Album: Bevar Sea
Artist: Bevar Sea
Label: Unsigned
Mixed and Mastered by: Billy Anderson
Release Date: October 19, 2012
It’s not very often that one gets to swear or curse in print, so for what it’s worth, I’m going to go ahead and do it. Bastard! There, there, weak hearted reader. No need to fret. There’s a reason why I said that. ‘Bevar Sea’ is a play on the Kannada word ‘Bevarsi’ that means bastard. Anywho, I’m sure I’ve caught your attention, dear reader. Just the way this Bangalore based stoner/doom metal band caught mine.
Bevar Sea is Ganesh Krishnaswamy on vocals, Srikanth Panaman on lead guitars, Avinash Ramchandar on bass, Deepak Raghu on drums and Rahul Chacko on guitars. They have been making waves in the Bangalore metal scene since late 2010 (Sea what I did there?) and have got themselves a following that’s only been growing bigger with time. Their self titled album was released on October 19 this year. One look at their track list and you think it’s an EP. Look again, and you’ll see that all their songs are longer than average. The album runs into a little over 40 minutes.
Defining Bevar Sea’s sound and style is no hard task. Evidently focusing on maintaining an organic, old-school feel, their songs are built on the foundation of catchy, sludgy, melodic riffs. Pretenseless growling vocals and simple but well-written guitar solos play a complementing role. The lyrical themes explored by the band are very interesting and definitely worth paying attention to. As is Rahul Chacko’s artwork.
The album embarks as the ‘The Smiler’ fades in, giving the listener a very good idea of what’s to happen over the next 40 minutes. Written in tasteful poetry, the song has a dark tinge to it. I do not know if it was intentional or not, but you can hear the sound of a microphone feeding back in the middle of the song. The same goes for a small section of ‘Universal Sleeper’. Whichever the case, I found it to be unpleasant. The next song, ‘Abishtu’ seems to be the crowd favourite at Bevar Sea gigs. It’s no wonder that it is so. The memorable melody that the song revolves around is plain hot. The subject of matter here is a psychotic blood-thirsty dwarf who rides around town, killing people for some very obviously twisted rationale. Note: Watch out for the sublime guitar solos in the song.
‘Universal Sleeper’ is in name, lyrical content and composition a leisurely song. There’s something very “Oh, I’ve heard this somewhere” about it. Some of the riffs are far too familiar, very Black Sabbath-esque, if I may dare. However, it is a long song and takes an interesting turn in the middle, leaving the listener quite satisfied by the end of the song. The final song of the album ‘Mono Gnome’ is close to 14 minutes long. Mature and progressive in construction, this one’s my number one without a doubt. Writing a song that long is worthy of praise; writing one that grabs your attention, never letting go till the end, is worthy of more. In this song, Bevar Sea has shown an admirable amount of depth. Lyrically, it weaves the tale of an impulsive adrenaline-driven gnome who has a passionate rendezvous with the devil’s mistress “for the thrill”, ending in the world being set ablaze. Stoner metal indeed.
I recommend that you check ‘Bevar Sea’ out. It makes for an easy listen, and gets you humming and nodding within no time at all. The interestingly amusing lyrical themes are sure to keep you entertained. The only issue I have with the album is the production quality. There’s just way too much noise!
