Demo 2003

I only first learned about Sadhara a few weeks ago. I was listening to my friend's (Metal Mark) online radio show called "Audio Aggression". When I first heard the song he was playing, I thought it was Arch Enemy because I could vaguely distinguish the demonic female vocals from any male ones. However, I was wrong and Metal Mark told me it was Sadhara. Sadhara gives new meaning to the slogan "one man band". Sadhara is actually Katherine Burke, an extremely talented musician from Saratoga Springs, New York USA. Her musical influences include early Metallica, Megadeth, Black Sabbath, Venom, Morbid Angel, Death, Old Man's Child, Carcass, Arch Enemy, Lux Occulta and Iron Maiden, along with various Swedish metal. Less brutal influences include J.S. Bach, Depeche Mode, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Palestrina, Dead Can Dance and some world music. If there ever was a female Bathory, she's it! This heavy metal maiden plays all of the instruments (rhythm and lead guitars, bass guitars). As for the drums, she uses a drum machine and has programmed all of the drum patterns herself. Burke also performs all of the vocal parts. Her vocals range from a soft, clean, angelic gothic style to harsh, demonic, black metal growling. She mostly uses the demonic vocals and mixes in the gothic ones from time to time. Burke's goal as a songwriter is to "remove the listener from this dimension into others of unlimited imagination, passion and darkness". She tries to incorporate elements of "conflicting truths...where there is beauty in darkness, the gaze of a threatening moon is comforting, and where harmony and dissonance could co-exist". After listening to this demo, I feel she has accomplished her goal! This metal chick plays a mean guitar riff! Her guitar sound has that compressed, bay area thrash feel to it like classic Exodus, Testament and Metallica. The kick drums are tight and really stand out. I wish that the snare drum sounded heavier in tone as it sounds more like a rim shot at times. The bass guitar is hard to make out too. Over all, the demo has very good production and recording techniques. Sadhara is Hindi for "Inner Spiritual Worship and is pronounced "Sa-dar-ah". Burke's self produced and self financed five song demo can be downloaded for free at http://www.castlejb.com/sadhara/demo2003.html. You can also go to http://www.castlejb.com/sadhara/index.html for more information on her biography.