AntiMatter grooves with progressive metal rock

The rage within defines them. Meet five-piece band AntiMatter. “We are against all that is fake and negative. The name of our band stands for our ideals,” says the quintet in unison. “It is difficult to find a space to jam for metal for what is music to our ears is noise to the neighbours, but we got lucky with the ‘haunted’ house,” confess the band members who are vociferous in their denial of being anti-religion. 

“We started off as a band in which different members were inspired by different genres and each of us wanted to play a gamut of genres. The music has changed with time after the band happened and we prefer growling and metal over clear vocals now,” says Ravi Anthony, a student of BE at Malla Reddy Engineering College, Hyderabad.

A casual meeting at a gig in September 2011 set the stage for the band, which has played 13 gigs so far. “The best response was the battle of the bands at NIT-Warangal where we were ranked third. We were one of the two metal bands from the six south Indian teams. The judges were members of Xerath, a band from UK and appreciated our cover of Raining Blood by Slayer,” says 17-year-old Nihal Kajjam, who plays the bass. “The drummer of Xerath, Michael Pitman even commented on our Facebook page. Those were the best words of encouragement ever,” chips in Noah Jonan, a student of Bharat Institute of Engineering and Technology and the band’s guitarist.

AntiMatter aspires to be a band which remains true to their genre of music. “Playing at gigs, a band has to modify their repertoire to suit the audience. We try not to give in to the pressure, though Hyderabad is only now waking up to the metal scene,” says Suraj Benerji, who plays the guitar and is a student of MPharma.

“We have attended two concerts of Metallica and Lamb of God and that has influenced our style significantly,” says Swapnil Bareli, the drummer.

— payal@newindianexpress.com