DIRGE, one of the few bands which has brought in India some awesome Doom/Stoner Metal bands after Bevar Sea and Shepherd have gained major praise in the Metal Community. Awarded as one of the Hottest College Bands in the City by Pune Times, DIRGE was formed in January 2014, strongly influenced by doom metal with the likes of sludge and stoner. Bands like Candlemass, Black Sabbath, Eyehategod, Trouble, Sleep, Melvins, Autopsy, Acid bath etc heavily influence the band’s music.
The originals are composed on a Historic-myth-fiction lyrical theme about the resurgence of the violent Maya. This makes the music of Dirge to be maddeningly sludge driven doom with fuzzed out overdrive, ‘10000 ton’ heavy riffs, low tuned distorted basslines with screaming angst-ridden vocals. Since then Dirge has done multiple shows in Pune and spread the word of doom in other parts of India where people were still getting familiar with the genre and has opened for international bands like Defiled – Japanese Death Metal Giants (Twice) and Psychedelic Stoner/Sludge band CHU from Kazakhstan.
The Line Up
Tabish Khidir
on vocals,brings in the vocal power to the music of DIRGE and with his energy on stage he makes sure to capture the crowd.
Ashish Dharkar
on guitars is the brains behind DIRGE. His 10,000 ton heavy riffs are the backbone of DIRGE. His delay driven solos cut right through anything and everything.
Varun Patil
on guitars with his fuzzed out overdrive, increases the heaviness and power of DIRGE tenfold. His rhythms and riffs are a perfect backing for Ashish’s leads with no compromise on the heaviness of DIRGE.
Harshad Bhagwat
on bass, is the master of the bass at DIRGE. His distorted bass tone not only brings in the perfect backing that the music of DIRGE requires but also increases the overall heaviness of the band.
Prathamesh Lele
on drums. His slow drum patterns are the perfect backing and the spine of DIRGE. His well placed rolls and powerful snare hits bring in more energy and dynamics to the bands music.
The members met through common friends and social network and decided to come together. The lead guitarist Ashish Dharkar says ,’Our music is very slow and down tune. Initially it was difficult for us to get the band in place since this genre is not that popular in this Western part of the country.’
What has DIRGE been up to?
In their existence of just one year, DIRGE has played a lot of shows and has improved drastically over every show and there is no stopping to it.
The shows DIRGE has played over the year are as follows:
• 12th July 2014 – Dawn Of The Legion, Pune
• 16th November 2014 – Rock Fight – 1Lounge, Pune
• 29th December 2014 – BIG69 Pre-Gig – High Spirits, Pune
• 10th January 2015 – Echoes From Beneath III – No Limmits, Bangalore Opening for DEFILED (Japan) and CHU (Kazakhstan)
• 12th January – Entombed Metal Fest Vol. 7 – Pune, Opened for DEFILED (Japan) Again.
• 17th May 2015 – Urban assault, Mumbai
• 1st June 2015 – Bangalore open air ,Bangalore
What's next?
• At the moment DIRGE plans to play as many shows as possible though out the country
• Dirge is only doom/Sludge band from Pune and  would love to play at other parts of the country and show what they are all about
• Dirge plans to hit the studio soon to record an Album slated to release in 2016
• DIRGE has a recorded a single at Demonic Studios, Mumbai, which is currently being mixed and plans to release it in April.
• DIRGE is one of the bands to look forward to in the near future with their unique taste of doom metal music.
Check out DIRGE’s debut song “Swamp”
It is a fucking monster full of epic Stoner/Sludge riffs with a dark and heavy sideline in monolithic doom.
You can check them out here!
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