Sonaksh Singh Rawat inches closer to debut album 'The Last Stand'

The songs in the album, which have been recorded, mixed and mastered by city-based musician and rapper Arshaq Malik, narrate tales of battles.
City-based musician  Sonaksh Singh Rawat
City-based musician  Sonaksh Singh Rawat

Two years after the inception of his solo death metal project titled Mutiny, city-based musician 
Sonaksh Singh Rawat is inching closer to the release of his debut album, The Last Stand. Gearing up for a September release, Rawat reveals that the seven-track album revolves around events in history, like battles. He has released three songs from the album -- while Saragarhi was out last year, Batallie De Camerone was released last month.

Ask him why he undertook vocals, guitar and bass duties all on his own and he says, “I did have a couple of musicians working with me on this album but they were unable to devote their whole time. I wanted a little more than that but I couldn’t force them, so I took complete control. That also comes with creative freedom and more room for experimenting,” says Rawat. 

The songs in the album, which have been recorded, mixed and mastered by city-based musician and rapper Arshaq Malik, narrate tales of battles. While Remember the Alamo is a story about the first 13 days of the battle of Alamo where 260 Texians went up against 1,800 Mexicans, Ambush At Shanghani revolves around the battle between 34 British African soldiers against 3,000 Matabele warriors near the Shanghani river.

“There are five songs in the album which talk about five different wars in history where the odds were stacked against the underdogs. These were events of immense bravery,” says Rawat, asserting that Bataille De Camerone is the story of 65 French foreign legionnaires against 3,000 Mexicans while Saragarhi speaks of the battle of Saragarhi, where 21 Sikh soldiers fought 10,000 Afghans.

Rawat, who is inspired by metal giants like Sabaton and Bolt Thrower, says apart from their style of music, him being a history buff made it the ideal album to pen down. “Since these are metal songs, I would want the listeners to headbang and express themselves. But at the same time, I want them to focus on the lyrical content, which holds great value,” he says. 

Speaking about the projects in the pipeline, Rawat says the passing of his father a few years ago brought about a change in his approach towards projects. He adds, “It made me realise how precious time is and how little one has at the end of the day. I have a couple of solo projects coming up. While one follows a technical progressive metal approach, the latter is a 1980s-themed instrumental metal album.” 

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