MAHAVATAR „From The Sun, The Rain, The Wind, The Soil”

Genre: Metal
Country: New York City, USA
Website: www.mahavatar.net

MAHAVATAR seem to fall into a genre all their own, showing a great range of styles on their first album, from power metal, thrash metal and doom metal, to emocore and progressive rock. You might call it Progressive Death Metal or Gothic Ambient Dark Metal. The album does have a dark and tribal like feel to it and while using all these different styles, Mahavatar creates a solid piece
of work.

The album contains newly recorded versions of the bands debut album 'Go With The NO!' recorded in 2005 on Cruz Del Sur Records, and have added two brand new songs. Mahavatar is a multi-national band, featuring members from Jamaica, Poland and Israel, debuting on Escapi records with their album 'From The Sun, The Rain, The Wind, The Soil'.

They have taken a lot of undiscovered paths while recording 'From The Sun…' and courageously tried to create something quite unique with this album. Indefinable soundscapes blend together with recognizable influences and genres, giving the songs a recognizable and enjoyable listen than they otherwise would. Quite often the music has a technical approach and each band member obviously knows how to handle their respective instruments.

Karla Williams is able to write some really catchy riffs, along with some crushing ones as well, take for example “By The Numbers”, great riff, but it’s nothing special, but it’s got a great groove. “The Time Has Come” has massive riff that just kind of overwhelms everything else, giving the song a powerful feeling. She writes some great thrashy songs as well, like the “Psychos” or funky riffing in “Anger” not to mention the bass work in “Anger” is well… phenomenal. The vocalist, Lizza Hayson is “a one of a kind vocalist”, she constantly changes her voice, from
Death Metal growls, to Folky chants, to clean melodic pitches. I wouldn’t say she is “accomplished” as a singer but she is different and that adds to the nature of the music.

This is definitely not easy listening stuff, but if you are patient you may consider this album to be a good one. I doubt that 'From The Sun…' will find its way to a larger audience although Mahavatar is without a doubt a very talented band, I feel it would be very hard for metal fans to really identify with the music.

From the Sun, the Rain, the Wind and the Soil is a perfectly chosen title for this album; it has almost every aspect you can imagine that has something do with a metal genre. Unfortunately the continuity between the songs makes it hard to see this band as a band but rather a jam session of varied influences.

note: 6.5/10

Tracklist

01. Cult
02. By The Numbers
03. Raw
04. BH
05. Open Your Minds
06. Psychos
07. The Prophecy
08. Deep Cobble
09. Anger
10. The Time Has Come

Line-up

Lizza Hayson – Vocals
Karla Williams – Guitars
Shahar Mintz – Guitars/Vocals
Szymon Maria Rapacz – Bass
Eran Asias – Drums