black metal from India: Cosmic Infusion: interview, part 1

Cosmic Infusion (India)

Cosmic Infusion interview part 1.

Symphonic, melodic black metal formation Cosmic Infusion’s recording simply titled “Cosmic Infusion” impresses for its professionalism in the songwriting, for being memorable and good for headbanging. After hearing the music, it was only logical to get in contact with them to reveal the secrets of Cosmic Infusion. Now, dear reader, it’s your turn, if you like symphonic, melodic black metal, don’t be a stranger and get in touch with them and show them your support. They want your support! Cosmic Infusion wants you to join them on the black metal quest to the galaxies!

www.facebook.com/CosmicInfusion www.twitter.com/Cosmicinfusion cosmic.infusion.india@gmail.com

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Greetings! Your black metal, songwriting and a bit of melody makes Cosmic Infusion a pleasurable listen.

Thank you and really glad that you liked the release. Appreciate it!

Can you explain something about the members of the band? On the EP there's a session drummer listed and I have seen videos on the internet with a drummer. What is the current situation with that? Is Nandan is a real person or a fancy way of saying drum programming?

Cosmic Infusion is Sushan (Vocals/Keys), Amnish (Guitars), Amey (Bass Guitar) and Nakul(Guitars). All the members in the band have been part of the Indian underground music scene for more than a decade now, playing for different bands like Infernal Wrath (Sushan, Amnish) and Infinite Redemption (Amey, Nakul). Haha, yeah, Nandan is a real person and all the drums on the EP have been played by him and are live. Nandan played with us for about a year and a half, but has personal commitments to fulfill, which is why he would not be able to continue with the band. So right now till we find the right percussionist, we'll be playing live with recorded/programmed drums because we need to keep the momentum going since the band is doing quite well right now.

Cosmic Infusion was formed in 2003 in Mumbai, but the EP has come in 2013. What has happened in those 10 years? How you do remember that the state of metal music in India was different in 2003? Are you happy to release the EP finally!

Yes. We were originally formed in 2003 (with founding members Sushan and Amnish). But gradually disintegrated around 2007 with the original vocalist not being able to continue, followed by some of the members joining another band Infernal Wrath as full time musicians. But eventually around end 2011, the band was decided to be put together and with an intense search for musicians, early 2012 Cosmic Infusion was reformed. And, yes, it feels great to finally have the EP out now and as a proof of all the hard work that has been put in.

Around 2000/03, Indian metal scene was extremely small, with most of the bands having a set dominated by covers with about 1 or 2 originals thrown in. Having good venues was probably the biggest challenge which still remains right now, but the situation is much better than back then. And probably getting good equipment was also difficult with everything being either difficult to find or being extremely expensive.

Now that you’re back in action, what are your plans for 2013/14? Is there music written but not yet recorded?

The rest of 2013 will be spent in promoting the release and playing as many shows as possible, while we continue to write new material and a positive search for a good label. Hopefully around end 2014 we should have most of the new material written, although we do not force ourselves to write new music and let the music come more naturally.

Yes, there is some music written and the next release will be mostly more elaborate in terms of composition, arrangement and also in terms of the soundscape. The writing process is taken care of by the entire band. There is always someone who comes with a concept or a riff and everything is built around it. Its a fantastic process, its almost like you've been given this huge canvas to paint on and has endless possibilities with what you do with it.

How have metalheads in Mumbai reacted to your EP?

The reaction has been fantastic in Mumbai. There was much anticipation related to the release since it’s been a long time coming. And thankfully everybody has quite loved the release with good messages coming not only from Mumbai but also from all over India.

We have an average of about 2 shows every 3 months. But with the release out we have quite a few shows lined up, so hopefully we'll have a good year this time around with a few shows lined up in Mumbai and few shows at different cities like Hyderabad, Pune, etc.

When I listen to "Acronycal Éloge" I sense the objective of a cinematic, epic, symphonic black metal. What sort of mental images did you have for this song: symphonies? epic movies? intergalactic travel? How did you guys envision the keyboards for Cosmic Infusion?

'Acronycal Éloge' is about a profane ritual conducted at an unholy time. So it is imagined to sound powerful, huge and dark at the same time and has to try to walk you through a few phases of the ritual through the song. Which is also what we do with all our writing. Instead of putting everything out there through the lyrics, we try to keep it a bit cryptic most of the times and try to have the music take you through the story as we imagine it.

The element of symphonies is a big added advantage for us since it opens up a big spectrum with itself and it helps us portray the music perfectly well with the story of the song. It’s fantastic and we are really glad that you talked about symphonies, epic stories and even inter-galactic travel because these were the basis of the tracks on the EP. Each track has its own story and concept. For example, Gothika is about a village which the rest of the world doesn’t know about (It is inspired by an actual place close to where we live, where we used to spend a lot of time when the song was originally being written). “Crepheus” is a celestial body born through the black hole and track describes its flight through space. “Burial” is about a gathering of an entire army on the battlefield. And “Journey” is about your own journey through the forests, the hills, your perception of the universe and about realizations.

The stories themselves are such that they demand a specific type of sound and arrangement. So visualizing the songs helps us a lot to put the entire song together.

What about "Burial of Thy Own," how many different people are there on vocals? Have you decided if this is an element that will be a major aspect of your music: the traditional singing? I get the impression that you are still exploring whether to go all the way with the use of traditional singing within a melodic, symphonic black metal context?

All the vocals, including the screeches, the growls and the cleans on the EP have been done by our vocalist Sushan. With Nakul providing the backing vocals at some parts. We quite like the traditional singing, since again it opens up a big plethora of options in terms of vocal composition. Well, we don’t really hold anything back when it comes to either vocal composition or the rest of the music composition, which is probably why you might find quite a lot of influences from various genres of music. And yes, there is a lot of traditional singing on the newer tracks as well. But we use it only where we find it necessary and make the parts more powerful. But again yes, the newer tracks might have a lot of traditional singing on them.