Triguna Releases New EP

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Last year we covered Triguna‘s debut (Embryonic Forms) with some enthusiasm, placing hopes on their amateur form of discernment and enthusiasm in the writing of progressive speed metal. The first album shows a band that is still a little awkward around expression but displays a latent vision for natural development and a holistic consideration of affairs. Their following EP, released officially on February 11, shows work in the same direction with a little more confidence. The evolution of Triguna’s style has not yet reached a stable point, and may still seem a little rushed or incoherent to the average listener, since they still need more practice in inserting their songs’ “progressive” sections. But these interruptions and twists don’t rob the songs of a coherent narrative, and the upcoming content seems worthy of further study and attention.

Embryonic Forms can be purchased at Triguna’s Bandcamp.

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Interview: Triguna

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Not so long ago, we reviewed Triguna’s Embryonic Forms and found their music to be an interesting progressive-oriented speed metal outfit that is interesting in the way that amateur musicians with spirits can be: shielded from cliches and driven by their gut feeling their compositions are coarse and may fall to apparently rudimentary technique but are powerful in feeling and achieve clear communication.  The band have agreed to answer some questions regarding the nature of their music and Triguna’s artistic vision.

1. How did Triguna first come into being?

Jeremy (lead guitarist) and Bird (vocalist) met in high school and found that they both loved metal and wanted to be in a band together. They then formed the band with other local musicians they knew or met through mutual friends.

2. Why did you choose “Triguna” as a name for your band? Does it have any special meaning on a personal level to you?

We chose it because we one liked how it sounds and two liked its meaning as it’s similar to how we view that band as a bunch of distinct elements coming together to form the whole as each member has their own music tastes that influence how we write our songs.

3. Earlier, I described your music as an intersection of styles that ultimately veers towards a progressive speed metal. How would you describe your music?

Yeah that’s pretty accurate! It really is just the combination of a bunch of different styles which does tend to move stuff towards a more progressive style.

4. What is the reason, if any in particular, for you to choose to play in this style? Does it align itself with some motive outside the artistic?

We just try to write songs that come to us naturally, so we can make sure that we enjoy playing them.

5. What are Triguna’s main influences?

Any and all good music! It’s really difficult to be much more specific than that because each member has different tastes across a variety of genres and there really aren’t any bands that we all try to emulate in writing.

6. How does the band go about writing music? Do you prefer the rehearsal-room jam approach or is a more thought-out process favored?

We use tux guitar, which is basically guitar pro but free to work on our songs as we generally like to take a longer, more thought-out approach to our songs. We generally begin with one member getting and tabbing out as much of a song as they can in tux. Then they send it to rest of the band who will suggest or make changes, or continue the song with new parts until we’re happy with it. Once it’s done every one learns their parts and we begin rehearsing it.

7. Each of the songs in Embryonic Forms follow very distinct patterns, and no clear template is found, is this intentional or just the result of an organic process in the band’s collaboration with each other?

Yeah, because each member has a wide variety of influences each song can come from an entirely different place from the last leading to a lot of distinct songs. Within each song we tend to stick to a generally idea but that has been changing as of late.

8. Would you define your music as having an objective of any kind?

Yes! We write for our music to be the best we can make and to have the most fun with what we write.

9. Do you have a direction for future development of the band’s style or is this it?

We are trying to make our music more complex so we can incorporate more styles within an individual song, and to grow to make music that we feel is better than our older songs.

10. What is the best way for the audience who is interested in your music to reach you?

If it is fan mail:

Trigunafanmail@gmail.com

If it is a buisness inquiry:

Trigunaband@gmail.com

More info can be found at

www.trigunaband.com

"Hi, I'm Ricky Bobby and if you don't listen to Triguna then fuck you!"

“Hi, I’m Ricky Bobby and if you don’t listen to Triguna then fuck you!”

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Triguna – Embryonic Forms (2015)

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Triguna is a band that plays underground metal in that vague intersection between death metal, black metal and the phrasal speed metal of Slayer. Their independently-released Embryonic Forms is both an honest and musically-aware artistic offering that falls short for technical reasons. “Technical reasons” here should not be underestimated. The band’s instrumental skills are just enough to play he music they wrote, but it is the technical side of composition that is loose.

Technique in composition is believed by the populace to mean how many chord progressions and scale names you have memorized or how many contrasting sections you can pair up. In truth, what technical composition ideally affords is an experience and insight into musical forms, elements and their relations and effects along with historical reference points that help the composer distill the purest elements of music. Surely this can be derived by talented and innately perceptive musicians, but they are still building most things from the ground up.

To be fair, given Triguna’s apparent technical level, their decision to make varied yet deliberately dirty, simple and straightforward passages was a realistic one that allowed them to concentrate on the coherence of the pieces as wholes. So while individual sections, riffs or solos are not altogether overwhelming, the songs are solid, enjoyable and meaningful. Creating fulfilling whole music that is not minimalist, Embryonic Forms is a perfect example of the extreme case of a vision superseding technique to achieve a musical triumph. The album garners at least honourable mentions alongside the likes of Manilla Road or early The Chasm (not that I am equating them, just classifying them), and is very much recommended on my part.

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