2023 - 15 years Later - Decibel once More !

In May 2020, amidst the peak of the Covid pandemic and lockdown, Krishnan, Karthik, and Ankit (Hellbound Harmony, Vocals) in India, along with Siddharth Sinha (SidSin) in the US, decided to create YouTube videos under a new name, Kittypalty (later changed to WAV). It all started with a cover of Velvet Revolver's "Slither," followed by the composition of a new song titled "Secrets" and a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song." It was at this point that the decision was made to stage a reunion show when Siddharth visited India.

Fast forward to July 2023: Sid's plans to visit India were finalized, leading to the decision to hold a show in December 2023. Ripple's presence was confirmed, and the decision was made to perform once again as Decibel, featuring the 2005 - Decibel 2.0 lineup, minus Vijay, with Ankit as our vocalist.

Reflecting back to 2008, the last time we performed, we were all starting our careers or pursuing further studies, surviving on pocket money with minimal responsibilities, few familial connections, and plenty of free time.

In 2023, with everyone sporting grey hair and careers spanning 1.5 decades, most band members now lead teams of 20-30 people, functioning as leaders, managers, and some even running successful startups. Most are married with kids aged between 1-10 years. While we now have the means to buy dream gear, finding time to open the guitar case, clean the drums, and practice became a significant challenge.

Ankit scouted around the Delhi pub live circle and secured a venue, despite the challenging times as the metal and rock music scene in Delhi/NCR was almost non-existent. One venue, Informal by Imperfecto, agreed to host us, but only on a Thursday night – not exactly an ideal weekend slot. The date was set for December 21, 2023.

With the date in place, it was time to 'Take the Time' and revisit our younger selves. Thanks to our careers, we've learned how to manage and plan our time. Siddharth would be in Delhi for 'N' number of days, Ripple had 'N' hours to practice, while Krishnan, Karthik, and Ankit applied for leaves planned meetings to practice late at night. In total, we had three days of jamming as a full band we jammed at: Trifecta in Defence Colony, Krishnan's OG Decibel Jam room, The Green Box in Defence Colony. After countless hours of individual practice at home for a month and 9 hours of collective band jam, we finalized the playlist.

The Playlist:

1. Cochise - Audioslave
2. Ghost in Your Mirror - Decibel
3. Immigrant Song - Led Zeppelin
4. Tornado of Souls - Megadeth
5. Time Machine - Decibel
6. Master of Sandman (Master of Puppet + Enter Sandman Medley)
7. Wickerman feat. Raghav Verma on Bass - Iron Maiden
8. PSP 12" feat. Raghav Verma on Bass - Zero
9. Naagin the Lady Cobra - Decibel
10. Secrets - WAV
11. Slither - Velvet Revolver
12. Metalingus - Alter Bridge
13. Click Click Boom - Saliva
14. Take a Look Around - Limp Bizkit
15. Naagin the Lady Cobra (Once more)

The stage and sound were set, but a corporate party delayed our performance by an hour. The party, supposed to end by 9:30, persisted, and after some conflicts and discussions, we finally took the stage at 9:30. Despite the poor stage sound, we managed to deliver. The crowd on a weekday night mostly consisted of family and friends, around 150 people in total. Our partners, parents, and kids witnessed us for the first time, thoroughly enjoying the show. That night, our focus was on enjoying the performance. For the first time, we played a carefree gig, a departure from the 2001-2008 era when the goal was to deliver a perfect gig and prove our band's prowess. Ah, those were the good times!

Thanks to our family, friends who all supported us past few months. Our wives and kids to bear our absence. Ankur & Eshwar bhai for recording our gig and Siddharth for getting me my old spice.

The band aspires to perform at least once a year, with hopes of increasing the frequency. No one knows what the future holds, but one thing is certain... "Feel barkarar hai mere dost!"

A Thank You Message!

Hello to all Desibabas,

The year 2007-2008 was really a great year for Decibel. We did lots of shows and traveled all across the country.We would like to thank all our fans who gave us respect, came to our gigs, supported us all the time.We had our share of problems, due to which we couldn't deliver our promises like:-

. Providing you with our tabs
. Making our songs available online for download
. Releasing an Album

As a fan of a band its your right to demand and bug us every time, we love it.

We love our music more than anything else and since 2003 we've tried our best to create a niche for ourselves. Guess we succeeded a bit. We definitely want to do more but we haven't been able to deliver. We feel as bad, if not worse, for not being able to complete our album and to show you all what more we have for you.


All the band members are currently busy with their personal lives and therefore Decibel is currently inactive (not over). Since our inception in the Indian rock fraternity, we have always believed in Quality Entertainment. By replacing a member from our current lineup, we believe we are unable to express the 'Feel', which we as a band always wanted to deliver.We could have replaced inactive members and gotten new ones to complete the roster but now, we cannot afford to do that.

Since 2003 we have had lots and lots of line up changes.

In 2003 within 4 months of forming Decibel
Kanishk - Guitars (The SpiderMastermind behind Decibel) left for US.
Ananth- Our vocalist. Went back to his hometown
Rahul Chugh - Guitars. Parted ways due to personal reasons
Only Karthik and Krishnan were left.

In 2004, Siddharth Sinha (Guitars) a 12th Standard Student from DPS RKP, joined Decibel.
He made sure Decibel rose high. He induced Ripple (Guitars) and Vijay (vocals)

With this 2004 lineup, we did lots of good shows in front of a small but cheerful crowd.
We were a Thrash Metal band back then.

In 2006, Siddharth left for NUJS Calcutta, creating a void which we couldn't fill. We did few more shows as a 4 piece band
then later introduced a keyboardist and shifted to Progressive,Technical Metal.

With new Lineup, Decibel had good success. We were adjudged 1st runners up @ BITS Pilani.
In early 2007 Channel [v] Launchpad happened,our rendition of 'Man dole, Tan dole' became an internet sensation. As of now there are 60+ Naagin cover versions on youtube.Half a Million downloads on Mp3 and over 3,00,000 hits on youtube Naagin videos. We did enjoy the popularity, and with it Decibel songs like Ghost in your mirror, Time Machine, Long Road of Dreams got to reach masses, Winning IIt-D Blitzkrieg and doing lots of outstation gigs as Headliners, etc.

We have made some 10 songs which we could never record or release, due to constant lineup changes; especially the vocalists,
5 years - 5 vocalist. Which made it impossible for us to continue our work further.

Some people we would like to thank:

Kanishk - is still part of the band, he actively participates in Direction of our music.He doesn't need a thank you actually :P
Ananth - Our vocalist for his earlier efforts and songs like Innocent souls and Long road of Dreams.
Siddharth - For Reshaping the Band and his dedication and love towards Decibel. You'll be missed bro!
Sanam - For helping us reach and win the Coveted Blitzkrieg (IIT-D)
Rajiv - for supporting us in Goa and Jaipur as a Vocalist
Naman - Trying his awful best as being a Rocker but a decent Keyboard player :P
Vijay - Gave his best and made sure Decibel is among the best and remain there on top. Thanks a lot your support man !
Eshwar - 'Bhai' The technical guy of our band and for actively supporting Karthik and Krishnan.
Anupam - For making sure that Decibel 'Sounds' Good.
Dhruv Vatsal - For lending his talent as a keyboard player for few gigs.
Bubba - our keyboardist for Launchpad gig.

The Current Lineup: Krishnan, Karthik, Ripple, Mridul

Last but not the least - Orkut Decibel Community & A members.
For bugging us and for making sure Decibel Community remains active.

Biggest Thank you to all of our Fans, you guys Rock !
Without you we are smaller than a Decimal :(

We are not disbanding, we are just on a Looong break. We might surprise you one day with our album (or maybe not) or with a Gig.You never know. All we are saying, is don't expect much (I know hardly any of you ever expected anything) :P

Few of the band members, Technical and Logistics department of our band are still active. So फेव मोरे surprises are expected.


In the end all of us would just like to say:

फील है !!

जब तक फील रहेगी डेसिबल आप सबके दिलों में रहेगा।
इस फील को कभी ख़तम न होने दे :)

Decibel !! (Desi-bal)

Decibel: A History Part 1

Scene 1:

Sri Aurobindo College, Summer of 2001: Krishnan & Karthik meet for the first time @ a Freshers meet, where they get to know about each others love of Rock. Krishnan is into G 'N' R and Karthik is into Metallica. Both start their convo by boasting about their personal tastes, like Metallica makes better music than GnR and vice versa.sadly the convo ends in mutual abuse.

Scene 2:
Sri Aurobindo College, Autumn of 2001: Karthik enters the college and follows the sound of drums which leads him to a room and lo and behold what does he see??

Krishnan on Drums ( 5 months self taught,then), Abhishek on Fake JEM Ibanez Guitar jamming on some random crap...
Supported by Eshwar (Krishnan's Elder bro) as the only audience.
Karthik gets introduced to Abhishek & Eshwar and for the first time gets to play an Electric Guitar.

Krishnan starts playing the intro of Enter Sandman to show off his skills, Karthik goes berserk... (as that was the first time he saw somebody play the Drums)... that too.. Metallica.
To Krishnan's surprise, Karthik knows how to play the rythm of the song. They jam on it for a good 30 minutes (within a week both of them performed on stage together for the first time, They played 2 Verses of Enter Sandman and ended their set)

This was actually the beginning of a college band called "Numbskulls" which had Abhishek on Guitars, George (Joe) on Lead Guitars, since Karthik was a beginner & Numbskull lacked a Bass player, Karthik was told to shift to Bass.

Scene 3:
Sri Aurobindo College, Winters of 2003 (February): Numbskulls performed their first ever gig in Aurobindo College in front of Random Haryanvi and Gujjar Crowd. Numbskull had a guest performer 'kanishk pawar' a Guitarist friend and neighbor of Krishnan. Numbskulls played Deep Purple, Bon Jovi & Metallica songs. The gig was fun but Numbskulls was didn last long..

Scene 4:
July 2003: Krishnan & Kanishk formed a new band, Joe and Abhishek left college, Karthik joined Beyond the Barriers. Within a week of joining Beyond the Barriers, Karthik got a call from Krishnan regarding an Audition for a Bass player.Karthik got through the auditions and later on came to know about the existence of a Band called "Decibel".

The lineup then was:

Ananth - Vocals
Kanishk - Guitars
Rahul - Guitars
Karthik - Bass
Krishnan - Drums

The first lineup jammed for a good 2 months and got to play @ IIT-D prelims. Decibel got good reviews for their first performance by various other bands. Later in October, Rock street Journal organized a pub gig @ Mezz where Decibel opened for Them clones along with Incognito. 2 days before the gig Rahul had to leave the band due to personal issues. It was a huge setback as it was Decibel's first 'gig'.But the Band somehow managed to pull it off but alas it was a disaster.

Scene 5:
November 2003: Kanishk went to the US for further studies and Ananth went back to his hometown. The band was left with Krishnan & Karthik. Karthik lost all hope and got his hair cut :p while Krishnan further improved his skills.

Scene 6:
Summers of 2004: An anonymous person responds to a 3 month old classified posted by Decibel regarding a guitarist. With Kanishk in town for Holidays, Decibel fixed a jam. That anonymous person was Siddharth from DPS RK Puram who was in 12th at that time, fed up of playing with his school band Apocalypse and deeply influenced by Megadeth he came for a Decibel jam.

After the Jam ended it, the scene was thus..
Decibel asked Siddharth, to join Decibel and Siddharth's only condition was to keep him as a guitarist.

After 2-3 months of jamming the band needed a second guitarist. Siddharth fixed a meeting with Ripple (Considered to be the Best guitarist at School level, Delhi) @ Pepsi Storm 2005. Now the only missing link was a vocalist. Siddharth received a call from an organizer who needed a band for a local show. Since Decibel lacked a vocalist,the organizer helped Decibel by providing them with Vijay's Contact number. Decibel also fixed a Jam with another Vocalist 'Akshar Bhan' at his home in Defence Colony where the auditions took place. Vijay was finalised and finally Decibel 2.0 was formed.

With

Vijay - Vocals
Siddharth - Guitars
Ripple - Guitars
Karthik - Bass
Krishnan - Drums

Decibel's first gig happened in September 2005 which was again at IIT-D. This time the band played at the 13th Slot and was selected as a Backup Band for IIT-D Finals. Though the band could not play play in finals, it was huge moral boost for any New band who gets into finals of IIT-D one of the countries Best Rock Competitions. The band then went on to play @ BITS Pilani where krishnan got seriously ill and the band couldn't perform well. Eventually band couldn't play in finals.

In late 2005 Decibel 2.0 got their first pub gig @ Taj, My Kind Of Place. It was a fun gig where disco sound was used, Anupam (Narsil) handled the console. Later, the band got selected for Campus Rock Idols Delhi Finals and also for First ever Fringe Festival.

the Bands Gig chart was :-

2003
IIT-Delhi Prelims.
Them Clones, Decibel, Incognito @ The Mezz October 2003.

2005:
Hotel Taj MKOP.
BITS-Pilani Prelims.
IIT-Delhi Prelims: Backup Band for the Finals.
Campus Rock Idols Delhi Finalist
Fringe Festival: Levitikus, Decibel, Messiah.

Contd....

Naagin: The History & Naagin Bhaag 2

Saturday, January 19 2008

Tan dole mera mann Dole is an Old Hindi movie Classic from the movie Nagin (1956) . The main melody of the song was played on a Snake Charmers flute also known as "Been" in Hindi. The melody is popular among South Asians, due to its association with Snakes & Charmers and its regular usage in Bollywood movies.

Naagin (rock version) was composed by Ripple when he was in the 11th Standard. He played this song with various other bands as a Guest Guitarist. That time no one was really serious about playing a Hindi Classic Melody in a metal band because of its association with Hindi/Bollywood music.

In 2005 Ripple joined Decibel, soon after joining "The Naagin" was re-phrased, with change in Drums, change in Rhythm structure & Basslines. Vijay(Ex-Vocalist) named it "Naagin the Lady Cobra".

Point to be noted: double 'a' in Naagin is a tribute to Ekta kapur and "The Lady Cobra" part is tribute to Hindi movie Titles like:-
Daag: the Fire
Lahoo the Blood
Billi - The Wild Cat
Hot Mashooka - A Dangerous Lover
Kamjori - The Weakness
Bullet - The Dhamaka Etc.
:D

The song was video recorded by Shashanka (Karthik's Elder Bro) @ their Jam Session and was later uploaded on Youtube to share it among their friends. To our surprise the video was a hit. It got 1k hits per month and within 10 months it reached 12000 hits and today it stands almost 38,000 views. Total of Naagin video views on Youtube stands almost 1 Lakh.

Decibel's Channel [v] Launchpad performance made the song an underground success. This lead to making of Naagin - The Lady Cobra and Naagin Bhaag 2. Naagin the lady Cobra is 2:47 track home recorded and Naagin Bhaag 2 is 3:31 Studio Song with new Bass lines, 2 melodies & better Drums. Naagin Bhaag 2 is an Album special which would be available with Decibel's Debut Album scheduled to be released by summer of 2008 alongwith Official Tablatures of All Decibel songs.

Some important Naagin links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OBGcvIhDNY (Old Video - Naagin in Making)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VNzLYYraFM (Naagin Live a Funny Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g_i0D1QBqs (Fan Video of our Launchpad performance)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRaD3LScLrQ (Channel [v] Episode of Naagin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9HzEEFw7DE (Naagin Channel [v] promo)

The Album Session 2

Jan 11 2008:

Ghost in your mirror Session 2

1930 hrs, CR Park, Grey Studios:

The band hits the Grey Studios once again after period of almost 2 months to complete the recording of GIYM. This was supposedly Session 2 of Giym where Vocals and Keyboards were to be recorded. Ripple arrives @ 1830 hrs, no signs of Krishnan, Sanam & Anupam, had nothing to do other than roam around Basketball court opposite the studios :(
Anupam arrives a bit later fiddles around with recording session.

1930 hrs: Enter Sanam & Samar, Sanam warms up his throat and all, gets ready for recording of GIYM vocals. Everything went fine.. until Sanam started losing his voice. We had to cancel the Vocal recording and do the guitar tracks for Long Road of Dreams. The Drums & Bass tracks of Long Road were previously laid, so didn't take much time to make a rough track. Now Decibel is done recording with Bass,Drum & Guitars of 3 songs. Time Machine, Ghost in your mirror & Long road of Dreams.

Decibel is gearing up for Great Indian Rock its been our dream to play on Hamsadhwani Stage since 2003. High hopes this time, hope to make it through !! By the way we have a gig on 24th Jan alongwith Circus & Hypnosis, sponsored by Jack Daniels as a build Up gig for their Upcoming Rock Awards. The gig is at Opus, Vasant Vihar starting @ 8 p.m. We'll be the last band to play. Do come for it :)

The Album Session 1

14.11.2007
Ghost in your mirror Session 1

1930 hrs, CR Park, Grey Studios:

Got the Bass, Drum & Guitars finalised, have to wait for another week to get the Guitar Solos done. The band seems to be satisfied with all over sound rythm section which packs lots of punch and aggression. Nice work on tone done by our sound engineer Anupam. Krishnan likes the overall drum sound especially the Bass Drum kick and Snare shots. Bass tone is nice but Karthik and Ripple are not that satisfied with bass tone duirng Chorus. The problem might get sorted during mixing and mastering. Vocals and Keyboards are still left, the band members are currently busy with their exams, this might take another month to complete rest of the song.

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