Unseen Underground Pub Fest VI

Link to the official photos

of UUPF VI click here !

Review in The Hindu, Nxg

After creating history by organizing Ragnarok’09 a whole night rock show on 31^st December Unseen Underground has started their this year’s journey with the 6^th edition of Unseen Underground Pub Fest last Sunday at Geoffrey’s pub in association with HMI guitars . Rock fanatics in the country are already very excited about the national tour of Unseen Underground in 6 different cities along with 100 upcoming bands from ever nook and corner of the country within this year. Unseen Underground Pub Fest VI was the opening show for the mega series of rock shows that are planned to happen this year.

UUPF-VI had featured 4 talented bands of different genres, from Funk Jazz to Technical Death metal. The Fest was declared open by playing the promo for the upcoming Escher’s Knot’s EP “TESSELLATIONS” which is officially getting released by this month. Franks Got The Funk a Chennai based Funkjazz band talented with a group of young musicians opened the show with a zeal. They created an ambiance suitable for the kind of music they were playing, which gathered the crowd near the stage. Their Jazzy Funk music was quite unique to the crowd that gathered for the night. Bjorn’s vocals and guitar works amazed the listeners and made them ask for more. Due to their recent line up changes they ended their performance with their popular self titled song. Their performance was tight and Chennai should certainly feel proud for bands like them.

Subsequently Blind Image a contemporary metal band from Chennai took the stage with a meticulous vigor. After the release of their 2^nd Album More Than Human they have created a strong fan base in the city. The crowd requested them to play their own comps and greeted them with equal energy. Their new line up was appreciated by everyone. They started their performance with Glitch In The System from their second album followed byDeciphered, Ominous, More than human, Sepia Tone Sunrise, Axioms of synergy and Allegiance In Defiance from the same album. It is much appreciated that Indian bands now a days cover their own music only. Shri & Siddharth’s guitar work was appreciated by the fans and their performance was energetic. Blind Image then offered the stage to Spitfire a melodic death metal band all the way from Bangalore. They started with their own composition Minds In Disguise followed by Burn It and Devil Driver’s cover Hold Back The Day. The band displayed a greater energy on stage for songs like Wild Impulse and LOG cover Black Label. Chennai already has a good number of fans for this band and they gained few more after their performance.

The Last band for the night was none other than Escher’s Knot. Most of the people among the crowd seemed to know them as well as their own compositions and most of them were singing along with the band. They started with their own composition Up For Nothing followed by Textures’ cover Drive, Mayan Calendar, This Page Has Been Left Intentionally Blank. Their new instrumental track Hyperspace surprised the crowd . They concluded the show with Break The Cypher.

Chennai rock fans had a fantastic evening. If you have missed it this time do not forget to look out for the next show. Interested bands can send in their entries to unseenunderground@gmail.com to take part in national tour to 5 other cities. Unseen Underground’s journey has just began, I am sure you rock fans don’t want to miss any of the shows!

Online Media Coverage:

# Rock and Raga.in

# Headbangers India

# Explocity.com

# Indian Music Revolution

# India Rock Mp3.com
# Indian Rocket

Unseen Underground is back on track promising a whole new year of rock and metal. \m/

Original music has always been appreciated by Unseen Underground. UU fans know about it without being told.

This year we are expanding our peripheries to 6 major cities

( Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kolkata & Guwahati ) giving equal opportunity to more than 100 talented bands across the country.

UU plans is to conduct shows as follows throughout the year:

Delhi: 6 shows (Bimonthly starting from May 2010)

Bangalore: 6 shows (Bimonthly starting from June 2010)

Hyderabad: 6 shows (Bimonthly starting from June 2010)

Kolkata: 6 shows (Bimonthly starting from May 2010)

Guwahati: 6 shows (Bimonthly starting from June 2010)

Chennai: 10 shows (Monthly starting from May2010).

UU welcomes you all to be a part of this mission.\m/

We hope our new TV, Radio and outdoor partners will help us reaching what we have planned successfully.

UU is grateful to reveal that Headbangers India, Rock and Raga, Re-invent Clock Group have happily agreed to join us in this march.

This year's first blast UUPF VI- Spring Fest to be held on 2nd May.The 1st show of this series is scheduled in Chennai @ Geoffrey's Pub:

Featuring Bands:

Spitfire (Bangalore)

Esher's Knot (Chennai)

Blind Image (Chennai)

Franks Got The Funk (Chennai)

HMI Endorsed Madhav Ayachit of Esher's Knot

• 
• Madhav Ayachit, bassist of Esher’s Knot ( also bassist/vocalist of Theorized) has been endorsed by India’s leading guitar exporters - Harmony Musical Instruments, who have been exporting more than 30,000 guitars per year for the premium international bands. This was officially announced by Mr. N. Vishwanathan, Vice President (Marketing, HMI ) on 10 February 2010. Henceforth Madhav will be seen using HMI Prima HP5C bass guitar for all the upcoming shows. He is already in love with this 5 stringed bass after playing it in UUPF V and SAARANG 2010. UU wishes him all the best for all his future endeavours.\m/

Previously HMI had marketed hi-quality guitars in Indian market with the brand name “Tansen”, which was used by many rock musicians and bollywood music makers. Now going a step ahead, the company recently launched a quality line of electric guitars and basses under the company’s own brand name “HMI” built to the same highest international standard and quality requirements of the world’s leading guitar companies.

Unseen Underground Pub Fest - V

Online review in themuzicworld.com

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 byLevis Strauss *Signature* and Lavazza, supported by HMI guitars,SS Musicand 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.

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 Festwas 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 1^st 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 2^nd 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 1^st 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 coverDrive 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.

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 bandsSoundscape, 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.