Band:	Rudra
Album:	Antithesis
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	January 14, 2025
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. Annihilate Diversity
02. Persecute Identities
03. Aggress The Void
04. Reject The Untenable
05. Obliterate The Binding Forms
06. Kill The Coloured Projections
07. Surrender The Search
08. Hunt The Three States
09. Abandon Dependence
10. Massacre Duality

Have you heard? Southeast Asia has also contributed to the world of extreme metal. Well, you should have, Rudra are practically veterans in the scene by now.

This Singaporean extreme metal band has a unique blend of styles, including black, death, thrash, and avant-garde metal, alongside traditional Carnatic music. Their lyrical content derives from Sanskrit Vedic literature and philosophy, while ancient mantras (shlokas) are also introduced into their song structures. The band originally formed as a trio back in 1992, but now act as a foursome consisting of Devan (guitars), Vinod (guitars), and founding members Kathir (vocals/bass) and Shiva (drums). This line-up has remained unchanged for over 15 years, and now present the band's 10th full-length release, Antithesis.

Since its origins, extreme metal has sprawled across all corners of the globe, with its influence now being widespread throughout Asia from the Middle East (Melechesh), to the Far East (Sigh). Now let's turn our attention to Southeast Asian culture, where lies Rudra's domain. Antithesis carries forward the band's trademark tradition from previous offerings of blending thrash, death and black, with sprinkles of traditional folk. The cultural themes surrounding the music also unsurprisingly continue.

The intertwining guitar work mainly consists of meloblack tremolos overlapped by wailing thrash leads, and there's certainly no shortage of melody. However, it's the beefy tone that really makes the guitar work stand out. Another key feature is the powerful chunky bass, which manages to cut through the mix. The drumming often alternates between stylish beats and rapid blast beats, remaining a competent feature throughout, although on several occasions, such as during "Reject The Untenable", there's folkish tribal drum beats. The vocals once again take the form of an aggressive semi-harsh blackened style that I'd say has similarities to a less convincing Sakis Tolis. The vocals are perhaps the weakest element for me; maybe that's down to preference in style, though, rather than the overall performance.

The album's structure is mostly basic despite the blending of several genres, and there seems to be an effortless flow throughout. Each song tends to blend almost too well, though, to the point in which it feels like there's a lack of variation between each track. They are very well structured, and certainly contain an abundance of melody; however, there's very few actual standout moments that the album is likely to be remembered by. The factor of memorability just isn't quite there for me. Rudra have now been on the scene for quite some time, with their self-titled debut Rudra being released 27 years ago. In that time they've managed to maintain their own distinctive style, but have also, for some reason, always remained slightly below the radar. I do believe they deserve more appreciation for what it is they do, even if this isn't the album that they ought to be remembered by.