Pakistani black metal
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The Pakistani metal music industry has had a lot of revolutionary changes in the past couple of years - four to five to be precise. The most significant and appreciated change has been the construction of a community of unsigned bands and musicians creating music in their own ways, the "Pakistani Underground". Metal music was a genre that had never been experimented or worked with before. For the first time, a real change is visible and now the music genre is now referred to "Pakistani black metal".
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Popular metal bands
[edit] Black Warrant
Surprising a metal band from Lyallpur that was formed in mid 90s which introduced Industrial Metal apart from being a part of underground Heavy Metal brotherhood.
[edit] Kainath / Kosmos
The real originators of all things extreme in Pakistan, this band was formed in the early 90's in the thriving metropolis of Karachi by two brothers, Fawad Baluch and Adil. A lot of gigs and 2 demos followed by Fawwad's venture into commercial hard rock (Dhun) saw the end of the band. At their peak they were an unmatchable force, taking cues from early morbid angel and infusing it with their own restless Pakistani spirit. Fawwad's playing was phenomenal , turning shred on its head by marrying technicality to feel and brutality.
[edit] Autopsy Gothic
Autopsy Gothic was created by Kamran (kami) a.k.a Coffin Feeder in the mid 90's. He was a student of Bahria College Karachi then. Autopsy Gothic has been on the forefront of the Pakistani Underground scene. They performed in many gigs, the main venues in karachi's underground scene inlude: Bayview Auditorium, PACC (Pak-American Cultural Centre) etc. Autopsy Was one of the most prolific and original underground death/black metal bands of Karachi.
[edit] Soul Vomit
One of the recent metal bands to hit the Paki metal scene is Soul Vomit. Formed in 2002, Soul Vomit made its mark as the first ever Paki underground metal band to launch a video for their song, One. Soul Vomit was groomed by the local metal giants, such as, Hadi a.k.a Lord Thor, Salman (Kvlt), Babar Sheikh, Aneeq and Kamran a.k.a. Coffin Feeder from Autopsy Gothic (Autopsy's track 'Coward' was later on officially given to Soul Vomit). It emerged along with other contemporary local metal acts, like, Messiah and Nokturnal Rust, as one of the most known metal bands in the recent times. The band was originally founded by Ali Kazmi on drums, who is also famous for his contributions in different underground bands, esp. the Karachi based punk rockers - CornHole; along with a talented new comer named Irfan Najmi on rhythms. In a short while they were joined by a sound lead guitarist named Leon Eric a.k.a. Darksoul, and finally a very promising vocalist, Salman Mukadam a.k.a. Raptor Child. The bassist position in the band has been uncertain with Umer Noor (Souldead) who was later on replaced by Jamael. The band came up with very entertaining live performances especially a remarkable live gig called Autumn Holocaust in 2003. Soul Vomit also released a few originals including: One, Coward, Breath Your Last, etc. With a decent cult like following, the band became one of the few good metal acts of Paki underground. The band is known to be working on a demo called 'Silence of the Unreal'. At current, guitarist Leon Eric is also working on with his guitar solo demo. While Ali Kazmi, is still heavily involved into the current scene.
[edit] Burzukh
One of the earliest exponents of Pakistan to break away from the monotonic death/black sound and embrace wider influences, Burzukh (founded by Syed Suleiman, Islamabad ) started as an industrial Black Metal Band, but the Madien and Classic Rock influences eventually shone true. Suleiman has also collaborated with Corpsepyre members (Funeral Junkie) and was a fonding member of the The Banned (now known as Saturn). Now it stands as an amalgamation of metal genres and rock with 2 aggressive and ambitious demos (Dominion, Industrial City) and an album (Lost Souls) on the way.Burzukh Website
[edit] Corpsepyre
Starting off in Lahore, Corpsepyre comprises Saquib Malik on guitars, Hammad Khan on vocals, Talal Ahmed on drums and Hassan Mir on bass. The band’s first demo was produced by Malik in 2003 at Grindwork Studios. After the demo dispersion, the band acclaimed creditable recognition all around, thus landing them a spot on Pakistan's first extreme metal compilation, Rise of the Eastern Blood, by Duskhorde Productions, alongside the best Pakistani extreme metal bands around.
[edit] Kain
Kain is another Lahore-based metal band. The follow up consisted of Waqas Ahmed, widely known as one of the best guitarists in the Lahore underground metal scene, on lead and rhythm guitars, Atif Hameed on vocals, Ian Eldred on bass and finally Kenny on the drums during their brief affair with death metal. Kain then switched tracks to become a commercial metal band with Khizar Tahseen replacing Atif Hameed on vocals. This line up disintegrated when Khizer left for Canada to pursue his degree, leaving a void in the vocals area, soon to be filled by Waqas' long-time friend Nauman. The performances and subsequently their progress was hindered by Ian Eldred's continuous flings in and out of the band but he finally established himself as Kain's bass player in the start of 2005. Omer Imran appeared on the scene to relieve Waqas of Rhythm Guitar duties, and this manifested itself in better solos, consistently improving coordination of the guitars and a profound clearness in the sound in. Kain have played a prominent role in the development of the metal underground scene in Pakistan.
[edit] Sifr
Sifr (an Arabic word that means "hollow" or "void") was a solo project. Its concept was laid out in the year 2000 by Saquib Malik (after his retirement from Sickore). The platform was Lahore and the idea was purified metal purified. Sifr portrays doom/black metal music. Saquib started off with 4 tracks, Hell of One, Insanity Eternal, Unbeing and Inferno. The latest tracks include Heresy, the Days Grow Darker, Solitudes Embrace and Your Silence. He has worked with the likes of Sickore and Corpsepyre; a very promising individual.
[edit] Miasma
Miasma, a band of five individuals, features Ajlal on the vocals and the brain behind the lyrics, Aman on bass, Ali Raza on keyboards and sequencing, Adnan on the drums and finally Faraz Siddiqi on Guitars. Maisma are the first Pakistani Urdu death black metal band. Maisma was initiated in the year 2002, thus joining the spreading metal underground community.
[edit] Northern Alliance
Northern Alliance is a band from Karachi. Apart from being one of the projects of Dusk, it specializes in making pure old school death/black metal (bare & brutal). Ibadullah, Babar, Faraz and Zeeshan are the members that make Northern Alliance a statement in itself. Their fan site is MusikGround.com Babar hardly knows how to play the guitar, he says that music is noise and that is totally against all the legendary musicians. He is a fake musician and an insult to the entire music culture.
[edit] Void
Void is a coterie of Aamir Haroon as the lead vocalist, Rehan Hussain as the lead guitarist, Umair Dar on the rhythm and lead guitars, Ali Hamza Janjua on the drums and Mustafa Fareed also on lead guitars. Void has a number of original tracks to their credit, including Prelude to Reality, Tentative Destruction (demo with no vocals), Ghum Nahi and Salvation to name a few. Lyrics and downloads are all available at their website, www.voidx.tk. The band members are currently all studying in Universities around the world and play gigs in Karachi in the summers.
[edit] Sacrament
Sacrament is an upcoming heavy metal band from Karachi, it comprises of: Ammar Rehman(vocals), Khizer Diwan(rhyhtm guitar), Zahid Zakaria(lead guitar), Aized Suharwardy(bass) and Zain Jafar(drums). One of the first metalcore bands in the scene.
[edit] Avatar
Avatar is another upcoming metalcore/melodic death band from the city of Karachi, they have recorded one orignal 'War of Attrition' to date which can be found at their soundclick.com page.
[edit] Orion
Orion is a metal band hailing from Lahore which incorporates progressive elements into thrash/heavy metal.Orion comprises of Waqas (Lead Guitars),Hussam (Rhythm Guitars),Hassan (Bass),Bilal (Drums) and Ameer (Vocals).To date they have released 3 songs online & are working on recording their album.
