Death Metal MusicMusic and Culture on the Edge

In 2005, Saigopal Nelaturi came to Madison from Bangalore, India, to earn a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering. Since arriving here, he's pursued another interest, too -- his passion for rock. "When I was a kid I had lessons in classical Indian percussion," says Nelaturi, 28. "Then I discovered rock 'n' roll, or Western music as we call it back home, and I really got into it."

Last month was a month that was far too busy, stressful and hectic here at the Soul of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Luckily it closed out appropriately enough, with me attending a great concert by a band I’ve been wanting to see live since… well since I was old enough to know what their music was all about: Nine Inch Nails. The collected works of Trent Reznor and company have long been in heavy listening rotation for me. I remember hearing “The Perfect Drug” debut on the radio and immediately being struck

The band Acrassicauda is rockin' in the free world, but how they got here is an immigrant song of a different type. After avoiding Saddam Hussein's secret police, enduring the bombing of their practice space, dodging death threats and navigating sectarian warfare in their native land, four Iraqi musicians who wanted nothing more than to rock 'n' roll all night are living in New Jersey, pursuing ...

FOR half a century rock’n’roll and hotels have been uneasy bedfellows. Stars have thrown televisions from windows or ridden motorbikes up the corridors. The hard-pressed staff have been left to clean up and stick it on the bill.

We hung out with Spencer Chamberlain, Tim McTague and Aaron Gillespie from Christian metal band Underoath and chatted about Spencer’s battle with addiction, how religion (doesn’t) effect their rock’n'roll credibility and how they’ve remained grounded despite being a high profile metal band.