My Land Is Breaking

So, a couple of years ago, the Youtube channel Loudwire published a list of artists from unexpected countries. It certainly did live up to its promise, a lot of bands listed there I did not recognize, let alone be able to guess where they came from. Some of them I did know of, but they were the exception rather than the rule. And then there was one band that stood out to me. That was the Afghan band District Unknown, who had released a heartfelt and painful song called "64", about a suicide attack killing 64 people in Kabul. It is a hard-hitting, yet reflectional tale of a song that describe the terrors of living in a war-torn place while not coming across as preachy or unnecessarily confrontational.

But we're not here to talk about that song. We're here to talk about "My Land is Breaking". But where does this come to play? Well, in 2019 District Unknown split up, and two of its former members went on to form Afreet - which more or less picks up where District Unknown left off. They still keep a lot of the unique sound that their predecessors had, the crossroad between psychedelic (as they themselves referred to) and doom metal, a sound prevalent throughout their discography as a whole.

Then came August 15th, 2021. The Republic of Afghanistan collapses and is forced into exile, and the country becomes an emirate under Taliban control. I will hereby not discourse the matter further as I don’t know all the ins and outs of it. But Afreet, who had moved away from the country, were deeply concerned with what was going on in their native land, and the chaos it's facing. In September of that year, their magnum opus of a song sees the light of day.

At the time of writing, it’s a few months short of a year since the song’s release as well as when I first listened to it. I was in awe, already at first listen. Even if I did have a little bit of knowledge of the band prior, this song still hit me harder than anything had ever done before. I could go into detail about how cleverly written the song is, how every instrument is used to match the mood of every single part of the song. From aggressive riffs in the verses and chorus to the somber acoustic bits, like the instrumental bridge a little bit more than halfway through. But what really struck me in the end is the overall feel of the song. It manages to become greater than the sum of its parts. If there’s one emotion that permeates the entire song, it is without a doubt, the pain and anguish.

And then I haven’t even mentioned the lyrics yet. While the music video that came along with the song explains the situation better (featuring raw footage of what has been going on in the country since the Taliban takeover), Afreet manages to deliver the message across with clear conviction. A wailing cry for a fallen homeland taken over by a regime infamous for despising its own people, as well as a desperate call for help to the outside world, that seems to fall on deaf ears. It culminates with the final lyrics, which Yousef Shah scream out in sheer, raw agony. I’ve listened to a lot of different subgenres of metal in my day, but I’m fairly sure I’ve never felt such an immense feeling of that aforementioned pain in any type of metal scream, be it a growl, a shriek or a fry scream. I was so taken in by the whole package that if I wasn’t getting all numb by it, I’d weep. And with all of that in mind I feel like giving this single a 100% score seems fair. This is a song that wouldn’t exist in an ideal world, but seeing what's going on around the world today, it has earned its raison d'être and then some. It also reminds me of a certain paradox - how the majority of the most beautiful art in this world is crafted from negative emotions, like pain and sorrow.

When this song was released on Afreet’s Bandcamp page, they made it clear that all proceeds will be donated to Sound Central to assist in the evacuation of musicians in the country. Naturally, I went on and bought the song without hesitation. And I strongly recommened anyone who stumbles upon this song to do that as well. Even though, once again, some time has passed and another war has taken up much of the headlines lately, I don’t think much has changed since the fall of 2021. As far as I know, there are still people in dire need of help. And Afreet have certainly demonstrated to us how important it is that their voices are heard.