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Release Date: December 25th, 2010
Record Label: Platinum Selling Artist Records
My rating points:
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Amogh symphony is a band that every self respecting musician in India had heard. Their first album Abolishing the Obsolete System was self-released and was received very well as something that was ahead its time. Vishal J Singh (the mastermind behind the band) has teamed up with Jim Richman (AKA Drumblast) for their latest musical masterpiece, The Quantum Hack Code. Amogh symphony fuses technical metal with progressive and electronic elements to create technical progressive electronic jazz metal to be specific. Yes I feel that is the only genre that can appropriately classify the band.
There are many spoken sections that explain the concept and every section is done by Chela Harper of Sarasvati fame. Her voice is absolutely perfect for the music. It adds a nice contrast to the virtuoso-esque music that follows. On the first listen this album goes beyond you at warp speed and leaves you wondering about what just happened. Everything falls into place during the second listen. The album has acoustic solos and pure electronic sections thrown in at various places and they seem to fit perfectly with the heavy guitar riffs. There are some sections that blend in some psy-trance as well with the futuristic metal grooves. The bass lines on this album need to be mentioned for they seem to outshine most bass lines on any metal album that I have heard this year. Time changes are abundant and are executed with the precision you would expect from mad scientists handling explosives. Vishal is a mad scientist and that will be understood after a few listens. I am reviewing the album as a whole epic song because that's how concept albums should be treated and rated.
The concept of the album is akin to The Matrix and may overtake it in terms of dare I say complexity. The intro to the album is an almost 2 minute spoken section that explains the Q Web and the afterlife. There are a few instruments complementing the spoken section but they do so in a very subtle manner. Dvorzhetskii's Prophecy is where this album begins. Electronica with Indian classical influences build up to a progressive section with an acoustic guitar melody. From this point on, the music gets very complex with some brilliant legato playing over complex drum patterns. The latter section of this album reminded me of their past effort in terms of composition. The album follows a consistent pattern of a spoken section explaining the concept followed by mind-blowing instrumental music. Osiris 1 has some of the most complex riffs that I have heard. It sounds like Blotted Science meets Animals As Leaders. Scratch that. Blotted Science meets Animals As Leaders on Coke. The next part is The Quantum Barrier Code Interpretation by Mainframe and it has some very unique sounds emanating from the guitar. Something you would expect from Mattias IA Eklundh (Freak Kitchen). The mellow keyboard sections accompanied by the drums give your mind a break from all the madness before dragging you back for more. This song has the best guitar work on the album and will be insane live. Vishal has really outdone himself on this one. Superfast tapping followed by a blues solo and a complicated riff? Only with Amogh Symphony. Polymorphic Infection Ð Releasing Proteus has some Egyptian sounding flamenco solos and goes way over the top in terms of music and the number of instruments. X- Karna is a song that features many guitar solos of varying styles. With most modern technical bands jumping on the Djent train as their musical direction, Vishal avoids it and formed his own melting pot of various techniques and styles that will no doubt get him the virtuosic recognition he and Amogh Symphony more than deserve. The Nullification Method continues where the last song left off and has a memorable hook that has some brilliant soloing over it as usual. Songs like this set the bar really high and you expect to be let down soon after this musical peak. The last two songs have had a break from the spoken part. Chela's voice soon returns with Decoded Karnosiris. This is the longest song in this conceptual epic and features vastly contrasting sections and time changes. There is a very fast guitar solo in this song that abruptly goes into an electronic riff that goes into a nice atmospheric blues short solo. Amogh Symphony's last album featured an acoustic album closer. I expected this one to be the same. The last song on the album, The Collapse Of Q- Web and Osiris 1 ends this complex epic masterpiece perfectly. It sounds like Moby in some parts with the beat and has very fast paced melodic solo with programmed drums. The last section in this song has a very Indian classical feel to it and it slowly fades away.
The mastering done on this album needs to be commended. Aditya Naik has succeeded in not making this album sound like a trashcan being shoved into your eardrum with glass shards. While most modern metal albums feature brick wall mastering and usually end up being clipped, this album has a user-friendly sound that lets the user mould it to how he or she likes music. I strongly recommend listening to this album at least twice a day for two days to fully grasp the subtle nuances and believe me it will be worth it. This is a strong contender for album of the year for me and it releases on Christmas day.
Recommended to fans of Blotted Science, Animals As Leaders and all other progressive and technical metal fans.
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