Rudra (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 The quality of this article or section may be compromised by wording which promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information.
You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms or finding content which backs the claims.

Rudra is a Singaporean death metal band which was formed in 1992.

Their album, The Aryan Crusade (Trishul Records), is considered as the definitive album of Vedic metal.[citation needed] Their latest album, Brahmavidya: Primordial I is considerably successful and has been critically acclaimed in metal circles.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] History

Rudra was formed in mid-1992 as a trio, then comprising of Kathi (bass, vocals), Shiva (drums) & Bala (Guitars). Back then, the band was known as Rudhra. A fourth member,Selvam,was recruited to supplement Bala on the guitars. With this line-up released a 4-track demo entitled 'The Past' in 1994. Prior to this release, Rudhra was also featured in a few underground death metal compilation albums featuring several Singaporean death metal bands.

In early 1996, the band split up and the members were involved in separate bands. Towards the end of 1996, Kathi decided to resurrect Rudhra with a slight alteration to its name; thus Rudra (the most common English transliteration for the Sanskrit word) was born. Kathi teamed up with Shiva and started work on the self-titled debut album, soon to be joined by Bala and Alvin to complete the line up before the recording of the self-titled debut album in late 1997, which was released in June 1998. The band played a couple of gigs and took a break for about a year before starting work on their new material. Rudra replaced their two guitarists with Selvam (ex-member) and Kannan in January 2000.

With this present line up Rudra released their second album, The Aryan Crusade, in September 2001. The Aryan Crusade broke new ground and drew attention from the worldwide death metal community. In July 2003, Rudra released their most intense album to date aptly named after the battlefield featured in the Indian epic of Mahabharata, Kurukshetra. After many shows in Singapore, India, Indonesia and Thailand, Rudra has now released its latest album Brahmavidya: Primordial I in April 2005.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Vedic metal

Vedic metal is a form of heavy metal music popularized in South Asia, South East Asia and other parts of the Asian continent. The lyrics heavily derive from the Hindu Vedic literature and philosophy, and instrumentation may include Indian classical instruments. It is influenced by thrash metal, death metal and folk metal.

The genre has been pioneered by Singaporean band Rudra in the late 1990s. Since then, it has grown in popularity. Bands like Aryadeva (band) (Ukraine), Symmetry (Indonesia), Warriors Of Peace (India), Asura (India), Advaita (New Zealand), The Aryan March (India), Narasimha (Singapore), Kaliyuga (Malaysia), and Azrael (Australia) have done pioneering work in the genre. Often, along with the Vedic lyrics, the music has shades of Indian Classical music. The definitive album of this genre is the Rudra album The Aryan Crusade released in 2001.

[edit] External links