AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): JYOTISAVEDANGA — “THERMOGRAVIMETRY WARP CONTINUUM”

 

Although the subject is not free from doubt, the laws of thermodynamics can be understood to forecast a far distant future in which ever-increasing entropy leads to the heat death of the universe. Order devolves into disorder, chaos leads to extinction, and meanwhile the unexplored fifth dimension of our reality shadows the path of this lethal arrow of time.

These concepts have inspired the harrowing sounds of Jyotiṣavedāṅga, but mysticism holds a powerful attraction as well. This international entity, whose members consist of guitarist Sadist from the Indian band Tetragrammacide; H. from Russia’s Sickrites on synths, noise, and effects; vocalist AR, from the Kolkata band Banish; and Ukrainian drummer Dimitry Kim (Sickrites, Goatpsalm, Balance Interruption), is named after Vedāṅga Jyotiṣa, one of the earliest known Indian texts on astronomy and astrology. In their music and lyrics, they seek an intersection “between light and obscurity, between science and superstition, between good and evil”, a place “between the pit of all fears and the peak of all true knowledge.”

How they have done this you are about to discover. Jyotiṣavedāṅga’s new album, Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum, will be released by Larval Productions on June 6th, and now we give you the chance to hear the full album in advance of its release.

 

 

Across the six tracks that make up Thermogravimetry Warp Continuum, Jyotiṣavedāṅga entwine blackened death metal and electronic noise sensations to create an experience that’s atmospherically cold, hallucinogenic, and unnerving, delivered with dismembering cruelty and a body-moving rhythmic compulsion.

The sound is murky, massive, and monstrous, the vocals heartless and grotesque, the sharp-edged clatter of the snare becoming the clearest signal in these storming torrents. The frightening impact of these tracks is further enhanced through the elements of skin-shivering noise alluded to above, which first become manifest in the opening track, “Distress Signal: Source Unknown“, in which ominous deep tones and a rising and falling spectral ambience seem to embody the endless vortex of entropy, pierced by the crackling transmission of a distressing voice from the void.

The true power of the music strikes through the following song, “Quantum Integers Systematic Deduction“. An immense, gruesomely distorted, head-moving riff unfolds over rumbling double-bass and the snap of a cracking snare. Horrific brain-mangling roars come through, as if voiced by a disembodied monster. When the pace accelerates to a gallop, the riffing begins to rake and hammer, and the music is laced with an eerie astral shimmer and queasy leads.

“Bilateral Indexing Theory” is faster, powered by more frenetic and acrobatically extravagant drumwork and more chaotic riffing. The vocals also sound more deranged and frightening, the unhinged roaring mixed with tortured shrieks. The song ends with an effusion of inhuman sound, like a field recording of heat death propagating through the universe.

The power surge revealed on that track continues on “Protocol Hyper Sterilization on Initialize“, which spawns images of open warfare out beyond the Oort cloud, thanks to an obliterating drum attack and guitar pulverization that’s both cyclonic and jackhammering, organized around a skull-cracking low-end rhythm and neck-snapping snare assaults. The febrile, snake-like lead just makes the music more disturbing.

“Vector Photon Gammaburst” discharges another gruesome, hard-charging, pile-driving demolition job, which segues briefly into a highly head-bangable chug, while “Imploding Linear Fusion Propulsion System” — launched by enormous groaning, mind-fracturing cosmic noise — unfolds into a slow, doom-like stagger anchored by immense chords and the methodical snap of the snare. A twisted, vibrating lead builds tension mixed with a feeling of encroaching lunacy… and the album’s mind-blowing trip is brought to a close with the resonance of high pulsating frequencies and deep droning tones of apparently extraterrestrial origin.

 

 

This isn’t a long album, but it is a tremendously effective and unusual one, and listening to it from start to finish without interruption is definitely the way to experience what Jyotiṣavedāṅga have achieved here. To learn how to get the album, check these links:

Larval Productions:
http://www.larvalproductions.com
https://www.facebook.com/larvalproductions
https://www.larvalproductions.bandcamp.com
http://larval.storenvy.com/

Jyotisavedanga:
https://www.facebook.com/Jyotisavedanga