Ugra-Karma is a Sanskrit term that denotes a bad, harmful action. Regarded as the first death metal band from Nepal, Ugrakarma started as a band in 1999 and released their demo “Himalayan Metal of Death” in year 2000. The band originated from Kathmandu as a three-piece outfit playing old-school-style death metal.Their full-length album “Blood Metal Initiation” was released in year 2001. The band was in hiatus status since 2002 till 2012. After hiatus of almost a decade, the band reformed in year 2012 for NepFest – headlined by Decapitated. Band’s recent single release is “Dang Dung” which appeared in split album Ghalazat.
According to Sunil Dev Pant, drum machine were used in their earlier album instead of real acoustic drums. The band opted to use drum machine due to lack of proper technology and studios back then. Besides that, financial cost for recording and lack of proper studios for recording were stated as obstruction. Their debut album “Blood Metal Initiation was recorded in “Scared Soundz” Kathmandu and mixed/mastered by Iman Shah.
Back in Kathmandu University, Sunil, along with Prateek, used to be in a band in which he used to “growl and abuse” his guitars. Later the band decided to change the line-up a bit. Sunil was on vocals and guitars, Aayush on drums, Subash on lead and Roshan on bass. They gave their first performance at Kathmandu Utsav 2000 in which the band bagged the prize for Best Rhythm Guitarist.
Their next performance was at Shikhar Beat Contest in which they had to change the line-up with Prasant on bass, who came all the way from Hong Kong for the contest. They also performed at “Metal-A Big Day Out” in which they performed covers of the bands like Slayer, Sepultura, Sodom and also two of their original compositions, this time with the line up of Aayush, Prateek, Sunil and Subash. The band also received fair air-play in local station such as Hits FM and topped the chard as well.
The band is currently signed to French record label “Legion of Death” which will be releasing their upcoming album. UgraKarma’s lyrical theme includes nihilism, atheism, death, torture and gore.
Band Members :
Prateek Raj Neupane (guitar,growls and screeches)
Sunil Dev Pant (growls, barks, grunts and bass)
Bikram Shrestha (drums)
Bijay Shrestha (bass and grunts)
Previous members:
Subash Dev Pant
Aayush Maskey
Roshan Karki
Prashant Gurung
Hometown:
Kathmandu ,Nepal
Status:
Active
Discography:
2000 : “The Himalayan Metal of Death”
2001: Blood Metal Initiation
