Sound haven

(From left) Karan Kaul, Aditya Mohanan and Aviraj Kumar of Midhaven

There's so much straight-up rock music in Mumbai-based three-piece band Midhaven's new album that it's almost difficult to describe it as metal, even though that's the genre with which the act identifies itself. Many of the songs have searing guitar solos - the sort of solos that make the instrument cry and sing - which take the listener back to an era when ripped jeans were almost a dress code for male musicians. The tracks have an approachable sense of melody, and it's only the growling vocals that remind you about the outfit's core identity, which, all said and done, remains metal music.

Yet, there's a twist in the sound of Of the Lotus and the Thunderbolt, the seven-song album. It's not just rock. There are elements of grunge too, in songs like The Immanent Effervescence of Sorrow. But it's the last song, Bhairav that embodies a wholly unexpected sonic experience - Indian classical. The guitar sounds like a sitar. There is absolutely nothing metal or rock, let alone grunge, about the composition. The mellow, contemplative track acts as the salve that's applied to a boxer's wound to soothe it in between rounds. And that's what makes this record exciting - there's a whole range of moods and sounds that the band has explored, not all of which fall under the category of heavy metal.

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