Various Artists- Rebellious Damnation Theories Compilation

Rebellious Damnation Theories is an online exclusive compilation featuring many bands from extreme metal/punk scenes all over the world. Featuring twenty five artists of various styles you are sure to find something here to your liking. All of this is packed into just over an hour of what will be new territory for most metalheads. Like all compilations there are a few duds here, or just tracks that simply don't sit right, but the final product still brings quite a few mosh worthy moments.

The compilation opens up with the monstrous Jugga from Nepal. Their track "Vultures Will Feed" proves to be the perfect way to open the compilation. It comes in, beats the listener down and flees from the scene of the crime. There are plenty of excellent tracks to be found here. One example would definitely be Dementia from Pakistan, a band that plays a healthy blend of thrash/groove metal. These guys have a very professional sound going for them and have fairly developed writing skills. Not long after Dementia's track you have the polar opposite Bvlghvm. Also hailing from Pakistan these dudes pack one heavy as hell punch with their brand of filthy, hate-filled sludge. There are also a few familiar faces to the website that we have covered before. Bands like Sledgehammer Autopsy, Death Inquisition, and Foreskin hold their own up against all the other bands crammed onto this thing.

Naturally, given the fact that the bands are from completely different regions of the world and have completely different recording situations, the sound quality varies a great deal from track to track. This may throw some listeners off but after taking some time to get used to it you adjust and it is barely noticeable. Unfortunately the production value of bands like Chillar Killer and Masturbate take most of the impact out of their music. Playing goregrind with such a flat sound just doesn't workout well, it lacks the punchy tone that this style of music thrives for. Due to this little problem a few tracks towards the middle sort of slow down the pace of the comp.

Overall Rebellious Damnation Theories is sure to introduce anyone who listens to some solid, new bands. These compilation covers touches all the major extreme subgenres. Death, thrash, black metal, crust, sludge, crossover, hardcore, groove, it's all here at one point of another. Definitely worth getting if you're a fan of metal or punk in general. There is a gigantic slew of bands out there just waiting to be heard, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Interview with Hassan Omer of Foreskin!

Here we interview Hassan Umer, vocalist for the crossover band Foreskin.

FF: How did Foreskin come to form?

Umer: To play a style of music that no one seems to care about here, not even the metal crowd. Most bands that put out original material were either Modern Death/Thrash, Prog or Lamb of God worship. And we're cool with that - it's just that it was time to introduce the Pakistani Metal scene to the wonderful world of microsongs, thrash breaks, d-beats and retarded vocals.

FF: I've read that Foreskin started off as a punk band, the influence still shows but what made you start leaning more torwards crossover?

Umer: To be honest, we weren't completely punk but we had a lot more punk in us as compared to metal which you can hear in the first demo. I guess it was a natural progression to get thrashier, especially once we started jamming and playing live. But me and Amar have a side project called The Circumsized where we intend to do the type of retarded punk shit we did earlier, perhaps even finally record some of our old Foreskin punk shit.

FF: All the members of the band have seperate projects would you say that Foreskin is the main project?

Umer: It used to be the main project, but we played our last gig in January. We basically split the band up in 2 projects - Necropedophile which is gonna be a death metal band with Me, Faaiz and Omair, and The Circumsized with me and Amar. To be honest, the band was to split up but after the encouraging response the BITP demotape got, we decided to continue only in the 'studio' and further improve our sound. But yeah, it's definitely gonna take a back seat to everything else we have going on.

FF: Are there any great metal bands from Pakistan that you'd like to plug?

Umer: Haha yeah sure. Odyssey is an amazing progressive metal act and is probably the best live act in the country regardless of genre. Takatak's a brutal act, they've got the perfect balance for a metal band and really know how to kick it live. Other than that, there's Downfall Humanity who play kickass death/thrash, Necktarium who do this ambient black metal shit, Berserker with their Morbid Angel worship, Dementia is a monstrous groove metal band, and I just fucking love the latest addition to the scene, Myosis, who do some straight up doom metal." and my favorite Pakistani band MARG who make the most awesome hard rocking punk/metal this side of the subcontinent.

FF: How often do you guys get gigs? (with any of your projects)

Umer: Well "opportunities" come for metal bands every other month and sometimes every other weekend, it's just a matter of having the contacts to get you up there on a stage. We played a total of only 4 gigs from July til January, passed on like 3 others because of line up issues.

FF: What do you guys have planned for upcoming releases?

Umer: Well we might finally decide to re-record our old "Attack of the Radioactive Posers" EP which we lost in a hard drive crash back in August, just days before it was to go for printing and shit. But only if we get the time, since it's not our 'main' project anymore. I'm actually interested in doing some split releases, that's actually a great way to spread the word.

FF: Yeah splits are a great way to gain some exposure. Are there any bands you want to do a split with in particular?

Umer: I'd love to do a split with Agnostic Front or Suicidal Tendencies! Hahaha. But seriously, I don't think there's any particular band I want to do a split with (it'll probably end up being a band I'm connected with, or involves a friend), I think what matters is that they play a similar type of music and actually want to put out a split with us.

FF: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Umer: Yeah, would just like to give a shout out to the Lahore Mosh Crew and the Islamabad Metalheads, you guys rule.

Foreskin- B.I.T.P

Foreskin is a crossover thrash band from Pakistan. All the songs were recorded in different sessions so in a way the album is kind of a compilation of unreleased tracks. The sound quality varies a lot throughout the demo. Tracks like "Kill the Principal" are very muddy and quiet, while tracks like "Raid the Stage" are very loud in comparison. This isn't a major problem but it does effect the flow of the demo in a negative way.

The demo clocks in at less than ten minutes and it doesn't drag at all but it does have a difficult time grabbing your attention. The track "Attack Of the Radioactive Posers" has some great ideas and sounds like it could be an amazing track but it is unfortunately plagued by the production quality. Foreskin definitely has the chops to make some great music and it is evident on every track but there are too many things working against them on this release. This isn't to say the demo is bad, because the band shows great potential and has some very fun moments crammed into this demos short playtime. At times Umer reminds me of Baloff back in the Bonded By Blood days.

The drumming on the demo is great. Soomro drives the band along at an excellent pace and plays with a great amount of energy. The lyrical themes here follow typical thrash/crossover themes, moshing, rebelling against authority, and the damn posers! That being said some of the lyrics are quite humorous lines like "Kill the Principal (x3) Kill him with a fucking pencil " and "So don't hesitate, spread the true metal sound! Like Bill Clinton's erect penis, stand tall and proud!" are classic.

B.I.T.P. is one of those albums that is entertaining but lacks originality. Don't go into this album expecting to have you mind blown. It wouldn't hurt to try and get all the tracks recorded at the same sound quality but who knows in this bands case that may not have been possible. Overall I'd love to hear what this would sound like with good enough production to make everything out clearly. This is still a good effort, it's just not as awesome as it could've been.

Download it here (Band Sanctioned): Foreskin- BITP