Indian metal trio MIDHAVEN’s new album, Of the Lotus & the Thunderbolt, a rich concept album based on the theory of time, is available today.
“Not clockwork time, but universal, cyclical time,” the band says. “We’ve grown up with a belief system that has repeatedly told us that things that have happened will happen yet again, and again, and again. Time is seen as a continuum, and there are more universes than just this one. These are subjects we’ve debated and discussed from time immemorial. From the ancients, right down to us, this is how time is experienced where we come from. So naturally, when we started discussing lyrical concepts, time is something that all subjects were ultimately pointing toward. We were acting from an awareness that in this grand circuit of the cosmos, the self is constantly recreated in every moment. It’s not just about time, it’s also about a very personal experience of that time, through the aeons as life itself. It ultimately boils down to how time chisels to perfection the one universal soul that finds itself echoed in every living being. For reasons not entirely known to us, it felt as though time channeled itself through us for the creation of this album. We were merely conduits in this process.”
Keeping in line with the concept of time, the first video from Of the Lotus & the Thunderbolt, “Primal Song,” premiered with Rolling Stone India on the Summer Solstice. Watch “Primal Song” at
https://youtu.be/gfFr2TMmn6s.
The three-piece Mumbai-based band fuses traditional metal with progressive and modern rock to create earth shattering, heavy music with soaring guitars, operatic vocals, guttural growls and war track ready drums, polished off by deeply fascinating lyrical concepts. The melancholic and anguished tracks “Codeman” and “Para Brahman” focus on the existential search for “the reason why,” while the screams and cries of the past echo through “Primal Song” with its rage-induced lyrics and grimy vocals, conjuring images of man’s animalistic need to maraud and destroy. “Zhitro” and “Mahakaal” are the heavyweights of the album, ushering in Indian elements of dark, experimental sounds that are at once groundbreaking and heavy. Riddled with references to the ancient past, “Mahakaal” is the running theme of the album – consuming the world we exist in.- and an homage to Shiva, the Hindu god known as the Destroyer.
Of the Lotus & the Thunderbolt was recorded in 2019 and readied for release by mid-2020, but Covid-19 – and particularly India’s staggering second wave of infection – caused the band to delay its release. “Covid-19 and its wreckfest on planet Earth put a huge stop sign right in front of the music industry’s gate,” says the band. “We held off on release until things got better but a second lockdown prevented any place for release or tours in our country. We curated a 2021 release, and even though vaccinating a country as big as India is a daunting task, we just couldn’t wait on it any longer. ‘Of The Lotus & The Thunderbolt’ is a universal, yet personal experience that is being conveyed in the form of heavy metal. The world hasn’t had enough metal from this side of the planet.
Of the Lotus & the Thunderbolt’s artwork, brought to life by prolific indie artist Gaurav Basu (aka Acid Toad), reflects the theme of the album, presenting a gorgeous visual representation of the album’s concept. The record was mixed and mastered by ARIA nominated and internationally renowned Australian producer Forrester Savell (Animals As Leaders, Make Them Suffer, Karnivool), who adds a touch of polish and refinement while not straying far from the raw, analog recording process.
Of the Lotus & the Thunderbolt track listing:
1-Para Brahman
2-Primal Song
3-Codeman
4-The Immanent Effervescence of Sorrow
5-Zhitro
6-Mahakaal
7-Bhairav
Formed in 2012, MIDHAVEN grew quickly with the launch of their first release, the 2013 EP Tales From The Tide. The trio soon became one of the first major signings of an Indian metal band to a worldwide record label, Universal Music Group (UMG), which release MIDHAVEN’s debut full-length, Spellbound, in 2014. Like Of the Lotus & the Thunderbolt, Spellbound was also a concept album and featured re-recorded tracks from Tales From The Tide. MIDHAVEN has been nominated for the VH1 Sound Nation awards in the category of Best Metal Act, performed live on VH1’s Indian Music Diaries, and was nominated for Radio City’s Best Metal Live Act in 2015.
MIDHAVEN is:
Aditya Mohanan – Guitars/Vocals
Aviraj Kumar – Drums
Karan Kaul – Vocals/Guitars
Jason D’Souza – Bass (live)
MIDHAVEN online:
