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Unearthing The Metal Underground: The Colombo, Sri Lanka Metal Scene

Each week in "Unearthing the Metal Underground," we'll be putting a few quality underground bands in the spotlight in an attempt to get the word out about them. This week I am exploring the Sri Lankan metal scene. Today I'll be introducing three bands spanning metal sub-genres from Colombo, Sri Lanka, where the metal scene is the most active.

Fallen Grace is what most people would label as a melodic death metal outfit, although they don't fit the description of your typical Gothernburg melodic death metal band. Hailing from Sri Lanka's capitol, Colombo, these guys claim to be influenced by the likes of artists from the Gothernburg melo-death scene as well as bands such as Motorhead, I, Venom, Bathory and Dissection. Fallen Grace is widely known for their intense stage acts and uncompromising, attitude which has managed to attract a massive extreme metal fan base for them here in Sri Lanka. Although Fallen Grace is known as one of the oldest metal bands in Sri Lanka, they have only released one studio album to date, as the band claims to lack cooperative band members and proper recording studios in the country. Nonetheless, as friends who grew up together in the same school, the three founding members, Sohan, Rakitha, and Shiva are currently recording their debut EP titled "Heresy Unveiled: Do We Believe?," along with drummer Nisala and Guitarist Shamil. You can check out some of their music on their MySpace player or in a short video clip of one of their sound checks below.

Paranoid Earthling was one of the first bands to enter the Sri Lankan Metal scene. Hailing from the hill capital, Kandy, these boys have survived as a steady four-piece line up through their debut EP titled "Rock N Roll Is My Anarchy," an official bootleg album named "Playtime Music," two official videos for "Brining Down The Sun" and "69" respectively and a recently released single from their upcoming and long awaited debut album. Rarely seen sober, frontman Mirshad Buckman tends to write his lyrics questioning political, economical and socio-cultural issues faced by the average Sri Lankan youth on a daily basis. Although they've found themselves in difficult situations throughout their career as a band, addressing such topics in a somewhat conservative Sri Lanka, they don't seem to be showing signs of slowing down. Paranoid Earthling is a unit that is fond of experimenting with genres such as post-grunge, punk, 70's retro blues and psychadelic elements whilst they preserve their uniqueness as a band that produces their particular dish of preferred psychadelicacies. Paranoid Earthling is: Mirshad, Asela, Danushka and Shanka. Check out some of their material on their MySpace page and a full live set below, from "Bed" bar and lounge (formerly known as Blizz Pool Parlour) in 2006:

And finally we have Unholy Sermon, a blackened thrash metal band from Colombo, who recently released their debut studio recording titled, "Bleed For The Gods Of War." The band, who can't really be considered as newcomers to the Sri Lankan metal scene, went through unstable lineups since they formed in 2007 and having an unreleased EP titled "Novena Of Darkness" due to various issues faced by the band. Frontman Arjun along with drummer Dilruksha, Bassist Soyza and guitarist Suchintha seem to be back on track and occupied with recording the rest of the material for their debut record, however. Check out Unholy Sermon on their MySpace page as well.

There definitely are more quality heavy metal bands in Sri Lanka and we will be returning to the Sri Lankan underground in a future column to cover more bands. But if you'd like to recommend some other good underground Sri Lankan metal bands, please feel free to discuss them in the comments below.