VELVET THUNDER

I hold my hands up and openly confess that Indian-Turkish heavy metal collaborations have historically been under-represented on these pages. That, hopefully, will change in the wake of this superb debut release from new band The Nail. Fans of Indian metal may well know front man Girish Pradhan from his Sikkim-based regular band, the technically excellent and woefully under-exposed Girish And The Chronicles. Their last two albums have been released through the venerable Frontiers Music, who have now widened Pradhan’s palette by teaming him with Turkish composer/producer Cenk Eroğlu (ex-Winger).

Eroğlu himself is in possession of two staggeringly talented sons, whom he has put to work on the project: top guitar-shredder Efe and teenaged multi-instrumentalist Reis Ali, who co-wrote the album and plays drums, bass and lead and rhythm guitars. The result is an astonishingly assured, hard-rocking debut. It has to be said, Girish Pradhan has an astonishing voice, and I don’t mean that it’s individual or memorably quirky; it is plain, out-and-out tremendous. He has to be one of the best rock voices currently out there, and hopefully this release will drive some exposure towards the Chronicles too.

The set opens with mid-tempo lead single Hit & Run, with its classic heavy metal riff and deep, rumbling bass. Pradhan’s great voice and plenty of whammy effects kick off the album, punctuated by a superbly technical shredding solo from Efe – check out the video at the foot of this page. The second single is also the second track on the album, title track The Nail. The melody line is different, but other than that, it is a complete retread of track 1, which seems to me to be a miscalculation – there are plenty of up-tempo rockers to come, and placing two such similar numbers right at the beginning of the album, surely isn’t the best move.

The next two tracks for instance; No Time To Burn and Broken are both power rockers that could have split the first two songs nicely. No Time To Burn features Pradhan exercising his vocal chords with a creditable bout of screaming at three minutes, along with a drop in tempo and a bit of isolated guitar work before the full band comes back in for the solo – which, unusually, is by Reis Ali rather than Efe. The PR states that Reis Ali came up with the riff guitar riff when he was only 14 years old, and it ended up being the first song they recorded for the album.

Walk The Line opens with some good old New Wave Of Heavy Metal arpeggiated minor key chords, before resolving into a slow rock beat in triplet time. Of course, it builds to a screaming pinnacle in the middle in true classic style, then drops to nearly nothing at the end – a traditionally atmospheric number, and a highlight of the album for sure.

This is immediately followed by another highlight, the double kick-drummed Soul Screamer. Some absolutely epic vocals, and two guitars in a multi-key duet adorn this piece, and it’s genuinely one of the most powerful rockers I have heard in recent times!

I would say that the production is slightly more polite than it needs to be, with an overall sound that veers towards the power ballad rather than raw, earthy rock. An exception though, is Blackout (Popeye Sin), which opens with a helping of church organ, then some gun shots, and makes dour use of some tolling bell too. Another great guitar solo is highlighted by a clearer, sharper tone.

Exorcist is another slow, heavy rocker, which backs off during the vocals, then builds up again beautifully. But the third highlight for this listener comes with the next track, the bluesy Hangman’s Noose. It features another twin-guitar solo, with some brilliant riffage over a really heavy, chugging blues-rock rhythm. Underdog is another reasonably fast rocker, powerful and rocky, then the album draws to a close in admirable style with the six-minute Fall Back Now. This is another one that draws heavily from the New Wave of the early ‘80s – fading in on a keyboard note, its heavy power chords draw back to a melodic rock structure. The longest piece on the album, it comes closest to being an epic, building to an atmospheric power ballad before ultimately fading out under a wash of chords and vocals.

Girish Pradhan is a revelation for me, and has the potential to reside amongst the pantheon of great rock vocalists. But the Eroğlu family too, are clearly a force to be reckoned with, and this release won’t do any of them any harm at all.

The Nail’s self-titled debut album is out now via Frontiers Music