Afghan rock musician performs during a concert at the French Culture House in Kabul on June 24. Kabul's rock music school, which opened in May inside the small Venue restaurant in the Afghan capital, also reflects the return, although sometimes tentative, of social and individual freedoms since the end of the Taliban rule in 2001.Omar Sobhani/Reuters
On a dimly lit stage the godfather of Afghan rock prepares for the next song, as images of the French movie La Haine (Hate) flicker above and his audience is asked what song they would sing if they were lying in the gutter dying.
For District Unknown, Afghanistan's first heavy metal band, the answer could be Two Seconds After the Blast, from their soon-to-be recorded first album, Anatomy OfA 24-Hour Life Time.
"We live under the constant fear of sudden death," says Qasem Foushanji, guitarist with District Unknown, one of a handful of bands to emerge with mentoring from Afghanistan's first school of rock, which opened in May.
The thumping, heavy-metal rock and aggressive lyrics that reverberate within the soundproof walls of Kabul's Sound Center music school allows young Afghans to vent their anger at the violence they have witnessed during years of war before and after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.
Kabul's rock music school, housed inside a small restaurant in the Afghan capital, also reflects the return, though sometimes tentative, of social and individual freedoms since the end of Taliban rule in 2001.
The Taliban's extreme interpretation of Islam banned cinema, TV and most music, except that rooted in religion, and forbade women and girls from working or studying. Under the Taliban, a rock school would have been destroyed and its musicians killed.
Even now, 11 years since Taliban rule ended, Afghanistan's young rock musicians are sometimes forced to wear masks when performing to avoid being attacked by religious conservatives.
And the shadow of the Taliban looms large ahead of the 2014 transition when most foreign combat troops leave and hand security control back to Afghan forces.
"Our music is not about heartbreak or boy-girl relationships. We don't live that," says Qais Shaqasi, guitarist with District Unknown.
"It's about watching a 15-year-old being married off to a 50-year-old man by her father for money. That's what we see," says Mr. Shaqasi, wearing a black T-shirt depicting U.S. trash metal band Slayer.
The school has attracted some 20 students, including a handful of girls, seeking refuge in rock.
Pedram Foushanji and his brother Qasem, the band's songwriter, were living in Iran when they were given an album by the U.S. heavy metal band Metallica, along with a warning about its "harsh" sound, which is in stark contrast to Afghanistan's traditional string and drum music.
"I feel most comfortable playing metal music because you go out there in everyday life and you get a lot of negative energy," Pedram said. "Playing metal makes me feel better. It does for me what meditation does for others."
It was probably no surprise that young Afghan men like the Foushanji brothers picked heavy metal to express themselves, said Mohammad Zaman Rajabi, a Kabul psychologist, just as young U.S. soldiers turned to 1960s rock when confronted with the horrors of the Vietnam War.
The fast-paced thrash of heavy metal rock is a magnet for youths desensitized to violence, said Mr. Rajabi, citing the rock fights and wrestling among Afghan youths on Kabul's streets.
"It gives them an opportunity to express their deepest emotions in a very aggressive, masochistic way," he said.
"It's a smarter way to cope with the reality. In classical music you need a stable state of mind to express yourself through traditional instruments like the sitar, but in rock or heavy metal the kids feel more free."
Kabul's school of rock is also allowing young Afghan girls to strut their stuff on stage. Unlike most schools in Afghanistan there is no segregation of sexes here.
"I always wanted to learn to play rock music and tried to learn in other courses, but there were taught by men and had all male students, so they used to harass us," said Sahar Fetrat, wearing a black scarf while strumming her guitar.
Ms. Fetrat, a 16-year-old high school student learning to play guitar, said she attends the school with her sister Sadaf, 20, who is learning to play drums.
"The teachers at this school are used to being around women. The students too. They don't make it uncomfortable. I want to learn to play rock because I'm a very active and hyper person, and rock is wild and I can be wild playing it," she said.
Students have to produce mixed-sex performances every week.
"Segregation of sexes causes a lot of unnecessary problems in this country," said Mr. Beard, who plans to form a girl band.
"The male population in the music scene here do not even want to give the girls a chance. They laugh at them before they've even started to play music," he said.
"What's really annoying is that these are not the mullahs or the conservatives. We're talking about the Afghan youth who are already playing music here, who are going to parties and living a semi-Western lifestyle. They're still close-minded about women, which is ridiculous."