#Transcending obscurity professional#

#Transcending obscurity professional#

Be it the online magazine (which I’ve been doing for over a decade) or the PR activities, I would like to be considered as a professional in all those areas. Kunal: I don’t want to do anything in a half-assed way. Which is the main profile of TO (PR company, record label, online magazine)? But after losing my mom and eventually also my family business, I re-started my metal activities in 2013 under the name of Transcending Obscurity, because it had a better meaning and till this date and in the future, it would form the essence of all my operations. Kunal: It began initially as a forum in 2004 (back then Transcending Obscurity was called Diabolical Conquest), and a year later I started a proper. Also, what drew me in were the exceptional horror movie-themed (or so I thought) artworks of bands like Iron Maiden back then. Back then I couldn’t properly describe what I was listening to, but I knew this was what I wanted to listen to, and definitely more of it. When I first listened to ‘ Master of Puppets‘ on tape, I knew my search had ended. The level of speed and even complexity completely turned me on, which I don’t think many genres can provide. Kunal: The soul-satisfying heaviness perhaps. What was the first thing that turned you towards metal? Sorry for the excessively long introduction! I’m thankful to him and my very supportive family (R.I.P) for allowing me to pursue my passion for this kind of music. I came from the tape era and we were trained to listen to an album in its entirety and actually try and figure out the difference between each song. It’s sad that these days the kids just stream a song on YouTube and think they know all they need to know about a band. He made sure that I heard my music properly, and the fact that I know my music very well is probably because of that ― he wouldn’t share more music with me unless and until I heard what he gave me thoroughly (he used to ask me questions later on to check haha). My first metal album was Metallica‘s ‘ Master of Puppets‘ which was given to me by my ‘mentor’. My favourites are Amorphis (old), Incantation, Suffocation, Deranged, Bolt Thrower, Metallica and many more! I’m partial to the genre of death metal but also love grindcore and doom, and can even appreciate thrash and black metal significantly.

All of this keeps me immensely busy and sometimes I even forget to have my lunch! I’m mostly an old school guy, partial to that sound, but can also appreciate the newer type of bands. After a couple of years or so, I also started a PR company to further work with bands even outside of my little label. Kunal: Firstly, thank you so much for taking out the time to conduct this interview! I’m Kunal Choksi, from Mumbai, India and I started off, like many, as an enthusiastic metal fan, but went on to write about it (like yourself), first as a writer, then editor, and in 2010, started a record label by the same name. First of all, I’d like to ask you to introduce yourself, please! (favourite bands, genres, your “metal roots”, etc.)