Undying Inc

Endurance is a much desired, however rarely found – anattribute in bands today. Most of those who do stick out for longer than a fewyears end up reworking their material and either sound decayed or insipid.  That is however, not the case with Metal biggiesUndying Inc. Having been around for almost a decade now, Undying Inc have comea long way since their inception.  Everperseverant with a firm focus on their lyrical course and sonic temperament,Undying Inc is without the shadow of a doubt- one of the most sought afterbands in the Indian Metal fraternity today.

Having formed in 2004, the band has gone through its fairshare of line-up changes. In 2007, their original line-up took to pieces whenvocalist Amitabh and Drummer Sangeet left due to personal commitments. Withthat, nonetheless- Undying Inc version 2 saw a completely changed band- withdrummer Yuvraj and Vocalist Shashank: a brutal, precise and angry slab oftechnical perfection . The entire sound of the band underwent drastic changesand with the unveiling of the new line-up the band managed to rework itselfinto a grotesque new form. Before this change – the band had nevertheless,already released an album (Preface to Erase- 2006) and an E.p (ExistenceFailed- 2005)- one which saw the boys decimate the not-so-existent scene backthen, with their livid and extreme sound . “Duringthat time there weren’t many avenues open for independent releases so wereleased the album via our (now defunct) home label Undead Noise. The album didfairly well for us and was primarily in the vein of old school thrash / death.With 7 tracks, it is an honest representation of where the band was at thatpoint of time.” quotes bassist Reuben.‘To create somethingthat cannot be destroyed’ that is what Undying Inc are made out of. An eclecticbunch of musicians with assorted tastes in music, coming together and creatingsome of the most mind-boggling tunes this side of the planet.  Kaushik Barua in conversation with GuitaristBiswarup Gupta (More popularly known as ‘Biz’) about their new album AggressiveWorld Dynasty and much more.

Startingwith the inevitable cliché, how did Undying Inc. happen?

Well, back in 2003-2004 I decided to playmusic in a band. I could play few chords ..oh yeah some power chords too. ThenI asked my childhood friend Reuben to play the Bass Guitar. We started learningsome Pantera and Sepultura tunes without using tabs or whattever. We have greatears you know. Then our next step was to get a vocalist so we asked Reuben'scousin Amitabh to sing. We had so much trouble looking for a drummer. Thenafter months of searching and also going through few drummers, we met Sangeetthrough a common friend. I took the name Undying from a computer horror game byClive Barker called "Undying".We added INC after a couple of months whenwe found out about a hardcore band from the US also called Undying. That's it.Undying Inc was formed.

What has been the overall response to yournew album ‘Aggressive World Dynasty’? Do you think the band achieved what itwanted to with the new album?

Sofar the album has done pretty good. We are trying to send it across to as manyplaces as we can in India and abroad. And we are pretty glad that people areactually listening to our stuff and appreciating it.We didnt get any bad reviews so far, so Iguess that a positive thing.Since day 1 we knew what we wanted to soundlike on the album and we are super glad that we achieved that with whatever wehad at Grey Studio and making the music that we could as musicians at thatpoint of time.

Thanks to Keshav Dhar and Anupam Roy fortheir efforts in the studio.

Who else was involved in the making of thealbum, besides the band, any noteworthy collaborations or experiments?

Like I said Anupam Roy and Keshav Dhar arethe ones who made this album possible and giving us the sound that we wanted.

Any particular reason why the band is nomore in a pact with G&S? Do you think being self-managed as a band is abetter option in general?

There's no particular reason why we are notwith G&S .Sometimes things don't work out . I don't know about other bandsbut at the moment being self-managed is working best for us. DIY man.

Random question: Your bassist Reuben justgot married- does that in anyway change things for the band?

Crazy question!. Would it make a differenceto his work, his food habits, his passion, things that he wanted to do when hewas in school. Hell No. Nothing changes for the band. The four of us will stillraise hell with our live gigs and future albums , as Stone cold says.."Come Hell, High Water or Cold Fucking Beer". Cheers to that.

Tell us a little more about your sound. Howit’s evolved over the years and how you guys like to classify it in terms of agenre.

Oursound has changed from Preface To Erase to Aggressive World Dynasty. Well Iguess the addition of Shashank and Yuvraj made a difference.Itbecame easier for me to compose stuff with Yuvraj on board, cause he understoodwhere I came from.I like to compose with no boundaries man. I like the idea ofgoing crazy on the fretboard. And not worry about what's theoritically right or about the timesignatures etc. There has to be a groove in the music. With this lineup We areable to do that exactly.Our music is simply "heavymetal"  at the end of the day. Allthe genres of "this core" and "that core" dont make anysense to me.Call us a heavy metal band and that will puta smile on my face.

Youguys have reaped a reputation for being tremendously tight and heavy on-stage.Can you tell us how you manage to nail every show you play? How often do youguys practice?

Ah I am glad we are able to do that. Luckilywe get about 5-6 practice sessions a month since all of us in the band have aday job. But obviously we do our homework before going to the jam-pad.Sometimes we go for months without any practice ,but that doesnt mean we arenot playing individually at home. So far we have managed to do what we do withthat much practice. We will increase the frequency of practice if need be.

Cheers.