Phobiax Battle of The Band Reviewed

Jupitar Island Playing in Phobiax

Competitions are meant to discover new and raw talent. But when you take your talent for granted, things turn ugly. The Youth Festival in Guwahati aims to provide a wide platform in many fields. In its third instalment this year, the Battle of Bands, ‘PHOBIAX’ witnessed what one would like to call, indifferent. The gig saw new faces and comebacks. It’s quite interesting that half of the bands participating unheard of by me before. Senior Rock n’ roll band KAZIRANGA were judges of honour and I was pretty sure of what kind of result this panel of judges would offer. Twenty minutes were offered to each band but the odds were against the sound-check, which was to be done within the given time-frame.

The show started off on a funny note with FALL OF ROMEO falling with the synchronisation. The next band, FERAL AGE, seemingly better, also could not catch up with the sound. The guitar was mute at times, although they executed Amon Amarth’s ‘Pursuit of Vikings’ quite fair enough. Next up were ARSE WARLORDS, and believe me, you should call them gross!! This utterly embarrassing band with their original, ‘Fu** the System’, sounded even more like crap. ZION came in with Hindi Bollywood tracks that was really absurd for a rock competition and it felt like all the adrenaline went on waste. 

Spectators who came to have a good taste of Rock music were utterly disappointed. The next act, DEMONIC SALVATION saved the day. These kids executed sheer power (against the negative rants of the crowd) and were worth watching. THIRD CHAPTER was next, covering Petra’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’. This band from Imphal, Manipur gave an awesome performance and the crowd some moments to cherish. PHOENETIC RENAGE was next but the true heroes of the night were JUPITER ISLAND. Himon Choudhary, ex-Dluzion along with his band featuring Ifty and Xulfi of Insane Prophecy garnished the moods with their Psychedelic spiritualism. Personally I feel this was the best performance of the show. Symphonic Black Metal act, Judas Ancestry was another gem gleaming under the black halo. They earned applause and Vocalist, Sandeep was praised by the judges for his abilities. RUBBED ON ROUGH played funk and got funked. The guitarist was a real Tom Morello show-piece. 

If it had been, I would have awarded him the Best Guitarist of the gig. Up followed FATAL MALICE, ETERNAL PROMINENCE and female fronted, 6-D, of whom, she was applauded by the judges. Thrash Act, FARRAGO from Jorhat made up their show quite good, ending up with Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’. Indeed, this was a Neck-Breaker. SILENT ORIGINS and HARMONIC CURTAINS showed their tricks quite well. But what the crowd was looking for were the local lads, DARK CARNAGE. Theirs was the tightest performance as always. It all wrapped up with POETS AND RECTITORS and DISFIGURED SAVIOUR piling up their efforts.

This show saw participation of many bands from throughout the region. The competitors complained about the on-stage ambience. Hillol, keyboardist, Judas Ancenstry, when being talked to, said thus, “it was freezing cold out there and with all those fumes getting inside your lungs chokes the hell out of you”. Also the sound and light arrangements weren’t up to the mark. However Third Chapter clinched the top prize and bagged a reward of 10,000/- and the top five bands along with them got the opportunity to add in their tracks to a music compilation record under SANZZ Mobiles. Amidst all the drama, controversies arise! The winning band as reported didn’t get the full prize money as notified till date. Hope a solution to that comes forward soon.



The top 5 bands (in order) as per results- 

THIRD CHAPTER
JUDAS ANCESTRY DARK CARNAGE 
JUPITER ISLAND FARRAGO

Reviewed by: Sankalp Hazarika