siLLy puPPy
BURZUKH, yep you read right. BURZUKH from Islamabad, Pakistan, NOT Burzum the Norwegian black metal criminal. While metal in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan hasn’t quite caught on like it has in the rest of the world, there are a very few examples including the black metal Taarma, the progressive metal Dusk and this industrial metal act from the nation’s capital and actually there are a few dozen more although not easy to find.
In reality this is really the one-man band of Syed Suleiman Ali who performs all vocals and instruments. The project started in 2001 with several albums and EPs emerging since. This one TIME AND SPACE was the last full-length to appear in 2013 and one of the few i can find to check out. For some reason it’s not easy to locate Pakistani metal. The censors must be doing their jobs.
While Taarma, the only other metal band i’ve heard from Pakistan delivers an enchantingly bleak version of depressive black metal, BURZUKH on the other hand crafts a rather head-scratching jittery and even atmospheric variety of industrial metal. Generating guitar riffs somewhat out of the Ministry playbook, BURZUKH features choral backgrounds, electronic embellishments, a drum machine and a few spastic guitar antics.
Overall the guitar tones are more in the realms of black metal however the electronic weirdness (which doesn’t really fit) seems more like indie rock. The absolutely worst part of BURZUKH is the clean vocal style. Not only does this guy’s voice not remotely metal sounding, he can’t even sing clean vocals. Really the whole thing sounds very cheesy and amateurish. There are a few moments that are decent especially when the industrial Ministry type riffs are in full rampage but most of the time this is pretty freekin bad. Burzum, here i come!