Motherjane dropped a new single, as promised, on Monday. The song, titled ‘No Contest’, is a salute to the work of anti-corruption swashbuckler Anna Hazare, and was released with an accompanying video. ‘No Contest’ follows the release of similarly social-issue-based ‘Jihad’, released by the band last October, after which founding member and lead guitarist Baiju Dharmajan quit the band.
This is the first song the band has released since Dharmajan left, and the subsequent lack of direction is apparent from the moment the first cheesy, faux-thrash-circa-1980 riff is played. ‘No Contest’ is a near five minute almanac of ’90s Indian metal, replete with a blazing solo, liberal lyrical mozzarella and that quintessential bridge with funneled vocals. The dual guitar attack is a throwback to an Indian metal sound that is quite literally owned by Brahma, who clearly have not kept a tight watch. Frontman Suraj Mani yells facile, cliched observations about Indian politics (ref: “Something’s wrong with the constitution / (When) criminals freely contest”), and struggles to put to song what is essentially a high-school essay on the current state of the Indian government. His cause is not helped by the absence of that crucial understanding of “carnatic-rock” melody that the band’s erstwhile guitarist brought to the table. And when he sings lyrics like, “The meek, who one day will inherit this world / When we’d rather co-author its history” (really, “co-author”?) he puts his band squarely on the losing side of this contest.
Watch the video below.
Note: The band has changed the official video for the track. Updated video is now embedded.
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