Band:	Rudra
Album:	Kurukshetra
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	2003

01. Justified Aggression
02. Apostasy
03. God Of Delusion
04. Absolute One
05. Negate
06. Mithya
07. In The Vision Of The Blind
08. Temple Of Nothingness
09. Highlands Of Tranquility
10. Ye Immortal One
11. Asura Mardhini

One of Metal best kept secrets is now in my hands! I'm talking about the only band in the world that plays an unique kind of Heavy Metal, never heard before! with no more further ado I introduce to you the world's only Vedic Metal band, Rudra.

The term Vedic, is saying Indian Mythology, the word comes from the Vedas, the most ancient religious texts existing in India, written in a form of archaic Sanskrit and found around the years 1500 and 900 A.C. this texts are the corner stone of Indian religion, the Vedic texts are 4 volumes or books that contain chants, ritual formulas etc.

The rarity factor of this record is incredible, first of all, how many Metal Cd's from Singapore are right now in your shelf? And how many Cd's of Vedic Metal you have?, I rest my case.

Musically Rudra plays a mix of Thrash metal, Death Metal and Black Metal, is very hard to explain, the vocals are very Black, the music is mostly Thrash Metal with some Death Metal outbursts, some oriental-driven riffs can be found in some songs, especially the main riff in the opener song "Justified Aggression", very catchy oriental-like riff, that's sure, although I would have liked more oriental musical influences in the album.

The thing that makes Rudra stand up from the crowd is their lyrical content, the traditional themes of ancient India and South Asia makes a hell of a concept, mostly when we're so used to receive Nordic Myhtology from Metal bands mostly.
The Cd is packed with aggressive tunes and great guitar leads, among my favorites are "Highlands Of Tranquility", "Mithya" and "Absolute One", the drumming and riffing is great in those.

The thing with Rudra is that they have a differential advantage before the rest of Death/Thrash bands, the lyrical concept and the Indian themes are quite original, but I'm afraid that without those, Rudra would be another Trash/Death Metal band, because, although they're very good at playing Metal, there are Metal bands that do it so.
One advice could be take those Indian/Middle-East influences and push them a little further, maybe not as much as Orphaned Land or Nile, but trying to make more unique the music, and create some atmosphere that can be related to the lyrics.
My sources tell me that their previous album, "The Aryan Crusade" have more of those Indian influences in their music, I'll try to get that one, and we'll see. Nevertheless, this is a fantastic album, and it got my recommendation to all Metalheads out there.