The Rise of Metal

Every year,for about three days in August,the small and relatively quiet town of Wacken in northern Germany is overrun by 70,000-90,000 visitors.

Every year,for about three days in August,the small and relatively quiet town of Wacken in northern Germany is overrun by 70,000-90,000 visitors. Dressed in frayed or torn jeans,black t-shirts bearing the names of famous metal bands,and sporting long often unruly hair,they arrive in hordes to watch the biggest names in metal play at one of the most popular metal festivals in the world Wacken Open Air.

In 2004,14 years after the festival started,the organisers introduced the Wacken Metal Battle. A battle between bands from around the world,it gave one winner from each participating country a chance to play and compete with other winners at Wacken. Also on offer was a label deal for the final winner and endorsements,among other things. Last year,India became the 27th country to participate in the battle and will continue to do so this year as well.

There will,however,be one difference. This year,the winners from the four zonal level competitions in Mumbai,Bangalore,Delhi and Guwahati will compete at a newly established metal music festival Bangalore Open Air alongside German thrash metal band,Kreator,who will headline the festival,and American heavy metal band,Iced Earth,co-headlining the event,among others. The Indian bands confirmed for the event include Bangalore-based Kryptos,Eccentric Pendulum and Dying Embrace,and Mumbai-based Albatross.

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Last year,we didnt have a festival. There was a pan-India metal battle and then the finale in Bangalore, says Salman Syed,founder of Infinite Dreams,a company that was born in 2007 as a band-management company and now organises the festival. This year,well follow the same procedure but the finals will be held at the Bangalore Open Air event, adds Syed.

The reason for this change,he says,was the desire to establish the countrys first-ever purely heavy metal festival. The move is also meant to give importance to what he believes is a growing genre in India. We have festivals that feature heavy metal bands. But they also have rock bands. So,there was nothing dedicated to metal, says Syed,who also manages Kryptos. Joining the event with the Wacken Metal Battle happened as Syed has shared a good relationship over the years with the organisers of the Wacken festival.

A few years ago,as recently as in 2003 perhaps,Syed believes that there were almost no big metal bands in the country to speak of. But there was an audience for metal,and that became obvious when English heavy metal giants such as Iron Maiden toured the country in 2007 and then again in 2008. They drew a crowd of close to 50,000 people despite metal being a niche genre.

Registrations for the Indian leg of the Wacken Metal Battle closed earlier this week,and the zonal competitions begin in Guwahati on May 24. Following the four zonal level competitions that end on June 10,the winners will play at the day-long festival in Bangalore on June 16.

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