Artist: Duality
Album: The First Born
Release Date: March 26th 2013
Mixed and Mastered by: Baba L. Prasad
Label: Unsigned (Independent)
Their tagline makes me hopeful. “2 Guys, 2 Guitars, 2 Voices, 1 Perspective – Music”. This 2-piece outfit from Chennai consists of Manoj Sreekumar on the guitar, and Mihir Ranganathan on the, well, guitar again, and both of them on vocals as well. Hailing from two different backgrounds, these two musicians founded the band in 2011, to present their poison pick of acoustic rock.
The First Born is Duality’s first full-length album, and it features ten tracks, without any supporting instruments or vocals. This 39 minute album gets off to a nice start with its first instrumental track, ‘An Army of Flowers’. The self-titled track, ‘Duality’, at number 2 on the list, opens with a catchy riff. It’s a good mix of vocals and solos; the lyrics are simple, talking about how we should “just enjoy the taste of life”, through the heady mix of opposites that life offers. ‘Stranger’, about a psychotic and revengeful wife, gets off to a good start, and I especially liked the solo. However, the vocal co-ordination could have been smoother, and the back-up vocals are slightly out of tune at some points. ‘The First Born’ is a melancholy title track, speaking of a mother praying for her dead first born child. Here, too, the vocals needed more work, but the guitars work well together to produce the slightly sad music for the track. However, I think that transition to the solo was a little abrupt. The faster and more aggressive riff of ‘Girl’ makes me happy; variety is good. It talks about a girl who wants to put “a bullet through my head”; another psychotic woman in this album sure piques my interest. But surprisingly, the music changes completely in the middle, and it’s not a welcome change. It’s too different from the main guitar style; one does not want a soft, soothing solo in the midst of a track where “psycho’s out to prey”. The second instrumental track of the album is ‘Joy’. It’s a lively 1-minute filler, and has a festival, carnival-y feel to it. The seventh track, ‘Affirmation’, is perhaps my favourite. The opening riff almost reminds me of ‘Hero’, and which girl doesn’t like that song? But getting back to Duality, this song is soft and romantic, if a little clichéd with the lyrics (“you and me, we’re meant to be”, “you set me free”). Providing a good contrast is the next track, ‘Rust’, which is more forceful with the guitars and vocals. The lead vocals caught my attention, as they were drawn out without going out of tune, during the chorus. The ninth track is ‘Let It Rain’, despite a few slip-ups, offers good vocal co-ordination. ‘Crusader’ is the tenth and last track of the album. The song gets off to a good start, but the second guitar disappoints; however, the song picks up with the vocals, and has a promising finish, which unfortunately is cut off abruptly to repeat the starting riff.
The album has some good music, with the two musicians taking turns at lead vocals. However, some of the tracks, like ‘Rust’, are unnecessarily long, and could have used more power. The lyrics tend to get a little monotonous and repetitive, like in ‘Duality’ and ‘Stranger’. And I would have liked to hear more vocals; barring the instrumental tracks, the guitar-vocals ratio is quite low. On the bright side, some of the tracks are upbeat and lively, making for a good listen. It’s their first full-length album, after all, and it’s pretty good too.
YouTube Links:
- Crusader (Live)
- Let It Rain (Music Video)
- The First Born (Music Video)
