Exclusive Premiere: The Cosmic Truth’s Debut EP ‘Stroboscopic Illusion’

New Delhi metallers The Cosmic Truth. Photo: Jishnu Chakraborty

As we’ve noted before, New Delhi and djent have more in common than just a good alliteration. Experimental metal band The Cosmic Truth’s guitarist Sahil Sharma agrees. He says, “I feel that’s because most of the international acts that have played in Delhi have been djent/progressive. From Meshuggah and Tesseract at GIR 2010 to Meshuggah and Skyharbor at the NH7 Weekender.”

On their debut six-track EP, The Cosmic Truth says “heavy grooves and aggressive riffing was always part of the plan”. Also comprising guitarist Kireet Sharma, drummer Siddhant Kashyap Boruah, bassist Sahil Dhingra and led by the powerhouse growls of Jayant Bhadula (recently busy with parody metal act Bloodywood), the band deliver powerful metal that oscillates between polyrhythms, face-to-the-floor breakdowns and ambient portions, all wrapped around a narrative about illusions. The band says, “It’s the story of a person who is distraught by love, has mental health disorders as a consequence and indulges in substance abuse. He realizes that this entire world is an illusion, a mirage and tries to decode the socio-political and religious mechanisms that make us believe otherwise.”

The band released their first, somewhat tame single “False Love Pure Hate” in 2015, but clearly, they’ve spent time sharpening their songs since then. They entered the studio with Skyharbor guitarist and producer Keshav Dhar to record the songs in March last year. Sharma cites the lineup change as the reason that led them to write and rewrite songs until they were satisfied.

Stroboscopic Illusion will be launched on July 14th in New Delhi, where The Cosmic Truth returns to the stage alongside Mumbai extreme metallers Demonic Resurrection and the capital’s hardcore act Grammy Winning Effort. Bhadula says, “This is like a comeback gig for us. We’re playing in Delhi after more than half a year. We’re very excited and would be playing all the tunes from the EP. It’s going to get a lot of in-your-face heavy with a lot of floaty ambient.”

Listen to Stroboscopic Illusion

Demonic Resurrection, Grammy Winning Effort and The Cosmic Truth perform at Antisocial, New Delhi on July 14th, 2017. Event details here.