JANET CATHERINA
First Sitar-Fronted
Metal Band in the World
Releases Debut Album
The only constant in music is change. Every year gives way
to new trends, innovations, and the rise and fall of entire
genres. So what is the next new thing? Well, a metal band
fronted by a sitar certainly seems to be in the running for
the title. Sitar Metal released their eponymous debut album
on October 1, and it’s exactly what it sounds like—with a
clear cut name like Sitar Metal, there’s no doubt that the
sitar is the essence of the band. This makes a lot more sense
when one learns about founder Rishabh Seen’s background.
The fourth-generation sitar player in his family, Rishabh
has been performing since he was just eight years old, often
playing at Indian classical concerts abroad with his father.
“In a family like mine, the first thing you know outside of
breathing is music,” he jokes. But when Rishabh first listened
to metal music in 2011, his world changed. Everything from
the song structure to the performance style of metal bands
was completely different from what he had seen until then.
However, it wasn’t until three years later, when he
discovered the subgenre progressive metal and heard the
band Animals as Leaders for the first time, that the wheels
in his head began turning. “When I heard their songs, I
felt like these guys were playing ragas on guitars. These
are two opposite worlds, two opposite instruments, but I
just felt a connection between them that I never felt when
listening to other metal bands,” Rishabh explains. Soon after
that, he started making sitar covers of Animals as Leaders
songs. Although he wanted to release new music of his own,
he first wanted to establish the idea of sitar in metal.
With that goal in mind, Rishabh formed Mute the Saint, but
after releasing one album, they disbanded due to artistic
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differences. But Rishabh didn’t give up there; a year later,
he invited his friends—guitarist Deeparshi Roy, bassist
Tushar Khurana (who, surprisingly enough, started learning
how to play the bass guitar at the same time that Rishabh
started writing the album), and drummer Joel Damian
Rodrigues—to form Sitar Metal. In February, the band
made their live debut as the supporting act for American
rock band Polyphia in Delhi. About the experience, Rishabh
says, “We hadn’t released any of our music then. So for
the first time, I could see this music working live.”
When Sitar Metal’s debut album was finally released, it was
well-received both in India and around the world. The album
starts off with the single ‘When Time Stands Still,’ which
opens with a simple sitar riff before gradually evolving into
the paragon of the band’s sound. From then on, the album gets
darker and darker, precariously balancing the raw and chaotic
nature of metal music with the melodic sound of the sitar as
well as other Indian classical elements like Shayari. One of the
songs also features a verse from UK rapper Rider Shafique.
The one thing that really stands out in the album is the
unadulterated sound of the sitar, which Rishabh confirms
was his prime focus while making the album. “Part of the
reason I did this is because I wanted to make the sitar more
‘cool’ for young people. I was too tired of hearing that the
sitar is difficult to carry, difficult to learn, this and that. It’s
as difficult or as easy as any other instrument. But the thing
is that it’s been stereotyped by older people so much that
young people run away from it. When you think of a keyboard,
do you have any genre in mind? No, with it you could play
anything in the world. That’s where I want to take the sitar.”