Amogh Symphony- Abolishing the Obsolete System – Review

Band: Amogh Symphony
Album: Abolishing the Obsolete System
Year: 2009
Label: independent release
Genre: Experimental/progressive Technical Death Metal

Clanking, hammering sounds, crying children, anguished voices…all but for a brief moment of subtlety and then a low, ambient electronic bass note sounds. A soft, melancholy piano riff weaves in and out through the ambience. This is not a war movie opening. This is the result of what an extremely inventive and intelligent brain can single-handedly produce in terms of musical output. Welcome to the abolishment of the obsolete system. Welcome to Amogh Symphony.

The brain behind this solo project is Vishal J. Singh. Taking up all duties of guitar, bass, sound & percussion programming, keyboards and vocals, he has created probably the most technically and musically advanced work of contemporary music to come out of India yet. Primarily an instrumental concept album, ‘Abolishing the Obsolete System’ is a deftly created collection of progressive metal songs that redefine all progressive ethoses till date. Combining the craft and skill of technical death metal with electronic programming and playing it all out through a distinctly Indian note selection, this album is easily the highest level of successful experimentation attained by any Indian musician so far.

Vishal Singh

Amogh Symphony sees experimentation beyond just what the song sounds like. This album has sections where a bass solo is being mirrored subsequently on a guitar (on ‘Cyborg Activation’ especially), haunting, electronic ambiences where the human voice has been digitized to the point of being another instrument providing the ambience and it even has completely electronic/industrial sections full of synthesized beats and trance tremolos. The sound of the bass is especially thin and has a distinct ‘twang’ to it. Also, even though the album is largely instrumental (save for ‘Swallowing the Infected Sun’), there are parts where Vishal has used a Hindustani classical chant as an ambient element and another where he uses a Sufi chant as a folk harmonic to an extremely sludgy rhythm pattern.

To sum up, this album is a pinnacle in songwriting and sadly, will remain unnoticed because the Indian public cares zero for songwriting and only for screen gimmicks when it comes to music. That is what is supposed to comprise the ‘industry’.

Escher’s Knot – Tessellations – Review

Label: independent release

Genre: Progressive Groove Metal

Heavy metal has always been a misunderstood genre. Most commonly for its ‘noise’ content, those with higher IQ and comprehension levels know that a huge barrage of information is exactly what constitutes noise. But when this information is spread out into systematic yet complex patterns is when it probably results in ‘smart noise’. Chennai-based Escher’s Knot would probably be categorized in the latter by a layman alien to the genre.

The name of the band is taken from the ‘simplest, non-trivial knot system’ in mathematics, also known as the Trefoil knot. The album title Tessellations comes from an architecture/art technique where pieces of a bigger sculpture fit together without overlaps or gaps. If you want an accurate description of what this album does to you, the answer lies between the definitions of the band’s name and the album title. Each song is complex in its simplicity and simple in its complexity and every song fits as a part of a tessellated work of art.

After hearing such scientific terms as these, one would expect a very well-calculated sound from the band. It is, in fact, what one gets. The album kicks off with a synthesizer-heavy instrumental called ‘Hyperspace’ which sounds celestial enough to justify the title. The real ‘science experiment’ begins on the 2nd track ‘Anonymous Origins’ that begins with a very Gojira-like hammer-on riff backed by a deliberately-paced drum beat. The vocals also very evidently draw a heavy influence from Joe Duplantier of Gojira’s style and yet also retain a certain unique coarseness to them. The track changes time signatures and speeds and entire scales as frequently as a Delhi driver changing lanes. There is one particular section that is comprised of palm-muted strikes following a strange time signature but doing lower down the octave in such a subtle manner that it ends up being ‘felt’ more than ‘heard’.

The rest of the album is comprised of switches in emotion through switches in playing styles. There are a few sections where on feels like it’s a bit of a drag but JUST as one is beginning to think that way, the song picks up into a new direction. There are some crafty sections of jazzy bass playing here and there and the drumming throughout the album is technically right up there. The most important thing about this album is that it never feels overdone. Bass riffs are not preposterously technical, the time signatures are not complex enough to be a turn off and the guitar riffs follow a great middle ground between complexity and melody.

The album closes with yet another instrumental called ‘Saidapet Score’ which demonstrates the tessellations in this album by continuing with the same structure of sounds as the album opener.

This album will make you headbang while making you think really hard. It is not music that can be heard while doing something else. It involves the listener. It makes him appreciate it rather than spoon-feeding the appreciation through simplicity. And once you are through with it, you will know exactly what tessellation means. Even though you still may not be able to word a definition.

Inside of Me – Infernal Wrath

Band: Infernal Wrath

Album: Inside of Me

Year: 2009

Label: Counter Culture Records

Genre: Death Metal

When US-based death metal band Nile release their ‘Ramses Bringer of War’ single in 1997, the world was taken by storm by the fact that Middle Eastern musical influences were directly demonstrated in a death metal final product. Immediately, heads would have turned, as a result, to the Middle East and Asia in general, expecting the rich musical cultural background to bevel and emboss any form of metal coming out of the region.

Indian metal, although being in existence for above 20 years now, never really did justice to such expectations from an Asian metal scene. But all that is changing, and fast. Mumbai’s solo project Amogh Symphony combines the staccato of Hindustani classical with the staccato of technical death metal. And now, from the same city, Infernal Wrath has just done something that earlier people would have thought only Nile could pull off. Infernal Wrath’s Inside of Me is essentially a death metal album, but it is laced with the richness and introspective nature of Indian folk and classical music. The band has clearly done its research in home-grown music and is definitely very passionate about it. The album has been recorded in a very interesting style aimed at storytelling. There are 11 tracks in the album but they are grouped into 5 pairs and 1 outro track. Each pair comprises of an ambient, folk instrumental and a death metal track related ideologically to its counterpart.

The album kicks off with ‘Truth’, an ambient, one-refrain haunting instrumental played either on a veena or a 12-string guitar (my guess is the latter). The track essentially has one hook that will easily be ingrained in one’s mind upon first listen. It also has a deft percussion arrangement on it. Track 2 is the title track. It features a down-tuned (probably C#) riff intro that is laced with vocalist Afaque Azad’s heavy growls. Stylistically, it is reminiscent of the groove-laced, moderately timed-out, low-tuned death metal made famous by the Swedish bands such as Entombed, Dismember and Bloodbath. The difference being that this song contains mostly Hindustani scales and also has an ambient chorus thanks to some high-end power-chords being played. The percussion is not your regular, blast-beat-heavy death metal drumming either but is in context to the song’s intent.

The following track is ‘Turmoil’ which is a 1-minute mix of various voices speaking random tongues and being subject to a lot of audio filters and effects. There are also background ‘stereo-hopping’ laser-like sounds that add to the haunting nature of the track. It is succeeded by ‘Behold Ezekiel’, a death metal barrage of riffs that contains a lot of time signature changes and also an overdriven version of the refrain on ‘Truth’.

The track to follow, ‘This Everlasting Journey’, is a beautiful piano ballad with an almost silent orchestral underscore. Despite the very Western choice of instrument, the tune is definitely very Indian. Its death metal counterpart, ‘Funeral Pyre’, starts with the sound of burning and crackling flames and a whispered voice that says” ‘I know what happens, I was there’. This track is less of the Swedish kind and is more blast-beat intensive and reminiscent of the blackened death metal style made famous by Behemoth. It features some intense double bass sections and a lot of high-end tremolo picking.

The next 2 tracks, ‘The Swordbearer’ and ‘At the Foothills of Palestine’, for me mark the start of the ‘epic’ section of the album. ‘The Swordbearer’ has a cinematic,symphonic score to it and ‘The Foothills of Palestine’ is a nearly 7-minute long battle score. It starts as a quintessential death metal track with a tremolo barrage but soon takes on a symphonic nature while retaining its death metal aggression. It’s a song about struggle, victory and conquest. This track also features the only guitar solo on this album (a bit of a surprise considering guitarist Pradeep’s solo-happy career with Demonic Resurrection).

‘The Creation of the Lotus’ is an extremely ambient, string-laden song which has a very mysterious feel to it. It sets the perfect conspiracy-ridden backdrop for the riff-heavy, vengefully-tuned ‘The Destruction of the Third Temple’ (hint-hint Nile,anyone?).

I’ve always been a big fan of instrumental album closers. Like the album opener, ‘Siddhartha’ also has essentially just one hook but this time it is played on flute. Its played out against a heavy percussive background which is effective in its simplicity. The tune is one of finality and letting go i.e. the very essence of the legend behind the track’s namesake Siddartha Gautama.

Thematically, the album is all existentialist and about finding meaning to one’s existence. Each track shines of this theme in its own way. In this respect, the album is a great concept album and will bring a smile to the lips of anyone who wishes for something on the lines of Nile but with a very Indian, original touch to it.

Unseen Underground Pubfest VI

After creating history by organizing Ragnarok’09 a whole night rock show on 31st December, Unseen Underground has started their this year’s journey with the 6th edition of Unseen Underground Pub Fest last Sunday at Geoffrey’s pub in association with HMI guitars . Rock fanatics in the country are already very excited about the national tour of Unseen Underground in 6 different cities along with 100 upcoming bands from ever nook and corner of the country within this year. Unseen Underground Pub Fest VI was the opening show for the mega series of rock shows that are planned to happen this year.

UUPF-VI had featured 4 talented bands of different genres, from Funk Jazz to Technical Death metal. The Fest was declared open by playing the promo for the upcoming Escher’s Knot’s EP Tessellations which is officially getting released by this month. Franks Got The Funk a Chennai based funk-jazz band talented with a group of young musicians opened the show with a zeal. They created an ambiance suitable for the kind of music they were playing, which gathered the crowd near the stage. Their Jazzy Funk music was quite unique to the crowd that gathered for the night. Bjorn’s vocals and guitar works amazed the listeners and made them ask for more. Due to their recent line up changes they ended their performance with their popular self titled song. Their performance was tight and Chennai should certainly feel proud for bands like them.

Subsequently Blind Image a contemporary metal band from Chennai took the stage with a meticulous vigor. After the release of their 2nd Album More Than Human they have created a strong fan base in the city. The crowd requested them to play their own comps and greeted them with equal energy. Their new line up was appreciated by everyone. They started their performance with Glitch In The System from their second album followed by Deciphered, Ominous, More than human, Sepia Tone Sunrise, Axioms of synergy and Allegiance In Defiance from the same album. It is much appreciated that Indian bands now a days cover their own music only. Shri & Siddharth’s guitar work was appreciated by the fans and their performance was energetic. Blind Image then offered the stage to Spitfire a melodic death metal band all the way from Bangalore. They started with their own composition Minds In Disguise followed by Burn It and Devil Driver’s cover Hold Back The Day. The band displayed a greater energy on stage for songs like Wild Impulse and LOG cover Black Label. Chennai already has a good number of fans for this band and they gained few more after their performance.

The Last band for the night was none other than Escher’s Knot. Most of the people among the crowd seemed to know them as well as their own compositions and most of them were singing along with the band. They started with their own composition Up For Nothing followed by Textures’ cover Drive, Mayan Calendar, This Page Has Been Left Intentionally Blank. Their new instrumental track  Hyperspace surprised the crowd . They concluded the show with Break The Cypher.

Chennai rock fans had a fantastic evening. If you have missed it this time do not forget to look out for the next show. Interested bands can send in their entries to unseenunderground@gmail.com to take part in national tour to 5 other cities. Unseen Underground’s journey has just began, keep looking at the updates on their blog (http://www.unseenunderground.blogspot.com/). I am sure you rock fans don’t want to miss any of the shows!

Check out the pictures of Unseen Underground Pubfest VI here

Swarathma – live in Chennai

Swarathma played in Chennai as part of RangDe.org’s Saturday shows at YMCA, Chennai.

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