Pitch Black Symphony

Pitch Black Symphony from Pune, play what I think is a subtle mix of progressive with symphonic power metal. (And not symphonic just because their name has the word "Symphony" in it). Pitch Black Symphony released their EP at the Orphaned Land concert (where they were opening). And well, considering it was free, I went ahead and picked it up. Good decision. It's pretty damned good. They'd released a song called Child's Cry earlier. And in preparation for the Orphaned Land concert, I'd heard it a couple of times, but was rather unimpressed and had written off PBS as just another band which is popular cause they've been around for some time. (They also celebrated their four year anniversary with the concert.) Judging by their performance at the gig, I couldn't've been more wrong. Their sound has really improved, and they've really grown as musicians. The EP has three songs. But they're all very long, bringing the total playing time to twenty two and a half minutes, so it qualifies the time condition for an EP.

The band, according to their Facebook page, is:

Sober Huirem- Guitar
Akash Chanda- Bass

Clynton Fernandes- Vocals
Sujit Nair- Drums
Johnston D'Souza- Keyboard

And if memory serves me right, this is what they look like in left-to-right order: 

Hey, have you noticed? They're all wearing black.

The EP consists of the following three songs, which may also be found in Reverbnation. Download and put to your iPod. Happy listening!

1.) Awakening

Doesn't start with the sort of foggy atmospherics as in the other two songs. Instead goes with a funky keyboard riff with double bass drumming in the back. It's fucking catchy. In the beginning, it sounds very programmed and fake, but by the time the singing starts 56 seconds into the song, the keyboard riffing is already stuck in your head. And there's nothing you can do about it. A guitar solo at 1:24 tries to make you think of something else, but to no avail. At 1:52 this keyboard finally lets go. And there's another guitar solo (and it's brilliant might I add), but there's no use. I'm already wondering where that keyboard riff went. Cause the song aside, that's still playing in my head. But then I regret that I missed a pretty good instrumental passage fretting over the synth. So I go back and replay it. And, man that's good. And the passage had a keyboard solo too, so shouldn't miss that. They've come upon this brilliant idea, when the vocalist is not singing, there's either a keyboard solo or a guitar solo. And you can only imagine how good a solo based song would be. If you can't, lemme just say, it's pretty damned good.

Yeap, that's the EP cover. Not bad, eh?

2.) We Own The Night

Starts with the regular atmospherics that you'd expect from a prog song. Great drumming in the intro. Bruce Dickinson-esque scream to open the song. I don't like comparisons, but so much the ole' Brucey. The basslines are great. The drumming perfectly complements the song. And there's even good keyboard riffing in bits (eg. 1:30 onwards). Singing finally starts a minute and forty seconds into the song. Guy's got a good voice. Chorus at 2:05, look out for that. Super Power Metal that. "We Own The Night/ With power and metal/ We Own The Night/ With hearts of steel" You get what I mean right? Great chorus, I remember the Pune crowd joining in to the chorus. Some great double bass moments for drummers. From 3:45 comes this segment which only sounds good in live shows. Singer goes "We Own The Night", crowd goes "We Own The Night". Everybody's happy. But in the recording, it's singing bits "We Own The Night" and then instead of a chorus (which is what I'd expected), there's snarling of "We Own The Night", I think that's quite a fail. I really think a chorus of anthemic "We Own The Night" in this bit instead of a snarling bit would've sounded much better. But some crazy instrumental passages follow this segment, makes you quickly forget. Insane guitar solos, keyboard solos, crazy drumming. Even the bassy goes a little crazy. All in all a brilliant song. Doesn't matter if its too long.

3.) Lost

Starts kind of strangely. Again with the whole atmospherics and stuff. But I don't quite understand the spoken word intro. Doesn't matter. Atmosphere's great. A bassline soon cuts through the fog. Joined soon enough by melodic guitar, and cymbal chiming. When this is done, piano type sounding keyboards, along with some soulful songs. Slow paced song. Look out for the really soulful guitar solo from 4:00 onwards. You'll have to look out for it, cause it gets kinda drowned out in other sounds. But don't worry if you missed it, it comes back around 6:45. Strong bass in the song. That's good, making its presence felt. Very keyboards driven song. Amazing instrumental passages in this song as well. Ends kind of abruptly though. I wanted it to go on.

Who Will Like It? Fans of extremely proficient musicianship. Keyboard solos.

Who Will Not Like It? People who don't have the patience for longer songs. People who don't like clean vocals.

Where To Find It? Reverbnation

Free Download? Yeap! Entire EP's for free.

Lyrics? Only for Awakening so far.

They have an extremely awesome song structure. When the dude is not singing, there's either a keyboard solo, or a guitar solo. There's no idle moments. Bitches and Gentlemen, please maintain your attention towards the music. But their songs are too long man. I don't have the patience to play a song which is like seven minutes long. But once I've played it, I can't stop playing it.

Right, so General Links:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pitchblacksymphonyindia

Reverbnation: http://www.reverbnation.com/pitchblacksymphony