Interviews

Catching up with Mallika Sundaramurthy from Abnormality

Published

7 years ago

November 20, 2016

George Archibald

Mallika Sundaramurthy of Abnormality interview for Empire Extreme

Catching up with Mallika Sundaramurthy from Abnormality

Interview by George Archibald

Mallika Sundaramurthy of Abnormality Photo by Andrew Bastion

I had the pleasure of catching up with Abnormality’s vocalist Mallika Sundaramurthy, while the band is currently on tour with The Black Dahlia Murder, Napalm Death, and Misery Index. Earlier this year this brutal death metal act released their 2^nd full length album, Mechanisms of Omniscience. It has been several months since Empire Extreme has spoken with the band. I wanted to check in, and see how things have been, and what may be next for them while they are out on the road.

GA: I’m here with Abnormality vocalist Mallika

MS: What’s up its Mallika from Abnormality.

GA: Empire Extreme had the pleasure of speaking with you when your album Mechanisms of Omniscience was just released. How have things been going since then? How is the reaction to the new album?

MS: Yeah, we have been getting good reviews and fan reaction. We are really happy, and sales have been good. Shows have been awesome.

GA: How has this tour been with The Black Dahlia Murder, Napalm Death, and Misery Index?

MS: It has been amazing! It’s a dream tour for sure.

GA: Any places along this tour that have stuck out to you?

MS: Los Angeles was awesome! Denver was amazing! Pretty much all the shows have been awesome, but so far I think LA takes the cake. It was a great crowd, sold out show, tons of moshing, and crowd surfing. There was good energy at that show, all the bands killed it that night.

Abnormality – Mechanisms of Omniscience

GA: How is the band enjoying Cleveland today?

MS: We like Cleveland. Last time we were here it was April/May on the Soulfly – Suffocation tour. That was also a fun night. We like The Agora and this city, the people here are great.

GA: What are some of the driving forces behind Abnormality’s music? Like where do you look to for inspiration when writing new material?

MS: We tap into the darker side of humanity; the things that are going on in the world that make us angry. Things that we like to talk about and bring to light are; the corruption in our government, and even the world governing power that be that are pulling the strings on society.

GA: Speaking about the government? Do you want to weigh in on this past election and people’s reaction to its outcome?

MS: It’s a shit show. I dunno… it has divided the people, and I think that was kind of the point, unfortunately. Divide and conquer. We are not going to change things till we come together, and uncover the truth of what is going on in the world. We need to realize that we have a lot in common with each other than with any politician.

GA: I think so far that is one of the best things I have heard anyone say about this past election. What is next for Abnormality? Do you have another tour coming up after this?

MS: We actually don’t have any plans just yet. We joined forces with Extreme Management Group this year. They are an awesome management team. We also have our agent Dan Rozenblum of Circle Talent Agency. I am sure they are going to come up with something great touring wise in the future for us. We were honored and pleased, to be a part of this tour, so we will see what will happen next. We are excited for it.

GA: Talking about the future, is there anything you are hoping could happen, or expecting to happen for the band in this upcoming year?

MS: I would love to go back to Europe. We were there back in 2014 with Dehumanized, and Malignancy. It’s a great scene over there. We would love to go back; we have some great fans over there. That’s one thing we would like to go and do, or even go somewhere we haven’t been before like Japan, or South America.

GA: I know that the death metal scene in Japan is like unreal. Hopefully you will get a chance to go over there and tour.

MS: I would love to go there and play for new fans.

GA: Anything else you would like to add?

MS: Check out the new album Mechanisms of Omniscience, if you haven’t already. We also have a new music video for Cymatic Hallucinations, you can find it on YouTube or Metal Blade’s web site.

About Author

George Archibald

See author's posts

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

Published

2 months ago

March 4, 2024

Ron

Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

About Author

Ron

Ron has keen eye for new talent, a love for the underground, and a tremendous passion for music of any genera. You’ll probably bump into him at a horror convention or some seedy club checking out the next need-to-know band.

See author's posts

Interviews

INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

Published

2 months ago

February 16, 2024

Ron

Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.