Twelve years is a long silence in metal. When The Down Troddence finally put As You All Know, This Is How It Is — shortened everywhere to AYAKTIHIS — on streaming services in April 2026, the wait itself became part of the story. The Kannur-born, Bengaluru-based folk-metal band that swept the Rolling Stone India Metal Awards with its 2014 debut had not disappeared. Keyboardist Sushin Shyam had become one of Malayalam cinema's busiest composers. The others had changed cities, careers and family lives. What they had not done was rush a second album. The Down Troddence AYAKTIHIS review starts from that patience: a Think Music record that treats caste, climate and resistance as unfinished business, and that now places its longest song, "Monsoon In Kannur", at No. 66 on Spotify's Rock in India playlist.

The Down Troddence AYAKTIHIS at a glance

  • Album: AYAKTIHIS (As You All Know, This Is How It Is), released 28 April 2026
  • Label: Think Music (Apple Music / iTunes, ℗ 2026 Think Music)
  • Length: 10 tracks, about 53 minutes; genre listed as Metal on Apple Music
  • Standout singles before the album: "Maharani" with T. M. Krishna (20 February 2025), "Ejjathi" (March/April 2025), "Binary Sun" (31 May 2025), "Monsoon In Kannur" (22 July 2025), "Seven" (24 January 2026)
  • Band: Munz (vocals), Varun Raj (guitar), Advaith Mohan (guitar), Nezer Ahemed (bass), Sushin Shyam (keys/synths), Ganesh Radhakrishnan (drums)
  • Origin / base: Kannur, Kerala; Bengaluru since about 2011
  • Rock in India (checked 14 October 2026): "Monsoon In Kannur - From AYAKTIHIS" at No. 66
  • Verdict: a second album that widens the debut's folk-metal politics instead of repeating it

Who The Down Troddence are

Wikipedia dates the band to 2009 in Kannur district, Kerala, growing out of an earlier two-person studio project by guitarist Varun Raj and vocalist Munz. The Hindu's February 2025 feature names that precursor Ultimatyum and places it in 2008; either way, the full six-piece line-up locked in with Sushin Shyam on keys, Nezer Ahemed on bass, Ganesh Radhakrishnan on drums and Advaith Mohan on rhythm guitar. The New Indian Express notes the move to Bengaluru in 2011. The band's own bio calls the music "a blend of folk elements from our homeland, with heavy groovy metal," written "for the downtrodden and powerless," and its EPK highlights Kerala ritual art, especially Theyyam, as a folk source.

They arrived properly in 2014. How Are You? We Are Fine, Thank You, produced by Keshav Dhar of Skyharbor and released on 1 January 2014 according to Wikipedia and Apple Music, took eight awards at the Zippo Presents Rolling Stone Metal Awards that June — Best Band, Best Album, Best Song ("Nagavalli"), Best Guitarist (Varun Raj) and Best Artwork among them — as Rolling Stone India reported from Blue Frog, Mumbai. The official bio still lists Chris Adler and Alex Skolnick among the judges. Between albums came the 2019 single "Fight. React. Be a Part!" and a live "Kolam", both flagged by Rolling Stone India when the new cycle began. We already placed the band inside our map of Indian metal bands on Rock in India and our guide to regional rock bands in India; AYAKTIHIS is the full argument those shorter mentions pointed toward.

What AYAKTIHIS is about

The title is a shrug that refuses to shrug. As You All Know, This Is How It Is names the structures the songs then refuse to accept. Rolling Stone India's Anurag Tagat, writing when "Maharani" landed in February 2025, called the project the band's first album since 2014 and placed it with South Indian label Think Music. Munz's statement with that single was blunt: "'Maharani' is a track that speaks of resistance, of voices that refuse to be silenced. Having T. M. Krishna join us on this sonic journey is nothing short of historic." The video, directed by Rajaram Rajendran and produced by Eleven Elements, leaned on dystopian CGI; Tagat heard a "polished yet angsty" continuation of the debut's socially conscious line.

Homegrown's Rubin Mathias, writing on 27 February 2026 while more singles were still arriving, framed the album as unapologetically political metal storytelling: anti-caste, ecological, visual. "Ejjathi", the band's first song written entirely in Malayalam, is the gut punch in that reading. On the official music page the band describes it as confronting casteism, colorism and dowry violence; Homegrown reports Munz wrote it from personal experience, with a video that storms a matrimonial office and lyrics that chant "ellam ellam jaathi" — everything is caste — while naming dominant-caste surnames over dark synths and growls. "Maharani", Homegrown adds, draws from the Palestinian struggle and broader systemic violence, with Krishna — long a critic of caste hierarchy inside classical music — placed against the band's wall of sound. Culseq's May 2026 notice heard the finished record as heavier, sharper and more expansive, still rooted in Kerala folk textures and still writing about caste, inequality and resistance.

The album tracklist on Apple Music runs: "AYAK", "Maharani" (with T. M. Krishna), "Monsoon In Kannur", "Seven", "Kolam", "Ejjathi", "Dopamine Junkie" (with Anohnymouss), "Binary Sun", "Intifada", "TIHIS". Early press lists differed slightly in order; the Apple Music / iTunes collection dated 28 April 2026 is the sequence used here.

How does AYAKTIHIS sound?

Start with "Monsoon In Kannur", because that is the song Rock in India chose. Official copy calls it "a cinematic metal requiem for a planet on the brink," opening with gentle rainfall before thunderous riffs, tribal percussion and orchestral swells, with Anarkali Marikar as Gaia in the video. Homegrown calls it the album's artistic pinnacle: nearly nine minutes, rainfall into orchestral sound design into crushing polyrhythmic riffs, an ecological reckoning in which nature's retaliation does not spare even the well-intentioned. Apple Music clocks the album cut at about 8:50. That length is the point. This is not a playlist edit. It is a set-piece.

Elsewhere the record moves between protest and modern metal grammar. Homegrown hears "Binary Sun" and "Seven" at their most djent-leaning, with animated visuals by AJ Blend and a production language familiar to listeners of contemporary progressive metal, while warning that the line between homage and imitation is walked more carefully on some tracks than others. Culseq praises aggressive breakdowns beside haunting melodic passages and a cinematic production "deeply rooted in Indian textures." The band's own note on "Binary Sun" speaks of fractured duality — logic and emotion, creator and destroyer — against angular riffs and shifting time signatures. "Maharani" remains the crossover no one predicted: Carnatic voice inside groove-metal architecture. "Dopamine Junkie" brings in Anohnymouss; "Intifada" and the closing "TIHIS" keep the political temperature high through to the end.

None of that softens the folk metal identity that made the debut count. Theyyam and Kerala ritual colour still sit under the riffs, the same local grounding that separates TDT from export-minded Indian metal and from the melodic hard rock lane occupied by peers such as Girish And The Chronicles. If Motherjane and Thaikkudam Bridge showed how Kerala rock could travel without shedding place, The Down Troddence show how Kerala metal can accuse without becoming a pamphlet.

Why the twelve-year gap matters

Bassist Nezer Ahemed told The Hindu, when "Maharani" arrived, that the wait was not emptiness: "Ten years is a long time, but we have been figuring out our individual lives and careers, regrouping to work on our music, exploring our influences; we have become more mature and consistent." Munz added that the same line-up had held for roughly a decade of marriages, career changes and city moves because "we were friends outside of music too." The New Indian Express quoted him on the writing standard: songs for the band had to "mean something, so it takes time," with writing for the new album beginning as early as 2014. "Maharani" itself, Nezer said, had strains dating to 2011, layered until it reached its present form.

That is the opposite of a comeback engineered for algorithms. It is closer to the long-haul DIY patience we described in the DIY roots of Rock in India and in how independent bands build their sound: keep the friendship, keep the politics, change the production until the songs can carry the weight. Think Music's involvement gives the album South Indian industry reach without sanding off the Kannur accent. Sushin Shyam's parallel film career is not a distraction in this reading; it is proof the members kept their craft sharp while the band waited for material that justified the name.

Should you press play?

Yes — especially if you only know The Down Troddence from a single Rock in India tile. Play "Monsoon In Kannur" first for the climate set-piece, then "Ejjathi" for the Malayalam confrontation, then "Maharani" for the Krishna collaboration. The debut still matters; Homegrown usefully reminds readers that "A.V.", "Forgotten Martyrs" and "Shiva" already tied the band to Kerala struggle history and Pottan Theyyam. AYAKTIHIS does not replace that record. It spends twelve years of living on making the same argument at a larger scale. For a scene that often treats Indian metal as either export product or local secret, this is a second album that insists the local is the point.

FAQ

When was AYAKTIHIS by The Down Troddence released?

On 28 April 2026, according to Apple Music / iTunes (album id 1895135767), via Think Music. Several singles from the album had already appeared through 2025 and early 2026.

What does AYAKTIHIS mean?

It is short for As You All Know, This Is How It Is, the full title Rolling Stone India and the band use for the second studio album.

Who is featured on AYAKTIHIS?

Carnatic vocalist T. M. Krishna appears on "Maharani". Anohnymouss is credited on "Dopamine Junkie". Actress Anarkali Marikar appears as Gaia in the "Monsoon In Kannur" video, per the band's own materials and Homegrown.

Is Monsoon In Kannur on Spotify's Rock in India playlist?

Yes. In our 14 October 2026 check of playlist 37i9dQZF1DX2Ja6eBQeGaS, "Monsoon In Kannur - From AYAKTIHIS" sat at No. 66.

Where are The Down Troddence from?

The band is from Kannur, Kerala, and has been based in Bengaluru since around 2011. Wikipedia and the official EPK both describe a six-piece fusing thrash and groove metal with Kerala folk elements such as Theyyam.

How many albums has The Down Troddence released?

Two studio albums: How Are You? We Are Fine, Thank You (1 January 2014) and AYAKTIHIS (28 April 2026).

Sources

Cover: Official AYAKTIHIS album artwork via Apple Music / iTunes (album 1895135767), ℗ 2026 Think Music. Placed on a blurred extension and resized to 1200×630; metadata stripped. Source: https://music.apple.com/in/album/ayaktihis/1895135767.