A Brief Rock History in Nepal (before 2000)

Back in 1970s and 1980s, bands such as – The Prism, Brotherhood, Revival, Kathmandu Katz,Raduim, etc and much later in the late 1980s bands like Newaz, Wrathchild, Criss Cross, The Paduwas, Maneater, etc were rocking the streets of Kathmandu Valley. Wrathchild was among the few bands that did heavy metal covers exclusively in the concerts. Newaz even had an album out which was predominantly rock and actually did quite well in the early days of commercial music in Nepal.

During the early 1990s, Vegetarian Vampires and Dead Soul were two of the prominent bands playing “thrash metal” in various concerts. Vegetarian Vampires were one of the first bands to coverSlayer, and Sodom, while Dead Soul frequently covered Iron Maiden, Overkill and Metallica. Dead Soul is also remembered as one of the best cover bands in the metal scene then, doing many ‘tribute’ gigs.

There were of course already lots of other regular as well as “one gig” bands that were doing metal covers live. During the early and mid 90s Iron Maiden’s Losfer Words and Metallica’s Am I Evil were concert staples. Almost every hard rock show would have those two songs played by at least one band. It’s too bad that many such bands have never been documented properly.

That was also a time when several ‘beat contests’ were held all around the valley where bands competed for a prize. Although a lot of songs played in those competitions were of the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock genre, original songs were a crowd turn-off and were rarely performed.

Bands were sprouting in the Pokhara valley at the same time as well. Anamesis, and later Vivax, came with some thrash metal stuff while Grease and Numskull started a grunge/punk movement.

Cobweb has to be the most prominent and consistent rock band of Nepal. In 1993, this band from Patan released their first album “Anjaan” which showcased their heavy metal and classic rock influences. Their live shows have always been full of energy and true showmanship. Around late 90’s, a few songs from the band Drishty (formed by Iman B. Shah while he was studying in Nebraska, Omaha) hit the FM airwaves in a few rock shows. It was probably the first ‘metal’ based original song by a Nepali band to get recorded and played on air. While in USA, Drishty recorded two albums in the bedroom studio setup by Iman B. Shah himself, but sadly, none of the albums were formally released. Mukti and Revival, which consisted one of the most “senior” rock/blues musicians, also released “Kalanki Ko Jam” in 2000, the album became an instant hit in the Nepali music market. In the same period, Robin n Looza: also made it big in the rock scene.

THE UNDERGROUND UPROAR:

2000 – 2006:
Without a shred of doubt, Ugrakarma’s release of demo “Himalayan Metal of Death” can be termed as the monumental epoch of the starting of metal scene in Nepal. Of course there were already some bands playing metal in the concerts, but metal remained within the confines of concert hall walls.

Aayush Maskey (Guitarist, Ugrakarma) reminiscences: “Back then the scene was just starting. Most of the bands were focused on playing popular music. Almost in every concert you went to, bands were playing the same songs Paranoid, Smoke on the water, Roadhouse Blues. There used to be a lot of street festivals and rock concerts but metal in concerts were virtually non-existent. Hearing Metallica in a show would get people talking – Metallica bajayo yaar… kyaa hyabby. “

While the scene was slowing picking up pace, many of the so-called “bands” sadly never had any originals. Few bands which had originals never managed to get it recorded. The same story of lack of resources, and lack of better recording studios haltered the progress of many potential good Metal bands. By 2000, there were already several professional recording studios in Kathmandu, but none equipped well enough to record any heavy stuff and none having any qualified recording engineers with sound knowledge of what “metal” music actually is.

The emergence of BMI Studios (otherwise known as Sacred Soundz) was an important event in the history of Metal in Nepal. The owner/engineer Iman B. Shah (Guitarist – Drishty and formerly ofVegetarian Vampires) was a himself a ‘metalhead’ and was familiar with capturing the essence of Metal – heavy riffs, thundering drums, thumping bass and deafening vocals – in the recording studio. Out of the few albums/songs that were ever recorded by local bands at that time, most of them likeUgrakarma’s Himalayan Metal of Death, Blood Metal Initiation and Albatross’ Hi: Fly were done at BMI/Sacred Soundz. The existence of a ‘metal’ recording studio opened up a lot of avenues for future bands trying to cut a record or a demo.

By the time Ugrakarma finally released their full length album “Blood Metal Initiation“ around 2001, there were already a horde of bands in the valley playing quite a range of metal music. Several band contests, where an original was mandatory to compete, also fueled the new bands to seek the creativity within them and come up with something imperative. While such contests more than often yielded 9 pop bands for every metal band, it still was a very significant step forward. More gigs were being organized, and more bands emerged. But the difference between these gigs and the gigs 5 years ago was monumental – these new bands were playing their own songs.

One of those bands was Refused 13. The band had played their first gig opening for Dead Soul (on Metallica Anthology Concert, 2001)The band started creating a formidable reputation in the valley as a very “tight” metal band with a “in your face” attitude, conceived by many as the band to pick metal where Dead Soul had left and then elevate the scene into another level. During the band’s active years, the band organized another memorable gig “Keep Suffering” at Nakkhipot, Lalitpur city.

Anuraag Sharma, former vocalist of Albatross on the band: “Refused 13 was definitely a force – the band and the persona of the band. I still remember that when they would walk into a concert, I would try to look at them without getting caught, because they were “Refused13″ and they looked like hardcore badasses that would kill you if you looked at them wrong”.