Delhi band Aarlon released their debut album earlier in 2022 called ‘Dafan’, though they’ve been around for a few years now. It pushed forward their specific brand of rock, which has liberal helpings of hard rock, post-rock and many other prefixes. This song here, ‘Aaina’ just got its music video (and it’s on the album, of course). The band is pretty much in their wheelhouse on this tune; some hard riffs and scream-y vocals. The rock music of today does lend itself to combining all sorts of genre influences into one gratifying whole and that’s what is on display here. That doesn’t mean it’s half-assed, though. Aarlon knows their way around their sounds.

‘Atmosphere’ is the operative word here and there are a variety of them. The song starts with some synths, airy vocals and a guitar line that sounds like absolute prime Coldplay, of all things. From there, things take on a more traditional indie rock tune; you know the like. A catchy as hell guitar melody, poppy singing and a rather groovy, well, groove. In fact, there’s a decidedly accessible tone to the songwriting. It’s not necessarily produced as such. Fine, there’s a jangly acoustic guitar, but the song shifts into big, chugging guitars, a huge wall of sound that would remind you of a 2013 Youtube video with pictures of nature and comments about how people got stoned to post-rock classics. It’s still straight-ahead, for what it’s worth. The band brings back the heaviest, biggest chords and sounds for a last ‘sunrise’ refrain (anyone know a man named Devin Townsend? The influence is palpable). So, sure, ‘Aaina’ does take its cues from a great many places to make what is essentially an arena rock tune of the early 2010s. But that’s fine. It’s a hell of a listen and tugs at those heartstrings that loud guitar-drums music always has for many decades now. Who hates that?