Fallen Grace

by Rikaza Hassan

"Metal music talks about what goes on in life," says Sohan. "Since the bad side of life outweighs the good side we talk about the darker, the melancholic, the morbid side of life. This is the vehicle we chose to get on to express our message."

And what is their message? 'Tis perhaps best summed up by their most recently completed original single - Cells of Destruction. "It's about the wars that are raging, about all the people that are dying, about the people who abuse their authority. War is not the way to resolve conflict. It's begun by people with their own selfish motives who just don't look at the bigger picture."

"We don't stick to one particular sub-genre," they say of their music. "We like to experimenting with various genres. Currently we play a mix of thrash, speed, folk and melodic death metal." Their sound they describe as "harsh, heavy, intense, powerful and aggressive."

"A person not used to this kind of music will have to get in to it, but when they do they'll b blown away by its beauty."

Their music, they claim is complex: "both our lyrics and our musical arrangements. They have a lot of emotion."

Fallen Grace have thus far eight originals under their belt, including Preach Me Dark, Illusionist, Temple of Redemption. They are presently adding the finishing touches to an as yet unnamed single that they categorise as "folk/power/melodic death metal." They will shortly start work on an EP titled 'Heresy Unveiled (Do We Believe?)'.

Their aspiration for the future is to open for their favourite bands such as Lamb of God, Children of Bodom, Shadows Fall, Tranquility and Testament and later of course have those very same bands open up for them.

The band as Fallen Grace has been in operation since 2003, though they only began playing gigs a year later. "Our first gig was really hard. It was at Familian Factor. We knew nothing about sounds and balancing and stuff. We had no stage act. It was pretty bad."

The response they received however has kept them going. "People told us that if we keep on doing this, we'd get somewhere. That we had potential. Since then we've worked really hard and with being on the scene for three years, I think we've proved something," especially to those detractors who kept telling them it was all a phase.

Nowadays, however they give their full 100% to their performances. "We try to be as wild as possible because if the audience is paying attention we could just maybe change their minds. It's all about the crowd, even if it means not being able to get up the next morning."

The five guys that is Fallen Grace is a dedicated bunch. "We practise four days a week, seven days if it's close to a gig." As for the importance of the band in their life, "It's an integral part of our lives. It's like the air we breathe. It's addictive. It we don't practise for sometime after a gig, it's really hard."

And their ultimate goal as Fallen Grace? "We are not trying to make money off this; we didn't start this for the money.

We just wanna play good, thrashing, head breaking metal."

*****

Sohan Arjuna Ratnayake (19)

Vocals

A bit bossy at times - "you try practicing with these guys" - he is still very much an alright guy. Frontman and lyricist of the band, he is known as kalua by his band mates. Studying for a degree in business, he works as a news presenter at TNL Radio. Sohan's musical influences are thrash, speed and doom metal.

His favourite bands: Arch Enemy, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall and Anathema. Sohan like many fans of metal attributes Slipknot for planting the seed for his love of metal. "At first I didn't really like it, but I kept on listening to it and it sounded quite trippy. It made me explore the genre more." Sohan is also known to get very tense after a show.

He sort of freaks out sprouting comments like, "was it good?/ were we cool?/..." "It drives me to do better, stops us being complacent." He also considers himself the "good looking bugger in the band," claiming to get all the chicks.

Isuru Akila Bandara Wijesekere/ Izzy (20)

Rhythm guitar

Izzy, according to Dilshan has an uncanny resemblance to the bassist of RHCP and is consequentially known to the members of Fallen Grace as the Flea. Izzy also needs to be controlled especially before a gig because of the enticements of a certain friend.

Baggy pants, arm and wrist bands plus the professionally done right eyebrow (see picture) are his trademarks. Izzy is all set to leave to the U.K. soon to study sound engineering plus get his PhD in guitar. I want to open my own studio when I come back.

Izzy formerly played keyboards -since the age of 8, and has been in many bands including Drought (whose guitarist influenced him to play guitar), Cold Fusion, Whirlwind and Sword of the Spirit. "It was with Whirlwind that I got in to metal. I used to hate it before."

Rakitha Laknath Gamage (16)

Lead guitar

Rakitha with his full head of curls loves messing up his hair, which he preceded to do throughout the interview. He considers himself a ladies man and a player, saying "chicks fall for my hair, my Jimi Hendrix hair." A student of IT, his favourites are Lamb of God, Megadeth and Nevermore.

Always the first to suggest a break during practices; he nevertheless takes his responsibilities seriously. His parents have an uncanny ability to text him while playing, to which messages he answers during the gig. Rakitha loves hanging out at the Colpetty branch of Barista with his cup of coffee and...

Dilshan Bandara (19)

Drums

Nicknamed Vanderboot?, he is an "awesome dude and one of the best drummers in the country." He always strives to be better, that he is never the drummer that he was yesterday. His dedication and determination to his music is much admired by his band mates.

Dilshan is known to have an "unbelievable capacity" and can be dead serious at times. A huge fan of Pantera - too bad about Dimebag, he also looks up to the drummers of Stigmata and Shadows Fall. A self taught musician, he learnt his art by practising on his drum set at home a year ago.

He is also considered, noble, humble, modest - "He doesn't admit to having talent and is never afraid to learn."

Shivantha Dananjaya Bandara Baddewala (19)

Bass guitar

The calmest and most composed member of the band, Shivantha is always quiet. He is also the most responsible of the five and handles all the money matters. Also the best person to control the guitarists who are known to wander off in to their own private worlds, his position is almost that of manager.

The band love hanging out Shivantha's home, drinking his mom's lovely tea and raiding their refrigerator.

The only parents to have been supportive of his choice from the start (the others took some time), his house is the official den of the band where they retreat before gigs. Shivantha takes his stuff seriously, even giving up playing rugby for the band. He is serious about two things in his life: working out at the gym and Fallen Grace. "He drives the rest of us a lot."