Review: Sutrah – Aletheia [EP]

Style: technical death metal, progressive metal (harsh vocals, some chants)
Recommended for fans of: The Faceless, Gorguts, Fallujah (for the atmosphere)
Review by: Chris
Country: Canada
Release date: 13 March 2020

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the March 2020 Part 4 issue of The Progressive Subway.]

The first thing I thought of when I started reading about Sutrah was how apprehensive I get about Tech death bands espousing how all of their songs are about spirituality and eastern philosophy. Why? Because I tend to find a lot of bands in the genre that say such things rarely get it across in the music, and instead go about playing tech death as they would in any theme,  which really brings me out of the headspace I tend to want for themes like that. That said, I found Sutrah exceedingly fresh in this respect, having broken that cycle of disappointment for me. 

Aletheia opens with a very atmospheric chord heavy song in “Variation I.i – Umwelt” which serves as a sort of extended meditation on where this album will visit later as many of these textures and ideas will resurface later. Moments later “Variation I.ii – Lethe” drops in with an almost The Faceless style riff before the low growls drop and you are reminded that you indeed did put on a tech death album. The difference I find here from other modern tech death bands is even in the riffs given, the chord choices they outline and the tone decisions made on a production level do not take you out of the spiritual idea the band wants to go for. In addition, the small drops in intensity during the second track serve almost as a reflecting point on what you’ve heard so far, before bringing you to new ideas. “Variation II.i – Dwell” has you do exactly that with its spaced out guitar lines and synth melody, as you wonder what is coming next.

I find the naming of the tracks as “Variations” very apt as this album really works as a package, especially with the last song “Variation II.ii – Genèse” which takes sections from all three previous tracks and expands on them in a sprawling 16 minute track. This is where the EP really hits full stride and really hits the Eastern feelings, even having the incorporation of some Gangsa. The riff section around 7 minutes of this song may be one of my favorite moments of anything I’ve listened to this year, because I am a sucker for these breathy chord based riffs in the heavier metal styles as opposed to generic riffing. Some of the notes of almost positivity in these riffs are really refreshing to me.

I really enjoyed the production choices on this album which lend it to a much more natural and organic sound than most of its cohorts in the genre. That said, there are a few moments where panning and volume choices felt a bit strange and it was hard to tell if it was on purpose or just a miss in the mixing. I also was a bit perplexed by the almost false end of the EP before some chanting parts really close the album out, it felt almost tacked on, but I give benefit of the doubt that there was a conceptual reason for it. The strongest parts of this album are for sure the cyclic but variation based writing which really ties the whole EP together. I’m personally kind of liking this recent trend of bands releasing extremely concise and put together EPs instead of bloated albums, though I will say I was wishing this EP was longer by the end.

Recommended tracks: It’s so connected just listen to the whole thing
You may also like: Wake, Warforged, Demonic Ressurection
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page

Label: The Artisan Era – Bandcamp | Website | Facebook

Sutrah is:
– Laurent Bellemare (vocals, gangsa)
– Claude Leduc (guitars, gangsa, backing vocals)
– Alex Bao (bass)

With guests:
– Kévin Paradis (drums, all tracks)