The Axis Of Perdition: Heart patients,be warned...

They say there's nothing to fear but fear itself.That fear is all in the mind.That fear is the unknown.The unseen.But what about hearing it?What happens when in the middle of an eerie silence one hears a loud crash?Does your heart race?Do you wish you were not in that place,that situation?

Now imagine CHOOSING to be in that situation.Confused?Well let this quartet from Middlesborough,U.K. help you out.They call themselves The Axis Of Perdition.Their style of music can at best be described as 'horror black metal'.These guys don't rely on technique or melody to get their message across.They rely on FEAR.Pure,unadulterated fear.With songs structured mostly on minor chords and discordant chromatics,The Axis Of Perdition are the aural embodiment of fear.And its not the epic kind of darkness.I'm talking static noises,gurgling,metallic,resonating voices;sudden clangs and very disturbing echos.They also sometimes use discordant voices (a scream and a mellow tone) to deliver that ultimate breath-shallower.The vocals are neither 'here' nor 'there',in the sense that they use rasps,shouts,static-laden screams,digitized growls and even conversational voices. The rhythm style is not the typical tremolo picking-dominant,4-note style of black metal but mostly slow,doomy chords and dissonant harmonies.Even the drumming hardly has a blast beat,but thanks to a drum machine,one tends to hear a lot of INSANELY fast double bass.

All in all, TAOP is a band like none other.TAOP is like a sadistic vampire that feeds on the fear in the listener.With lyrical themes like zombie experiments in a defunct hospital and the breeding technique of Ichneumon wasps (wasps that lay eggs in a live host and whose young kill the host), TAOP scare you.They heighten your senses.In a way so disturbing that it makes you want to hear them again and again.

Fear,for some it seems,is an art.

Indian schools: The mechanization begins here

Parents have always been proud of seeing their children in some sort of uniform.Whether its the 1st school uniform,an Army uniform or that of a doctor, the 'photo in the uniform' is mandatory.I'm not too fond of uniforms myself,but they're acceptable to the point of giving a certain identity in society to the wearer.But Indians have somehow misused that concept of identity in a VERY personal manner.Let me explain:

The school that I have passed out of has officially gone to hell. The principal stepped down, we now have one incompetent asshole as an acting principal (this guy's ONLY claim to fame in school is 100% attendance.Oh and emptying whole bottles of perfume on himself before he comes to school),all the good,well-established teachers are leaving only to be replaced by educationists who can at best be described as 'graduates' and basically the remaining ones are trying to hold this school together with a very loose grip of disciplinary extremity. For example: no guitar performances or western dance performances are allowed as that 'westernizes' the school.No dancing on songs with words like 'love' and 'dil':we don't want to 'corrupt' these clean minds.Anyone wearing a dangling earring,a nose piercing,sporting hair longer than a certain length,wearing PT uniform on a non-PT day AND carrying MP3 players or CDs is IMMEDIATELY scrutinized and sent to the principal,who is a fucked about discipline himself.Moreover,even PICNICS have to be attended in uniform.

All this,JUST because you are in a school and you carry the 'values' and 'morals' taught in the school out into the real world.The only problem is that if you do that,the real world will pull you down and enslave you for life.I'll tell you the REAL reason behind all this: pressure from society.Every school administrator wants to be top school.And since discipline is sadly the main reson for judging that prestigiously worthless position,discipline enforcement seems to be the only way.Every school needs money.Not money to be able to continue because I'm sure they get enough of that through contacts.No...they want money to show their position in society.They want to be the alpha male of the pride.Or the matriarch of the herd.They want to have the 'best' students.The most controllable and conformistic idiots.Ones who will listen to ALL they say.

Damn.So this is where education is going in India.This is not education.Its subjugation.Its a loss of identity.Its a 'mass hypnosis',as Sepultura put it.And it must end.And the only way that will happen is mutiny.Students need to start throwing it back into the faces of the teachers.Silence is not the solution.Make them realize how idiotic they are behaving.Formality must come to an end.Don't worry about the consequences.NUMBERS are all that count.This is THE only way to ensure India progresses.