There is a house in Cherthala, a small town in Kerala’s Allappuzha district, which has a courtyard. Once in a while, the open area serves as the venue for an event that’s rather unusual for that part of the country — a thrash metal gig. It’s thanks to Vivek Prasad, who lives in that house, and his band Amorphia. They are unsurprisingly the only metal band in Cherthala. But the locals have become accustomed to the genre because of the heavy sound of Prasad’s drums that comes ringing in their ears when he practises the instrument on a regular evening.

The band, however, will get a bigger stage to showcase its musical prowess this weekend. They are part of a packed line-up that will perform in Mumbai as part of Black Blood, a yearly celebration of metal music held in the city. The gig will witness a whopping three album launches, by local acts Sceptre, Sabotage and Carnage Inc, with two outstation acts joining them — RAID from Hyderabad, apart from Amorphia.