By Aparmita Das | Shillong:
Ten years is a long time for any Indian metal band to thrive, but for Shillong-based Dymbur, this decade-long journey has been an exponential growth curve. Formed in 2012, Dymbur, which translates as “fig tree” in English, had made its presence felt in the country’s indie metal scene as a band devoted to djent and progressive metal. But come 2020 and the band decided to experiment with their musical style and began fusing djent/metal with folksy sounds traditional to one of the indigenous tribes of Meghalaya, the Khasis.
Today, Dymbur, goes by the identity of being a Khasi thraat folk metal band. For the uninitiated, the word “thraat” might sound new. Fret not, The Meghalayan spoke to the band and learned about the origin of the word and of course, its meaning. Thraat, just like Dymbur, took different forms over the years, depending on the message its practitioners wanted to convey. Guitarist Kharsyntiew says that the word is an explanation for “the sound of triplets being played and the sound of the abrupt stops in the band’s music”. He admits that he included the word in the band’s official communication without much explanation and it gain popularity in the Indian metal scene.
“In 2015, we started promoting our band updates, songs and videos through social networking websites with message boards and tagged the word ‘thraat’ with them,” says Kharsyntiew.
In 2019, Dymbur depicted thraat as the fifth band member and an imaginary creature in the band’s concept debut album – The Legend of the Thraat. “In 2020, we decided to create a sound of our own and again, added the word ‘thraat’ to our genre and we became a band practcising, Khasi thraat folk metal,” informs Kharsyntiew.
The current Dymbur line-up comprises Lancaster Mawthoh (vocals), Cornelius Kharsyntiew (guitars/vocals/duitara/mieng), Andreas War (guitars/ka bom), Gaudy Shullai (guitars/duitara), Mayson Dkhar (bass/shwa shaw) and Sain Shullai (drums).
Following the release of their album The Legend of Thraat in 2019, the band returned with a new socially-conscious song, Rape Culture in November 2021. For Dymbur, it was a conscious decision to release Rape Culture to spread awareness against the social attitude of trivialising or normalising the crime in the country. “In India, people have become immune to reports of the crime being committed across the country. Mainly because we are exposed to it daily,” says Lancaster.
As expected, the band received a positive response from the Indian metal community, but what came as a pleasant surprise to the six-member ensemble, was the reactions from the West. “The number of reaction videos we got from outside India was good,” says Kharsyntiew.
Right after the release of Rape Culture, Dymbur started digging more into social issues and Child Abuse was borne. “We know child marriages and child labour are prevalent in India. All we had to do is do some research and started writing the song. Child Abuse spits out certain facts that are prevalent in the country right now. However, it is also a call to the citizens of this country to take up the responsibility and ensure the welfare of our children. We have not depicted any child as such in the song,” says Andreas, who is also a father to a three-year-old.
Gaudy, who hails from the Jaintia hills, tapped on the sensitive issue of child labour at the coal mines in his region. “Child labour in coal mines has crossed all limits. So, we thought why not write a song to bring about the much-needed change,” he says.
The video for Child Abuse was shot by a local production crew called Hills People and the video was edited by Cornelius at Legato Productions. The song was released on May 27.
Composition-wise, Dymbur wanted it to be different from Rape Culture so they added a synthwave feel to the intro fusing it with the duitara and the bom. To make the song more aggressive, they rapped a few verses as well. “This was like an experiment for us since we’ve never had rap sections in our songs before,” said Mayson. “We had a few brainstorming sessions after the recording to work on the script for the video. It didn’t take much time as the storyline was already there in the lyrics,” says Sain. Speaking about the scope of a follow-up to The Legend of Thraat, the band unanimously said that they will drop in a few more singles before announcing their next album.
Not limiting their aspirations to bring in a behavioural change in the society, the band also raised funds for a Shillong-based non-profit organisation SPARK – Bringing Light to Lives, an organisation that focuses on empowerment and welfare of people from the marginalised section of society, especially women and children.
ALSO READ: All Stars breaks through India’s hip hop audience