Fans from India/Street Team

[Arjun_M]

This is my first post here, and I am a Testament fan from India. The first I heard of Testament was on a show called the House of Noise (sadly now defunct), a half-hour rock segment on a local music channel. The video was, as expected, "Return to Serenity". Initially I mistook them for a Metallica clone, but havign heard more stuff, although clips, I found them more interesting, then came three mono mp3's off a now-defunct site. I couldn't get enough of this band, and started looking for more, but they are such a little-known band here, getting albums was very difficult. I still managed to get four albums (Ritual, New Order, Practice What You Preach and Demonic), and then some rock fan made this joke- all those who know of Testament in my area (however few they are) know of it from me!

Favourite tracks- Return to Serenity, Electric Crown, New Order, Trial By Fire, Into the Pit, the Ballad, Nightmare (coming back to you), Dog Faced Gods, the Legacy, the list goes on- Testament are one of those bands by whom you usually can't find a bad song.

Anyway, are there any more fans from India on this forum? Maybe there will be, once a Street Team or E-team gets into action. Is there any such facility?

 

[soulflypl]

This is my first post here, and I am a Testament fan from India. The first I heard of Testament was on a show called the House of Noise (sadly now defunct), a half-hour rock segment on a local music channel. The video was, as expected, "Return to Serenity". Initially I mistook them for a Metallica clone, but havign heard more stuff, although clips, I found them more interesting, then came three mono mp3's off a now-defunct site. I couldn't get enough of this band, and started looking for more, but they are such a little-known band here, getting albums was very difficult. I still managed to get four albums (Ritual, New Order, Practice What You Preach and Demonic), and then some rock fan made this joke- all those who know of Testament in my area (however few they are) know of it from me!

Favourite tracks- Return to Serenity, Electric Crown, New Order, Trial By Fire, Into the Pit, the Ballad, Nightmare (coming back to you), Dog Faced Gods, the Legacy, the list goes on- Testament are one of those bands by whom you usually can't find a bad song.

Anyway, are there any more fans from India on this forum? Maybe there will be, once a Street Team or E-team gets into action. Is there any such facility?

Hey there !!!!

Nice story that is - glad you got into Testament

Keep spreading their music in your neighbourhood

HAIL THE LEGIONS OF INDIA

 

[Arjun_M]

Keep spreading their music in your neighbourhood

HAIL THE LEGIONS OF INDIA

I can do so as long as fans are interested. Hopefully we'll hear of the Legions of India rather than a single legionnaire. That's why I'd like to know of the Street team or E-team, and what I can do to get more fans.

 

[Arjun_M]

Is this forum rarely visited? Very often, I find I'm the only member on this page!

Testament would be a big hit here in India, particularly in Mumbai, where the choice of music is very aggressive and loud. Fans like bands like System of a Down (ugh!), Sepultura, Rammstein, NIN, Metallica and Slayer, so a Testament concert at a rock-fest would be a sell-out. QUESTION: How do I help make this possible?

 

[max]

cool story and welcome to the board Arjun!!

 

[sknight]

Well, I'm Indian, but I live in New York. Sorry, I can't help you with the street team out there.

I would never have thought that metal would have ANY following in India, whatsoever. How did you get into it?

 

[Arjun_M]

On Channel [V], part of the STAR (remember them? the frontrunners of cable TV in India) group, there was this show called the House of Noise, hosted by Vishal Dadlani (heard of him?), the extra-dramatic vocalist from Pentagram. I saw the video of Return to Serenity (what else?) on that show, which I found interesting, and that's how I became a fan. On some Testament fan pages, I even heard about Iced Earth, Mercyful Fate and Dragonlord (ugh! oh well, black metal...), but no other rock fan I know has even heard of them! There was one underground rock broadcast on AIR FM 107.1 (Mumbai's first FM station), but that's long defunct too- I even knew the anchor of that show personally, before he shifted elsewhere

Here in India, it's just Metallica, GnR, Pink Floyd, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, all typical stuff. They've even forgotten Europe of the Final Countdown!

 

[sknight]

Wow, well it's all up to you to find the promoters of metal, like those you mentioned, and get the word out there! I visited India once as a kid.

Ebay and Amazon are great sources for music, especially since this stuff isn't readily available out there. To find out more about metal bands, check out www.bnrmetal.com

I also set up a message board yesterday to promote metal in my area, since we're a hotbed for signed metal acts:
http://www.phpbbforfree.com/forums/nymetalandprog.html

We're starting up, but we can always use as much traffic as possible.

 

[one man]

The best way to get them there, I believe, is to promote them as much as possible (which I know you're already doing) over the internet and radio stations as well as on various rock concerts and then to get in touch with some local promoters and talk them into contacting TestAmenT's manager in order to bring them to India.
It'd be great for the fans and for the band if TestAmenT managed to have a tour in Asia one day- or even at least in India, which is a big country and I imagine many people wouldn't travel hundreds of kilometers for a one show that would probably be in a big city like Delhi, Madras, Bombay or Calcutta- especially that TestAmenT is unfortunately not that popular (which can be seen by the number of people on this forum). So a tour of like 6-8 concerts would be a nice solution and would get the band a great exposure to a totally new market- and rock fans would have a lot of fun too (not to mention many people would discover an amazing band).
But I understand it must be amazingly hard to organize something like that (otherwise, they would have played there already a couple of times).
Good luck.

 

[Arjun_M]

In an event known as Great Indian Rock, there was a guest act from the US known as Lefty. Of course, Testament are a far bigger name than this band, but one can imagine the kind of response they would get in Mumbai or Delhi. The reason I mention these places is that the rock scene there is full of aggression, be it thrash or death metal, unlike Bangalore, where the scene supports more melodic, innovative music. Slayer has a very large fanbase in the country, who will be blown away by a Testament performance.

The problem with radio stations in the city is that they rarely play rock on radio, except for one- hopefully I can get in touch with them. Again, they're mostly into classic rock, though Testament may be passed of as "classic rock" here, with Deep Purple and Whitesnake, but that's a start. Will that occasional play of "Return to Serenity" (the most acceptable track for India) help much? If there are any 'profiler' shows which feature one band, I can supply them with resources. I can think of different promotions on different channels- be it commercials on radio/TV, or decorations of TV show sets, or even large posters or schemes in audio retail units.