Headlining Europe!

Last year, Hyderabad’s metal band Godless had represented India and won many a heartwith their performance at the Wacken Open Air music festival in Germany, the world’s biggest metal festival. Now, the five-member band who have released two albums or extended plays (EPs), Centuries of Decadence (released in 2016) and Swarm (released in 2017), are back in action, doing something even bigger! Godless’ dazzling performance has landed them an invite from German music festival organiser Meltdown to perform in 21 cities across 7 countries in Europe. During the tour, the band is expected to perform four tracks from their first EP and five songs from their recent EP, Swarm. And as if a natural progression, the tour is titled ‘Swarm over Europe’.

The prep in place
The tour will commence on  September 5 and go on till September 30, and the band is preparing hard for it. Syed Abbas Razvi, the band’s founder and bassist,is clearly excited, “It is an honour to be invited for such a big tour. Last time, we gave a couple of performances after Wacken, too. I guess they were the organisers and were impressed, so they invited us. We are a new band playing cutting-edge death metal. So we would like to make the most of this trip,” says Syed. But performing at 21 cities could be taxing. So the band is making sure that they stay fit throughout the tour. Apart from that, the band has rented a location in Banjara hills, where they practise together for 10-12 hours a week.

Making musical connects
Guitarist Ravi Nidamarthy is looking forward to spreading the awareness of the band and introducing their new album to the new audience. “The whole objective is to make the audience experience true metal music live, and give them a sense of gratification of our soulful renditions,” reveals Ravi, adding that he’s also looking to buildinga network of like-minded people from other music bands.
For vocalist Kaushal, this tour means a lot as he feels the best way to take their music forward is by performing live. “When our second EP released, many music lovers in Europe appreciated us, but having said that, it’s a different experience performing those EP live. We can better connect to the audience by performing live,” he explains.

Seeking European perspectives
Amidst other things, Godless is looking forward to collaborating with Europe bands to understand how metal music is perceived there. And like a strange coincidence, they were informed about a German band (Divide), who’d perform a 10-minute opener for all the shows, after which Godless will headline them. “We want to raise the quality of music and cater to a global audience, and rubbing shoulders with music bands abroad will give us a first-hand insight over how musicians perform and practise. Now that the metal scene in India is slowly improving, this tour will help us building our network,” he elaborates.