Dreaded. Born.

*For everyone who lost a piece of themselves on 26/11/2008, this is for you*

Face to face with the dark eternal night,
All I see is the negative space ,
The shape of the landscape at their back,
And the horizon interrupted by black.
Symmetrical on both sides, like a backwards vase,
A deranged maze all covered in bloody snow,
It could be one, or it could be more than one layer.
Foreground and background and everything in between,
But the hole in the middle I cannot relate to.
The positive life right in front of me,
Like a mirror tiled over that gives no reflection,
Face to face with a fear,
We share no affection.

Binding Lies

All you have are three words
Have you said enough?
Weak and watered thoughts
Have run the machine.
A revelation.
Deceit was uncommon
Futility indeed to hope
That under the guise of love
We could survive this.
Detached I watch and pray
Not knowing that the victim is I
And still your curses are venomed
With anger and greed,
Ribald with binding lies.
Will you hold me until the dawning light?
And I'll tell you
With every second just slipping away
What it's like to die
At the hands of a life once found
Of a love once loved.

Death of Flame

A fire has gone cold.
Behind sepia glaze hang empty branches
Amidst a barren field.
Dense fog shrouds an empty tree while
Soliloquizing about comforting falling branches
In their final, fleeting moments.

A fire has gone cold.
Her lips are filled with autumn.
The last lies from the mockingbirds
Spiral from them;
Deserting the lips to chap
The bitter climate to come.

A fire has gone cold.
Crimson warmth of summers past.
Transforms into neutrality,
Into grey.
Into bitter tastes of lukewarm decisions,
Trapped inside her breast.

She's alone, void, and dormant.
Today she'll die to prepare.
Taking solace in life's seasons
And the ideal
That just one solstice from now,
She'll bloom.

Indian Music Revolution Interview

My band was interviewed by a website called Indian Music Revolution some time ago. Just thought I'd put this up here.

IMR: Hello "STON'D”! It's a real pleasure talking to you guys. What would you say, if I ask you to start this interview by presenting the band to our readers? When and how did "STON'D" get together?

Ston'd is a metal band hailing from Bangalore. Its story starts in the summer of 2005 when Anoop (bass) and Abijith (vocals) met Aditya (guitars) for the first time in a mutual friend's jam room. No one had a clear idea about what they wanted their band to sound like. There was a huge difference in influences ranging from Lamb of God to Korn to the Scorpions. Nothing really came out of that first meeting. Aditya got an offer from another band. Abijith went on to do vocals for a nu-metal act. However, after a couple of months, and a couple of chance meetings with the future guitarists of Ston'd, the band was finally formed at the end of 2006. The original line up consisted of Abijith on vocals, Hitesh and Sudhir on guitars, Anoop on bass and Karthik on drums. Debuting in the “Unwind Underground” gig/competition, and after about seven shows, the band saw a line up change with Aditya, who had met Abijith and Anoop during the conceptual stage of the band, replacing Hitesh on guitars.

IMR :Personally, I would like to ask you guys, what are the goals that you guys have set for the recent years to come(I think everybody is a student, am I right)?

Our goal, from the very beginning of the band, was to emerge with a new sound, yet maintain that heavy, aggressive, in your face kind of punch to the music. We think we have reached that. If you look at the metal scene today, most bands have your typical semi-growl type vocals and very rarely do they experiment musically either. We think we have burst that bubble. Our vocals have more of a grind core feel, interspersed with penetrating screeches rather than an almost exact impersonation of major international bands. We’ve also always wanted to play originals more than covers because, let’s face it; it’s a lot more fun when your audience moshes to your own music. Having more or less achieved these goals, our main aim is to reach out to a greater audience now; and maybe a full length album.

IMR: Your music has quite a fiercest touch to it. How much important role does your musical influence play in bringing up your music to perfection? List down the same?

All of us in the band listen to a whole range of music from the Scorpions to Jason Becker to Good Charlotte and Cannibal Corpse; to more mainstream metal bands like Lamb of God, Mastodon, Textures, etc. there are a lot of different bands that we listen to. Having said that, we try not to let these bands influence our music directly. As we mentioned earlier, the band always wanted a different sound and the emphasis was always on originals than covers. So while we do listen to these bands, we hope we don’t sound like them like most other mainstream metal bands in India do.

IMR: What made you choose your band to be named as "STON'D", what does that signify? What’s the most memorable moment for you in the history of the band?

When we started this band, we just wanted to relax, have fun and get stoned on music. Even today, there are times when we just hang out in our Jam Room. That’s the basic idea behind how the name came about. So if you are looking for a deep, introspective meaning behind the band name here, you’re not going to find it. Because all said and done we play this music to let loose, and have fun. The most memorable moment in the history of the band is probably playing in shows like IIT Chennai’s Saarang ’08 where the band placed second, and Manipal Institue of Technology’s Revels ’06. Both these places had a fantastic crowd response.

IMR: Do you have any E.P, Releases etc coming up in recent times to watch out for?

We already have a 3 song EP out called Disaster Area. This EP was recorded completely in our little studio set up at home with no professional help. You can check out http://www.myspace.com/stondbangalore to hear the songs. Be sure to watch out for a full length album by the end of this year!
If you are interested in doing low budget recording contact rehabrecords1@gmail.com

IMR: How do you describe the music of "STON'D"? And, what are the grounds in which you lag as a metal band and would like to overcome?

Like we mentioned before, the aim of this band was to create a new sound. What we have achieved is a heavy, aggressive sound interspersed with moments of melody. We have a lot of double bass work, quite a lot of riffing, and our bassist provides a pretty solid bass line. Our vocals have a hint of grind core/death metal influence, mixed with piercing screeches. We think it’s mostly the area of consistency in which we lag. We have had awesome shows, but on the flip side, we’ve sometimes disappointed ourselves by not delivering up to the mark. And you can blame the sound guys, and the equipment or whatever, but we take it as a sign that we have got to push ourselves harder. We look forward to having a blistering set every time we get on stage.

IMR: Could you let our readers know in short about the songwriting mechanism for "STON'D”? Any writers or other artists/bands that influence you lyrically? What kind of listeners do you think that your music targets?

A song usually begins with either one of our guitarists bringing in half a riff, or a whole riff, half a song, or sometime a whole song into the Jam Room and work begins from there. One thing which sets us apart from most bands is probably the fact that the vocals are put over the riff as the drums are being laid out. So by the end of the riff, we already know how the completed product or that particular part of the song is going to sound. Then we decide if we need to tweak the arrangement or structure of the song. The lyrics, leads and overdubs are usually put down after everything else is finished.
Our lyrical writing style is mainly influenced by Death, and Tool. We’re also influenced by a host of movies like Charlie Wilson’s War, American History X, A Mighty Heart, Schindler’s List, Blood Diamond, etc. Some of the writers that have influenced us in the past are Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal), Marianne Pearl (A Mighty Heart), William Blake (The Red Dragon, and the Woman Clothed in Sun). The fucked up political clime in India and abroad, and human suffering as a result of the same, play a major part in the messages behind our lyrics.


IMR: You guys are from "Bangalore"(Karnataka). What is the underground scene like up there is it supportive? Is there any place you've particularly enjoyed or enjoyed playing? Share any one of your memorable gig experiences.

You can’t really call us an underground band but yes, a metal fan would enjoy our music the most. The scene in Bangalore is amazing. The bands and the audience are awesome. After all, it is the Metal Mecca of India :P. The scene here has been extremely supportive of us. We have always welcomed criticism, suggestions, and a couple of death threats (Laughs). But yes, the audience here has always been good to us.
We always enjoy Bangalore gigs. But apart from that IIT Chennai and Manipal Institute of Technology were great shows. What we enjoyed most there was the audience: they were extremely responsive.
One of the most memorable gig experiences for the band was this weekend back in November 2007. It was insane and fun, and very surreal. We got to personally meet Sepultura, and because they were a major influence of us initially, this was a big deal; bigger than it would have been otherwise. We also played three shows in two days, one of which was in an all girls’ school! And the next day we played the Bangalore Finals of Campus Rock Idols where we played one of our tightest sets ever in front of a huge crowd. So that weekend was probably the most fun we have had together us a band.

IMR: How important do you feel, is it for underground bands to have appearance on music related website? What do you think plays the biggest role in getting your music heard, who would you like to give the credits for the same?

Like we said before you can’t really label us an underground band, but we are not everyone’s cup of tea either. We think it is vitally important that metal bands in India have enough exposure to the public, apart from the small number of people constituting the metal audience that is there in India. Websites, such as you, are an excellent way of breaking the barrier preventing metal bands from reaching a wider range of audiences. We hope that this extends to the radio, and even maybe television. Maybe this will lead to an indigenous metal label being born. Unless this happens, it will be very difficult for members of a metal band to make their living through music in India.
Our friends and audience have played the biggest role in getting us heard. There have been so many people who have helped us sell CDs and who have supported us from the very beginning. We would like to thank our friends from the Jam Room, Abandoned Agony, Theorized, Corrode, Spitfire, Audiophile, Venator. Also the organizers of Sunday Jam, a free music festival held monthly in Bangalore, and everyone else who has come out and supported us.


IMR: Where do you picture yourself and the band in the coming years? Do you guys have a gut feeling that, you will cross into mainstream flavor because you do possess some of those elements?

We know that whatever happens, we will continue playing as long as we enjoy our music. We just want to push ourselves to keep sounding better. And it really doesn’t matter if we move into the mainstream or not. This band was conceived to have fun and make good music and that’s what we intend to do, come hell or high water. If we do cross over into the mainstream, it will only be with us playing the kind of music we love. We do not want to cater to whatever the trend in metal is. We just want to sound good and heavy.

IMR: How do you feel, when people do not recognize your hard work behind your music just because you are an underground band, is it frustrating?
(Laughs) An incident comes to mind. This was the first show with our new line up. We were playing a show where an RJ and a bassist of a well known Indian band were on the judge’s panel. After the set, the RJ asked us (quote) “What’s all the violence about?” And we also heard the other judge say that “Growling turns me off”. Back then, yes, it irritated us and frustrated us. But we think we have matured since then. If people don’t recognize the work that goes behind this band then, well, there is nothing much one can do about it. And even if heavy metal has been consistently stereotyped, dismissed and condemned by the masses in India, it sure as hell isn’t going to stop us from playing this kind of music.

Darkness

Don't turn away
I pray you've heard the words I've spoken
Dare to believe
One last time
Then I'll let the darkness cover me
Deny everything
Slowly walk away
To leave again
On my own

Carry me away
I need your strength to get me through this
Dare to believe
One last time
Then I'll let the darkness cover me
Deny everything
Slowly walk away
To leave again

Trapped In The Wake Of A Dream

Walk me to my grave.
Take this tiresome fear that bestows upon me
Another's tomb,
When the wind so restlessly whistles
The obscenities of my name.

I am but a grain of architecture.
Placed where the blue print reads.
I feel as the horoscope portrays.
I was born into forewarned Death.
To take a breath at the bottom of the Pool.

Who bears the keys of the castle?
When the fortress is wilted and grey?
Is this really mine?

I had no say in procreation.
Am I just holding it for a friend?
While all that life is,
Is just probation.

Monochrome In Colour

Like all have seen before
Colours merge into one
Ominous and comforting
Gaze upon its surface
And beyond to the core
The shapes dance for your eyes
Dance a silent dance
Beautiful and grey
Like the sky
As you gaze it becomes blue
The moon as we once knew
Starlight reflects and twinkles in the night sky
Beauty known best after dark
Twinkle and flicker
Like the shapes on your mind
Dancing their silent dance
For you

False Negation, Yet Dreamed Of

What if I said no?
Would you do it all alone?
And still you pretend
That I am of no consequence
And have you, in all our time,
Ever made an effort?
Or even a thought, maybe?
Paper and ribbons on bright wrappers
As fragile, and thoughtless,
As a twig on a winter's morning.
And still you ask,
And it's not all that you can,
Of me,
To carve a glittering glass pane,
As strong and powerful as song.
What if I said no?
What would you do then?
Would you do it all alone?

The Labyrinth

Here's a riddle,
A puzzle if you will.
I've made a labyrinth
A highly elaborate maze.
Down one of the corridors
Or maybe all,
You will find a niche.
In the dark,
Maybe you will find a wall
With shelves reaching high
Stacked with a myriad of glass jars
All sealed tightly shut.
And in this palace walks a child
Who is the audience
And the Maker
Of simple minds
And twisted guiles.



Based on Thomas Harris's most darkest, and most wonderfull creation..

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey is an amazing documentary, directed by Sam Dunn, that talks about the history and the legacy of heavy metal. It is an amazing presentation for both metal heads and non metal heads as well.

"It's a negation of the world that's handed to you. It just says, "You know what? This daily ass existence of this boring high school and this dead end dairy queen job... just, No! This is something that's mine, and that i own, and fuck you, I won't do what you tell me."
- Tom Morello, Rage Against The Machines/Audioslave

"First time someone who knows nothing about the metal scene, the first time they see on of our album covers or something like that, its going to shock them."
- Alex Webster, Cannibal Corpse.

"Unfortunately, the ignorance of republican, puritanical, old thinking is... they see a mosh pit and it's violent. That's all they see. And of course, pits can be brutal places. But at the same time, I'd rather have kids in the pit working out the stuff they have to go through in their lives, rather than hurting other people with no optimistic ends."
- Corey Taylor, Slipknot/Stone Sour

"Why has heavy metal been consistently been stereotyped, dismissed and condemned? It's become clear to me that metal confronts what we'd rather ignore. It celebrates what we often deny. It indulges in what we fear most. And that's why metal will always be a culture of outsiders."
- Sam Dunn, Director Metal: A Headbanger's Journey.

"For young people its a place to belong, where you can experience other possibilities and transcend everyday life in a very glorious way."

"... and its purging. I think metal performs that task; that sort of 'letting-us-get-rid-of-a-lot-of-tension'. Its a catharsis."

"People in their own way have different releases. Its something other than your mundane life."

"For metal heads, good, beauty and truth, is up there on stage."

"Is heavy metal a sacrament? For some people it is. It keeps kids alive. If it gives them a sense of transcendence, then i believe it is a spiritual force. I believe it is a pipeline to God"

"Ever since i was 12 years old, I've had to defend my love for heavy metal against those who say it is a less valid form of music. My answer now is that you either feel it or you don't. If metal doesn't give you that overwhelming surge of power that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, you might never get it. And you know what? That's ok. Because judging by the 40,000 metal heads around me [here at the Wacken Metal Festival in Germany], we're doing fine without you."

- Sam Dunn, Director, Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

Disaster Area

So my band has released a demo album. And I've heard that some people I've given the cd to found the cover and the lyrics on the inside leaflet disturbing. There is no hate filled, or gory meaning intended. You also have to realise that the album is a political record. All three songs on the cd have political thought behind them.
"Eyes of chaos" is based on the Hyderabad blasts that took place sometime ago and the blood bath that it was. "Nothing Remains" is based on the American invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The cover page has a really simple meaning. Basically, the norm is that backward countries are breeding grounds for terrorism; that undeveloped, and uneducated settlements of people are the cause for terrorism and pain and war and suffering. This can be seen in the way the US claims that Pakistan has become a country that harbours terrorists; in the way that the US became really wary when they thought Iraq possessed "weapons of mass destruction".
But as most of you know, no weapons of mass destruction were ever found. Saddam Hussein was executed by the Americans. The Mujahideen were created by the Americans (who wanted them to fight the Soviets during the cold war era).
Osama Bin Laden, Al Zawahiri and his Mujahideen were supplied with weapons by the US government. They were responsible for the shooting down of 149 Soviet helicopters, 89 fixed wing aircraft, and 274 tanks; all between the winter of 1987 and the spring of 1988. And all with the help of the Stinger Missiles supplied by the Americans.
The reason the Mujahideen became what they are now is the simple fact that after spending 4 billion dollars on supplying them with weapons, the Americans refused a 4 million dollar budget for building schools and shelter. When the Afghan people came back from fighting the Russians in the tough, Afghan environment, they found themselves abandoned by their benefactors. What do you do once you have created a group of warriors and supplied them with some of the most advanced weaponry money can buy? Is it not your responsibility to teach them right from wrong? If you're going to leave them out in the cold, armed with dangerous armaments then you sure as hell cannot expect them to grow up to be normal, sane, and regular people.
This is what the cover page of Disaster Area is about. What was once a fledgling country, underdeveloped and poor, has now become a haven for terrorists, not by any fault of their own, but by our so called "advanced" and "developed" countries. Money, Knowledge, Advanced Technology (which is the book shown on the cover) has destroyed and mutilated what could have been a beautiful land, if natural progress and nature had been allowed to take their own course and time. It has ravaged countries like Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and is slowly beginning to seep into the other parts of the world.
The lyrics inside the album cover is an extension of the same idea. It is not what we, as a band believe in. It is what we believe the thought process of a Mujahideen, or holy warrior, is. We do not endorse it, quite the contrary, but we hoped that lyrics would explain what the thinking is of a person who has been given a dangerous weapon, who has not been taught right from wrong, and has turned around to realise that he has been deprived of this right by his benefactors.
What does he do?
He is lesser than a child, and suddenly he has been given this amazing power and has not been taught responsibility.
What does he do?
His mother and sisters have been raped by his enemies in front of his eyes. His brothers have been blown apart by shells.
What does he do?
And still, he is sent out to fight for a cause that his not his. He is doing someone else's dirty work and is paying the price for it.
What does he do?

"I swear I will not dishonour my soul with love.
But offer myself numbly,
As a guardian of hate,
As a messenger of pain
As an architect of war."

This is not us. This is not Ston'd. We do not, in any way, subscribe to this way of thinking. I hope you have understood, and hence pity, the people of Afghanistan, Iraq and other places who have been made to move out of their line of natural development. Hopefully by now you have understood what this album means, what the songs mean, and the reason for the aggression behind it.



In the words of Texas Senator Charles Wilson, "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the end game."

"You are the cause, I am the effect
Created in hatred, a noose for your neck."
~ D. Randall Blythe

Lebensraum

Foraging for land,
And the wealth of the deceased.
Blood spilled on the wall twice,
Once for you and once for me.
The floods of the masses
The unceasing tide
Breaking all binds bound to a life of our kind.
War sells and blood is the fee
An unceasing tribute to hypocrisy.
The fires will rage and the spirit will burn,
Wait and watch, and play your last turn.
The dice will be rolled and the numbers shall fall
Of no consequence will they be for they doom us all.
The father cries for his son,
And calls for the Atonement,
A string of foul words,
With which we are all broken.

Lebensraum

Article 2 of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the the Crime of Genocide:
"Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethical, racial or religious group, as such; killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to member of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life, calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group"

Lebensraum: A word coined by German geographer and zoologist Freidrich Ratzel to describe what he thought of as the dominant human species' natural impulse to expand its territory in it search for not just space, but sustenance.

The idea of lebensraum was set out in precise terms in 1901, but Europe had already begun her conquest for lebensraum 400 years earlier, when Columbus landed in America. The search for lebensraum also took Europeans to Africa: unleashing holocaust after holocaust. The Germans exterminated almost the entire population of the Hereros in Southwest Africa; while in the Congo, the Belgians' "experiment in commercial expansion" cost 10 million lives. By the last quarter of the 19th century, the British had exterminated the aboriginal people of Tasmania, and of most of Australia.

"Those who escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others ran through with their rapiers, so they were quickly dispatched, and very few escaped. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire, and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof, but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice...."
- The Massacre of Pequot Indians by English Puritans led by John Mason in Connecticut, 1636.

"We didn't spare a single Muslim shop, we set everything on fire... hacked, burned, set on fire... we believe in setting them on fire because these bastards didn't want to be cremated, they're afraid of it... I have just one last wish... let me be sentenced to death... i don't care if I'm hanged... just give me two days before my hanging and i will go and have a field day in Juhapura, where seven or eight lakhs of these people stay... I will finish them off... let a few more of them die... at least 25,000 to 50,000 should die."
- Babu Bajrangi, one of the major leaders of the Gujarat Genocide, recorded during a sting operation.

Ehsan Jaffri, the Congress politician and poet who made the mistake of campaigning against Former Chief Minister Modi in the Rajkot elections, was publicly butchered. In the words of man who took part in the savagery:

"Five people held him, hen someone struck him with a sword... chopped off his hand, then his legs... then everything else, after cutting him to pieces, they put him on the wood they had piles and set him in fire... Burned him half-alive."

The Ahmedabad Commissioner of Police, PC Pandey, was kind enough to visit the neighborhood while the mod lynched Jaffri, murdering 70 people, and gang raped 12 women before burning them alive. After Modi was re-elected, Pandey was appointed Gujarat's Director-General of Police. The entire killing apparatus remains in place.

"Denial is saying, in effect, that the murderers did not murder. The victims weren't killed. The direct consequence of denial is that it invites future genocide." - Robert Jay Lifton, author of Hiroshima and America: Fifty years of Denial

Since the United States is the richest and most powerful country in the world, it has assumed the privilege of being the World's Number One Genocide Denier. It continues to celebrate Christopher Columbus day, the day Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas, which marks the beginning of a Holocaust that wiped out millions of native Indians, about 90% of the original population (Lord Amherst, the man whose idea it was to distribute blankets infected with small pox virus to Indians, has a university town in Massachusetts, and a prestigious liberal arts college named after him).
In America's second Holocaust, almost 30 million Africans were kidnapped and sold into slavery. Well near half of them died during transportation. But in 2002, the US delegation could still walk out of the World Conference Against Racism in Durban, refusing to acknowledge that slavery and the slave trade were crimes. Slavery, they insisted, was "legal" at the time. The US has also refused to accept the bombing of Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden and Hamburg - which killed hundred and thousands of civilians - were crimes, let alone acts of genocide. The argument here is that the government didn't "intend" to kill civilians.
Since the end of WWII, the US government has intervened overtly, militarily, more than 400 times in 100 countries and covertly more than 6,000 times. This includes its invasion of Vietnam and the extermination, with excellent intentions of course, of three million Vietnamese (approximately 10% of its population).
None of these has been acknowledged as war crimes or genocidal acts.

"The question is how much evil do you have to do in order to do good?"
- Robert MacNamara, whose career graph took him from the bombing of Tokyo in 1945 (1,00,000 dead overnight) to being the architect of the Vietnam war, to President of the World Bank - now sitting in his comfortable chair in his comfortable home, in his comfortable country.