Note: This is not a promotional post. I’m not associated with Vivaldi in anyway.

I learned about Vivaldi by chance. I was working on a project (not related to journalism), and for that, I needed different browsers. Many people that I work with use Google Chrome as their default browser because they are familiar with it. In the newsroom, we have to be quick, and we have to monitor different news organizations. It’s an annoyance when ads take over in Google Chrome. Brave is a lifesaver when it comes to that because you get to block ads. Vivaldi is another browser that is quite helpful in this regard. However, Vivaldi is more than just a browser and is a tool that every journalist needs in their arsenal, whether you work for a news organization or are independent.

News Monitoring

As I mentioned earlier, many journalists have to monitor different news organizations, whether it’s print, digital, or broadcast. You can open multiple tabs in Vivaldi to do that. In my browser, I usually have 8 tabs open of different news channels’ live feeds on YouTube for me to monitor. It helps me a lot, and it is something that I find really cool too.

Fact-Checking and Researching

Every journalist breathes fact-checking and researching, but when working on a story, it can be hard to keep track of things, and chances are, you can get disorganized. Vivaldi web panels and tab stacks are a wonderful way to organize your work. Web panels allow you to view content in a split-screen view, and you don’t even need to leave the tab. On the other hand, tab tiling helps you organize tabs together.

Then there is the quick access to bookmarks. I feel like this browser was created with journalists, academics, and researchers in mind. You have them already available in the side panel, and you can save relevant content in different folders.

Notes

I absolutely adore the fact that there is a Notes feature in the browser. Whenever I’m looking up something, and I immediately have to note something down, I don’t have to rely on an extension, and I can just do it right within the browser.

Translate

As an international journalist, I sometimes have to look up content in different languages. The easy access to the translate feature is another time saver for me when I’m on a deadline.

Wikipedia

When it comes to journalism, I feel like Wikipedia is very underrated. Of course, no one looks at it as an extremely reliable source, but it comes in handy when you are looking up basic information, and Wikipedia being available as a built-in feature in Vivaldi is a godsend.

Startpage

When you think of search engines, your first thought is Google, but the issue is that Google is a privacy risk, and it targets you with ads. Startpage, on the other hand, provides you with the same quality results but does not track your details.

Customization

Everyone works in a manner that they are most comfortable with. What might work for one might not work for others. Vivaldi gives you that creative control. You can customize the browser as you like. You can do whatever you want; however, you want. The possibilities are, and I mean this literally, endless.

Browsing human

I will be honest; there are times I have to rely on AI. I don’t view it in an antagonistic manner, but I definitely do understand the risks. The problem with AI, however, is that people have become so reliant on it that they expect AI to perform the most basic tasks, not because it saves time but because we have adopted laziness as a lifestyle.

Vivaldi’s “Keep browsing human” philosophy is wonderful because it helps you explore things on your own. If you are in a field like journalism or in a creative field, you would need to use your skills to figure things out. Now, one might argue that this costs time, but Vivaldi already helps you save time with the features I mentioned above. This is more for one’s own benefit, so you don’t forget the skills you have. Imagine you are researching something, and you feed that information into an AI chatbot, and the results deliver inaccurate information without you realizing it; that could cost you a lot. So do make mistakes because we are human, but make mistakes at your own expense and keep browsing human.

Here is another interesting article about why journalists should use Vivaldi: Vivaldi - The best browser for journalists

You can download the browser here: Vivaldi Official Website.

Note: This article was originally commissioned by Compass Music’s The Logbook, a blog featuring diverse voices from the global music industry.

Metal is a subculture in Pakistan. It has a limited but dedicated audience. Corporate entities have often ignored it due to its non-commercial status in favour of genres like pop, rock, classical, and folk, which are considered mainstream in the country.

Metal acts are passionate about the genre. Unfortunately, passion is not enough for them to make ends meet, and many performers have day jobs. Due to the genre being ignored, it has inspired a DIY approach. This is not limited to individuals making music on their own, but also planning their own gigs and releasing music independently. One could argue that the latter has become easy with the advent of the digital age, but it was the standard before it.

The Pioneer

Dusk, a Pakistani metal act started in the early nineties, is considered the first metal act, or as frontman Babar Sheikh puts it, the first extreme metal act. Dusk’s contribution to the metal scene is significant. It is not limited to the introduction of the genre in the country, but also inspiring the DIY concept and connecting with the international metal scene, earning cult status abroad.

The band’s DIY ideology can be best explained by their debut demo tape, Casketsize, in 1995. According to music writer Ahmer Naqvi, the demo tape was made using a cassette player with two decks and a unidirectional microphone put together by Sheikh’s former bandmate.

When Dusk started, according to Sheikh, the world was connected through demo tapes and sending letters. He would send out his demo tapes and letters to people in the underground metal scene abroad, which led to the band’s debut album, My Infinite Nature Alone, being released by a record label in Portugal, Hibernia Productions. The band’s second album, Jahilia, in 2003, and third album, Contrary Beliefs, in 2006, were released by a Czech-based record label, Epidemie Records. The band also performed in the Czech Republic, earning a cult following abroad. Dusk plans to release their fourth full-length album this year.

Dusk not only introduced metal to the country but also inspired a DIY concept and how one should not limit their music geographically, especially in the case of metal, which has a niche audience in Pakistan and cult status globally.

Record Labels in Pakistan & Releasing Music Independently

Record labels in Pakistan have often ignored metal music. This is why many metal acts would either release their music through foreign labels or independently. The genre was seen as unconventional.

In 2004, Sadaf Stereo became the first commercial record label to release a metal album in Pakistan. Mizraab’s album Maazi Haal Mustaqbil was not without problems, however. According to Tayyab Khalil’s book Rockistan, no Pakistani record label was ready to release it, and the album had been ready since 2002. The album was not a critical success in Pakistan. The label expected that it wouldn’t be a commercial success either since only a limited 15,000 copies were available at first. However, Sadaf Stereo had to produce another batch due to popular demand.

Gas Mask Holocaust (GMH) Records was an independent record label that started in 2008. According to the founder, Shaheryar Popelzai, the venture was launched exclusively to support extreme music in Pakistan. Dusk and Singapore-based crust punk band Distrust’s split album Eastern Assault and metal band Odyssey‘s album Ghosts of Yesterday, released by the label, sold out twice.

GmH Records faced issues since Popelzai was the sole runner behind the venture. He cites ‘logistics and a lack of interest’ as the main problems. It was challenging to ship CDs abroad, and Popelzai recalls how a shipment to India, a country with which Pakistan has tense relations, landed the distributor in trouble. Running a passion project alongside a day job became tough for Popelzai, which led to the label ceasing operations.

There are currently no plans to bring back GmH Records. According to Popelzai, the music industry no longer needs record labels. Because musicians self-release their music now, what they need is PR teams and promoters.

Rearts is an arts company and a record label founded by visual designer Azeem Hamid and Najam Ul Assar, who hails from an engineering background. The record label currently has more than 50 artists signed with it. BlackHour, Tabahi, and Wisdom Salad are metal acts signed with Rearts, but Azeem Hamid, who is also the creative director, says that they plan to include more metal acts.

Hamid says the distribution of music is not a difficult task, but what differentiates them is ‘the outlook, the support they give to musicians, how they curate their music, help produce their music, and work with them on a day to day basis.

When asked about how many people listen to metal music in the country every year. says they get roughly around 30,000 listeners monthly. Rearts distributes its music through different streaming services. On the popularity of streaming services in Pakistan, Hamid commented that they are not massively popular, but they are picking up pace. Local apps Bajao and Patari have a subscriber base of approximately 2 million and 3-4 million, respectively. Spotify Pakistan is about to reach 1 million subscribers.

Regarding the popularity of metal acts on Rearts’ roster, Hamid said Black Hour is popular in Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Scandinavian countries. However, Black Hour is also picking up a dedicated audience in Pakistan due to the band participating in a popular music show, Pepsi Battle of the Bands.

Tabahi, on the other hand, is more popular in Germany and the United States.

In the case of Black Hour being popular in those countries, he said it is due to the band having cult status abroad because of articles being written on their music in those countries, and those countries having an underground metal scene. As for Tabahi, he said guitarist and founder of the band Annihilator, Jeff Waters, praised their music, which benefited them.

Hamid says that Rearts plans to hold gigs, sign more acts, including metal acts, and work with international artists as part of its plans.

Prognostic Records is an independent record label founded in 2015 by guitarist Sherjeel O’Neil. According to O’Neil, the record label was a necessity. He and fellow musician Ali Khan Niazi started it when they realized that record labels in the country were not active anymore due to digital piracy and weak copyright laws. Its main goal was to release and distribute the music of their metal outfit Kaan Phaard. Bassist and music producer Jahangir Hashmi later joined them, and the three have been central in running the label and their band.

Prognostic Records has since then released a lot of different genres apart from metal. O’Neil says that, due to the internet, there are not many problems for the label, although he does cite return on investment as a major concern. He is not concerned about metal being a niche genre in Pakistan, as he considers it to be an acquired taste.

There have been acts that have released music independently. Safyan Kakakhel, lead vocalist and the founder of the band Marg from Peshawar, released his entire music on Facebook, YouTube, and SoundCloud. Kakakhel did not want to deal with any “commercial record label or sign binding contracts” and just wanted to “put his music out there.” It was released independently on online platforms.

Saeed Rehman, lead vocalist of the band Skehlaaj from Quetta, says that it did not cost him anything to make, so “it shouldn’t cost anybody to listen.” In due course, the band’s debut album Komi Taranay was uploaded for free download on MediaFire. As of now, there have been 713 downloads.

Venues, Events, & Gigs in Pakistan

Hellfest, which takes place in the country’s capital, Islamabad, at the Lok Virsa Open Air Theatre, is Pakistan’s biggest metal event. It was started in 2012 by Faisal Imtiaz, rhythm guitarist for the metal band Inferner, who had already organized smaller events at different venues. Although the event has no connection to the French Hellfest, Imtiaz claims he was inspired by it. Five hundred and seventy people attended the first Hellfest. In 2013, it was attended by more than 780 people, and in 2014, more than 1000.

According to Imtiaz, there were no problems in organizing the event, but getting sponsorship proved difficult. The niche genre attendance numbers are not enough to convince many sponsors. Return on investment concerning Hellfest is a major concern for sponsors, which is why it was not held after twenty-fourteen. Hellfest was supposed to be held last year and would have also included international metal acts, but due to disagreements with sponsors and investors and the Coronavirus pandemic, things came to a halt. Imtiaz says he plans to bring the event back once the pandemic is over.

However, the management of Hellfest did hold similar events at a smaller scale, such as Undertow Sessions and Psychlock. The latter took place at Classic Rock Coffee Co., a popular venue for rock and metal acts in Islamabad. Classic Rock Coffee Co. shut down in 2017 due to a dispute over music volumes being too high. There are plans for the venue to open up in another location once the pandemic is over. 12 Bar Blues was another venue in Islamabad where musicians would come to perform. According to the lead vocalist of the band Rebel Club, Aaiz Khan, it shut down due to poor management. This does not mean that there is a lack of venues for metal musicians to perform, such as Club 432 and District19 in Karachi or Lahore’s Strictly Social and The Colony (none of these venues are exclusive to metal musicians or musicians only), although the shutting down of such popular venues does raise concerns.

Hellfest and artist management company Shor Bazaar also organised a concert of Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, the former lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses, in Islamabad, which more than 700 people attended. According to Imtiaz, there was an unrelated protest against the government the same day, but they still managed to gather that many people.

Organising gigs is a difficult task in Pakistan, especially for a metal or even rock act. Aaiz Khan, the lead vocalist of the rock band Rebel Club and formerly Ehl-E-Rock, says that it is ‘a hectic procedure,’ with many steps involved. While discussing a show for his band, Khan says that the first step is to get permission from the local authorities because the music is very loud. Most of Khan’s band’s performances have been held in Bahria Town, an affluent Islamabad neighbourhood. He had to get permission from the authorities of the area. They were told to perform at a Sheesha Café away from the local neighbourhood.

Then there was the problem of renting equipment. According to Khan, there is very little know-how when it comes to sound. People managing the sound equipment are used to weddings and not used to loud, metal acts. There is also the problem of selling tickets. Khan says if the tickets were sold at 500 Pakistani rupees (3.23 USD), no one would show up because it was too expensive for an underground act, so they had to sell the tickets at a lower price. Getting sponsors for such shows is also a tough ask because it does not earn them a lot of money.

Despite metal being a niche genre in the country, we have seen local efforts to commercialise it. Metal act Takatak‘s performance in a corporate-sponsored music show is one such example. If there are more successful attempts like this, we can foresee that sponsors and music professionals will start taking an interest in the genre, which has so far been mainly ignored by the mainstream.