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The Pakistani music industry has had a lot of revolutionary changes in the past couple of years - 4 or 5 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.
The originator of the entire metal movement around Pakistan was Dusk. The band consisted of two members, Faraz Anwar on the guitars & Babar Shaikh with the vocals. Dusk initiated in 1995 and mastered in death black metal. "South Asia's heaviest export" by Greek Zine (M.Invader '96), was one of the titles given to these 2 individuals who together made music in it's true sense. Casketize, Dusk's first demo tape, released in June 1995, introduced raw/chaotic death black metal to Pakistan for the first time. The second masterpiece, Where Dreams Bleed, was a promo-tape released in the middle months of the year 1996. With time Dusk started experimenting, which lead to their transition from death black metal to gothic/doom metal. This cleared the way for the release of their first debut full-length album My Infinite Nature Alone, which was released by Hibercia Records (Portugal).
Mizraab, Aufgang, Northern Alliance, Razam and Miasma are all the side projects of Duskhordes. The latest pronouncement has been titled Jahilia in the year 2002. 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 has 4 tracks, Hell of One, Insanity Eternal , Unbeing and Inferno, to his credit. He worked with the likes of Sickore and Corpsepyre.
Corpsepyre [1] (http://www.soundclick.com/corpsepyre) [2] (http://www.corpsepyre.cjb.net), an interesting name, is another contemporary death metal band. Starting off at Lahore, the band comprises of Saquib Malik on guitars, Hammad Khan on vocals, Talal Ahmed on drums and Hassan Mir on bass. The bandÂ’s first demo was produced by Saquib Malik, the brain behind Sifr, 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. In September 2003, Acid Burn was a track revised from the demo and selected to be included in the compilation.
Maisma, 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.
Kain is another Lahore based metal band. The follow up consists of Waqas Ahmed on lead and rhythm guitars, Atif Hameed on vocals, Ian Eldred as the bassist and finally Kenny on the drums. Kain have played a prominent role in the development of the metal underground scene in Pakistan.
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.
Void is a coterie of Aamir Haroon as the lead vocalist, Rehan Hussain as the lead guitarist, Mustafa Fareed also on the lead guitars, Umair Dar on the rhythm guitars, Mahir Basheer as the back vocalist, Ali Hamza on bass guitars and Janjua on the drums. Void has 3 original tracks to their credit, namely, Prelude to Reality, Original Instrumental (the video) and Tentative Destruction (demo with no vocals).
The Pakistani music industry has not given the metal scene a proper platform as required. Such music is only appreciated and heard among a few individuals all around the country. The internet is the biggest platform for all such metal heads because the average listener does not appreciate or accept the message brought forth through the language of noise and violence, let alone pain , torture and suffering. Music is a form of expression that varies from one person to the other. Metal bands such as these should be given a chance. Taking a look at all these bands, one has to think that music is from the heart. It is the expression and the coherence that brings forth its true essence. The Pakistani metal underground is a place where music is made for people who believe in non-commercialism and the perfect picture. From death black, viking black, gothic hardcore and grind-core to doom, nu-metal and pure old school death/black metal, bare and brutal, the Pakistani underground metal scene has evolved credibly in the past couple of years. Recently, it has filled with people who dare to aspire and then who make those aspirations visible, rather, perceptible.
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