Keeping a band afloat is a job in itself. A demanding one at that when you play an extreme form of heavy metal from one of the smallest states in India, Meghalaya. Despite all odds including that of recently becoming a single-man project from a three-piece act, Plague Throat is one of the most popular death metal acts in the country.
“We have played major festivals(think the biggest metal gathering on the planet, Wacken Open Air in Germany), opened for some of the bands we grew up listening to (including important names such as Cannibal Corpse and Dying Fetus) and had the luck to be consistent with multiple releases in the past 10 years. I think it pretty much is what we intended to do in the first place,” says vocalist and guitarist Nangsan Lyngwa, about starting out from recording their debut EP, An Exordium to Contagion, within their home studio to flying in Mumbai-based producer Ashwin Shriyan for later releases like LP, The Human Paradox.
Plague Throat’s first long release has been lauded for their rootedness in traditions of death metal, reminiscent of bands like Morbid Angel. Modern influences also find their way into their songwriting with technical aspects enriching their style of playing. Another thing that caught the eyes of fans from around the world is an attempt to involve local flavour, with a track written in their native tongue and featuring tribal grooves.
A regular name on gig posters across the country, Plague Throat is currently on a five-city tour to promote their latest EP named Evolutionary Impasse. The six-track release brought out earlier this year continues their aggressive delivery of riffs at increased tempos.
“The release was actually named by Malice (their long-term drummer who announced an indefinite break from the band earlier this month). The title hints that we, as humans, have stopped evolving and what is left is to destroy each other just to show how powerful we are,” says the guitarist.
Written over a span of two years, starting from 2016, the rather short songs (with the longest one slightly below four minutes) exhibit diverse detailing which keeps listeners consistently engaged till the last note. Metalheads can expect songs from their previous releases alongside newer ones like The Epoch of Catastrophe II at their debut live show in Kochi this weekend.
`500, On April 27 from 5 pm.
At WestEnd Hotel, Panampilly Nagar