Dhwesha create death metal with a large influence from classic heavy metal, sounding like a cross between the first Torchure album and a melodic Swedish band like first-album Sentenced or Desultory. Their bread and butter is the crossover between recursive downpicked rhythms like a speed metal band would use underneath melodic rhythm leads, and death metal riffs which re-direct these songs to more vicious ends.
Aesthetically a good comparison might be Monstrosity: drums, bass and guitar work together to create a powerful unison which hammers out a clear theme which corresponds to song title and vocal concept. But like early Therion, Dhwesha incorporates older heavy metal patterns and pulsing rhythms as opposed to the darker and more abstract death metal themes, which creates an organic heart of energy to this band which allows them to incorporate speed metal technique without it taking over songwriting. Songs generally cycle between verse- and chorus-like sections with a couple riffs each and a transitional section or two per song, focusing in the death metal way on the presentation of each. Frequently a lead-picked tremolo will outline a melody over a grinding but bouncy rhythm riff which creates a sense of a landscape shift.
Vocals take on the best attributes of Blasphemy, which is an incoherent shout so hoarse it sounds like the wind or a wild bison charging on an inattentive traveler, giving the music a feral air. All musicians show great proficiency but avoid showing off, which makes Sthoopa move like a single entity. Unlike many of the recent death metal attempts, Dhwesha show no desire to incorporate modern methods but homebrew their own instead, but also unlike death metal, this band seems content to exist in the late 1980s ambiguity between death metal and heavy metal. The result has the sentiment of Desultory with the earth-moving power of a more explosive act, but by balancing the two creates more of an atmosphere than one might expect from a band on their first album.
Tags: death metal, dhwesha
This is okay at best. It’s like they had one idea (the chorus riff plus variations on lead guitar, in my opinion not a particularly interesting one since this was done better by bands like Amorphis or Paradise Lost), but didn’t know how to form a surrounding. They just throw in various speed and heavy metal riffs which in themselves are not bad, but don’t add up to anything great. So it feels one-dimensional and forced: it has no other goal than to become a song in itself, but tries too hard and fails. Maybe the other songs on this album are better. I will check them out at another time.
All praise Prozak lord of the anus tribe and master of goats!
great suggestions so far:
Warmaster
Desecresy
Kever
and Dhwesha !!!
You need to listen to the KCUF archive. You’ll find some MUCH better recommendations there…
While everybody was listening to Nirvana and Oasis he stands out as one of the few people IN THE WORLD at the time who recognised Underground Metal as a new, vital, artistic movement.
So yes, surely some praise due.
You must understand the cultural context of the album. They are perhaps the only death metal act from India worth a shit. Of course its a rather derivative template, a mix evocative of Bolt Thrower, early Amorphis, Desultory, Eucharist and similar bands. But combined with the thematic backdrop and the propensity for melodic injections, this makes for more than a good listen.
We have a fairness standard here that is against all relativism. If you get positive words from our writers, it is because you 100% earned them.
We cannot thus commit relativism by saying “Well, this is the best band from Texas, so it must be good even if it is mediocre.” It has to stand on its own. To the dismay of SJWs, we apply the same standard to sex/gender, sexual preference, nationality, etc. basically everything.
That being said, many of us are rather fond of India and this album. It has an innocence and sentiment that is missing in the tuffguy days of death metal.