Firdous - A Hero's Journey

This blog was drafted in December, 2020.

Firdous is an epic concept album from the progressive rock band 'Coshish' that was released in 2013. It's their debut album and the only album released by Coshish to date. This underrated album, if listened to carefully, can be a transcendental experience. This album can make you feel like a part of an individual's journey to Moksha (Nirvana). The way Coshish achieves this is by tapping into one of the greatest narrative structures in history.

The structure of the album can be described using Joseph Campbell's "The Hero's Journey".

So what is the hero's journey?

The Hero's Journey can be thought of as a cycle. And there is a high probability that you are familiar with the hero's journey. "Lord of the Rings" is one of the greatest written books that follow this structure.

Campbell describes the hero's journey in his book "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" -

The hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder
Fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won
The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

In Firdous, they depict their hero's journey through the amalgamation of their music and lyrics. Coshish began working on early drafts of what was to become Firdous, 6-7 years before the official album's release. As Hamza Kazi (Drummer) rightly said in an interview - We believe that anything that requires quality, requires time. We put in 4 or 5 years of hard work into the first album and that is why it is what it is.

The album opens with the title track "Firdous" (the same name as the album). The title track sets the premise of what is to be expected in the remaining tracks. The introduction to our hero is abstract, without any clear narration. Firdous means 'paradise', a place that the hero seeks. With Raastey, we reach the next track is the call to the hero's adventure and this is where the true journey starts.

Mangesh (Vocals, Guitarist) uses inner calling to depict the hero's call to adventure.

Goonj uthi, ek aawaaz kaheen
Mere dil ki, hai saaz sahi

Each song in Firdous has different phases of the hero's journey. The album ends with the instrumental 8-minute long masterpiece rightly titled "Mukti" meaning liberation/freedom/absolution. The hero in our album is finally free from the demons in his mind (his alter ego). The hero's journey ends where it started, but the hero has changed and this is his new beginning.

Firdous deviates from the hero's journey (as explained by Joseph Campbell), and that's because though there is a battle to be fought, there are no external monsters to fight. The battle lies within the hero. The battle is with his mind (his alter ego).

This is the story of how an Indian progressive rock band crafted the masterpiece and I would like to end this video with an interview that Hamza (Drummer) gave back in 2014: Music these days is much more disposable, isn’t it? When I was growing up I bought albums and listened to them from start to finish religiously. Kids these days just want to download singles. Maybe that’s why the album struck such a note with me – because it is an album where I want the whole experience from start to finish. I want the peaks and troughs and the different mood changes.