A show of epic proportions took place at the Industri in Colombo last Saturday, December 2, when one of the most enduring rock bands in Sri Lanka’s history dropped their new album Illusion Empire.
The venue was starting to get jam packed as the night’s opener Ashen took the stage and eased the audience in for the hard rock action later.
Fans of Paranoid Earthling (PE), both new and old, had arrived for the much anticipated album that had been more than a decade in the making. Earthlings, as PE fans are called, said they are super proud of the band. The metal act, Man till God, mounted the stage next and prepared the way for the Big Red Quartet to come in guns blazing.
The show was the loudest concert the Industri had ever seen. Even the bouncers got alarmed when the crowd started moshing; mistaking it for a ruckus. PE, entered powerfully with some songs from their original EP ‘Rock n’ Roll is my Anarchy’ blasting out some of their old tracks; ‘Bringing Down the Sun’, ‘Highway’ ‘and 69 before touching the Illusion Empire stuff; ‘Rein’, ‘Feel my Ritual’ and ‘F the Police’. The crowd asked for an encore and it was satisfied with ‘Open up the Gates’.
Paranoid Earthling represents a musical evolution from their grunge era of the early 2000s which gradually grew into a louder, “hardcore-punkier” sound by the mid 2010s. The current line-up is made up of front man Mirshad Buckman (vocals, lead guitar), Kavisha Karunarathne (drums), Riyal Riffai (bass) and Tony Jayathilaka (rhythm guitar).
