Behind the scenes with Mass Damnation
To a Sri Lankan metalhead 2018 could be regarded as one of the biggest years for this genre of music in the country. Just last month local metal behemoths, Mass Damnation became the first band in the country to win at the Wacken Metal Battle, their win gave them an opportunity to take part at the Bangalore Open Air (BOA), which will take place on February 9, 2019.
The Wacken Metal Battle is a global competition that takes place on a national level with a line-up of 40 countries. The competing countries change on an annual basis and this was the first time that the competition was brought to Sri Lanka.
BOA would be the “playoff” stage and whoever is selected as the winner in Bangalore, will go onto play at ‘Wacken Open Air,’ Germany, the biggest heavy metal festival in the world.
We got a chance to catch up with boys behind Damnation. They gave us a peek into their music and future plans for the competition.
The name ‘Mass Damnation’ itself is an outsider’s perspective as to what this world was becoming, or rather what it has become. ‘Mass Damnation’ points out that this world we live in, is in ruin, whether it’s due to political corruption, pollution or even racial hatred.
The band was founded back in 2010 by Tony Jayathilake (Guitars) and Nirodha Jayasinghe (Drums). Sooner they were joined by Ryan Johnson on vocals. This led up to the launch of their first EP “Catalyst of Hate” in 2013. Since then, they went through a few lineup changes, but found two permanent members in Akila Peiris (Bass) and Thishan Wijesinghe (Guitars).
Our conversation moves on to their music, to which Thishan explains that throughout their existence, Tony has been the main song writer of the band. They also tend to write in their spare time and then bring parts or songs they’ve written into the practice space and go through them there.
“We find that we can feed off each other’s energy quite well,” he said.
When it came to the Metal Battle, Mass Damnation approached it just like any other show. “We really don’t believe that there is competition in music, especially in heavy metal,” Thishan says.
He adds the sense of unity in heavy metal is what sets itself apart from other genres. And as always, they just wanted to give their audience a brilliant performance.
Pix courtesy Yohan Justin
“People pay good, hard earned money to attend shows/ our shows and we always want to give them more than they pay for.”
Since winning the battle in Sri Lanka, their next step will be the Bangalore Open Air 2019. This is the first time they will be playing at a show of this magnitude and the boys describe the feeling as surreal. Most of them have previously attended BOA as fans. But “to be able to play there is just ridiculous.”
The lineup for this year’s show will be an experience itself. BOA 2019 will host their headliners, ‘Suffocation’; a veteran death metal band from America and co-headliner Abbath.
“To say this is an honour and a privilege is a massive understatement. It was quite bizarre to see our name on the poster with these legends,” Thishan adds.
Going into the competition the band’s game plan is to have a good time, meet and greet all the other bands and make the most of the opportunity. We are told, they will probably stick to the same set comprising all their originals, which they performed at stage one.
“We would all probably be comatose for a few months from sheer shock.”
Winning at the BOA will be a statement to all those who say “Rock/ Metal music doesn’t work in Sri Lanka. We aren’t saying that we are the best band to do this. We know we aren’t. If we do get to Wacken, hopefully it will serve as inspiration for upcoming bands that metal is metal, regardless of where it comes from so stick to your guns,” Thishan says.
As our interview comes to an end, we ask the band about their future plans, to which they retort “sleep would be nice.” On a more serious note though, they add that they’ve got a full length album in the works and plan to release it this year.
Playing live shows (regardless of the scale of the show) is what drives them as a band, so the aim is to play as many shows as possible.
The guys add that Metal is still considered “taboo” in Sri Lanka, mainly due to the fact that people don’t understand what it’s about. “We were all very lucky that our parents didn’t dissuade us from listening to/ playing metal music, but there are a lot youngsters who are passionate about getting into metal who are subdued.” They hope that taking part in competitions of this sort would change that.
Mass Damnation would like to thank all their fans and supporters, without whom they could not have achieved what they have so far.
For anyone who’d like to see them perform before they head off to Bangalore, they will be playing a show on February 2. It will be hosted by the band Nefertem, in support of their album.
For more details log on to their Instagram - www.instagram.com/ massdamnation
Magazine Cover courtesy Mass Damnation
