Jeremy Turner from Unmerciful turned me on to this unique project of Origin lead guitarist Paul Ryan. Ryan called Maentra.  Based out of San Francisco Maentra play a really unique mix of death metal, grindcore, and tinges of industrial.

Kundalini Rising kicks off with “Muladhara”.  I was surprised to hear that Ryan does not play guitar on this but bass.  Guitarist Rudy Pina really does an excellent job mixing technicality with incredibly heavy riffs.  There are hooks here that are reminiscent of Origin.  The drumming of Adam Houmann is awesome (Cartlidge, Ghoul).  The dual vocals mixed with the huge eight-string low-end drops make for an incredibly heavy listen.

There really is not much filler with this thirty-minute plus debut.  “Svadhisthana” continues along the same line of the first track.  The one has riffs that remind me a bit of Malta’s Abysmal Torment.  There are interesting sound effects going on with each track on the album.  Maentra is a great example of mixing heavy and technical into something unique.   The third track opens “Manipura” with a tribal-sounding drum intro into a massive opening verse.

The fourth track “Anahata” is my favorite of the seven tracks presented here. I would compare the way Maentra uses effects in a similar manner to the last few Deeds of Flesh records. Fun sound effects to create album ambiance are alright by me.  I don’t want to give too much away but I would recommend this one if you are looking for something new that is heavy, catchy, and overall, a fun death metal album.   I look forward to hearing future releases from these guys.  One of the better ‘where did this come?’ from releases of 2022.

[Visit the band's website]

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