The Bengal Regiment: A grand tribute to the Bengal Tyrants

It was the 15th June, 2013 when the unholy show was organized at the heart of the Bangladesh capital: Dhaka. The gig was at the Russian Cultural Center Auditorium and was named ‘The Bengal Regiment’, inspired or borrowed from the band who taught Bangladeshi metalheads the art of extreme metal for the last 9 years; Severe Dementia. But their journey has come to a halt as the band decided not to continue without their vocalist or perhaps go for a long hiatus. Thus the show was organized by the Bangladesh Metal Alliance (BMA) to pay a grand homage to the band. For a lot of the readers, a poverty and corruption-stricken country like Bangladesh may not be a considerable place for extreme metal music, but to let them know, there is a strong underground metal scene going ever since the late 80’s. Now there are bands for every sub-genre of metal in Bangladesh.

Coming back to the show, it was put up by the devoted and hard working organizers of BMA and had five of the most promising metal acts in Bangladesh to support Severe Dementia: Thrash, Dissector, Homicide, Sacrilege and Exalter. None of them failed to desecrate the venue with their technical efficiency and musical savagery. Then it was time for Severe Dementia to come up on stage and as they started off with their new numbers and went off to their old songs from the EP, they also performed a jaw dropping Death cover, "Bite The Pain", which was enough to knock everyone's socks off! The show was a success and the vocalist Shawki Ahmed paid his final gratitude's to the fans for the support all these years and wished the five young guns all the best.

Muktadir Anzan, one of the organizers spoke to GMA's Nabil Abaddon: “This show was meant to be a remarkable one and a tribute to Severe Dementia as their show before their long break. This show will be presented in a DVD. The whole show has been captured by Mithonomia Production House and will be released as a full length DVD. This will also include raw footage from Severe Dementia interviews, updates and some of their live extra footage alongside the whole show footage of the Bengal Ragiment, which means the other five bands as well!“ So much for the Severe Dementia fans home and abroad, isn't it?

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Severe Dementia, formerly known as 666, the pioneers of Bangladeshi extreme metal scene was the first ever metal band in Bangladesh to cut a foreign record label deal to perform outside the country. Severe Dementia, formed in January 2004, released their 1st and only EP “Epitaph of Plassey” via a split album “Rise of the Eastern Blood”, which they shared with bands like Demonic Resurrection (India), Howl (Pakistan) and Helmksey (Singapore). The album was released by Demonstealer Records (India). The band has performed all around Bangladesh and also headlined some metal fests like Resurrection Fest (India), Ides of March (Nepal), Nokia IAC, Metal Morgue (BD) and many more. After 9 years of mayhem, they have decided to put a lid on as their vocalist Shawki Ahmed is leaving the country to pursue his studies. Though the band promises to come back to life as soon as their vocalist returns, but it still remains a mystery to the die hard fans of the band as to why they did not get a guest vocalist aboard till Shawki returns or release another EP or a much awaited full length album.

By Nabil Abaddon (GMA's Bangladesh correspondent)

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