Among the predominantly silent hills of the north-eastern part of India is a haven for musicians across many genres. The ‘Seven Sisters’ states are also known to be a breeding ground for many a metal bands, bands that shy away from commercialism and play for passion. The likes of Alien Gods, Agnostic and Dark Carnage are the first names that arise in memory upon taking the area under scrutiny to consideration. Plague Throat is one such band that is making steady progress onto becoming a big name, having caused ripples in the underground scene back in their homeland since their first gig back in 2008. Having taken their time into releasing a record, Plague Throat have come up with their very first EP “An Exordium to Contagion’, and we’re going to see how has it turned out to be

Hailing for Shillong, the capital city of Meghalaya, Plague Throat is a pristine death metal band, straight up and on-the-face, hence sparing the technicality in music to just get listeners to sway their heads. A three piece band this, they have all it takes to unleash some brutality through their powerful music. The guitar riffs by Nangsan are the typical down-tuned power chord progressions one would find in the sound of most conventional Death Metal bands, with a few catchy tremolo bits thrown in the fray too. The song structuring which is in tandem to the overall tempo is pretty much the highlight among each of the 4 tracks. Further, the vocal rendering by both bassist Iai and Nangsan are a heterogeneous mix of deep-throated growls and rasping shrieks complement each other so to suit the overall output of the music. The combination gives out the feel of a very dark and deadly theme that fills in the whole album.

The EP’s production quality is questionable for a band as ambitious as Plague Throat. Understandably, the band has cut a record after crossing many a hurdles but yet, one simply cannot see the reason as to why the drumming had to be programmed when skilled drummer like Malice could have easily recorded the drum parts. Also, the vocals’ mixing is vivid at times, set lower than the instruments. Keeping in mind that vocals are the main-stay in a genre like Death Metal, this ought to have been re-done during the final mix.

With just 4 tracks crisply timed just over 10 minutes and making the desired impact by the second track itself, Plague Throat surely have come up with a solid set to boot. We all can surely look forward to more breakdown riffing and better music from the metallers from Shillong.

Rating :- 6.5/10