A barrage of heavy metal bands like Def Leppard, Dream Theatre, Machine Head and Megadeth will be descending to India after Iron Maiden, reports Shridevi Keshavan
It’s celebration time for all the headbangers in town as India gets to see the best of heavy metal this year after the Iron Maiden concert scheduled to be held on February 1. Get ready for Megadeth, Machine Head (American heavy metal band) and Dream Theatre (an American progressive metal band) who are all set to rock India.
The bands will be in Bangalore to be part of the Rock In India concert on March 14 along with a couple of other Indian rock bands including Pentagram, Junkyard Groove and Thermal And A Quarter. Too add to all the hoopla, there’s also Def Leppard who will be playing on May 16 at Bangalore and on May 18 at the city’s MMRDA Grounds.
According to sources, the private jet of Iron Maiden landed last night and the band has been put up at JW Marriot. Today, sources say, the band members will be all over town shopping. They have apparently expressed their desire to visit the Ajanta and Ellora caves as well. Iron Maiden has reportedly made it clear that they don’t want to involve any celebrities in their tour schedule.
“They will have an after-party post the gig and will be then flying out on February 2 morning to Australia. The Indian market is opening up big time as far as heavy metal is concerned and this is good news for all the fans in here,” says Utsav Agarwal, Event Manager, Virgin Records. The Indian band Parikrama is opening the show for Iron Maiden. “This is our fourth concert in less than a year. We toured with them at the Download festival in the UK and have grown up listening to them. We could have never imagined that we will play with them one day,” said Subir Malik of Parikrama.
As far as the Def Leppard concert goes, things haven’t been finalised and though their official website haven’t specified the Indian tour yet. Leppard is currently on a world tour. The band will release their next album Songs From The Sparkle Lounge in the UK on March 17 and the first single Nine Lives features country singer Tim McGraw.
k_shridevi@dnaindia.net
