Band: Skrypt
City: Hyderabad
Genre: Thrash Metal
Skrypt is a five-piece thrash metal band based in Hyderabad. Four of the band members – Joel K (guitars), Ravi Nidamarthy (guitars), Abbas Razvi (bass) and Scenic G – yes that is his name, (vocals) are based here while the drummer Suzuki Naidu who plays for a band in Mumbai shuttles between the two cities.
“Thrash Metal is a sub genre of heavy metal,” Abbas informs. He is a lean young man bursting with energy. But, given that the live band culture is almost non-existent, how do they sustain themselves is my first question. He says, “We all have full time jobs but use up a lot of our income for our band.” Abbas in fact moved to from New Zealand to Hyderabad and is a sound engineer by profession.
Explaining what thrash metal music is he says, “It is basically a more aggressive, faster sub genre of heavy metal. While most live bands play covers of other bands, we prefer to perform to our own compositions.” The band has even released an album called Discord, which has been well received in the underground heavy metal scene and that is saying a lot given that it is a local band that is relatively low profile.
Music concerts, festivals, college fests and live events are where Skrypt performs and Abbas informs me that they try not to play too often in one city. “That is to ensure we keep the novel element in our music alive. Especially since we sing our own songs, we want people to keep enjoying them.”
A big feather in the band’s collective cap has been the fact that they were included in Metal Hammer’s Global Metal music compilation Vol. 2, which has 15 of the best tracks selected by the magazine from a global platform.
They have played at several gigs and have also headlined at some of them. These include the Preaching Venom Tour, RSJ Pub Rock Fest, Whiplash 2010, Yamaha Roxx gigs and Metallised Fest to name a few.
The band tries to meet most days to practice. Abbas says, “We have rented a place that we have made sound proof so we can practice without the neighbours complaining. Though we all work, we try our best to meet and practice as often as possible. Since endorsements are not many, we put most of our own incomes, including what we make through our performances into our equipment and music.”
So what is it that motivates them to keep going on, as their genre is so specialised? Abbas, who somehow has become the unofficial spokesperson of the band says, “We just love our music and the fact that we can compose our own songs and play them is a big high. Not that we have not played covers by other bands, but just being able to do what we are passionate about is enough.”
This in spite of the fact that the metal scene is not exactly vibrant here and a lot of venues don’t support bands when it comes to acoustics and other infrastructure. They have released a CD, played in various parts of India and have been signed up by Dark Harvest Records, USA. That is quite a list of achievements for this young band.
