EP Review: Maharaja – Aviarium (Seeing Red Records)

Formed in late 2013 in the Gem City, Maharaja are a sludge steamroller ready to lay waste to everything in their path. Following up their 2017 debut album ‘Kali Yuga’, with a brand-new EP called ‘Aviarium’. Out on December 9th, 2022, via Seeing Red Records.

Delivering a gargantuan sound, Maharaja make their triumphant return with more a developed and undeniably heavier sound. This four-track EP brings forth titanic-sized riffs, hypnotic heaviness, hazy and choking atmosphere, and primordial growls. All present and immeasurably impactful throughout but felt immediately with the opener Hopeless. A track with so much sludge thickness to it, you can feel your mind sinking into the mire of Maharaja’s intensity.

With Soulless, Maharaja create a dark sense of foreboding before unleashing a cacophony of unforgiving noise. The crashing of instruments and the vocal howls making this slab of chaos as uncouth as possible. Yet, like everything Maharaja do, it’s fascinatingly addictive to listen to.

There’s no chance to catch your breath as even though Soulless is short by the rest of the EPs standards, it’s an energetic and rhythmic blast of fiery intensity. One of the best examples of how much mayhem Maharaja are able to cause, and with such ease.

They’ve saved the best for last though. A ten-minute finale that makes a mockery of size-based descriptive words like ‘huge’. It’s Ballad of the Flightless Bird and it’s partially an experimental atrocity and partially a work of sludge-noise geniuses. Such is the fine balance that Maharaja walk. It is an incredibly detailed example of what they are capable of, moving through numerous sonic landscapes and piling the atmospheric intensity on step by step.

It’s a brilliant release and one hell of a triumphant return for the group.

Links

Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Seeing Red Records