G-Shock has partnered with one of the country's biggest heavy metal festival the 'Bangalore Open Air 2016' and held competitions in eight cities - Guwahati, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Pune and Hyderabad.
Shortlisted metal bands include Godia, Gaia's Throne, Corpulent Deformity, Vidyut, Jammers Graveyard, Rectified Spirit, Godless and Kryptos who are scheduled for the final leg of the battle on July 8 at Vapour, Bengaluru, with the winner scheduled to be announced at the Bangalore Open Air Festival (BOA) on July 9.
The ultimate winner will get cash prize from Casio which will associate with the band for the next one year. The winners are also set to represent India at the 'Wacken Open Air' (WOA), one of world's biggest heavy metal festivals held annually in August in the north German village of Wacken. The WOA sees participation from 30 countries.
Meanwhile, this year the BOA sees participation from metal acts from world over including Polish Death/Thrash Metal band Vader, Swedish melodic metal group Soilwork, Canadian band Skull Fist and Egyptian American band, Nader Sadek along with Indian metal bands.
Inspired by 'Wacken Open Air', BOA was conceptualised to promote the budding talents of the country, create the largest platform for international bands to rock the India metal music fans.
India was the 27th country to be a part of the Wacken Metal Battle where bands vie to showcase what metal is about in their home country.
The metal scene has been growing in India over the recent years. In the year 2011 the first Indian Metal battle band played at Wacken Open Air. The band called Eccentric Pendulum from Bangalore emerged winners of the competition after competing with over 130 bands across the country