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Ugra-Karma is a Sanskrit term that denotes a bad, harmful action.
What greets you when you open the website of Nepal's first death metal band, Ugra Karma, are the following words: "Welcome to the official death page of Ugra Karma. The first death metal band from the Kingdom of Nepal."
The band has a new album "Blood Metal Initiation" coming out soon. "The album has 11 songs available on both CDs and tape," Sunil Dev Pant, the frontman of the band, recently told SPOTLIGHT. "It's a follow up to our demo CD," Sunil says. "The lyrics are about hatred, nihilism, atheism, death, torture, gore, serial killers etc."
How could such gruesome and ghastly themes draw the attention music lovers in Nepal? "I was surprised myself when we received the awards," says Sunil. "Maybe some things only can happen in Nepal. We're probably the world's first death metal band to come onto the charts."
Ugra Karma recently topped the charts of Hits FM in Kathmandu. "It was the most amazing thing that ever happened," Sunil says. "These things do not even happen in the United States. This kind of music does not have a large audience. Maybe we were nominated because of the entirely different kind of music we play."
The band, which originates from Kathmandu, is a three-piece outfit playing old-school-style death metal. In May 2001, Ugra Karma released their demo record with the line-up of Sunil, Prateek and Aayush. It has survived with the line-up of Sunil (vocals and drums), Aayush (bass), Subash (guitars). All the members used to play with different bands.
Back in Kathmandu University, Sunil, along with Prateek, used to be in a band in which he used to "growl and abuse" his guitars. Aayush also used to play bass with a band named Yasht but he quit because of differences.
Later the band decided to change the line-up a bit. Sunil was on vocals and guitars, Aayush on drums, Subash on lead and Roshan on bass. They gave their first performance at Kathmandu Utsav 2000 in which the band bagged the prize for Best Rhythm Guitarist.
Their next performance was at Shikhar Beat Contest in which they had to change the line-up with Prasant on bass, who came all the way from Hong Kong for the contest. They also performed at "Metal-A Big Day Out" in which they performed covers of the bands like Slayer, Sepultura, Sodom and also two of their original compositions, this time with the line up of Aayush, Prateek, Sunil and Subash.
"Death in its purest form is what we represent," says Sunil. "We are getting ready for a gig with Subash and Prateek soon. Aayush left the country recently for studies in the United States, but he hasn't left the band." |
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