Next up on our list of Metal Bell 6th Anniversary bands, we have Gorilla Warfare, a young local Heavy Metal band.

Gorilla Warfare started off in AUB, where its members played some music for fun and ended up deciding that they enjoyed it.

Each of the band’s members has their own personal set of influences and musical tendencies:

  • Their vocalist, Shadi Shaar, is very passionate about vocals and practices them daily. His favorite bands are Alter Bridge, Dio, and Judas Priest;
  • Their lead guitarist, Simon Semaan, loves Dream Theater, Opeth, and Avenged Sevenfold;
  • Their rhythm guitarist, Layan Bedran, is a Metalcore enthusiast who enjoys writing “epic riffs”;
  • Their bassist, Mostafa Itani, is a huge Iron Maiden fan and knows all of their songs by heart;
  • Their drummer, Omar Captan, is known by his bandmates as an awesome person and an awesome drummer. He’s also known for getting injured a lot.

The name Gorilla Warfare was born from a joke. When they first started performing, they had a second guitarist whose name was Jad. Both Jad and Simon Semaan were relatively beefy guys, and their fellow band members teasingly drew some resemblance between them and gorillas.

The band focuses mostly on covers, and will be performing songs by Dio, Iron Maiden, Ozzy Osbourne, and Megadeth (however, their last song isn’t confirmed yet – we’re in for a surprise!).

They do have some demos of original material ready. However, they are not planning on remaining together after the upcoming event, which will be their final performance as Gorilla Warfare. They cannot currently find enough time to practice. Also, they have noticed that the Heavy Metal genre isn’t generating much enthusiasm these days and are thus a bit bored. Some of the members might start something new in the future, but nothing is confirmed so far. Let’s hope to hear more from them soon!

When asked for a statement regarding Gorilla Warfare’s appearance at SledgeHammer Production and Metal Bell’s upcoming event, their vocalist Shadi Shaar replied: “We are honored to play at this event and very excited to give our best at this show and have a great time.”

Current Lineup

Shadi Shaar – Vocals
Simon Semaan – Lead Guitar
Layan Bedran – Rhythm Guitar
Mostafa Itani – Bass
Omar Captan – Drums

Gorilla Warfare, we do not want to bid you farewell but look forward to sharing one last show with you!