So here we are, in the closing week of our month of metal, and our final edition of "The Meat Grinder". The series has been less than generous to us over the course of this last three weeks, so let's hope we can go out on a bang, eh? Hope springs, as they say...
Well on the face of it we would seem to have done well, but I'm not taking anything for granted. I know how this works. It's like a sexy woman who beckons you into her bedroom and just as the door closes a heavy object hits you on the back of the head, and when you wake up your wallet is gone. I ain't falling for that one again! Well, not for the sixth time, anyway...
Let's see. Death Sentence come from the Czech Republic, so expect many names with "z", "v" and "k" in them. They are signed, so that's a plus, and they have albums. Can I find any? What a surprise. No. Doesn't help that there's some punk band of the same name. Here's the only video I could find of them. Sounds okay. They're described as "melodic death/doom metal". Could have been interesting. Oh well, up stumps and on we go.
Down south we go, and we come to the sub-continent, where from Bangalore we find Eccentric Pendulum, a name perhaps better suited to a progressive metal or even rock band. But these guys are described as thrash/death metal/metalcore. Hum. They have an album. Can we find it? Well, praise be to Dio, we can! Some kind soul has put the whole thing up on YT! Well, I say kind soul, but of course I don't know what the music is going to sound like. I may regret this. In any case, we're gonna focus on these guys so here goes.
This is them. Founded in 2008 in Karantaka (how's that for a prog-rock reference?) in Bangalore, India, and I can't really tell you much about them, other than that one review describes them simply as "weird". Hmm.
Band name: Eccentric Pendulum
Nationality: Indian (Bangalore)
Subgenre: Not sure -- elements of progressive metal, groove, funk, ambient, more...
Born: 2008
Status: Active
Albums: "The sculpture of negative emotions" (2009) "Winding the optics" (2011)
Live albums: None
Collections/Boxed Sets/Anthologies: None
Lineup: Nikhil Vastarey (Vocals)
Arjun Mulky (Guitars)
Arjun Natarajan (Bass)
Vibhas Venkatram (Drums)
Like I say, there's not too much information about these guys. They did play the Wacken Festival in 2010 and seem to have gone down well, but other than that: hey, they're a metal band from India! Whattya want? Let's see if their music can do the talking for them.
Winding the optics --- Eccentric Pendulum --- 2011 (Self-released)
First thing I notice here are the odd names of the tracks, which make this seem more like some sort of psychedelic album than metal, and the opener is no exception. "The axioms of aphotic expression" starts off with heavy guitar and drumbeats, kind of mid-pace, then it all gets ruined by a growly vocal, for me. Ah well. Decent music and Arjun on the guitar certainly knows what he's doing, while Arjun on the bass keeps it tight with Vibham on the drumstool. The addition of a new guitarist here in Faheemul Hassan shows, particularly in "De-engineer the prevalent" (yeah...) which rattles along nicely.
"Paragon impermanence" (again I say, yeah...) is a faster, more uptempo and heavier song with driving drumbeat, but I must admit I see nothing of the jazz, fusion or ambient influences alluded to in the review I read, nor do I find these guys weird. In fact, if anything I find them generic thrash metal, nothing progressive about them at all, not to me. Ok, nice bit of acoustic guitar there, that's a little different. Some nice ambient guitar too in "Become me". Yeah yeah, okay: It's quite progressive, I'll give you that. "My eucalyptine depth" (what?) is a faster track but nothing much to write home about, while "Mathematicans of ambient waters" is an interesting track, rocking along with a very Dio-esque arabian style rhythm, touches of Maiden in there too. Great guitar solo. Speeds up a bit and gets a little crazy at the end. The closing track is a ten-minute instrumental, but the only version I can find online is a live one and I think it loses something due to the sound quality, so I won't comment on it.
TRACKLISTING
1. The axioms of aphotic expressions
2. De-engineer the prevalent
3. Paragon impermanence
4. Become me
5. My eucalyptine depth
6. Mathematicians of ambient waters
7. Anonymous existence
Yeah, again this is not my thing, though the musicanship is quite good and the ideas are there. The vocals put me off as usual. So it's not been the greatest of successes for this month of "The Meat Grinder", but it's been interesting. We now return you to what remains of Metal Month.