Artist – Iterate
Album – Ephemerals
Release Date – 29th March, 2013
Mixed and Mastered by – Nikhil Singh at Closed Eye Productions
Label – Independent
Hailing from the city of Chennai, Iterate is a Progressive/Groove Metal band who have been creating some ripples in the scene. Formed in 2011 by guitarist Siddharth Darbha, the band has built up a nice fan base already and to top it all they have released their first EP in just about a year and a half. And according to some reliable source (read band members 😛 ) they’ll be releasing their full length album pretty soon.
Iterate are:
David Simon – Vocals; Siddharth Darbha – Guitars; Advaith Mohan – Guitars; Gautam Venugopalan – Bass; Surej Simon – Drums
The EP is just around 15 minutes long and has a nice mix of Progressive and Groove melody. Having only three tracks, it is a perfect preview of what we can expect from the band’s forthcoming album and exactly why they are getting rave reviews for their live performances. Though the songs have programmed drums and bass, the composition and music is top class. Here is an in-depth review of the songs –
Skylar – Pretty interesting track. The theme of the track is based on equality among humans; mainly gender equality. Starting off with an eerie psychedelic intro, the guitars kick in with some really powerful drumming. It would have been great if the drums were not programmed and instead we had live drums in the mix, because frankly the snare hits were killer. David’s growls on the other hand sounded a little robotic at times. The lyrics are very deep and meaningful, a gem of a poetry if you would ask me.
“I can blind a thousand suns, if you justify the need
I can blind a thousand suns, if you satisfy the greed”
I’ve been humming these two lines for a long time now (yes I can growl too 😛 )
Light the Flares – I felt the guitar patch could have been a little heavier to do justice to the breakdowns. Plus the bass was sounding a little bit mechanical, so that wasn’t helping with the heaviness of the breakdowns. The intensity was nice and I really enjoyed the off time signature patterns.
The Scintillator is the second track in the EP; it is more of a short instrumental interlude between the two songs.
Final verdict – A definite win in terms of composition and lyrics. Surely worth waiting for the full length album now.
