Rudra are considered to be the pioneers of so called Vedic metal. Combining their native Indian music with metal music since the early 90’s, they return this year with their album ‘Enemy of Duality’.
The album can be separated between the metal and the native side, because they aren’t interwoven in a way that might be expected. At the first listening session every song sounded equal. Then, the more often I listened to the record I found I could separate the different kinds of riffs and the structures of the songs which are surely not the same in every case, but they could still be a bit more varied in respect to the guitar riffs. The metal parts are influenced by black and death metal riffs, which are either mid-speed groovy or fast and powerful. The record starts with a native influenced intro like many songs on the album. I wished they had included the native influence explicitly in more parts of the songs like in the last song “Ancient Fourth”, which is my personal favorite.
In general, Rudra have created a varied package of hypnotic riffs with native scales and drum patterns that thunder. With respect to the native roots,but not well balanced either and the drums don’t meet my personal taste. The toms sound flat, the bass drum sound is not very natural and in addition to that I have the feeling the bass drum isn’t played cleanly within the beat in a few cases. The native music parts in the songs are hidden in many cases. Maybe these parts are planned to be in the background which is a real pity, in my opinion. Overall, the sound is powerful and goes along with the songs and atmosphere and that’s the important thing about it.
Rudra have created a varied package of hypnotic riffs with native scales and drum patterns that thunder. With respect to the native roots, the combination of native Indian music with metal is still nice and not very common. I like the record, but I think it could be improved in all directions like variety in the riffs, song structure and vocals, even some things about the sound of the record. Nevertheless, it’s a good album and very interesting to hear. I recommend it for all people who like an uncommon kind of metal music and for fans of black or death metal.
