SVARA TIRAS

Senmuths discography is gigantic, and it is all available for free, so it is tempting to want to take a dive into the music and see what exactly it is this man has to say that he is able to be so verbose. This is his 74th release under the name Senmuth and 113th in his career, released earlier this year, although at time of writing he has since released 4 more studio albums and a compilation.

What we have ends up being a combination of metal and ethnic music. I myself am rarely a fan of metal as an end, much preferring it as an ingredient in the musical palette as opposed to the whole thing, so the inclusion of the ethnic tones in this album has a strong appeal to me.

That being said, I feel that the two musical styles presented here are often at odds instead of working together. We have some moments here that are really great metal, some moments that are really great world music, but rarely do these two elements merge in a way that becomes more than the sum of two very disparate parts. When they do, it works quite well - just listen to the track Svaraajya for an example of this.

I think the biggest problem I have is there are a number of parts where the metal aspect of the music comes out of nowhere and overwhelms the more-interesting-to-me ethnic aspects of the music. Particularly in tracks such as Pravahaa Gayatra, where the metallic riffing really amounts to little more than repeating one note with a lot of distortion.

Nonetheless, there are some really excellent moments on this album - Nandeeshwara being an example. This one also features some female vocals at the beginning and near the end, which in my opinion make this track really stand out. Unfortunately, I cannot find any information about the vocals, whether they were sampled or real, or who the vocalist is, which is somewhat of a shame.

An uneven album, in the end, that could perhaps have been improved by a better marriage between the two different musical styles but with some truly excellent moments. Certainly, as a starting point to the massive discography of Senmuth, this won't scare you away, although neither do I expect it will make you a rabid fan.

'Svara Tiras' - Senmuth (5/10)

Yet another release in Senmuth's most prolific year yet, 'Svara Tiras' sees the Russian one man project take his two most prevalent styles (ethnic/world music, and industrial metal) and merges them together, in nearly equal portions. While neither is done particularly well here, Senmuth has taken his sound and makes a pleasant, if not completely interesting bout with 'Svara Tiras.'

The album starts out reminding me alot of one of my favourite Senmuth records, released early in his career: 'Izoteri-Ka.' However, the serenity that the ethnic, Indian-styled sound brings end with the crushing blow of Senmuth's downtuned guitar work, which while certainly not subtle by any measure, does bring some heaviness and dynamic to what would otherwise easily fall under the category of Indian traditional music.

While I think that the merging of metal (a traditionally western) and Indian (eastern) sounds has a world of potential, I'm not sure Senmuth expresses it too well here. While the attempt is certainly made here to make a heavy ethnic experience, the overbearing heaviness of the guitar work only serves to cloud the much more subtle (and by extension, enjoyable) ethnic work.

'Svara Tiras' is nothing special to the Senmuth discography, but to anyone wanting to hear added heaviness in Senmuth's ethnic work, the album might be a worthy listen.

Yet another average Indo-Metal album. On this Senmuth's release there aren't tracks which hit my ears in a particular way. It's the usual mixture of Indian ethnic, electronics and distortion that can be found on any other Senmuth's album.

It's not bad, but any other album of this series is good the same, so I don't see any particular reason o suggest this one or another. In addition this morning I have listened to Swadhistana that's his first Indian-bla-bla album that's surely better (or I'm more used to it).

That's why this is going to be one of my shortest reviews: you can download this album from Senmuth's website, then if you like it you can purchase a CD copy or look to the right side of his home-page to see which others of his albums are of this kind and grab another one.

Senmuth here plays his distorted guitar over ethnic (often synthetic) instruments.Basically indian music with electronics and heavy guitar jumping in an out with a constant dark feeling.

If you already know Senmuth, this is absolutely non-essential. If not, you may also start with this one, but I'd suggest one of the first three as starters.