VerseS is a melodic death metal band from Bangalore. They combine the harsh vocals very well with clean melodic singing, and have some brilliant atmospheric keyboard work going on with killer riffing. This is an EP review of their debut effort, Threshold.
Verses consists of some very talented musicians, who are:
Verses consists of some very talented musicians, who are:
Sagar Gururaj : Synth and Backing vocals (clean)
Amith Kumar: Bass (Looks like a bouncer, don't fuck with this guy.)
Roshan D'Souza: Harsh Vocals
Suraj Dutt: Guitars and backing vocals (clean)
Bitupan "Bittu" Baruah: Drums
Vinod J Isaac: Guitars
Need a visual? List is in left-to-right order for the photo below:
The reason I
really like this band is because they play my favourite genre of
music, melodeath, so I'm just going to warn you that this review
might sound extremely biased in their favour. But hey, at least they
do what they do really well. The first thing I noticed about this
band is the extremely noticeable use of the keys, which is good. I've
constantly been saying the synth is one underrated instrument.
Nothing sets the mood better than a synth with its atmopherics. Need
proof? Listen to Threshold (song).
The second thing I
noticed was how perfect Roshan's harsh vocals are. He's definitely my
favourite harsh vocalist in the current Bangalore scene, along with
Sachin Rajmohan of Limit Zero. Sounds especially good in live shows.
And finally, the
third distinct feature of this band is their unabashed use of clean
vocals. Suraj and Sagar both do clean vocals bits, often in harmony.
And it doesn't sound out of place. The first couple of times you hear
their music, it might. But the more time you spend on it, the more
you realise how the clean vocals are indispensable to their sound.
Plus it's well-sung too, one of my chick friends said "that guy
sings like a dream" (about Sagar, sorry Suraj).
At the time of
writing of this post, there was an EP in the works. Nao, the EP's
done and released, or about to be released. Since I got my dirty paws
on the EP early, I decided to go ahead and review the EP. Since most
of the tracks are not available for free streaming or download,
purchase is the only way you can hear it. Till then ogle at the cover.
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| Permission for reproduction not obtained! Muahahah! |
1.) Intro:
The EP begins with the classic instrumental introduction. I think that's the best way to do it for metal records. Sets a great mood. Not having an instrumental synth based opener is like going to Court without wearing a suit. And this one in particular is very symphonic, rather dark and sinister, multiple times creates the feeling that you've found yourself in Dracula's castle. Then immediately easing up again. The skeletal synth feel-easy track that we keep coming back to during the intro is properly explored at the end, with ingredients slowly building it up until we reach the Damnation opener, which hopefully you should be able to recognise.
The EP begins with the classic instrumental introduction. I think that's the best way to do it for metal records. Sets a great mood. Not having an instrumental synth based opener is like going to Court without wearing a suit. And this one in particular is very symphonic, rather dark and sinister, multiple times creates the feeling that you've found yourself in Dracula's castle. Then immediately easing up again. The skeletal synth feel-easy track that we keep coming back to during the intro is properly explored at the end, with ingredients slowly building it up until we reach the Damnation opener, which hopefully you should be able to recognise.
2.) Damnation:
This, being the first actual song of the EP, is most definitely the best possible beginning any record can get.. From the beginning you can tell this is going to be the big one. Starts with the synth intro, dark and foreboding, like waking up in a graveyard. Builds up to a double bass wall, insane riffing and a long growl. When a song starts like that, you can kinda tell this one's going to be good. One thing I really like about this song is Roshan's growls sort of criss cross between background and foreground singing. During the verse he's in the foreground, during the chorus, he does background growling to the cleans (which sounds amazing by the way). An example of this walking in and out of the back to the foreground and back can be noticed on the second verse from 1:45 to 2:10, where the growling starts in the background to the guitaring, gradually makes its way to the foreground, and slips back into the back when the chorus starts. Nice. 2:40 is when it really starts getting crazy though, there's a synth solo, then a guitar solo. It's crazy. Even Roshan joins in. The whole ordeal lasts over a minute, and we're back to distorted guitar breakdowns at 4:00. Overall brilliant song. Signature VerseS sound.
3.) Under
A Cursed Moon:
Starts with a lazy
kind of riff, and with a lazy sort of growling, and a pretty catchy synth line. That seems to be
their main verse structure in this song, really does go rather well. The chorus is
clean-sung by Sagar, and is always preceded by a pre-chorus
instrumental passage, which has been upgraded, made longer, more elaborate, pretty symphonic, very cool. Sagar even harshens up the vocal in the chorus for a syllable or two. Fun. I've rarely heard clean vocals of this
quality in death metal bands. There's a calming keyboard solo, followed by a guitar solo. Breakdown at 3:30, sounds sort of like
a one-by-one playoff between the guitars and the keyboards. Don't you
love it when bands do that? Don't miss 3:04 and 3:57 where Roshan lets a growl
go very tenuously while the clean vocals start. The sort of thing
that you should notice, but can just miss if you're not paying
attention. The song's been changed around a lot since its original avatar, and sounds much much better.
4.) Call
For Salvation
Begins with an
awesome keyboard opening. Guitars and double bass riffing join soon.
Layered growling joins in eventually. But the keyboards keeps going for a while.
The keyboards are pretty damned awesome. Pay attention. I think this
is the one song where clean vocals don't match as well as they do in
others, unfortunately. The drumming here is absolutely intense and
stellar. There's in fact, even a little drum solo from 2:20. Joined
first by keys, then guitar riffs. The guitar solo from about 3:00 is
glamorous from the start, in a good way. But the minute it ends,
there's the mismatched clean vocals again. I love Sagar's vocals man,
but I don't think it goes here as well as it does on Threshold or Damnation.
Overall great song.
5.)
A Broken Tale
Begins with the signature Verses keyboard opening. Like a fairy tale
being told. Except something's not quite right with it. Title's apt,
then, isn't it? I should somehow get hold of the lyrics to see if
I've got it right. The entire song throughout its length seems like
it's the narration of a somehow fucked up story, handled perfectly by
the vocals. I imagine this would've been hard for Roshan to pull off, but he's managed rather well. The instrumental passages somehow manage to reflect the
same imagery. Watch out for the riff shifts. Go from one to another
without warning. Good stuff. Mindblowing keyboard solo from 4:22, and generally some amazing instrumentation. Five points if you can tell me the timestamp where a woman screams.
6.) Threshold:
This is one motherfucking crazy song. It's actually overtaken Damnation as my favourite Verses song, which they'd uploaded earlier. Starts kind of slow, kinda dibbles-dabbles for the first minute, but the keyboards seriously slap you in the face when they do start. Fucking crazy. The keyboards very Symphonic Black Metal Dimmu Borgir-esque fashion. I generally don't like dropping band names for comparisons, but the keys are very reminiscent of Mustis' work and Roshan's vocals remind me a lot of Shagrath too. There's proper growling here. Sound is very different from the earlier songs. So you can quite accurately say they've grown as a band. What I do have a problem with is that the riffing and drumming from 1:58 to 2:13 is exactly like that in Bloodletting by The Haunted. It's actually too similar to be a co-incidence. That's really not cool. And that section comes again from 3:00 onwards. But I guess it shouldn't bother you as much if you haven't heard Bloodletting. I generally listen to music lying down in bed, but for this one I was forced to sit up and headbang. Solo from about 4:40, brilliant as always. The keyboard work in this is my favourite out of the four Verses songs I've heard so far. Extremely dark, depressing mood it sets. Like some crazy graveyard shit is going down. I cannot convincingly express how imperative it is for any metalhead to get a hold of this song. But it just is, because it is.
Overall, brilliant CD, great music, solid artwork. If you're a metal fan based in Bangalore, picking up this CD is imperative. If you're a metal fan elsewhere in the country, then well, subject to availability. If you live abroad, try to contact the band, I don't know what their overseas distribution channels are like.
Who Will Like This? Fans of Melodeath. Fans of great synth work, great guitaring, and good harsh vocals. It's got it all.
Who Will Not Like This? People who don't like clean vocals in metal, and people who don't appreciate synth.
Where to find it? We should find out soon.
Free download? Not yet, and don't think so either.
Lyrics? Not yet.
General Links:
Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/versesindia
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/versesindia
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