In terms of ethnic diversity, metal tends to be as homogeneous as it is heavy. But not so with New York City’s Scar Culture. A band with Indian, Russian, and American heritage, Scar Culture brings both breadth and brutality to the fold.
Indeed, the group’s sound is just as diverse as its band members’ ancestry. A scalding mix of grind, death, and hardcore, Scar Culture’s breakneck metal is corrosive and all-encompassing. With frontman Pheroze Karai growling like a malnourished rottweiler over speed-of-light guitars and a charging-rhino rhythm section, this band is all business. About the only thing heavier than Scar Culture is the man who discovered the group — rotund S.O.D. instigator Billy Milano, who produced the band’s savage 2001 debut, Inscribe. Yeah, it’s pretty ironic that a guy who came to fame with the seminal, immigration-wary diatribe Speak English or Die would play a major role in the career of a band with backgrounds as varied as Scar Culture’s, but this group is good enough to negate any biases. And most of its peers.
This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2002.