Review: The Pulse Theory – Coming Back Home

Style: traditional progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Teramaze, Evergrey, 90s prog metal in general
Review by: Sam
Country: India
Release date: 25 August, 2023

India is not exactly a country known for its progressive metal output. Heck, India is not known for its metal output in general, having only 187 releases listed on Metal-Archives in total. It should come as no surprise then that an independent Indian band like this has amateurish production. When I sampled their music, they didn’t make a particularly good impression, but oh boy I was wrong.

So, The Pulse Theory… Where did these folks come from? Why is this so good? There has been a lot of traditional progressive metal this year, but neither underground nor popular has impressed me to this degree. This album is just drop-dead gorgeous. It’s been a long time since I heard a band with such a good ear for melody. Whether it be vocals, melodic riffs, the variety in orchestration, soothing softer sections, gorgeous piano playing, or its lead work, there is an underlying soulfulness letting it all pop emotionally. I found myself moved at almost every twist, every vocal melody, each new motif introduced. Coming Back Home exemplifies why I fell in love with metal in the first place: not for its heaviness, but for its emotive melodies.

Heavily synthesized strings open the album and quickly turn into foreboding futuristic industrial like a public siren warning for incoming disaster, before haunting piano notes finish the introduction. As the first real track unfolds, it’s clear that the orchestrations are front and center of everything on this album, and for good reason; the performances are stellar. While the patches sound low budget (especially the strings, oof), it’s made up for by sheer variety and tasteful selection. Futuristic, spacey, electronic, haunting, dream-like, beautiful, soothing are all accurate descriptors of the sounds used at various points in time. It works beautifully in tandem with Arjun Menon’s terrific keyboard playing, who usually opts for a melodic piano sound, giving a rich atmosphere and melodic depth at all times.

Opening song “Memories Divine” is a great showcase for the band’s melodic talents, being as cinematic as it is poignant with soulful vocals from Avishek Dasgupta and beautiful piano playing from Arjun Menon. Its main riff somewhat average chugging, but it’s not the song’s focal point and the melodic solo in the bridge makes up for it. The riffs in the next couple of songs are also much better, reminding me of both 80s and 90s heavy/power metal acts (Crimson Glory and Gamma Ray come to mind, among others), with the energetic “The Vanquished the Victor” and the sharp “Everytime” especially standing out, and the solos are consistently outstanding, tastefully combining feel with shred. 

The songs on Coming Back Home all have hooks aplenty. Strong instrumentation aside, Avishek just knows how to write a good vocal line. He has a gentle, breathy voice that sounds best when can lean into the soul aspect. His rock voice could use some work as he lacks explosiveness and some grit for the more grandiose parts, but his melodies in those parts are memorable nonetheless. I had multiple choruses stuck in my head after just one listen, and I usually forget 90% of an album the first time around! On a negative note, I should mention the attempts at harsh vocals scattered throughout the album. They are… not good. I don’t know whether Avishek does them or whether they fall under Arijit’s backing vocal duties, but it’s safe to say that more vocal lessons are required there. The vocal writing is again good, but it’s very hard to salvage such poor delivery.

When reviewing underground material, it’s diamond in the rough albums like these that warm my heart the most. Coming Back Home reminds me of Venus in Fear’s brilliant debut A Dot Above the Eye back in 2018 which was similarly flawed, but its upsides were so good that it ended up being my second favorite release of the year regardless. The Pulse Theory just have that dawg in them, that intangible greatness factor which no amount of nitpicks at song direction and execution, or complaints about amateurish production can negate. It’s exactly bands like these which I started this blog for, and I’ll be listening to this record for a long time after this.

Recommended tracks: Memories Divine, The Vanquished the Victor, Everytime
You may also like: Aeon Zen (ignore my review it’s better than that I WAS DUMB OK), Althea, Hac San, Hephystus, Course of Fate, Vanden Plas
Final verdict: 8.5/10

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

Label: Independent

The Pulse Theory is:
– Avishek Dasgupta (vocals)
– Arijit Dey (guitars, bass, additional vocals, orchestration)
– Arjun Menon (keyboards)