### Kartikeya: Mahayuga

#### 20/09/11 || gk

Russia’s Kartikeya return with another album of death metal inspired by Indian mythology and Indian classical music. The fact that they come from Russia and have the name of Indian god was pretty much the only reason I checked them out and I’m glad i did.

The album starts with “Sarva Mangalam” and a superbly executed and slow building riff that seamlessly mixes death metal and Indian carnatic music before going off into a chant in Sanskrit. This 2 minute intro sets up the album beautifully and is perfect. This is followed by the frantic “He Who Carries the Head of Brahma” which charges out of the speakers like a bastard child of Melechesh and Order of Ennead with vaguely oriental sounding keyboards in the background and more chanting in Sanskrit. “The Path” carries on with the ass kicking and puts together a brutal death metal riff with some interesting keyboard parts. “Fields of Kurukshetra” is probably the heaviest song on the album and has Rudra’s Kathir coming in on vocals with more chanting in Sanskrit. It’s only when the band gets to “Neverborn” that they take their foot off the pedal. There are just too many elements in this song from death metal to an Orphaned Land type folk section to a saccharine sweet clean vocal melody and the song suffers from a lack of focus. From here on, the album loses a bit of momentum and the songs tend to sound overly busy with too many elements competing for supremacy. Kartikeya manage to redeem themselves with the album closing four part epic title song and a cover of Shakira’s “Eyes Like Yours” is buried at the end of the album for novelty value but the middle of this album is flabby and overlong.

For the most part, Kartikeya do a terrific job mixing their disparate influences into one focused whole. The death metal and Indian classical styles are seamlessly blended together and when that’s all the band are focusing on they sound genuinely powerful. It’s when the band throws in the Orphaned Land inspired folk breaks and the irritating clean melodic singing that the power of the music is diluted.

“Mahayuga” is interesting and has some fantastic moments but is just too long and inconsistent in the songwriting department to sustain interest all the way through. Still, well worth checking out for death metal with folk and classical influences that are a bit different to the norm.

- Information
- Released: 2011
- Label: Grailight
- Website: Kartikeya MySpace
- Band
- Roman “Arsafes” Iskorostenskiy: vocals, ethnic instruments, guitars, keyboards
- Mars: vocals
- Rinat Hamitov: guitars
- Dmitriy Sorokin: percussion
- Alexander: bass, violin
- Alexander Smirnov: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Sarva Mangalam
- 02. He Who Carries the Head of Brahma
- 03. The Path
- 04. Fields of Kurukshetra
- 05. Moksha
- 06. Neverborn
- 07. Surya Jayanti
- 08. Exile
- 09. Choirs of Oblivion
- 10. Utpayana
- 11. Satya Yuga
- 12. Treta Yuga
- 13. Dvapara Yuga
- 14. Kali Yuga