Mumbai hardcore band Scribe release third album that pays homage to Bollywood

Pav bhaji and Bollywood-loving metal band Scribe release their third album today. Hail Mogambo seems inspired from the villain of the 1987 film ‘Mr India’
Scribe, one of India’s funnest and favourite metal bands, is out with their third album titled Hail Mogambo. The 13-track album packs in all the features that fans have come to expect from Scribe – monstrous guitar riffs, elaborate vocals, pounding drums, eccentric music influences, funny song titles and kitschy Bollywood references.Comprising Prashant Shah and Akshay Rajpurohit on guitars, Srinivas S on bass guitar, Vishwesh Krishnamoorthy on vocals and Viru on drums, Scribe have been surprising fan and critics alike with their take on metal since 2006. Their shows include all-girl moshpits, pav bhaji stalls, beach balls, poetry recitals, inflatable pool crowd surfing, court-room dramatisations, skits and other fun-filled shenaniga.
Their last album was Mark of Teja in 2010. Hail Mogambo, which goes on sale online on September 26, was in the making for three years. The album has been mixed by Keshav Dhar of the djent-band Skyharbour fame and mastered by Swedish producer Jens Bogren, who has previously worked for international metal bands like Opeth, Soilwork and The Devin Townsend Project.
Hail Mogambo continues the story that the band began in Mark of Teja. In the bands’ words, Hail Mogambo “is a grand opus of evil rising to power and assuming total control of the world and its people.” If Mark Of Teja introduced the audience to the world of Singhania (Prashant/guitars), Jindal (Vaas/bass), Chopra (Akshay/guitars), Malhotra (Vishwesh/vocals) and Dr Dang (Viru/drums), Hail Mogambo takes it further by delving further into their minds and psyche.
The album – the title for which seems inspired from the villain of the 1987-released film Mr India – is also the band’s homage to Bollywood. “The album’s topics, subjects and characters allude to the 1987 Shekhar Kapur-directed film ‘Mr India’ but also include many other characters and concepts from other films in the time period that made an equally lasting impression,” says the band.
Characterised by the band’s atypical musical choices, Hail Mogambo is replete with eccentric snatches of music inspired by non-metal influences like hip-hop, groovy 80s synth sounds, finding an ideal partner in Vishwesh’s attention-grabbing vocal delivery style.