Hear Bhubaneswar Metallers Cross Affinity’s Crushing Song ‘Sonder’

Bands formed in college can often go either way once members graduate, but out in Bhubaneswar, prog metallers Cross Affinity have kept a good thing going. They came together in 2018 and dominated the college circuit in Odisha and even found a spot at long-running gig series Thunderstrock in Ranchi last year.

This year has been understandably different in terms of approach for the six-member band, considering not just the pandemic but also a need to record and release their material. While their debut single “Forge the Fire” released in May, they’ve followed it up with a slab of polished, anguish-heavy second single “Sonder,” which dropped on August 14th.

Guitarist Sayan Sutradhar says while college competitions often stipulate and encourage bands to perform covers, they’ve been writing and performing their own music from the start. “We always wanted to define a sound of our own and also bring something new to the table for the people in the college competition circuit to listen to. We believe that a musician or a band’s true identity is defined by their original music, not by the covers that they perform,” he says.

Their new song “Sonder” is a straight-up djent offering that swerves between drawn-out growls, crushing riffs, ambient sections and a dependable amount of breakdowns, all recorded at their home studio setup Emerging Productions. The band says about the song in a note, “‘Sonder’ reminds you that no matter who you are or wherever you come from, your part of the story always matters and needs to be heard.”

There are at least two more songs ready to go from Cross Affinity, including “Changes” and “Wall of Reality,” part of an upcoming album called Hiraeth, due to release in the summer of 2021. Sutradhar adds that they’ve been having a tough time coordinating between members — guitarist Pratik Mohanty, keyboardist Yash Anand, vocalist Arko Chatterjee, drummer Parikshit Barua, bassist Rm Dhananjay — in different parts of the country. “Despite all the odds, we are managing to work online together as a band and produce our songs all by ourselves at our home-based studio called Emerging Productions,” Sutradhar says.

Listen to “Sonder” below. Stream on Spotify and Apple Music.”