Metalcore act ‘Aarlon’ is racking up the headlines with their unique compositions
By VIKRAM SINGH KUSHWAHA | April 14, 2019
With the release of their latest single Vidroh, Delhi based metalcore act Aarlon have been racking up the headlines lately. This is the fourth single released by the band, which comprises of Ritwik Shivam and Piyush Rana on guitars, Ankit Ganguly on bass, Pranky Borah on drums and Pritam Adhikary as their vocalist, after Haiwan, Tu Meri Maut and Panchhi.
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Very few metal bands around the country have attempted so honestly and genuinely to build a connection with their audience like what Aarlon is attempting to do with their unique blend of simple compositions and uber catchy and memorable choruses. Talking about his beginnings with Aarlon, Pritam says," These four guys had formed a band in New Delhi and they were looking for a vocalist who could pull of the modern metalcore and the dgent sound. Piyush found one of my Facebook videos in 2016 where I had covered Pantera's Walk and they approached me to join the band. They sent me a scratch recording of their single and I was extremely interested, I recorded the vocals from here and I sent it back to them and they went crazy. It was our first original Tu Meri Maut. After that I went to Delhi and started jamming with them and eventually we've become like a family."
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Pritam explainsthat their decision to play metalcore was very well thought of "We are moreinto riffs and crazy vocals. Unlike the modern prog bands which are sometimesheavy and then breaking into odd counts and then back to heavy and thensometimes the percussive style, we try to keep the drums as simple as possible.This is because our target is to reach out to the mainstream people who arelistening to soft music and we are trying to hit them hard with our music. Sowe are writing it in Hindi and we are making it easier for them to enjoy andget into metal. We will be very glad if people find us and get an interest inmetal and go explore other Indian bands. Maybe one day we'll see a black metalband playing for a Bollywood movie." When asked about reaching out to the audience that doesn't speak Hindi,he adds, "I don't think that this is something we should take into accountbecause music is music, but I am aware that some people in my region do notspeak Hindi and I am not opposed to singing in other languages."
As a genre, metal is perhaps still to gain the widespread acceptanceamongst the general public that it so rightly deserves and that makes itespecially hard for metal musicians to pursue their art in an almost hostileenvironment. Pritam recounts his struggles when he began his journey as a vocalistand how those experiences came to shape his philosophy and ambition for theband, "We can go all thrash and black metal, but we chose to play metalcorewith its catchy choruses so that we can pull out some crowd and tell them tolisten to black metal, maybe that could bring about a change in the perceptionof metal. When I started people in my neighborhood used to look down at me,even my family would never let me rehearse and practice in the house. I had togo two kilometers away in the jungle to practice."
Aarlon have now been around for three years and are on the verge of coming out with their album around August this year following which they plan on touring across the country.
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The writer can be reached at kaushik@thenortheasttoday.com. He can be followed @kaushikjaibarua on all social media
