Rishabh Seen is back with Sitar Metal!

Rishabh Seen has been making a solid mark in the Indian and International Metal scene for a while now - first with his Sitar Metal covers (ranging from Meshuggah to Animals As Leaders songs) being featured on Gear Gods, to his International band 'Mute The Saint', shout outs from the mighty Steven Wilson and Metallica, to playing around stadiums all over the world with Arijit Singh - If you still haven't heard of him, what rock are you living under? But for a while now, the Sitar extraordinaire has been silent, slowly honing his next project into existence, the first glimpse the city of Delhi got to see when American Instrumental Rockers Polyphia came down to play in India this year. But yesterday, the rest of the world got the first glimpse of what is to come - 'Sitar Metal', the official band formed by Rishabh, currently supported by Guitar player Deeparshi Roy and Bassist Tushar Khurana. They surprised everyone by releasing the first single 'When Time Stands Still' yesterday, off their debut self-titled album to be released on the 1st of October. But how does it hold up to his earlier ventures?

CREATING A UNIQUE SOUND

In his earlier projects, it seemed like Rishabh was really influenced by whole Progressive Metal/Djent sound, where the Sitar added a different and interesting sound. At the same time, it did become a bit repetitive considering there wasn't anything more. The new single on the other hand, although has the Sitar as the central focal point, it goes along really well with the rest of the instrumentalisation and that goes throughout the song. It's a lot more Progressive and groovy compared to before. It really points towards Rishabh's songwriting skills - the track is dynamic, the main motif is quite catchy and it goes through various parts, eventually coming back to the main motif, giving a sense of recall before the song finishes off.

HONING A COLLECTIVE SOUND

What adds further to the sound is the earth shattering low end provided by 'aswekeepsearching' bassist Robert Alex. At the same time, I would like to see a bit more from Deeparshi Roy, as at this point - the guitars only support the rest of the band melodically. They could easily work with the Sitar as well to provide interesting unison's, similar to what 'Dream Theater' is famously known for doing. Although Deeparshi does have an 8 string Ibanez, it seems like the choice to keep the guitar playing still tuned to normal is a decision to make the sound of this album different from the 'Mute The Saint' record Rishabh worked on before. All of this is rounded off by the wonderful mix and master done by Adhiraj Singh (known for his work with aswekeepsearching and Noiseware amongst others) presents a product that is quite solid. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the album has to offer. For me, the track is a solid 7.5/10. What do you think? If you still haven't had a chance, check it out below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFXhGeAODBA Pre-order the album here: https://linktr.ee/sitarmetal