing and sang along with the band. There was a huge sigh of disappointment when the band announced that next one is going to be the last song. They chose to keep The Drapery Falls as the encore track like what Opeth did when they played in IIT-Madras. The long guitar solo before the beginning of the harsh vocals was so perfectly played. That was the end of set-list and the crowd gave a huge ovation to the band and then followed by a scream ONE MORE! That repeated until the band members came back to the stage to do one final encore. It was Bleak once again. Rudy seemed to be totally enjoying this track.

All in all, it was one of the best metal events that Chennai had ever seen. A special credit should be given to the drummers Hudstin, Manu and Tapass. Vijay too did a Mendez with his bass guitar. They all really worked hard to deliver a performance like this. There are so many bands playing Opeth covers all over the world, you can see their covers in YouTube. But this is the best line-up by far to play incredibly close to Opeth.

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Unseen Underground Pub Fest - II

Article in Expresso
Review in Times of India

Review in The Score magazine


Review in Indian Express


Review in Deccan Chronicle




The air was pulsing in anticipation of Sunday night, as the second installment of Unseen Underground Pub Fest II got under way at the Star Rock in Nungambakkam, sponsored by Kingfisher and supported by Big FM 92.7. The Fest's mission is to promote the excellent home-grown bands of Chennai and India. The atmosphere was perfect—a bit dark and mysteriously sultry, but welcoming and ready for some bona fide rock 'n' roll.

The fest was a four-band offering; each band showcasing its own unique take on Metal. Carnage was up first, and the band was totally taken by surprise to see the kind of support that they have among the city's metal heads. Mano - one of India's fastest drummers toyed over the skins and cymbals and Shankar's vocals had an effervescent vibration which together made the crowd go wild on a mosh-pit. Kapil, their new guitarist also had his share of devotion among the crowd.

Armor of God was second on the bill; the band is a six-piece metal combo featuring keyboards, a twin guitar attack, and fierce vocals. Gene took the job of playing rhythm guitar along vocals. Too many fly V guitars on stage made sure their fervor towards Children of Bodom was nailed on its place. A solid atmospheric tight ensemble, no question.

Next up, Blind Image stormed the stage with alternative hardcore metal; they started with songs from their new album "Psychobabble", which they officially launched in the venue for the Chennai fans. They had a launch gig previously in Hyderabad and ever since the album has been a considerable hit. Ironically, the band is confident on winning a Grammy for one of their songs in the album. They didn't finish their set-list before a ripping rendition of Lamb of God, which again left the crowd untamed.

Closing the show was Blood Covenant, easily the most brutal band in town. Eddie's absence due to his sickness was not bad enough for the band to back-off the gig. Their newly included rhythm guitarist Ronald took on his shoes and grunted with a mixture of black and death metal fierce. These guys had no trouble winning over the crowd with their "Horde" cover.

All-in-all, a grand time deserving rousing applause. Special thanx to Kingfisher for sponsoring the show and BIG 92.7 FMfor their radio support. The sound was crystal clear and well engineered; the variety in the line-up kept things flavorful; the beer was cold and tasty; and the house was rockin'! Good time had by all and the crowd was left with the anticipation looking forward to the next.
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Unseen Underground Pub Fest - I

Review in Expresso


Review in Chennai Times




Review :

Unseen Underground first Pub Fest show got under way at the Star Rock in Nungambakkam. The atmosphere was perfect—a bit dark and mysteriously sultry, but welcoming and ready for some bona fide rock 'n' roll. Unseen Underground's mission is to promote the excellent home-grown bands of Chennai and all India, and the first Pub Fest proved to be a bold display of talent.


The Fest featured four-bands, each band showcasing its own unique take on guitar rock. Substance was up first, a four piece band delivering a gritty set of alternative-rock covers and some of their originals.


Armour of God took the stage next; this band is a six-piece metal combo featuring keyboards, a twin guitar attack, and fierce vocals. A solid, atmospheric, tight ensemble, no question.


Next up on stage was Rampazze a hard rock band all the way from Delhi stormed the stage with melodic hard rock and even a ripping rendition of AC/DC's "Whole Lotta Rosie". This four-man band from Delhi was tight, polished, and energetic.


The show came to a conclusion with Null Friction (Chennai / US ), a trio of grunge rockers with a good hand for original material. These guys had no trouble winning over the crowd with a sing-along version of Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" parts 2 and 3!


All-in-all, a grand rousing applause. The sound was crystal clear and well engineered; the variety in the line-up kept things flavorful; the beer was cold and tasty; and the house was rockin'! Now everyone's looking forward to the next Unseen's Underground Pub Fest.

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