Metal bands from Botswana. Yes, you read that right. Very rarified genre for a country known for tribes and bushmen. Some of it is sophomoric by our jaded standards, but when you consider how non-conformist these musicians are its downright unbelievable. Read on for info from the label, Svart: “The songs on this compilation were gathered during the making of the documentary film Freedom in the Dark between 2014 and 2017. As of writing this in 2018 there is roughly ten active bands in Botswana and more or less same number of bands that have called it quits. Due to the fact that it has been and still is difficult to record music, especially rock, in Botswana, many bands haven’t been able to record their music at all. This compilation has been culled from what has been possible to produce on record.”

1) (2:58) techie guitar gives way to good pummeling, grind vocs. 2) (2:25) nice gallop to this pummeling 3) (5:13) basic head nodding rock. 4) (3:21) rather cheesy rock ballady, but then you gotta remember where this is from, pretty cool. 5) (2:19) slow with grind vocals. 6) (3:06)* fast slow with grind Cookie Monster vocals, killer 7) (4:06) yikes, this one is tough to stomach, with contrasting vocals and melodic ‘isms, but again, remember where this is from 8)* (4:31) machine gun bass drums, rather dark tone with grind vocs, nice 9) (4:11) same band as previous, cool rockin with grind vocals. 10) (3:10) deep guttural guitar and double kick blasts, 2/4 hardcore grind feel, indecipherable language 11)* (5:10) begins with african tribal hand claps and singing, great stuff a la Roots era Sepultura