September 20, 2004 - Indukti and S.U.S.A.R.

A day after my last release a new band joins my library when Indukti released their debut album "S.U.S.A.R." on September 20, 2004. But who is Indukti? They are a five-piece progressive metal band from Warsaw, Poland consisting of drummer Wawrzyniec Dramowicz, bassist Maciej Adamczyk, guitarists Piotr Kocimski and Maciej Jaśkiewicz and violinist Ewa Jabłońska. Violin in a progressive metal band sounds pretty cool to me, and while there is no official singer in Indukti there are guest vocals on several of this album's songs, all sung by Riverside frontman Mariusz Duda! That's pretty awesome as well! Let's see what Indukti is all about! 

The album opens with "Freder" and it begins with some light, trippy guitar that sounds almost like a harp honestly! After about a minute another more standard guitar riff comes in to keep the pace, the  we hear the violin for the first time and it's slow, loud and pretty epic I think. The rest of the band slowly joins in and then they slam very nicely into a heavy main riff! The bass is loud and cool, and the guitars and violin combine for a super epic and pretty sweet riff that really gets your head banging! Duda is adding some wordless backing vocals to the mix, but it's very quiet compared to the music. The music goes quiet for a short bit midway through, but it's loud and heavy for the most part and I really like the super heavy, chugging guitars and bass. Who knew that some epic violin would blend so nicely with this progressive metal style?! I thought it was a pretty great way to introduce us to Indukti! Up next is "Cold Inside... I" and both guitarists are playing pretty quickly in the same lighter style, but they are playing slightly different riffs meaning things sound almost synchronized, but with a little extra note here or there in a pretty cool combined riff. Duda sings his first real verse and he sounds as smooth and solid as he always does, floating nicely overtop the light music. The bass is decent in the background and finally the drums complete this slightly repetitive but still pretty cool main riff. They don't stray far from the main drag, but things sound epic and smooth the whole way through and Duda's vocals definitely fit the mood perfectly. The song ends the way the album began with more harp-like guitar and this carries over into track 3 which is called "No. 11812". Eventually some violin starts and then Adamczyk starts a cool bass line to keep the pace. Light drums are next to come then some light and trippy guitars to complete this interesting main riff. When the drums pick up to a faster beat qe're starting to get going and some glimpses of heavy guitar shine through this mostly trippy landscape. Around the halfway mark of the 8 minute song things get really heavy and this new part sounds fantastic and really gets the head banging! From here they shift very smoothly to a sweet new riff that has cool violin, great bass, some nice heavy guitars and some pretty cool drums as well, it's all pretty awesome! Then there's a guitar solo that is pretty sweet, followed by some super fast shredding by the other guitarist, then a super heavy finish! Easily the best song so far! Awesome stuff! The next track is "Shade" and it's got a cool percussion beat by Dramowicz and some epic violin by Jablonska leading the way. The bass is pretty cool as well and then Duda comes in with his smooth and awesome singing to make things sound even better. Eventually they somehow manage to blend heavy metal guitars seamlessly into this psychedelic and smooth riff and it works very nicely! Then just as they slowly ramped up, they slowly ramp back down until it ends as it began in a very smooth and solid tune. Track 5 is "Uluru" and it opens with some tripoy noises before a pretty sweet drum beat by Dramowicz starts up and the rest of the band starts to build nicely around it. After about a minute we finally reach a heavy stop-and-start riff that sounds pretty sweet and there's all kinds of trippy and cool noises in the background, including some cool bass. Jablonska adds some fast and cool violin as well and everything sounds super prog-y, trippy, heavy and pretty awesome! The heavy guitars sound really good leading the way but the background is really something as well! For over five minutes they rock out nice and hard, then the last nearly two minutes is quite quiet and unexciting sadly. Most of it was great! Up next is "No. 11811" and it starts with a simple guitar riff before some slow violin enters the mix. After a bit the other guitarist comes in with some cool faster stuff, then finally the rhythm section completes the riff with some pretty solid bass and drums which makes this a smooth and interesting main riff that they've built up very nicely for Jablonska to take the lead with some epic and cool violin. After over three minutes they slam nicely into a heavy new riff with some great guitars and bass and eventually they somehow find a new gear that is even heavier! And this only sets the stage for one crazy violin solo that sounds so creepy and awesome words couldn't possibly do justice! Everything from this point until the end of the song is just some crazy sounding, awesome progressive metal and there's around two minutes worth of stuff at the end that is just phenomenal! These guys can really turn it up to 11! Awesome song! The final song on the album is "...And Weak II" and it's a near ten minute finale that is also linked to the second track and even opens with the same dueling guitar riffs. It sounds extremely similar to "Cold Inside... I", with the same slow intro eventually leading to a full riff with everyone chipping in something towards the light and smooth main riff. The obvious main difference is the lack of vocals on this one, but they are not really missed as they have plenty of great music to play, including some more cool heavy parts that get your head banging. The song seems to end with a nice heavy flourish, then things drift into a loud and super trippy outro that somehow dies into the same harp-like guitar that started off the album. It's pretty fast and sounds pretty trippy and cool, a full circle ending to this pretty cool album.

That is the end of "S.U.S.A.R." and I thought it was a pretty sweet debut album by Indukti! I love how these guys blend together their softer and trippier side, with their super heavy metal side, and the heavy parts are all headbangingly good! Mariusz Duda'a vocals are great as always, but most of it is instrumental and it's all pretty cool music! I look forward to seeing where Indukti go from here!