Demonic Resurrection’s Demonstealer aka Sahil Makhija (left) and Providence guitarist Shezan Shaikh. Photos: Courtesy of the artist (Demonstealer), Tushar Dhanawade (Shaikh)
The upcoming edition of metal gig series Scarfest is bringing back not one, but two of Mumbai’s prized bands. Extreme metallers Demonic Resurrection will celebrate 10 years since the release of their album The Demon King with a special set, while party-starters Providence play their first gig since 2019.
Taking place on Dec. 15, 2024 at Antisocial in Mumbai, the Scarfest lineup is rounded out by more favorites of Indian metal – Zygnema (who recently launched the video for their song “Grind”) and Bhayanak Maut (who also recently released a pulverizing single, “Revenge of the Roachsmokers”).
Demonic Resurrection have been largely dormant since 2019, but founder Sahil Makhija aka Demonstealer says he did have plans to revive the band in terms of activity. He says, “It did not involve a reunion show, but Sidharth [Kadadi, Scarfest founder and Zygnema guitarist] was pretty insistent and the things I had planned were not really working out so I wasn’t really going to play Scarfest. But then something in me went snap and I thought, ‘You know what, it is 10 years of The Demon King and I guess we could do it if the rest of the guys are available.”
The multi-instrumentalist vocalist and songwriter had previously enlisted guitarist Aditya Swaminathan (from metallers Kill The King and Gutslit) to be a part of Demonic Resurrection, but to mark 10 years of The Demon King, the band is bringing back drummer Virendra Kaith and keyboardist Mephisto on stage. Bassist Swarnava Sengupta (from Pune/Mumbai prog act ShredxXx) also joins to complete the live lineup at Scarfest.
Understandably, there was a bit of doubt about getting back to playing The Demon King. Demonstealer says some live staples like the title track are easier to get back to, but other songs like “The Promise of Never” and “Even Gods Do Fall” were in the setlist only for about a year, so it’s been a “bit challenging” to get back to. “It’s a matter of just having a couple of rehearsals and just playing the songs together, and we should be good to go here,” he adds. Demonstealer confirms that they will only be playing songs off The Demon King.
Providence, for their part, are returning to the circuit after a year of being active as a band, but only in studios and jam rooms. Founder and guitarist-producer Shezan Shaikh is joined by guitarist Charan Singh Pathania (now a hugely successful pop singer-songwriter), vocalist Sunneith Revankar, bassist Shrikanth Rao and drummer Rahul Singh (from thrash metallers Kasck).
Shaikh recalls that Providence was “shut” after a while in 2019, because he, Pathania and Rao – the full-time musicians in the band – were not able to eke out a living playing gigs and releasing music. Five years on, after more commercial projects have come their way as solo musicians, Shaikh says they can now “afford” to be in a heavy metal band that records and performs. The band began jamming again after Revankar called up Shaikh one night in January to pick back up on a Providence album. “The plan was to chill together, but not worry about whether we can play a gig or not or set some deadline to release an album,” he says.
After seeing a few demos and jam videos go up online, Kadadi reached out to Shaikh for Providence to perform at Scarfest. Shaikh says, “I ran it by everyone, and everyone was interested in this gig, because we’ve grown up to Bhayanak Maut and Demonic Resurrection. We performed so much with Zygnema, we also practically did the circuit together around the same time. It’s a great gig in the sense of, you’re playing with your friends.”
There won’t be any newer material from Providence just yet at Scarfest, but they’ll stick to having fun and “jumping the fuck up” on stage, as Shaikh terms it.
Scarfest takes place on Dec. 15, 2024 at Antisocial, Mumbai. Get tickets here.
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