Band: Jyotisavedanga
Album: Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum
Label: Larval Productions
Genre: Progressive Death Metal
Country: India/Russia/Ukraine
Release Date: June 6th, 2018
Just as a fair warning, this is a short album so it is getting a short review. Both the band’s name and the album title seem to stretch on longer than the total run time. While this might not be as short as other notable records (i.e. the Nails record from two years ago), it still runs under the half hour mark.
The goal of this album is chaos, and the band achieved that. Drums cut through the mix the best and they have established blast beat mania. Despite the low quality, elements of noise are also sprinkled throughout. This is a progressive album. It combines elements of black metal, death metal, and noise throughout. It is rooted in a technical science-fiction concept and even has an intro track, though this stretches on too long. The final track stretches to almost 9 minutes as well, further cementing the progressiveness of this album.
It was difficult to review this album, however, because the production wasn’t clear. While listening to this record, I was paranoid that the wire in my headphones was shorting out. Normally, I’m not one to go after a band because of recording quality. Not everyone can afford to get the same clarity as a millionaire artist. But the quality of recording was poor enough to hinder me from being able to recognize the artistic vision this band wanted to portray. If there were guitar melodies underlying the chugging distortion, then it was lost in the haze of microphone noise. Throughout the six tracks, there seemed to be a single vocal line that was cut and pasted everywhere. Again, if there was more than just low growling, it was not evident.
Of the audible chaos, the vocals seemed to come through, but as mentioned prior, it seemed like a single monotone growl. I don’t know if this is supposed to be something like a Ghost Bath idea where there aren’t any lyrics and the voice is used as another instrument. It seems to me that having songs with titles that belong on someone’s doctoral thesis, they would want to utilize language and lyrics to communicate those ideas further. But all that comes across in the album is just a singular low growl. This is cool, but after five other songs of the same thing (even though the music might be different), it outstayed its welcome. If there are any other vocal styles and lyrics on this album, they did not come through the mix.
Despite the obstacles going against this album, there are some unique ideas that could be worth pursuing. With a title that I will not type out again, there are some great sci-fi concepts they could explore that would rival Scar Symmetry. Also, if the recording quality goes up, I think there is going to be some technical music wizardry that can be unveiled. But these qualities can’t quite redeem the album. Between the audio production, lyric-less growling, and a three-minute intro track that should have ended after two at the most, it might be best to let this one pass until a sophomore effort comes by.
Rating: 4/10
Tracklist:
1. Distress Signal: Source Unknown
2. Quantum Integers Systematic Deduction
3. Bilateral Indexing Theory
4. Protocol: Hyper Sterilization Initialize
5. Vector Photon Gammaburst
6. Imploding Linear Fusion Propulsion System
Total Playing Time: 28:08
Starting his musical journey with Rush, Spenser has become an avid fan of metal and drumming. Other hobbies include reading and audio engineering. He can often be found reading some sort of fantasy novel.
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