Artist description Hypnotic female-fronted dark, melodic, groove-heavy band that takes the listener on a journey through rhythmic twists of raw aggression and atmospheric heights... experience the intense sounds of Mahavatar.

Music Style Mind Hypnotic Vision Towards Revolution

Musical Influences All Music

Similar Artists Black Sabbath, Tool, The Gathering, Type-O-Negative, The Doors, Led Zepplin

Artist History Mahavatar play heavy, dark, melodic, groove-based tribal sounds with a touch of Middle Eastern flavor that culminates into an indisputable energy. While creating powerful hooks with shape-shifting atmospherics and rhythmic punch, Mahavatar touches the soul, moves the body and forces the listener to ask,"What the @#*$%?" All songs stand out from each other and are highlighted by Karla's darkly aggressive groove-heavy guitar sound that sits atop a super-charged thunderous rhythm section provided by Peter on drums. Fronted by Lizza, a mesmerizing passionate force, whose voice goes down to the pits of hell only to resurface with hooks of melodic emotion... Mahavatar provide the answer to the question, "What is the future of sound"? With all members hailing from different parts of the globe, it's no wonder they stir the senses of all who dare to open their minds to the message of Mahavatar...

Group Members Lizza Hayson-Vocals||Karla Williams-Guitars||Eddie Gasior-Bass||Itamar Ben-Zakay-Drums

Instruments Voice,Guitars,Bass,Drums,Keys

Albums Demo 2000, Demo 2003

Press Reviews When I read the band’s name I just figured the music would be atmoshepric with the Indian feel to it. After all Mahabharata is an Indian epos, a book of Indian myths and legends. Mahavatar – Mahabharata, you catch the drift. The first notes didn’t shake my beliefs as an Indian-Eastern intro of the opener Deep Cobble was followed by a velvety female voice and quiet touching of the bass and tom drums. Then, this blood curdling scream hit the deck … and I remembered that we shouldn’t judge the book by its cover. Mahavatar is a young band that hails from New York City. The band’s makeup is somewhat unusual. The band has two female members. Vocalist Lizza Hayson and drummer Itamar Ben-Zakay are Israeli and the band’s guitarist is Jamaican Karla Williams. The band has been around since 1999, and if I understand correctly this is their third demo. Back to the music. Trying to describe the style of Mahavatar is like counting the types of species in the tropical rainforest. The band incorporates so many styles and blends so many heavy music genres, they are beyond categorization (as I am typing this review I am still scratching my head as to what I will put in our Style category). Every song on the 5-song demo comes from a totally different corner of Heavy Metal and beyond. Lizza’s voice switches between gruff gurgling and shrieky screams. If it was any gruffer I would call it hardcore. She comes up with her screams in the most unusual places (like right after a high-hat and cymbal intro to Control Fix). Sometimes you think that her vocal cords are being held and twisted by an iron grip. Yet, she surprised me tremendously with a clean spacey wailing on Raw. All of these vocal escapades proceed along the lines of guitar driven Deep Cobble, almost jazzy in its syncopated riffs Control Fix or doomy Anger. Karla’s guitar is an attraction in a noodly dirge of Deep Cobble, or her chugging counterpoints to Eddie’s bass in Raw. Her weaving solo in Raw is definitely a treat as well. I would be very hard pressed to tell you what was being done to a guitar so it can produce sounds like on Jungle. Basswork in the aforementioned Raw and Anger is quality. Production is not brilliantly clean with nothing mixed too high or too low, all instruments coming out in the narrow safe range. All in all, though, Mahavatar is not an easy straightforward listen. Take Raw for example. 1min of hardcorish vocals and sharp stop-and-goes is followed by a Pink Floyd inspired spacey rock acoustic guitar and clean singing. Progressive guitar-bass punch-counterpunch middle transitions into the same Pink Floyd piece which now acquires full atmosphere with keyboards and guitar solo. This is a lot for a 5 min song, isn’t it? It is great to see that a young band is not following any of the beaten paths. I bet my house, nobody on the planet will ever say: “Mahavatar sounds as so and so”. However, fans of what styles of Metal would be interested in checking Mahavatar out? They almost would have to create their “own” followers. I am sure that a bunch of faithful fans regularly come out to local gigs, but this utter non-commercialism, non-conformism and almost an elitist attitude will be some obstacles on the way to industry recognition. I don’t think Mahavatar is afraid, they will play what they feel is right, but the road ahead of them is winding. --- Alex, MetalReviews.com

Additional Info http://www.mahavatar.net

Location New York, New York - USA

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