Indian band R.A.I.D. (Rueban And the Imperium Division) have crafted a brutish melodic hardcore meets death metal sound that they describe as “positive, hardcore and groove.” The band combines groovy guitars with unusual, almost growly but engaging vocals.
Hyderabad-based R.A.I.D. was founded by vocalist Rueban Isaac in 2016 and initially began as a crossover thrash metal act, before evolving into a metallic hardcore style over the years. Since then, the band has released three albums, The Strong Survive, Imperium and Defiance, before last year’s EP Dominion with Rueban joined by David Samuel (guitars), Amit Cornelius (bass) and Bobbin Jaydev (drums).
Expanding on the band’s approach, Rueban told us: “We have always adhered to crafting lyrics that convey a positive and uplifting message based out of the struggles of our own life experiences. We are influenced by a lot of hardcore punk and modern core bands. We follow a strict DIY ethic when it comes to putting music or playing shows. We have done everything by ourselves without any support of labels or artist management companies. Beyond playing straight and fast, we make a point to incorporate many elements of groove into our playing. We believe that playing at slower tempos just brings out the ‘Heavy’ in music.”
To give us a taste for this, they sent us Dinas – Death Is Not A Solution – from the Dominion EP. It opens up with building guitars that drop into driving drums and darting guitar chords under Rueban’s engaging vocals. A cry of “Is this the end?” launches us into a lively chorus with gruff vocals supported by cool stabbing guitars. Another groovy verse ends with a cool stabbing guitar riff, before the pace drops with cleaner vocals supported by a bassline. It bursts into more gruff vocals and rolling drums, before a big guttural scream sets up stabbing guitars to bring the track to a close.
On the track, Reuben said: “We have recieved tremendous feedback for the song from our listeners and it also was featured in notable publications. DINAS musically has fast thrashy parts, groove and aggressive breakdowns. The song lyrically focuses on people having suicidal thoughts. It is important to hang onto your life, because everyone has experienced pain and sorrow before in their life. That you should seek comfort in your friends and accept their hand if they are willing to reach out to you. This song can let a person know that their negative emotions are being taken seriously, and to hold onto your life.”
If you like the sound of that, then there’s plenty more gritty melodic hardcore goodness to get stuck into on Dominion. That includes the feisty opening track Ignite, the lively Mania, the superb Supremacy and the EP’s lead single Aftermath, which features a really cool spinning halfway through and you can check out in the video below.
The R.A.I.D. sound has been influenced by hardcore/crossover thrash bands like Madball, Agnostic Front and Terror and modern hardcore bands like Kublai Khan, Thrown, Dealer, Guilt Trip.
And on what inspires them to write music, Rueban explains: “Our music is influenced by our own struggles that we face in life and how we motivate ourselves to overcome it. Our last EP Dominion was written to raise awareness on suicide and its prevention.”
R.A.I.D. is only the third Indian band we’ve met, so we asked them for their insight into metal music in the country. Reuben told us: “The metal scene in India is growing. One of the metal bands that is a testament of the scene growing in India is Bloodywood. Although the scene is relatively underground, there are bands working hard to get global recognition.”
R.A.I.D. just finished up a tour of India to promote their latest EP, and are currently writing and recording new music for an album that they intend to release by early next year.
You can follow R.A.I.D. on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music and YouTube.
Listen to R.A.I.D. and more new music on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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