Back in mid-2008/09, when the music scene of Kolkata was still in the nascent stages of accepting metal into its repertoire, a few musicians came up with an idea with only a single goal in mind. To make this extreme form of music relevant in the scene and give musicians and metalheads a platform where they feel like they belong and express their art to enthusiastic fans.
“Kolkata was a very different city in terms of what was played as live music. Classic rock covers and Bengali bands were the flavours. Coincidentally in that period English metal bands covering a wider subgenre of metal all cropped up. The usual places for these bands to showcase their efforts was to play in college music competitions which back then still had very biased ugly duckling labels on metal as a genre,” says Ankit Mitra, guitarist of the veteran band In Human.
In those days, bands playing metal would get humiliated and the time slots allotted to them would be so short and restrictive that they could never finish their sets or showcase their work fully. The frustrations kept piling up to a point where the blatant ostracization of metal bands in the contemporary music scene could not be ignored anymore. This led members of a few of the active bands back then to come up with the idea of a singular platform that would entertain this form of music and where the artists could play their compositions without any biases or judgements. Thus, was incepted The Pit – the first all-metal gig ever in the heart of Kolkata’s music scene.
“Some of these bands namely Death is Only The Beginning, Cicatrixx, Chronic Xorn, In Human, Noyze Akademi, and Sinful Oath decided to fund and make their own show. Mainly meetings of members of these bands took place all over South Kolkata and hence The Pit was born. And its goal was always to provide a platform to the English Metal Bands of the city to showcase their efforts,” adds Ankit.
Also read: Kolkata Thrashers DREADHAMMER Announces Departure of Their Bassist
Although initially, The Pit was started by 6 bands, over time a few of them ended up disbanding. This resulted in a situation where the organizers of the event had to do everything possible to hold it together. “Prasanna Singh and the late Abhishek Bhattacharya came on board the organisation in later shows. Some members whose bands are inactive still provide their support to date. It has gotten harder as we keep growing older and our professional and personal lives just encompass more and more of the time, we can give to keep up this venture,” comments Ankit.
The Pit, which has prided itself on a brand of DIY ethics has influenced many to follow in its footsteps. Soon, many more such gigs started propping up throughout the city and by now in 2022, metal has become an important part of Kolkata’s homegrown music scene. “The Pit is practically funded from the pockets of the organisers and very generous donors. We are very grateful for the music listeners who attend our shows to have helped us by ensuring that their patronage can help us to at least recover the cost of putting up the show,” says Ankit.
And it’s no wonder that the festival came as a delightful surprise to the metal enthusiasts who had given up hope on their desire to experience their favourite music live. “The crowd reception has been great for us. Unofficially recorded highest numbers we hit was about an estimated 1500 people in the early days of Pit 4 or so and ever since r started keeping an official tally and record, we will say Pit 9 saw the highest recorded footfall of around 350-400,” recalls Ankit.
So, what does this year’s Pit have in store for the fans? Well, we can only hope for the best. In Ankit Mitra’s words, “The Pit has and will always strive to be a space for people to come and enjoy some of the best metal acts this city and country has to offer in all their glory. This edition of the Pit aims to uphold the aim of its predecessors and also revive the show which had to be cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020.”
