Walking around the backstage area of Oslo’s Inferno Festival in 2010, Sahil ‘Demonstealer’ Makhija wanted to pinch himself. After a decade of hard slog, his extreme metal band Demonic Resurrection had finally bagged a slot at their first international festival. Suddenly, Sahil was rubbing shoulders with his heroes.
“You grew up watching these metal festivals and then you’re seeing members of Emperor and you’re like, ‘Is this real?’” says the guitarist and vocalist, who has also spent the last 15 years releasing epic extremity under his solo moniker, Demonstealer. That weekend, he met Emperor frontman Ihsahn and Norwegian metallers Keep Of Kalessin, and embraced his inner fanboy. “It was just nice to be standing among them and trying to pretend to not be starstruck.”
