We caught up with Bangalore’s old school thrashers. KRYPTOS, to talk about their third release ‘Coils Of Apollyon’. Vocalist Nolan Lewis talks about their journey, new album and trends.
Hi, Nolan. Greetings from MetalIndia Magazine. So, finally, here we are. ‘Coils of Apollyon’ is ready for release. How is the feeling?
Hello and thanks for the interview. Yeah it feels great to finally get this album out. It’s been close to three years of really hard work and now that we’re at this moment in time is pretty exciting. We can’t wait to get this album out to people because this album is a fucking beast. It’s everything we ever wanted it to be and then some.
Please tell us something about the lyrical themes and concept of ‘Coils of Apollyon’. How is it different from your previous releases?
Well there’s a lot of strange stuff going on in this album. What I like to do with lyrics is to take a certain theme and turn it on its head. There’s a lot of stuff about the occult, reptilians, the illuminati, Japanese kamikaze, sci-fi and all sorts of things but never in a clichéd way. We’re not the kind of band that runs around in the snow shouting ‘Sataaaaaaannn feel my groinnn’. My lyrics are a lot more subtle and filled with inferences to things that only people into these subjects can recognize and then ‘connect the dots’. The lyrics on our last release were a lot more ‘to the point’ but on the new album I’m hoping the lyrics might encourage people to delve into these subjects because it’s incredibly fascinating and eye opening at the same time.
Who designed the album art? The approach has been very death metal-ish. Shall we expect the death metal elements in the album?
The art was done by Mark Riddick, who is easily one of the most phenomenal artists in the underground metal scene. Very cool guy and really easy to work with. But no, there aren’t any death metal elements on this album. The cover does look a little death metal-ish I agree, but once people go through the lyrics it will start to make sense. If not they can always stare at the big scary horned guy on the cover and tell their girlfriends ‘’Yeahhhhh!!! Satannnnnn fuckennn rulessssss bitchhh’. That sounds like fun too.
‘The Mask of Anubis’ was well received by the Kryptos fans and metalheads across the country. What’s in store for us in the rest of the album?
Well the rest of the album is pretty much more of the same, in spirit, but they aren’t all as fast as The Mask of Anubis. I’d say the best way to describe the album would be a cross between Priest/Maiden/Mercyful Fate and Coroner. That’s pretty much what it sounds like but it still sounds like us. You can make out our influences pretty easily but we still don’t exactly sound like anyone else. But rest assured this is an album that will make you want to trade your grandmother for a bullet belt.
What’s up with the ‘Coils Over India Tour’ where you were about to play in 30 cities in 40 days, but sadly, the tour was cancelled. Is it still on your ‘to-do list’?
Yeah it’s still something we will definitely do in the near future because that was something we were really gung ho about. We had to call it off at that time because certain situations arose that put us in a bit of a fix so we had to postpone everything indefinitely. It definitely wasn’t something we wanted to put off. I mean what’s not to like about sitting in a bus for 40 days going around the country getting piss drunk and playing a bunch of gigs. It’s a whole lot better than buying fucking vegetables.
Talking of tours, we all remember, in 2010, Kryptos became the first Indian metal band to complete a cross country of Europe, playing at Rockmaraton Festival in Hungary, the In Flammen Open Air Festival in Germany, and then few club gigs throughout Germany and Switzerland. Are you planning to do something like this again?
We’re planning on going again this year but that of course depends on what offers we get and what gigs or festivals we can book. Nothing really concrete as of right now but things are always going on in the background with us. It’s just that we don’t publicize everything we do, which seems to be the norm these days amongst most bands. I mean I don’t really want to know what fucking toothpaste you bought or what fucking underwear you wore to work or some crap like that.
Would you like to tell us something about ‘Iron Fist Records’?
Well it’s basically a label started by a few of us here from Bangalore dedicated to signing and releasing Indian bands that WE think are good. It’s still about a year away from finding its feet so until then the label will release only the new Kryptos album, the upcoming Bevar Sea album and probably a split EP of bands we sign sometime towards the end of the year. Basically we started this label to promote the music we like, which as you can guess is a lot of stuff that sounds like it came out of the 70’s and 80’s. So we’re interested in bands who play traditional metal, doom, death metal, thrash etc. Most importantly we’re looking for bands that have a certain ‘feeling’ to their music and who are also great live so we can get them down south for a couple of gigs every now and then. By the way, if the music you play has ‘-core’ at the end of it don’t bother applying.
From where can I order/buy the physical copy of the album and your official merch?
Right now it will only be available at our gigs but by the first week of March we will have an online store up and ready for people to order from.
How tough is it managing day jobs, gigs, jamming, and everything in between?
It’s pretty tough because we usually practice at least 4 – 5 times a week. Of course our regular jobs pose the biggest hurdle when it comes to practice and gigs but we’ve somehow managed to make things work. Every now and then we do take a break from everything just to regain our sanity. But hey, no pain no gain yadda yadda (insert similar proverb of your choice)
Kryptos has completed almost 14 years as a band. What changes have you seen in the metal scene, fans, bands, gigs and everything else since 1998?
We’ve seen pretty much everything you can imagine. The metal scene has only just started to take shape but how long it lasts remains to be seen. Back then there was no scene, not matter what you played. It was just a bunch of bands farting around playing Pearl Jam or Deep Purple covers ad nauseum. Even today there really isn’t a ‘metal scene’ as such. It’s just a bunch of bands trying to be as heavy as possible, or as technical as possible or as xxxxxtreme as possible. Just because you can play a heavy riff or light speed double bass and scream like a brontosaur it doesn’t automatically make you ‘metal’. In fact I’d go as far as to say that 95% of the metal bands in India aren’t really ‘metal’ anyway. For more clarification refer to my previous sentence and hit ‘loop’. The thrash scene in the Bay Area in the 80’s, the Florida death metal scene of the early 90’s etc – THOSE are scenes. What we have here is just mass delusion.
As far as the fans go, well that’s just it. They come and go. We’re one of the fortunate bands who have been lucky enough to still have people coming to our shows and buying our music and who have been following us for as long as the band has been around. But I’ve seen a lot of people over the years that just stopped coming to gigs because of all sorts of things like work, families, kids etc. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just a shift in priorities. At the same time there have been a lot of fair weather fans who I remember caught onto the whole nu metal scene back then and dropped it like a hot potato when it went out of fashion and moved onto metalcore, deathcore and all sorts of other things. All these are fads anyway. They never last, which is why a Black Sabbath will be remembered a thousand years from now while a Limp Bizkit will just be a footnote in a teen magazine.
On the flip side the gigs have progressively become better now that a lot of people are doing things on their own. Gigs like the Trendslaughter Fest, The Mighty Riff, Impending Doom and Undergrind are all going great guns and are getting quality bands and quality music to the people. Plus with so many international metal bands coming down to India it at least gives some of us something to get excited about instead of lazing on the sofa watching Matrix reruns.
Which has been the best moment as a musician/Kryptos member so far?
I would like to say opening for Iron Maiden and getting to meet them soon after ranks right up there as one of my best ever moments but I’ll go for something stupid like making enough money to buy a jar of Nutella every two weeks.
Tell us about your upcoming gigs.
After our launch gig in Bangalore we have a gig on March 3rd at the German Hall in Chennai. We’re still working on more gigs after that and we hope to hit Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Delhi very soon so let’s see how that goes.
Thanks a lot for your time. Nolan. Best wishes from MetalIndia Magazine. Anything you’d like to say to all Kryptos fans, metalheads across the country and the young, aspiring musicians who dream to do what you are doing today.
Thanks for the interview. To all the Kryptos fans I’d like to say thanks for all your support and for not throwing stuff at us. To all the metalheads across the country – You guys are awesome…….well some of you are….the rest of you smell of fish. To the young aspiring musicians around the country – Don’t do drugs (lol)
Visit Kryptos on Official Website | Facebook