They'd already been making a name for themselves on the gig circuit for a few years - back then, all a progmetal band here needed to do to get some street cred was to nail a Dream Theater song, and these guys had airtight renditions of 6:00 and Pull Me Under under their belt, in addition to the usual Metallica and Maiden crowd-pleasers. What set them apart was the distinct sound that their own songs had - sure, the influences were all apparent, but they managed to stuff them into a blender and come out with something that wasn't tasteless goop. And they didn't bother with meandering, self-indulgent compositions either - short, tight, catchy songs with a little room for virtuosic experiments. These guys had their heads screwed on right. Unfortunately, the final album was let down by wussy production which stole their nuts and snuck off, presumably to hoard them somewhere safe. It was still way better than most of the other homegrown stuff I'd heard, so I pegged it as a hopeful sign of things to come.

After a few more gigs, the band went low-key and the situation became even less promising after multi-instrumentalist Rex's departure. They all but dropped off the radar (well, my radar at least) and knowing how barren prospects are for bands here in general, I assumed the swansong had been sung.

Fast forward to sometime earlier this year, we heard noises about their full fledged resurrection, and there was even a single released to back up the claim. This was big news. And finally, they pulled a Radiohead for their album launch and offered all the songs for download from their site on a 'pay whatever you want to' basis. In a land notorious for freeloaders, that usually translates to 'nothing', but I'm guessing they would have picked up quite a bit of goodwill and publicity from the whole thing. Kudos.

So enough with the wind-up, now that's it been released, what does the actual album sound like? Well, surprising. The classical refrain of "thaka thaka..." as intro to Chasing the Sun sets the tone for the whole album - the ethnic card is being brandished with enthusiasm. I should've figured it out when I saw the guys decked out with kathakali face-paint on their website.