One is so used to heavy metal rock band Karakoram exploring the darkest facets of love, of giving voice to our angst and deepest anguish, of screaming for us in their music when we can’t, that their latest song Zindagi comes as a bit of a surprise, nay utter and complete shock.

I tuned in for a dark and depressing release. Of stories of struggle and survival. Of painfully letting go. Instead, I get a fluffy look back at how amazing the year was.

In fact, they even preface the video of Zindagi with slogans that fill my inner rock goth with disdain. There’s “Life is beautiful” (what the hell! No, it must be painfully lived, wearing our emotional scars as medals, a testament of what we’ve been through!). The cherry on top is the message, “Live it like there’s no tomorrow” (they have well and truly gone the bumper sticker way!). They also add, “Ending the year with Love and Positivity, ’cause life is beautiful” (since when? Pffft).

Before going any further, Karakoram is Sherry Khattak on vocals and guitar, Bilawal Lahooti on drums, Annan Noukhez and Zain Peerzada on guitars and Omair Farooq on the bass.

In Zindagi, Karakoram looks back at the year in gratitude

I listened to the song to find out what happened to one of my favourite rock outfits to make them get so dangerously close to the preppy, pop music side. Is their next move going to find them experimenting with electropop? Oh wait, they already did a version of that in their collaboration with Hasan Raheem in Kyun and managed to stay true to their roots.

Zindagi starts off with a standard rock riff, Sherry sounds appropriately angsty and sad but, as the song progresses to the chorus, he sounds angst-ily hopeful:

“Zindagi hai haseen/ Jeena hai/ Jeena hai/ Khud ke liye/ Khud ke liye [Life is beautiful/ We have to live it/ Live/ For oneself/ Oneself]”

The second part of the chorus, my little dark heart agrees with. We should live it for ourselves first and everything else, second.

Sure, the guitar riffs and overall structure aren’t much to write home about. This song isn’t going to break any kind of boundaries or provide any personal epiphanies. It’s just a feel-good (shudders) number designed as an expression of the band’s gratitude, versus them trying to put something out there to show off their skill and musical prowess.

It has overly simplistic, easy-to-follow lyrics, for the casual listener to sing along to on the car ride home. It’s also peppered with the standard ‘woah, oh’ vocalisations emblematic of typical rock songs.

All of the standard ingredients are there for a decent, standard rock number and you get exactly what you paid for: nothing. As in, nothing out of the ordinary. And for now, that’s fine. Grudgingly, good old’ gratitude at one year ending and the other beginning shall prevail.

*Published in Dawn, ICON, january 1st, 2023***