Indian prog metal exists in Within Ceres’ “Skyless” EP (review)

Here’s one that I didn’t expect to write about today.

The country of India is seismic in population with 1.3 billion – but their back-and-forth influence from Western culture isn’t quite as prominent. You don’t hear about Indian metal bands, or even rock/pop bands, quite often, so it’s a treat to come across Within Ceres.

The band knows all too well that they’re not surrounded by peers like they would be in the USA, Australia, or a lot of the rest of the world, as evidenced in their YouTube video description: “…they are one of the tightest, most fierce emerging bands to come out of a part of India where you can count bands on your fingers.”

Thankfully, Within Ceres’ sound is quite strong, as their debut EP Skyless brings forth a studied, refined modern metal sound. Akin to Born of Osiris, ERRA, and Meshuggah, there’s lots of standout moments on Skyless that make this not just another metal band. This is obvious such as in “Dissonance” which has everything from soaring cleans in the chorus to punishing blast beats to a brutal breakdown, whereas the latter tracks incorporates an orchestra and more emphatic riffs.

The band’s intriguing concept is as follows: “Ceres is an artificial reality that exists in the future. Users enter this reality through a headset much more advanced than our current VR devices and are free to travel and exist in any reality that they wish to be in. The use of Ceres is extensive as the world has progressed in the past 60 years, shriveling and deteriorating with time. We are talking about concrete jungles with neon signboards everywhere. To escape this dystopian world, users like to find themselves in a place of their liking. Lost, somewhere Within Ceres.” So, think of Within Ceres as the score to Ready Player One.

Skyless is a smooth 20 minutes of impressive progressive metal. Debut EPs can typically be sloppy, but Within Ceres put a lot of love into this start and it shows. Whether you’re into breakdowns, complex riffs, compelling lyrics, or all of the above, you’re in for a good time listening to Within Ceres.

Rating: 8.5/10