Eccentric Pendulum Ready Long-Awaited EP ‘Tellurian Concepts’

Safe to say that few take songwriting to painstakingly detailed levels as progressive metal bands. Bengaluru’s Eccentric Pendulum, for example, told us about their 20-minute composition Tellurian Concepts in 2013, when they had already spent a year on it with (then new entrant) guitarist Arjun Mulky. They started and stopped, chopped and changed for the last four years, which has now resulted in its current three-track iteration, releasing later this month.

Says bassist Arun Natarajan, “In reality, we probably wrote this in 25 to 30 hours which spanned over the last five years. We would hit a lot of dead-ends, go to riffs that never belonged to this track in the first place, try a whole lot of stuff, but in the end the answer was right in front of us, illustrated and played out in the previous parts which already existed. We took clues from thereon to complete the last five minutes of this 20-minute track.”

Now split in three tracks for “ease and selective listening capacity,” Tellurian Concepts is based on ideas that “deal with the downfall of human civilization due to excessive abuse of planet earth,” according to Natarajan. Originally conceived by their first vocalist Nikhil Vastarey, Natarajan jokes that the ideas remained unfinished at the time of his leaving. “The bastard just named the song and left.” Now comprising Natarajan, guitarist Ankit Suryakanth (from thrash band Theorized) and Kaushal L.S. (from Bengaluru metal band Orchid and Mumbai death metallers Gutslit) and drummer Vibhas Venkatram, Eccentric Pendulum take up prog metal with a prominent technical death metal influence.

Artwork for Eccentric Pendulum’s ‘Tellurian Concepts’ EP.

Additionally, for just three tracks, the band lined up guest artists, building on the experimentation. American jazz fusion bassist Michael Manring uses his specialized “hyperbass” (a fretless free bass), saxophonist Bruce Lamont (from American doom/experimental group Corrections House) adds an unsettling rhythm, while erstwhile Bengaluru metal guitarist Sandesh Nagaraj (from metal band Extinct Reflections and now helming experimental groups such as Syreim and The Replicate) builds on the opening track “Nil.” They also added veteran guitarist Tony Das (from multi-lingual rock group Peepal Tree and prog band Bhoomi) for a solo.

With an EP like this on the anvil, the band secured a slot at the metal chapter of monthly gig series Unscene at The Humming Tree, where they will perform Tellurian Concepts for the first time in its entirety, including guest contributions inserted into a backing track. Natarajan says, “This edition of the Unscene gig is going to be more of a complete show for Eccentric Pendulum, a lengthier and a detailed show, showcasing more than an hour of some old and new Eccentric tunes, where we will also be working with a visual artist to complete the live experience.”

Unscene Edition X ft Eccentric Pendulum, Rishabh Seen and Haiku-Like Imagination takes place on October 12th, 2017 at the Humming Tree, Indiranagar. Entry: Rs 330 (buy here) and Rs 500 (inclusive of Rs 300 cover charge). Event details here.

Listen to “Nil.”