Conceptual death metal can be extremely challenging as a task, i.e. to play as a band and to feel as a listener. The band I am reviewing has never belonged to this genre. Though all 3 albums (Om, The Aryan crusade and kurukshetra) by Vedic metallers Rudra are primarily theme ridden, but were never concept based in total. Then why talk all this? News is, their latest offering BRAHMAVIDYA PRIMORDIAL 1 primarily showcases a concept approach. Gauging its effective charm will be certainly tedious!

I believe the whole process started with their last album itself, Kurukshetra (the name of the place where ancient battle of Maharbartha took place) which marked a perfect prelude to what the band has evolved into, however it wasn’t too uni-directed and similar in terms of music, but was certainly how a predecessor to the current album should have been. BRAHMAVIDYA has ten songs, running close to forty-six minutes (approx), each of these inspired by Principal Upanishads (are metaphysical texts of the Vedic traditions, out of hundred Upanishads, ten are popular for teaching brahmavidya-knowledge of Brahma-The god of creation according to Hindu mythology). Moving on from concept to music, its authentic, marrow chilling, whipping death metal fused incredibly over scriptural chants and usage of Indian instruments like dholki and tabla. (All those of you who are well versed with Rudra’s previous albums already anticipate all that).

Drums hurricane from start to finish, remaining the chief pace driver, it’s almost rampaging enough to beat the skins out of the stands. Also, bother to put a careful ear into Shiva’s (drums) rolls, you are sure to conclude his presence is indispensable for Rudra Moreover, drum sound replicates one heard on recent Vader albums (Blood, The beast). Variation and technicality gets controlled superbly courtesy all this. Twin guitars; intoxicate your ears, finely tuned closer to likes of Vomitory and Vader. Leads are occasionally ultra fast, sure to deceive your imagination on few occasions, when it comes to flair and impact they provide. Pace average on the record, exceeds a little over flat –out brutal DM.Kathir’s vocals are as usual stellar, which makes the whole concept stand out, beaten-up, dry, creating a torturous thrash range might be other appropriate words to describe it. Experimentation is witnessed best on ‘Ageless consciousness, I am’ (track 6), which mingles twisted riffs over dholki during intro, classical vocals on ‘Shovoham’ (track 9) by Aishwariyah S, which is a plannno hymn, and kathir’s reverberating throat on key phrase on ‘Aham bramhasmi’ (track 8).

Therefore, those of who missed out on classical rudra elements-shlokas, demented acoustics, force and a ripping effect, on the last release will not be disappointed as you get all of it on BRAHMAVIDYA.My picks are ‘Twilight of quality’ (track 1), ‘The pathless path to knowable unknown’ (track 3) and ‘Aham bramhasmi’ (track 8) for urgency, progression and exploding effect respectively. A word of caution though- Go through the conceptual preface and lyrics of the album if you really want to freak out on it. It took me only couple of spins to compose this review, and I have no clue how many spins will it take before I get tired to get it out my CD player. And, for all you rudra fans there’s a limited edition digipak includes a bonus death metal compilation disc featuring Narasimha, Rough cast, Angel of sin, Suicide solution.etc.

The overall blend is an epic in construction. Grab it!