Listen: Shreyas Skandan Project’s Debut EP

Shreyas Skandan. Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Bengaluru guitarist Shreyas Skandan has thrown the prog metal rulebook out the window for his solo project’s debut EP. The result is a mix of easy, synth-driven passages along with some complex guitar work. Skandan began work on songs for an EP last year, but says he wasn’t sure which genre the music would fit into. Says Skandan, “The way the riffs and melodies were being composed, I wasn’t sure if it would end up being metal album or a pop one. So it’s safe to say that this EP reflects the way I compose and think much more accurately than any of my previous music.”

While Skandan, who is also a part of prog metal project Limit Zero, released the first single off The Shreyas Skandan Project EP, “Astron Nomos” in September, the two other songs ”“ “Mariner” and “The Philosopher’s Curse” ”“ are now up for download and streaming. Skandan told us earlier that the idea behind writing and releasing solo material was to break away from his work with Limit Zero. Says Skandan, “There were no restrictions at all [on this EP]. I didn’t hold myself back or even try to actually pen down a sound or song-writing approach, I just put all my ideas and thoughts together and made sure they were cohesive and possessed some sort of unified vibe.”

The instrumental metal EP features Skandan, along with American guitarist Joe Marro [on “Astron Nomos”], Norwegian guitarist Rune Berre [on “Mariner”] and Skandan’s pianist friend Shivram Krishnan, who features on all tracks. Mixed and mastered by prog metal band Skyharbor’s guitarist Keshav Dhar, the EP is meditative, heavy and emotional in separate segments.

Skandan plans to release guitar play-through videos and a note on the story behind each song. He adds, “Thematically, each song was written to tell a different story, something that I’d like to illustrate further with each release.”

Listen to The Shreyas Skandan Project EP here. Buy the album on Bandcamp.