It's fast. It's loud. And it's unforgivable, intense, pulsating and heavy, theatrical Metal. That's what you get to hear from Suresh ("the voice"), Andrew (the lead-guitarist), Tenny (guitarist – one of the two band-members with no head-banging-style long hair), Wije (the inconspicuous bassist) and Jackson (the shorthaired drummer that could play shirtless more often), who together line up as the band Stigmata.

Sri Lanka is unique in many ways, but one thing I find extremely so is the fact that disasters in this nation take many shapes and forms – they are not limited to the 'natural' kind. Of course we have had our share of floods and tsunamis, and they have been horrendous, to say the least. But added to this, we also have sudden bomb blasts, shootings, kidnappings, and all the other horrific frills that come with the weighty package of Internal Conflict. Thousands of families are rendered fatherless. Thousands of people are driven out of their homes to foreign lands in search of refuge.