Solus- Satya Yuga (RAIG R103)

Solus is a project by Devin Thompson (famous Canadian musician), who plays all the instruments and voice, and also recorded, mixed and mastered it.  The album features 8 instrumental songs. I have never heard any of Devin’s music before but I was very impressed with this album. Wow.. Just a great journey!  Satya starts things off with a spacey drone, sitar and chant. It slowly builds up in layers with chimes and other sounds here and there. A little after 1 min, the hand drums and drum kit kicks in and then the bass line as the track grows. Eventually the guitar becomes the lead instrument. By 3 mins it has almost transformed into a stoner rock track but then back into the more blissful music although the Indian influences have mostly disappeared now as we head into the guitar solo section. Great track that gets heavy again at the end. Brahma is a sort track driven by some hand drums, bass and then mainly the guitar and later it drops out to focus on only the drums and bass playing and then he is back again. Great track.

Treta starts with some guitar feedback and then the main heavy riff kicks in with some additional lead guitar to compliment the heavy metal riff and groove but the addition of the hand drums works really well before the track morphs into a pretty standard heavy rock riff track and then before you get bored with that a flash of sitar to give you a jolt and then the track goes in a new direction. Amazing song. Brahmästra is another short track with some eastern style drums but a killer hypnotic groove pity the track was so short as I was jus getting transported away. Dvapara changes the mood and has some really interesting guitar parts and riffs and melodies but maintaining a sort of dark intensity about it, especially the drumming is quite powerful at times. Around 3mins the track slows down and gets a bit spacey before the guitar comes back and plays a repeated line until the song fades out. Brahman starts with some birds and Indian vocal samples and then piano and keyboards. First track where the guitars are not the main instrument. Later on he plays some slide guitar. Kali is the longest track at nearly 10mins and starts slowly with a delay guitar, gliding bass line and spacey atmosphere. The track slowly grows until it reaches a peak at about 4mins and becomes more heavy and dramatic but it is only a tease and it goes back to the slower moody parts for the rest of the track. Relic closes out the record and brings back some tension and a darker feel but still with the eastern feel intact and a bit more noodling around. I really enjoyed this record a lot but the last couple of tracks I felt were not as strong as the rest of the record and did not emotionally grab me the way the rest of the record did.  If you like eastern inspired instrumental music, give this one a go.

https://www.hevydevy.com/

http://facebook.com/raigrecords

https://www.facebook.com/dvntownsend/