‘Its Only Natural’ is the debut EP of Festacorn, which is fresh out of boot camp band featuring an ensemble of young blood hailing from the City of Dreams, Mumbai. Part-time students & part-time Cardinals at the Unholy Basilica of Sexy Metal (a concoction of their own design) – the tight roster features Akhil on Bass, Angad, and Vaibhav on Guitars, Chinmay on Drums and Vivek as the vocalist and have recently been endorsed by AAA Entertainment Label. The EP which was released this August runs a little bit shy of the 22-minute mark and features a catalog of 5 songs – each one astoundingly different from the other, proving beyond a doubt that they weren’t kidding about the influence being derived from a very broad spectrum.
The opening track ‘Is Pepsea Okay’ felt more like a burn-in spectacle just to set the mood in for the entire EP, and while it pales slightly in comparison to the other tracks that follow but it isn’t entirely forgettable either.
The second track ‘Blox’ did catch me off guard with its slick grungy riffs, floating on top of a menacing tempo and backed by a grim beat that cycles back and forth. It sports just the right amount of simmering rage packaged in a zen-like composure and I quickly found myself tapping my feet to it.
What follows soon after is ‘Rainbows, Puppies and Unicorns’, and don’t let the name fool you. It is anything but Dandelions & Sunlight with its influence being slightly heavier on the death metal side with dark lyrics, ghastly thematic, and a phenomenal apocalyptic solo midway through to boast of.
‘Laura’s Lesson’ was my personal favorite of the lot. It unveils a sweet funky melody that breaks no sweat in transforming into one sick backing riff. And the entire troupe seems to take the cue and one by one each member kinda chimes in to create an immersive Post-rock-esque atmosphere, which adds brownie points to its ‘memorable’ factor due to my personal taste.
And for the final track ‘Laundry Day Blues’, I simply lack the prerequisite intellect to even begin describing this beast. It is probably one of the most unconventional songs I’ve heard in a long time and it essentially embodies the very essence of the genre that they have baked in their backyard. It seems like a joke bonus track in the beginning and slowly starts unfurling to reveal its layered complexity. Hats off to Vivek for pulling off all these different scales and overtones.
The album as a whole is sort of a diverse portfolio flaunting various assorted treats, each individually having only a semblance in terms of a unifying theme, but at the same time still managing to adhere to the unique identity the band intended to put out on display.
It’s a remarkable debut and even though some sections do lack polish, the overall quality is truly commendable. At the end of the day, I prefer not giving a numerical rating to the music of all things, as it’s usually just arbitrary and it doesn’t necessarily even come close to quantifying the quality of music especially when everyone has an inherent bias towards certain genres. But for consistency’s sake, I would say its roughly a 7.5/10 – in layman’s terms: Recommended. Again, don’t take my word for it, my heathen brothers, let the divine sexiness cleanse your eardrums with some good ol’ jolly fun.
The EP was mixed by Prateek Rajagopal (Gutslit/The Minerva Conduct) & mastered by Victor Bullok of Woodshed Studio, Germany.
Get your copy of the EP now: festacorn.bandcamp.com
Band Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Festacorn/
Label page: https://www.facebook.com/AllAboutArtEntertainment/
Also Read: Album Review: Followed the Smoke to the Riff Filled Land, Diarchy’s Debut
