Exclusive Stream: Tangents Bring Twisted Metal on ‘IGOR’

One of Bengaluru metal band Tangents’ live staples over the last year has been “IGOR,” which opens with vocalist Siddharth Nair’s growled proclamation: “It’s not about you, it never will be.”

Nair tells us that their latest single’s themes are concerned with the self. “IGOR is about ego and how it can fuck you up if you don’t understand it for what it is. It’s a reminder that we’re (probably less than) a cog in a gigantic wheel, and that the world doesn’t revolve around any of us,” he says. In the age of “external validation” and over-romanticizing, the vocalist mourns the loss of inspiration in the true sense of the word.

Over wiry dissonant guitar lines from Soorya Praveen and Ajay George Joseph, fist-tight rhythmic work from bassist Milind Yohann and drummer Aniketh Ashok, the prog band delivers an intense offering on “IGOR,” which concludes with a lighter, yet unsettling guitar movement, led by a solo from Praveen. The band, who released their debut album Motion/Emotion in 2017, are currently undergoing a sonic shift of sorts, according to Nair. Written about a year ago and retooled along the way, Nair adds, “One thing we could all agree on, was that we’d get angrier with our sound, more fierce, while continuing to have our usual groove elements thrown in.”

Recorded, mixed and mastered by producer Akash Shivakumar at Cadence Studios in Bengaluru, Tangents only had plans of releasing “IGOR” as a single for now. Nair says they got their studio time before the lockdown which meant the song was ready to go. Although there’s no concrete plans, the vocalist says, “Initially (before lockdown), the plan was to release ‘IGOR,’ write some more new material and hit the road with [new Mumbai based metal band] Sarfaad. That plan is still on, but once this situation dies down and life is back to normal.”

Listen to “IGOR” below.

Artwork for Tangents’ new song “Igor” by Divya Negi