Noiseware Unveil Tracklist, Artwork for New Album ‘Clouds At Last’

Producer and guitarist Adhiraj Singh was listening to a mix of their song “Iridescent,” whose lyrics deal with meeting one’s former self, when he realized that it would be the biggest regret of his life if their material was never put out. He says, “That was the day I said, ”˜No more, no extra apathy. This is the date that we’re doing it’.”

On January 18th, Pune experimental metal band Noiseware ”“ still among the most reliable names in modern metal ”“ will release their debut full-length album Clouds At Last. The usual litany of reasons delayed the album many times over ”“ the members had other professional commitments and music projects take up their attention, even as they gigged once in a while. Singh (as producer and live sound engineer), drummer Gautam Deb and bassist Bob Alex joined post-rock band Aswekeepsearching, while guitarist Aniket Patni and vocalist Aman Virdi took on work as a user-interface designer and engineer, respectively.

Singh and the band mentioned an album was in the works in interviews over the last five years, but when they had a roundtable meeting (a literal one, Singh jokingly points out, considering his dinner table is round) after a gig last year, they asked each other the hard question: “”˜Are our hearts and minds into this?’ The answer for everyone was actually yes,” he says. The album and songwriting process, while in limbo, found a clear path and is understandably, about finding oneself. Singh says the eight-track Clouds At Last didn’t start out as a “theme album,” but most of it deals with “self-discovery.”

There are plenty of djent and modern prog trademarks waiting to be uncovered ”“ like the space and journey-themed song titles (“Vortex,” “Paraflight” and “Solar”) ”“ but Singh says they’re not entirely in the same space as their debut EP Wake Up and Soar (2011). There aren’t funny song title like “Maut Ki Ungli” or “Trollface” any longer, but Singh says, “While we continue to be fairly active on the woke meme front, I think musically, it’s not something we want to explore as such.” Sonically, these are songs which have been in cold storage for at least four or five years, only performed at their handful of live shows each year. Singh recalls an older interview where he mentioned that he and guitarist Patni were really into post-rock, but that was even before the cinematic genre found popularity in India. He adds, “You obviously will see sections that are post-rockish.” There’s been real growth for Deb and Alex as a rhythm section, which Singh counts as an advantage when it came to taking Noiseware writing material and getting back in the studio.

Set to release on January 18th, Clouds At Last seems to born out of the band’s willingness to identify and remedy the “pattern” of inertia that they’d fallen into. Singh says, “Passion projects without deadlines don’t work. That’s kind of what happened to us.” With tour plans and more content in the works, 2018 might just be Noiseware’s most active year in recent times.

Album artwork and tracklist for Noiseware’s ‘Clouds At Last’. Art: Aniket Patni