SkyHarbor
Blinding White Noise: Illusion And Chaos

May 2012
Released: 2012, Basick Records
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Neil Rego

While reading the credits given in BLINDING WHITE NOISE, I was impressed by the contributors listed. With Marty Friedman, being listed among them, I was fully convinced that I need to understand why one of the world’s most recognized Metal Guitar maestros would like to perform on a “Djent-inspired” album.



To those metal fans who are unaware of “What is Djent?” ; ‘Djent’ is a sub-genre of Progressive Metal influenced by polyrhythmic drum patterns and down-tuned palm muted guitar riffs, akin to Meshuggah.



Opening tracks “Dots”and “Order66” convey a melancholic sound. The repetitive similarity between the two tracks does get my listening attention to wander off a bit. However, I get yanked back to reality with the sensational track called “Catharsis”, which turns out to be my favourite track on the album. Haunting melodic lines intertwined with crushing power, is a significant signature of the song. Great vocal interplay and the segment (Duration-02:42 to 03:23) is a listening treat for Marty Friedman fans.



Tracks “Night”, “Aurora” and “Celestial” are meshed with psychedelic lush progressions, which are soon put to rest by the increasing intensity displayed in “Maeva” and “Trayus”, leading to the ‘brutal-esque’ and heaviest songs on the album , “Aphasia” and “Insurrection”.



Old school progressive metal fans may not warm up to the repetitive structures and patterns that Djent doles out; however, presently, there are serious takers for this type of music.



The overall production quality of the album is really good. There are definite influential inferences drawn from the more prominent bands like Tesseract, Textures and Born of Osiris on the album. That being said, Keshav Dhar, Anup Sastry and Nikhil Rufus should indeed come in for praise; helping to evolve a subgenre, that will impress a lot of Djent-loving fans across other countries, including India.