Jyotisavedanga - Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum [Larval Productions - 2018]Jyotisavedanga are an international experimental metal band consisting members from India, Russia, and Ukraine. The name of the group is a slight variation of the words for ancient Indian text on astrology and astronomy Jyotisa Vedanga. The album was released on the American label Larval Productions in 12 "LP of red color, as well as in digital form. The cover of the album shows the planets, stars, and nebulae visible in the sky above the mountains of a lifeless planet or an asteroid. In the centre, geometric concentric circles diverge from the nebula, forming a sort of mandala. The whole picture is almost devoid of color. But at the top is the band logo, made in burgundy color. It should be noted that the logo is made quite professionally and, in my opinion, very stylish. Below, in a simple white font, the title of the album Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum is written.
The album is been marketed as Black Metal. And looking at the cover, the band's logo, and album titles- I imagined something along the lines of someone like Limbonic Art....but sadly it's not.
The album, with a total duration of just over twenty minutes, consists of six tracks. The first track "Distress Signal: Source Unknown" is a kind of Noise / Power Electronics intro, though it has a runtime similar to the other tracks. It’s a rather interesting blend of power electronics and ambient, with distorted radio voices.
The second track "Quantum Integers Systematic Deduction" begins quite cheerfully, but as soon as the vocals come in, the sound turns into a muddled mess, in which only the drums are audible. Sadly the third and fourth tracks follow suit, and created two more muddled sonic pile-ups- where it’s difficult to define instrumental texture, let alone any riffs.
The sixth & final track "Imploding Linear Fusion Propulsion System" has more in common with Doom than Death metal and ends with Noise / Ambient outro.
So you ask is the sound black metal or noise-black metal cross breed? No, not really- to my ears the predominant sound here is old school death metal. Something like Deicide, Malevolent Cråation and so on. The tracks are a blend of a quite dirty guitar tone that’s combined with Noise elements, and strange vocals turn the whole thing into mangled ( but not in a good way) mess. I mentioned the "strange vocals" - in fact, it's growling, but it's processed as if the vocalist is screaming into a large empty plastic bucket. I could not make out a single word, it was a single, unpleasant rumble though. In the absence of vocals, I could barely, but still able to catch the guitar riffs.
So in finishing lets sum-up ... On the positive side, I’d say the band has a good drummer and guitarist. And I also liked the noise elements very much. Now – onto the negatives. Mastering of the album, in general, is terrible. Next, the effects on the vocals are terrible , and really it doesn’t matter what the vocalist attempts- it sounds bad. So If we excluded the vocals & guitars we’d have we’d get an effective enough Noise / Ambient album. If we exclude the noise and remix the same material more professional, we get a good Death metal album. But as it stands we have a muddled mess- that’s neither one thing or another. The idea of mixing noise & metal elements can work, but unfortunately, here it doesn’t. Sergey Pakhomov
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