With a rather dying Indian metal scene as compared to its heydeys in the 2000s, a few veterans continue to light the stage like Parikrama. And then, there are the new entrants who are buzzing with a new light, such as Bleachead.
Bleachead strings together a rather generic metal-patented outline with a heavy garnishing of chaotic and groovy drumming and guitar solos. The resulting output is tracks like ‘Sedative’, ‘Stocker’ and their latest single, ‘Fuzzpacker’. Bleachead don’t shy from their fair share of experimentations in their singles, as is evident in both these tracks. Towards the end of ‘Sedative’, Bleached truly comes into form with a colorful amalgamation of various sounds.
Towards the start of ‘Fuzzpacker’, they choose to begin with a mellow drumming and vocals at the back of a sombre guitar, reminiscent of ‘Stocker’. Unlike it, however, the song progresses towards the general (and potent) chaotic segment with slow and emerging pacing. But when ‘Fuzzpacker’ eventually begins the climb, it is Shaurya Manga and Dhruv Ganguly, their singers, who bring it to life. And before we know it, the former on the bass and the later on the lead guitar begin joining into the natural lead-up to the song. Over the slow to quick pacing of the song, Suhail Prakash on the drums keeps the entire song in place and with ordered perfection.
Before releasing ‘Fuzzpacker’ on 20th November, they dropped the aforementioned two singles in 2020. And before them come their debut album, ‘Z’. Self-describing themselves as Stoner Rock or Hard Rock, all of Bleachead’s members have been at music since High School, in the early 2000s. Shaurya and Suhail are 30 and Dhruv at 28, which makes their influences such as SOAD and Tool rather unsurprising. They say they’ve always been drawn to their powerful vocals and heavy-hitting drums, as well as the heavy stoner or desert grooving riffs of Truckfighters and 1000mods.
Their dedication can also be felt in the fact that they recorded 7-9 tracks over a weekend in a DIY setup at a friend’s home studio. And after a year of writing, jamming and tightening the music, they’ve decided to release them as singles. Speaking of which, ‘Fuzzpacker’ is their version of the term ‘fudgepacker’, making a witty reference to an iconic moment from South Park.
Before I end this spotlight, here’s what Bleachead is, in their own untainted words:
“Our story is the story of a story. The story of BLEACHEAD. The band’s spirit animal and namesake, BLEACHEAD is a superhuman entity who dissolved his brain to escape the totalitarian regime of a dick-tator. A literal evil potato overlord. Yeah, you read that right.”
