Stigmata to make a mark in Kandy

By Nadine Becker

Not wanting to make popular music but still becoming popular and famous is not precisely easy but this is what Stigmata want. That's why they are making the compromise of not signing up with a label but doing all their recordings out of their own pockets and all their promotions themselves. They do have a slight advantage though-most of their members work in banks or for advertising agencies.

Stigmata are in no way a conventional band and neither are their five new songs that will be presented to local audiences for the first-time ever. These songs will be the main attraction at the band's forthcoming concert to be held at Kandy's Old Trinitians' Sports Club on September 9 at 8 p.m.

Their support act, the band "Paranoid Earthling" will kick off the concert with an energetic introduction but the main part of course evolves all around Suresh (vocals), Andrew (guitar), Tenny (guitar), Wije (bass) and Jackson (drums) from Stigmata. The best piece of their repertoire to reflect what they are all about is probably the song that gives Sunday's show its name - "March of the Saints". This is an 11 minute piece, which the band calls its "progressive baby" at the moment and which also is the song that most of their concerts are ended with. "It has a double connotation," explains Suresh, "because by Saints we refer to our fans and how they have become like an Army to us and like our own wave of followers, which we worship more than anything else."

Stigmata is also going to show another seven-minute long new song, which is not radio-compatible as well, but still a treat to listen to. "During the 1 ½ to 2 hour concert we will also play some cover-songs like Judas Priest's "Pain Killer" as a bombshell and we will have many more surprises in store especially for our Kandy audience," the band predicts excitedly. Nevertheless their new songs are likely to be the main focus of attention and so "Alpha meets Omega" a complete instrumental version song, "the Summoning of Aries", "Nothing" and "Spinal coma" will be performed with special concentration at the concert, naturally next to pieces of their earlier numbers.

Their first album "Hollow Dreams" from 2003 has already sold more than 5000 copies all over South Asia and their last album "Silent Chaos Serpentine" which they recorded in 2006 has had a head start already. As the band with the first heavy metal album in Sri Lanka they can by now call themselves as the "Godfathers of Sri Lankan Heavy Metal" and the next album with their newly created songs will push them even higher on the wave of heavy metal that is sweeping through South Asia at the moment. The new album is planned to be ready for recording by next year and the band wants to launch it in Kandy and Male, where they so far seem to have had their best gigs.

"We love playing in Kandy because it is such a laid back town and most of its inhabitants are conservative. But we are playing for young teens in our audience, 20-year-olds and we also have seen some 40 or 50 year old directors at our concert so far, which gives us a real kick for the performance," explains Suresh, the band's lead-singer adding that he can't wait for the event to take place.

To make the evening in Kandy memorable, the band has decided to give everyone who buys the Rs. 500 entrance not a normal ticket but one of their Silent Chaos Serpentine CDs. "We found it's a great idea that the people who come all get a CD to take home and not a tiny piece of paper. We have given 500 CDs into printing especially for this," says Suresh. The band has also decided to change the inlay of the CD, which they are going to give. "We are so happy to finally play in Kandy that we really want to make it a different event from anything we have ever done before and everybody who comes there is going to get a special limited edition with a more refined, specially printed booklet more or less for free."

"We always wanted to play in Kandy but it has been so difficult to organize a venue there, because we want everything to be professional and perfect, the light, the sound-check, everything and it was really hard to find a suitable place," Sure-sh says relieved now that they have found the Old Trinitians Sports Club. This place indeed has a great atmosphere and so people can relax outside while others are listening to the concert inside. It's a hall area that overlooks the stadium and therefore makes it a remarkable location for the concert, which is quite convenient for youngsters as well in case they have no means to get back into the city-centre late at night because it is easily reachable.