Okay so as expected, last week’s first episode of Pepsi’s Battle Of The Bands was INSANE.

Everything from meeting the celebrity judges Fawad Khan, Meesha Shafi and Farooq Ahmed from Aaroh

to the incredibly talented bands that took us all by storm.

Crowd favourite, Jasim and The Pindi Boys

Madlock

And who can forget, the strong female vocals of Naksh

Yas hunni.

Needless to say, it was lit.

And just as we thought it couldn’t get better, the second episode of auditions was even more entertaining than the last, featuring another 21 diverse bands reining from all over Pakistan.

Ehl-e-Rock, described as a complete ‘powerhouse’ by Farooq – lit the stage on fire with their song ‘Junoon.’

Rock on friends, rock on. Also, please take a look at the beards. MashAllah. 

The judges couldn’t help but be carried away by the members of Nafs, a 3 person band when they played ‘Main Shah’ by Manjhi Faqeer.

We were all pretty much dancing in our seats too.

Badnaam was anything but badnaam and blew everyone away with their original song, ‘Alif Allah.’

It seems as if the rock scene in Pakistan is very much alive as their unapologetic and v badass attitude was very apparent to see. Love it and it was an understatement to say the judges were in love with it too. I mean, they basically called them the winners of the entire show.

Darvesh’s performance was huge and when we say huge – we mean it.

The band took over the stage with their ten members, including 4 vocalists – making them the largest band to audition so far.

MashAllah MashAllah. Also the bit about the music being the lead singer’s late Nani’s poetry? We’re not crying. You are.

Once all the bands had performed, drama hit when it came to shortlisting all the finalists in their filtering process. OH AND SHOCKER – since the bands were THAT good, the judges decided to pick 8 bands instead of the 6 they were supposed to have.

Talk about a plot twist.

The finalists included Badnaam, Roots, Kashmir, Madlock, Aura, Jasim and the Pindi Boys, Shajr and Darvesh.

OH AND THE DRAMA DIDN’T END THERE, FRIENDS.

The band ‘Positive,’ a sure stand out from the first episode of Battle of The Bands was disqualified as they did not meet the needed criteria to carry on in the competition. Yeah. WE KNOW.

In the end, the judges seemed completely satisfied with their decisions and besides all the drama – Aaroh’s performance of his famous song, ‘Raag Neela’ was the perfect ending to another exciting audition episode.

But, let’s not forget to talk about the elephant in the room. Or should we say, the Atif in the room…

THAT’S RIGHT. After billboards upon billboards and commercials and teasers and trailers – we FINALLY got to see a glimpse of Atif and Shahi Hasan taking the stage as judges on The Battle Of The Bands. *Internally screaming* Hands down, one of the most exciting parts of the episode. What’s going to be super entertaining for us will also be what makes the competition for the bands a lot more challenging.

It might be too early to tell but the season already looks like it’s going to be pretty amazing and we cannot wait.

Follow all the inside scoop and each band’s journey here and watch the new episode here:

This content has been made in partnership with Pepsi.