Sri Lanka’s premier and pioneering Heavy Metal ensemble Stigmata recently made waves after performing in New Delhi at the prestigious South Asian Band Festival on Saturday the 30th of November to a venue packed to the brim with thousands of people.

Representing Sri Lanka at this mega festival Stigmata were among some of Asia’s finest and most sought after artists from Asian pop icons to Bollywood sensations to international stalwarts from each of the SAARC countries.

The South Asian Band Festival was staged at a historical landmark the Purana Qila; a heritage site and a monument that has stood for over two thousand years. The three day festival featured a diverse array of talent and Stigmata were easily the festival’s most hard hitting and provocative act.

After a fantastic year having celebrated the ten year anniversary of the band’s and the country’s debut Heavy Metal album ‘Hollow Dreams’ with a sold out show and the release of a special Collector’s Edition Double Album in August this year, Stigmata have made its presence felt performing at key festivals and concerts throughout 2013 and their most recent performance at the SAARC Band Festival has only brought more accolades their way.

The quintet wowed audiences with classics off all three of their albums performing anthems like the evocative and infectious‘Jazz Theory’, the mother of Sri Lankan instrumentals ‘Andura’, their epic prog ballad anthem ‘Lucid’ to the technical uncompromising ferocity of ‘Spiralcoma’ depicting the band’s unique penchant for combining Extreme Metal, Hard Rock and a variety of styles including latin, jazz, funk, classical influences, Eastern music and baila.

However the highlight of their performance was when Stigmata performed a brand new anthem just fresh off the stove titled ‘Our Beautiful Decay’, performing the song off their soon to be recorded 4th album for the first time in India for thousands of screaming fans.

The new song showedthe band is on a league of their own, depicting a rare ability to chisel and carve epic musical pieces wrought with melody and musical dexterity, a mind blowing tune with twists and turns, a powerful theme and a catchiness that is both beautiful and rare. The song even delves into Eastern arrangements inspired byfunky Baila bits and Indian Music with the spectacular guitar wizardry of Andrew and Tenny, the funky bass grooves ofLakmal, the percussive magic of Chathuranga and the soaring vocals of front man Suresh.  

The band expressed their gratitude and thanks to SEHER for organizing the festival as well as their professionalism, the Indian Cultural Center of Sri Lanka, ICCR New Delhi and the Indian Government for providing the band with the opportunity to perform in India once again after many years.

Stigmata first performed at the SAARC Band Festival in 2007 at Central Park opening the doors for many Sri Lankan artists to perform after.However Stigmata is the only Lankan band to perform at this festival twice.

On one hand this performance is a testimony to the universal power of music, connecting people from a variety of cultures and demographics around the world but is also proof that Stigmata have yet again carved a piece of history with a mind blowing performance, having made our country proud and will continue to spread ‘Pure Sri Lankan Metal’ to the furthest corners of the globe.

One thing’s for sure though; New Delhi rocked and India rumbled with the powerful magic of ‘Pure Sri Lankan Metal’.