“Awakening Of The Spirit” is a debut release by Sutras, an excellent duo based in Washington, D.C. It includes “Deathless” and “A Daily Reprieve,” two outstanding tracks that vividly showcase their songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing abilities. As the band members identify as the Dharma punk collective, they embrace Buddhist principles of suffering, suggesting that enlightenment can be achieved through art by merging punk rock ethics and Dharma teachings. Soundwise, they embrace the fundamentals of post-hardcore music by skillfully levitating between the late nineties and contemporary sound. However, you’ll notice how many different but complementary music subgenres like screamo, neocrust, crustcore, sludge, and post-metal found their way into this sonic equation. Drawing inspiration from many renowned bands that defined the underground scene over several decades, Sutras eventually built their sound, showcasing fresh, unique, innovative take on so many music genres. They use all the additional elements as more than necessary enhancements, accentuations, decorations, and other details to uplift their music to new heights while remaining loyal to the post-hardcore sound. Therefore, these experimentations resulted in a marvelous material that will unquestionably appeal to even the pickiest fans of the mentioned genres.
“Deathless” opens this marvelous EP release with a comprehensive collection of cleverly arranged vocal, sonic, and rhythmic maneuvers. As soon as you press play, you’ll notice all those influences shining from each note and beat, but in a more creative and innovative way. The song arrives with a perfect structure, garnered with many intricate segments, brilliant ideas, and outstanding instrumentations. Sutras expertly blends aggression and melody by offering tastefully constructed interplays between rhythm and lead guitar. You’ll notice how raw, abrasive, aggressive, heavy, and powerful riffs resonate on one side while the other shines with catchy, memorable, engaging leads, themes, melodies, harmonies, and other sonic maneuvers. These sonic acrobatics serve as a perfect backdrop for all the vocals to shine upon. Speaking of the vocals, you’ll unquestionably notice how the feral screams and powerful shouts add another dosage of aggression and chaos. However, this is more of a controlled chaos that perfectly suits guitar works. All these vocal maneuvers command attention and guide listeners from scratch to finish while emphasizing instrumentations with precision and finesse. Of course, this track wouldn’t sound this good without a rock-solid rhythm section. You’ll notice how the thick layer of equally distorted low-ends lurk beneath the guitar layers, adding more grittiness, heaviness, and depth while the expertly assembled beats, breaks, fills, and other rhythmic acrobatics keep everything in line while dictating groove and tempo. It’s a marvelous track with so many excellent moments where both Tristan Welch and Frederick Ashworth showcase their ideas and musicianship.
“A Daily Reprieve” delivers that recognizable late nineties and early noughties neocrust sound heavily drenched in screamo, post-hardcore, and post-metal music. The calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal themes, melodies, and harmonies perfectly pair heavy riffs, shaping a nearly cathartic atmosphere that appeals to the listening apparatus perfectly. It’s nearly mindblowing how this song shines with an entirely different atmosphere, but again, it perfectly suits “Deathless.” Sutras incorporated many regular and odd-time signatures on this one, continuously traveling through different segments without losing consistency and balance. Whether moderate, half-time, or more energetic rhythmic patterns, they guide the listener through a vast universe built upon mesmerizing instrumentations. Like on the previous track, the bass guitar propels this “A Daily Reprieve” to new heights with heavily distorted low-ends, providing more rawness, abrasiveness, and aggression beneath the melodic and harmonic layers. Once again, the vocals emphasize all these orchestrations with another barrage of sincere, passionate, confident, powerful screams and shouts, delivering more than necessary emotion that defines music genres like emo, screamo, and post-hardcore. Each vocal, sonic, and rhythmic layer has its place and purpose, constructing a song that grabs you by the collar and refuses to let go even after the last notes and beats end.
“Awakening Of The Spirit” is a marvelous debut by two veteran Washington, D.C. musicians who unquestionably defined their sound from the very beginning. Their songwriting, composing, arranging, and producing abilities are vividly hearable through every segment of each song, proving that they’re not joking around with their music at all. The duo emits tremendous power, heaviness, rawness, and aggression through both tracks, but also takes time to deliver calm, soothing, relaxing, ethereal melodies and harmonies that contribute to the emotional depth of the material. Their experience, knowledge, skills, and talent shine through every note and beat, as they deliver one of the best modern post-hardcore EPs in recent history. “Awakening Of The Spirit” is available on all streaming platforms, so do not miss your chance to witness their boundless creativity and musicianship. These skillful musicians deserve your utmost attention.
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