This is the first time I’m listening to a metal act from my home city Karachi. Don’t ask me how I came across this band because I just did and let’s just leave it at that. So this album is a banging thrash metal affair and the band did me a huge favour by linking me all their tracks for listening.
The opening track is an instrumental titled Hidden Voices and it’s a slow but heavy dirge. I get the feeling they aren’t blasting all of a sudden and want to bring things to a boil which is an approach I’m big fan of. Out of this album the tracks that stand out to me are Virgin Bomber, Democrazy, Escape From Reality, Devil Inside, Hona Hai and Thrashbandi. The subject matter is understandable given that the band originates from Pakistan where violence, corruption and religious extremism are a more common phenomenon than in some other nations. Virgin Bomber is a strong condemnation of suicide bombings carried out by so called ‘jihadis’ and Democrazy is a scathing critique of the government. I quite like the track Hona Hai for its Urdu lyrics instead of English, even though prior to this I thought that Urdu is too classy a language to growl/scream in.
The instrumentation is quite aggressive, confrontational and some of the tracks are rapid fire unrelenting assaults on the ears, which is a stark contrast to the sweet, sugary, melodious classic and pop songs that are usually expected from Pakistani music. Refreshing change in my opinion. The drums sound a little flat but that’s something I can overlook. The lead vocalist Daniyal is a psychopath on the vocals and I like how animalistic he sounds. The choruses could use a bit more muscle to back him up.
This is a good album worth checking out if you are a thrash metal fan and a strong first punch from a young band in a country where the metal scene is quite anaemic. I commend them and wish them success in the future.
You can listen to their album on the following link: tabahi.bandcamp.com
MM’s / MM’s Metal Musings
