1. Praise of the Omnipresent One
2. Shiva Rudrastakam
3. Eternal Mother of Great Time
4. Vayuputra
5. Maisasura Maridini
6. Trinetra Dhari (Three Eyed One)
Comment:
Astonishing debut album by this unique band from Nepal that plays a ferocious and brutal Death Metal influenced by NILE, KRISIUN, DEICIDE, HATE ETERNAL... but mixed with vedic chants and ancient period of hinduism.
Bands from “obscure” countries. I've got a soft spot for those. The amount of obscure countries is declining though. That's not all that strange now almost everyone with a decent computer can record in a proper way. The fact you can easily spread those recordings quite easily is no abracadabra anymore. More and more bands have become accessible now.
Through Xtreem Music I was confronted with Dying Out Flame from Kathmandu in Nepal. The first band I get to hear from Nepal. This band comes up with death metal with an ethnic twist to it. They describe their style as Hindu or Vedic death metal. Basically they play proper death metal in the vein of a band like Krisiun. And because they us influences from their own area you could also compare them with acts like Nile or Orphaned Land, bands that use non-western influences. Here and there it's like listening to a death metal album mixed with a Bollywood soundtrack. The death metal part is the most important ingredient but the originality stems from the lyrical input and the use of local musical elements. The lyrics deal with the band's Hindu conviction. Even when you don't care about faith and religion you still should listen to 'Shiva Rudrastakam' as it is a fine album.
Here we have living proof that the brutal metal scene knows to borders; no limits. DYING OUT FLAME is a deathmetal band from Kathmandu Nepal. Their extreme metal is mixed with classic Hindu and Vedic music and mythology.
This year DYING OUT FLAME independently released their debut SHIVA RUDRASTAKAM and soon it was picked up by the Spanish label XTREEM MUSIC, which have released the album worldwide.
The 6 tracks contain heavily spiritual segments with both male and female vocals, combined with fierce grinding deathmetal. And even though the combination of brutal music with spiritual and/or religious parts aren't that unusual, take MELECHESH and NILE for instance, the combination of death and Hindu is something I hadn't heard before.
While this album turned out nice and original, I am curious what DYING OUT FLAME will give us in the future. They will have to keep exploring their musical horizon to prevent from getting stale, but also have to look out that they don't explore the mythological side of the music too much and become some sort of Hindu SEPULTURA RATTAMACRAPPA shit.
For now though, DYING OUT FLAME have a debut album they can be proud of!
The world of aggressive music is vast indeed, and it stretches far past the United States. The UK has brought us great bands like the godfathers of grind NAPALM DEATH, our neighbors Canada have blessed us with awesome bands like ION DISSONANCE, LENG T'CHE, and the almighty DESPISED ICON, and now Nepal has bestowed to us the spiritually profound brutality that is DYING OUT FLAME.
The quartet hail from Nepal's capital of Katmandu, where they've spent the last 3 years carving out a name for themselves in the metal scene and developing their signature sound. Much like Greensville, South Carolina's own NILE (who they'll most likely be compared to), DYING OUT FLAME play a very expressive mix of Middle Eastern-influenced death metal, complete with eerie sounding sitars (albeit beautifully played), rhythmic chanting, and seductive female vocals in Nepalese. This of course is against a backdrop of your typical “cookie monster” growls, heavy riffs, and blistering fast double bass and blast beat drumming.
Make no mistake, DYING OUT FLAME is rather straight forward death metal, but for the average death metal listener, you'll have to give it a honest to goodness chance. From the opening track of Shiva Rudrastakam, entitled “Praise of the Omnipresent One”, you're quickly made aware that this will not be your typical death metal record. It's rather jarring. Not in an “opening-track-from-any-given-ORIGIN-CD” kind of way, but extremely moody and outer worldly. This isn't like that really quiet song that most metal bands typically make their opening track in order to appear “mysterious”. Listeners with short attention spans will likely roll their eyes to the song's emotive tendencies and skip straight to the title track, but others will stay for this appetizer and be rewarded, as it sets up the entire theme of the CD quite nicely.
While the previous track may have gained the listener's curiosity, “Shiva Rudrastakam” now has a death grip on their attention.
“Ahh, okay THIS is more like it!”
All the typical goodies are here. Gautam's vocals are rich and sound like he's drinking blood right out of a skull. The guitar work from Chaudhary and Pahadi is rather typical metal shreddary, and not quite as technical as some of the guitar work from NILE's Karl Sanders, but it works for what DYING OUT FLAME are doing. The drumming of Prachanda Amatya (so glad I don't have to try to pronounce this) is excellent, and is the essential percussive force that this album exists on. Honestly, even with headphones on, the presence of Gautam's basswork is almost invisible throughout the CD, which is a shame because together with the drumming, this album could probably be heard six houses down. Instead, it almost sounds like there isn't any bass in the mix at all. We can just chalk that up to poor recording, and hope that DOF's next release will be mixed and mastered to bring that heaviness to the forefront a bit more, especially on tracks like “Eternal Mother of Great Time”. It's like a porterhouse steak sitting on a Styrofoam plate. It's all there, just not delivered all that well.
DYING OUT FLAME is anything but run of the mill death metal, and other bands should definitely take notice. “Rudrastakam” is a strong release, but for this band to really make their mark, they need a follow-up recording that truly captures the beauty, brutality, and technical prowess that they have to offer.
Dying Out Flame are from Nepal and play Death Metal.
This band are somewhat of a unique proposition as they combine the raw, brute force of Death Metal with traditional Nepalese music, instruments, female singing and influences. This lends the band a distinctly exotic edge.
What’s important here though is the sheer quality of the songs on this release. In the hands of a lesser band this combination of styles could easily sound mismatched and ill-judged, but Dying Out Flame have the talent to merge the two disparate worlds quite seamlessly. It sounds natural and it sounds good. Bloody good.
The traditional instrumentation enhances and adds to the ferocity and pure elemental force of the Death Metal parts. And boy when the Death Metal kicks in it sure does so hard.
The sound and fury of the band is first-rate and the deep growls of the singer are delivered at the perfect pitch. The Nepalese music doesn’t detract from the bite of the Metal at all; in fact it works exceptionally well with it to create atmospheres and moods quite in keeping with the epic and ferocious music.
If you’re a fan of Death/Extreme Metal that experiments with influences that are not typically found in the realm of Metal then this is for you. Think bands like Nile, Orphaned Land, Rudra, Therion, Markradonn, Panopticon, etc. – all quite different but all incorporating wider influences into their Metal sound. Dying Out Flame can safely be added to their ranks.
This is an innovative and creative release with lots of personality and high quality levels. Definitely make sure you check this out.
You probably do remember Nietzsche writing: God is dead? Well, Nile is dead. Krisiun, too. I’ve been into the most extreme of the metal genre for more than 20 years, but bands from Nepal are rare. It’s amazing what a global phenomenon metal and extreme metal is. If any of you have been looking at one or the other of our reviews, you will have noticed that it’s especially the metal periphery (from a European perspective) that we are especially interested in. Pakistan, Trinidad, Bangladesh… and now, for the second time in Vendetta-history, Nepal. And Dying Out Flame not only set an incredibly high standard, but simply buries other newcomers under a massive wall of death metal. Let me tell you again: massive wall of death metal.
But make no mistake: it’s death metal to the bone, but there is an element to it which distinguishes ‘Shiva Rudrastakam’ from other death metal releases – vedic chants. They are used in every song, fit nicely and are well-placed, therefore breaking the typical death metal sound while fitting into the overall sound costume very, very well. Often the songs turn towards an underlying harmonic minor scale and, although brutal as hell, do combine brutality with harmony and melody.
Of course, all in all the combination of chants, the occasional Sitar (-inspired) harmonic patterns are nothing excitingly new. The goose bump tension of the first track, for example, which is more or less a vedic chant, cannot really be upheld by the record’s title track as the atmospheric harmonies are broken with and replaced by typical Broken Hope-like death metal riffing. But the nice part is that elements of these riffs are then transcribed into a Sitar-context. I’m not sure if it is a real Sitar or a guitar mimicking a Sitar, but it sure as hell works, leaving me to ask: what was first? The vedic or death metal intention to write the song? I obviously cannot answer that question.
‘Eternal mother of great time’ on the other hand has a more Behemoth-like atmosphere to it and only towards the end, after the obligatory chant interlude picks up more speed. What impressed me the most on this record is not necessarily the songwriting, but the way it is performed. Take, for example, the hyper-fast blast beats at the end of ‘Vaya Putra’ or during ‘Maisasura’: Prachanda Amatya is a world-class death metal drummer and can easily compete with Tim Yeung or the likes. The same goes for the extremely sophisticated guitar and bass works. These guys know their instruments extremely well. This does not come as a surprise though, because from what I understand some of the members went to the Nepal Music School.
‘Shiva Rudrastakam’ is a kick-ass record! Especially the second half of the album has left a long-lasting impression on me. Not only because of the vedic influences, but because of the grandeur of the performance and creativity to combine different styles. Most awesomely done in the last song ‘Trinetra Dhari’ which I would consider the best one due to the intensity of death metal riffing in combination with high-speed drumming under vedic chants.
I am pretty sure that the European/American world will hear from Dying Out Flame again. This is world class death metal and I would be surprised if they were not to enter the touring business. So, organisers, get these guys on the road! Until then, I will give this record numerous more spins! And I recommend you do the same!
Xtreem Music is doing a bang-up job of grabbing excellent international metal bands from interesting locations. We recently witnessed the awesome power of Iran’s Azooma, and are now given Nepal’s Dying Out Flame. Taking relentless death metal a la Hate Eternal or Krisiun and blending in traditional Hindu instruments and chants gives them their own pedestal to stand upon. While there is certainly more to the picture, an easy tag would be to label Dying Out Flame as doing for Hindi music what Nile did with their Egyptian theme.
While on paper it might not seem to work, Shiva Rudrastakam is a punishing blend of death metal. The opening song, “Praise of the Omnipresent One” sets the tone for the inclusion of more traditional Hindu influences, only to have the title track erupt with straight ahead death metal violence. Burly riffs with an eastern flair offer no compromise and nicely incorporate a mellow moment amid the chaos. “Eternal Mother of Great Time” slows the pacing down and has some cool female vocals/chants towards the end of the track. The blastbeat-ridden centerpiece “Vayuputra” takes all of these moments from the first few tracks and combines them into a true showstopper. The remainder of the disc follows suit with equally menacing yet esoteric appeal, never allowing the explosive death metal to become stagnant.
It’s clear upon first listen that Dying Out Flame are not using their Vedic death metal as a gimmick. For their first attempt, it is almost breathtaking how well the Hindu instrumentation and chanting fits with pulsating and intense death metal. It’s nice to see newer bands like this putting in the extra effort to give themselves a more unique sound in the crowded world of death metal. This is a band with a very bright future.
Amazed because this extreme package is different and rarely found. And we do not want to equate their music with other bands, they have their own portion and character. Really do not want to miss enjoying their musical composition because every riff that they play really deep and had a lot of nuances that must be felt and enjoyed. A powerful epic come from Nepal, by a band called ' Dying Out Flame', this is really beyond our alleged because they have an unique music composition, and we just found out this band, since label 'Xtreem Music ' released their debut album titled ' Shiva Rudrastakam' August ago.
Heard and remembering the harmony in combining classical India musical instruments into the concoction of brutal death that cruel, savage and blasphemous is a memory that must be maintained and never want to delete it, because this band is capable giving an imagination in each song or rhythm which they give on the album. We very much agree that Dying Out Flame is an unique band, but their album titled ' Shiva Rudrastakam ' came not only provide uniqueness in a musical identity and composition, but wider and brilliant ,promises an imagination of stories that touches, literature and a strong Hindu culture. It's really cool and reminiscent.
This is the first time we touched their music and a little stunned when they apply the female vocal character in the opening song titled ' Praise of the Omnipresent One ',this is really catching our attention and made more curious to hear this album as a whole. While the next song titled ' Shiva Rudrastakam ' and ' Eternal Mother of Great Time ', then sounded a savage of the concoction of the harmony death metal concept that is really delicious, solid and dynamic come from the application of many styles of music. We could hear the brutal, Technical, thrash, Progressive, Black and doom. And even we heard them all only in a song. This is absolutely brilliant and a genius. Their music is really varied.
While we were still hungry to hear the composition which cruel and variations of them, ' Vayuputra ' and ' Maisasura Maridini ' coming as a monster. Provide the brutal riff that kills, painfully and mercilessly, instigating the ears to hear the drum beats, guitar rhythms and Growl vocals that really bite unexpectedly. These songs really slaps and mashing the face. 'Trinetra Dhari (Three Eyed One) ' is a form of musical compositions of the most varied on this album, as well as being a beautiful and catchy song at the end of this album.
'Shiva Rudrastakam' contains six songs that impressive, incredible, varied, and magnificent. And this album is more perfect, because every song has a long duration except the first song. This album also creates a new phenomenon, because the beast composition of death metal of them juxtaposed against a background of India's instrument turned out to be the magnificent dish. The Album is also dynamic and varied, because they concocted many styles of music in one song, and it is a satisfaction and glory.
'Shiva Rudrastakam' for us, giving new sense and really attracting attention because different to the other band's music composition. And this album truly promising an imagination of epic that strong and had a maturity in summarize of varied composition in every song. Regardless of this newly-formed band, but the concept that they do on the album showed a great skill. Catchy and memorable is very easily felt in this album. And an exciting for us looking forward to their arrival in Indonesia and Europe.
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