DARJEELING HILLS: Hill metal boys in Canadian album

FROM THE TELEGRAPH
BY VIVEK CHHETRI
Darjeeling, May 24: Grungy Morphins neither have a permanent place to hone their musical skills nor do they possess any cutting edge hi-tech gadgets to sharpen their sound, yet, the new metal boys on the block have been able to take their music across the globe.
Darkness Without Pain — a song the band recently composed has featured in an international compilation, Shrouded in Silent Omens III, by the Canadian-based TUG Records. “It was a big occasion. The album was released in Canada on May 14,” said the 24-year-old Hozo Rai, the vocalist of the band.
The compilation — the third in the series — has 12 songs from as many bands from across the world. “We are the only Indian band in that album. There are five Canadian, two US and a band each from England, Poland, Australia and Israel who have featured in this album,” said Hozo.
The band, which was formed in 2000, consists of Rishi Chhetri, Pramod Pariyar and Kusang Tamang at the guitars, Nirnay Bomzom on the keys and Vishal Rai who plays the drums along with Hozo the lead vocalist.
“Extreme metal is yet to find an audience in India. The same can be said about Darjeeling but we do have a dedicated group of admirers,” said Nirnay.
All the band members fall within the 21-27 age bracket and they are not yet sure whether music can be a fledging profession for them. “To survive we need to approach international labels and we have already sent our music demo to two recording companies in New York and Netherlands. If the contracts click, we might probably think of making music our career and not limit to an interest only,” said Kusang. “At the national level, Dark-ula and Dark-ula I feathered in complications brought out by two Bangalore-based companies, Dogmatone and EMP Records. But that had not made much of a difference and few people know our type of music,” added Hozo.
Even though they play “extreme metal”, the band’s music is all about social messages. “Sometime our songs are based on mythical belief but on most occasions, we have a message. In Darkness without Pain, we want to tell the society to stop judging people according to their financial status,” said Hozo.
Grungy Morphins is aware that the road to the international circuit is difficult. “Here in Darjeeling we do not have any space of our own even to practice. Currently we are using a community hall at Jalapahar. Earlier, we used to use the house of one of our band members near the Darjeeling railway station,” said Pramod.
In Darjeeling, the discrimination is also there. “Elders discourage us. They believe that heavy metal is associated with all the wrong people,” said Hozo