Review: Dark Buddha Rising ‘Mathreyata’

The deep darkness from where Dark Buddha Rising have dragged their newest record of psychedelic droning doom seems particularly lightless, even for them. Mathreyata is the sixth full length from these Finns, and the first in five years. It is out 13th of November on Svart Records.

Dark Buddha Rising 'Mathreyata'

The dark, droning rumble of Sunyaga is just the kind of hypnotic dirge you’d expect from a band with such a name. A churning guitar riff throbs incessantly while the hum of the void groans throughout, accompanied by ranting chants of utter doom. It is definitely meditative but I’m not sure inner peace is what they’re going for here. More like the vibration of your soul out of your body and into the yawning abyss. Nagathma is much calmer, with mesmerising bass lines following syncopated drumming and smooth female vocals until all of a sudden the intensity ramps up with crashing cymbals and that impassioned roar again. It lulls you in beautifully before cascading its heaviness down upon your mind.

Mathreyata is an album that excels in making you feel uncomfortable using psychedelic drone and meditative doom as its weapons of choice…

Uni starts with a haunting wailing note, as if searching for something, a lifeline, in the awful empty blackness. It builds, swelling with scattershot drumming and an omnipresent hum of guitar that becomes excruciating before it evolves into the tribal hypnosis that is Mahatgata III. Haunting vocals drift like smoke across a bewitching beat, before grandiose riffs come crushing and the haunting vocals become a roaring, shrieking terror. This truly begins to feel uncomfortable, as the vocals fade in and out while the incessant drumming drags you deeper into a trance like darkness.

Mathreyata is an album that excels in making you feel uncomfortable using psychedelic drone and meditative doom as its weapons of choice. It is truly transfixing, but you can’t help but feel uneasy with each passing moment. For an album to instil such a primal emotion of fight or flight, it should be something special and this is. Dark Buddha Rising write music that personifies their name; an ancient darkness rising from a place of eternal enlightment. Or should that be ‘endarkenment’…

Label: Svart Records
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp | Twitter | Instagram

Scribed by: Sandy Williamson