As smoke flows across the stage and lights flood the space, first red and then purple, a shrill electric guitar fills the air. Boja Rajesh, vocalist of Chennai-based metal band Incendiarius, growls, ‘Frail framework…God’s playground…Thirst for war’. For an audience comprising youngsters and old-time metalheads, the death growl is cathartic and freeing.Welcome to the world of death metal. Once a niche subculture with a dwindling following, Chennai’s underground metal scene is slowly finding its feet again. Musicians and enthusiasts are coming together to revive thrash metal and death metal, with emerging bands writing original compositions that explore everything from political anxieties and artificial intelligence to mental health and personal struggles.Events such as Metal Chennai’s ‘Metal Munnetra Kazhagam’ (MMK) and ‘Brutal Carnage’, alongside venues such as Unwind Center, are helping create spaces for these musicians to perform and find an audience.MMK began four years ago with the idea of serving as an introduction to metal music, where popular and up-and-coming bands come together to pay tribute to metal icons and play their songs. “Many small bands that are just starting attend these events and gain confidence to perform and put on shows on their own, which helps spread more awareness of the scene,” says Srikanth Natrajan, one of the organisers.Over the years, through MMK, Chennai-based bands have paid tribute to metal icons such as Black Sabbath, Tool, Meshuggah, Gojira, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, System of a Down, Metallica and Pantera. “After gaining exposure through MMK, bands then participate in ‘Brutal Carnage’ where they perform their own songs and compositions,” says Srikanth.Perception Delta, headed by Antara Arvind, is a death metal band that took to the stage for the first time last year. “It was an unforgettable experience. My favourite part was seeing people engage with our music, headbanging all through it,” says Antara.“We have seen audiences respond strongly to our themes, especially those on AI and mental health. One of the songs on our EP, ‘Lies to Sell’, addresses how generative AI is affecting people’s lives, particularly artists, musicians and others in creative fields. Whenever I introduce the song by talking about this, people respond with such fervour,” she says.For Boja’s band, Incendiarius, songwriting involves taking inspiration from their own fears and struggles. “A lot of our themes deal with the fear of death and the fragility of life, although that may not always be immediately apparent in the lyrics. Some of our songs have titles such as ‘Osteoporosis ’, which talks about the ageing body, and ‘Neural Oxylations’, the latter dealing with schizophrenia,” says Boja.Despite many of the themes being delicate and personal, musicians say, singing in death metal is not only cathartic to them but to audiences as well, says Antara.Today, there are more than 10 popular metal bands in Chennai, with many more growing in number. “The 19th edition of ‘Brutal Carnage’ is coming up next month in Dec, followed by MMK in March of next year. We’re going bigger and bringing in more international metal bands,” says Srikanth.Know your metalThrash metal: fast guitar riffs, aggressive vocals and punk influences. Death metal: heavily distorted guitars, guttural growls, complex rhythms and darker lyrics. Black metal: shrieking vocals, tremolo-picked guitars, atmospheric soundscapesThe Story BehindIn the early 1980s, students at JIPMER in Puducherry performed rock and heavy metal at their cultural festival, ‘Spandan’. It became popular especially among weekend tourists from nearby cities. It helped the music find listeners across Chennai and Bengaluru, says Edison Prithviraj, managing director of Unwind Center.Still, bands struggled to find venues, with their headbanging, metal hand gestures and all-black outfits leading some to label them ‘satanists’. Exposure to heavy metal music videos through MTV’s ‘Headbangers Ball’ helped change perceptions.By 1998, Unwind Center began hosting underground metal bands in Chennai. But a shortage of venues and a niche audience made it difficult for bands to sustain themselves. By around 2010, much of the activity had fizzled out.In 2022, Chennai’s Moral Putrefaction won the Wacken Metal Battle India and performed at Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival, bringing fresh attention to the city’s metal scene.
