Counter Act: Metamorphosis to Evolution

Fresh band from Gujarat call themselves ‘introspective, emotional and philosophical’

Counter Act, a six piece Progressive Rock band from Ahmedabad was formed in early 2008. The band includes the musical energies of Protyay Chakraborty as the vocalist, Jyotirmay Menon on drums, Parijat Pandya and Pranav Menon on guitars, Ayush Gajjar on keys and Rushi Ladani on bass. Their music is an amalgamation of varied sounds of India and Western melodies with themes of social-political issues and human emotions. They believe that they’re ‘introspective, emotional and philosophical’ when they write their music. With progression constant in their music, being Progressive in its true sense, it all began from covering random songs to winning a band competition to metamorphosis and finally to evolution.

Counter Act now has an upcoming debut album called The Search For Light, which consists of 5 songs that were recorded in 10 days. Having done enough covers, they moved on to creating original compositions of which their first composition was ‘Heroes’, which will be present in the album. They’ve released two singles called ‘Malice In Plunderland’ and ‘Journey of Rediscovery’. Their lyrical content is based on social-political issues and human emotions respectively. Their musical influences has had an impact on their music to an extent where the techniques used by their influences can be seen in their composition. They are inspired by various artists like Myles Kennedy , Mike Portnoy, Haken, Vishva Mohan Bhatt, Motherjane, Porcupine Tree etc.

Melody, they say, plays a very crucial part in their music. The Search For Light has melodies that are memorable, catchy and uncommon. The album is all about the hope and light that humanity seeks. The title track of the album ‘The Search For Light’, is a 13 minute roller coaster ride of emotions; from sadness to rage to hope. It is about the devastating riots that have killed the masses, crushing along with it the face of humanity. It has a creative chorus and some good instrumentation and is one of the strongest tracks, in their opinion. They end their album with a 21 minute track called ‘The Flawed Guru’, which is about life through the eyes of Afzal Guru’s only son, Galib, disillusioned by his father’s loss. It represents Counter Act in their essence as it has heart rending lyrics, melodies and a really technical instrumental passage.

Despite having unsure future plans for the band, the members still look forward to keeping this band alive and hope to create more of such amazing pieces of music together.

Their music is available for online streaming and free download.

Stay updated by liking their Facebook page .

-Meghamind.