Author: MetalBellMagazine (Page 1 of 37)
Managing Director and Editor In Chief of Metal Bell Magazine.
LET'S RISE WITH THE SCENE \\m//
Freedom Fighters and heroes of arts and culture decided to come together and fight oppression, tyranny and dictatorship. With no labels and in total spontaneity, a group of individuals gathered themselves under one banner after the freedom of expression and art has been violated in Lebanon.
You’ve heard the news; after a 2 week-long media circus, Mashrou’ Leila, the Lebanese indie rock, had their act cancelled from the Byblos International Festival schedule on August 9th, by the festival committee for safety concerns of the staff, bands and attendees. ICYMI, read the full story >here<.
Music Is Louder (صوت الموسيقة أعلى) is the name of the event that will be held and will feature a weird, yet great combination of artists. The line up is versatile and features poets, actors, comedians, musicians, bands and more. The spontaneous talent collective will be protesting the terrorizing acts that led Mashrou’ Leila to cancel their show out of FEAR. In addition, with a scary domino effect, Dutch Metal band Within Temptation felt unsafe to come and cancelled their show, and voiced their support to Mashrou’ Leila. (Read about it >here<)
When we asked the organizers about how the initiative came to be, they replied: “The organizers are individuals that decided to come together and fight oppression. This fight for freedom of speech has been going on for years, but this is the first time it gets this much attention since Mashrou’ Leila is a big name in Lebanon. We got together and decided that it’s time to take a stand and came up with the idea of an alternative concert that is free of hate-speech, censorship, and homophobia.”
The line up is a work of art in it self, it is too interesting to miss, and “consists of artists, singers, bands, stand-up comedians, dancers, and more.” (check full line up >here<). And as the event will mostly involve live music, it naturally came into question whether Mashou’ Leila will make an appearance. But, “unfortunately, most band members are not in Lebanon and will not be able to physically be there with us.”
As Metal Bell and many of us Metalheads have been victims of such oppression, most recently with the ban of Sepultura, we are hoping that such movements would become regular and let our voices be heard. The organizers clarified that “The aim is to fight censorship and hate speech and promote freedom of speech. This idea was put together very fast due to the time frame. We would very much like to continue with this activity later, but are still unsure how.”
We hope to see you all on August 9th at the Palace to protest against violence and against oppression of any kind.
Read all the event details >here<
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After weeks of cultural terrorism against local band Mashrou’ Leila (Read our full report here) the Dutch Symphonic Metal Band Within Temptation cancels their scheduled show in Beirut out of fear for their safety and in solidarity with Mashrou’ Leila. Read Within Temptation’s statement below.
Within Temptation Statement
With a heavy heart we must inform you of the following:
As you know, we were scheduled to play the Byblos Festival in Lebanon on August 7th. We have found out that another band called Mashrou’ Leila was pulled from the festival according to the festival committee due to security reasons after religious fanatics demanded their performance to be cancelled followed by violent threats. Apart from the fact that Lebanese authorities at this moment are not able to provide artists the security to perform in peace, we have decided to cancel our show in Byblos in solidarity with Mashrou’ Leila and in support of tolerance, freedom of speech and expression.
For you, our fans in Lebanon, it hurts to make this decision. Our last show in Lebanon is still very vivid in our minds and hearts. We are looking forward to better days on which we will return to you in Lebanon.
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1- How has your music evolved since you first began playing music until now?
It’s not about evolving but rather than expressing the deepest emotions using simple and raw energy
2- What has been you biggest Challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so how?
You know the usual, time money instruments amps electricity shitty places and shitty people, its a long way…
3- What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
We wanna play till we die
4- What advise do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
Be ready for sacrifices
5- How much are you looking forward to perform during Metal United World Wide on June 15th at The Palace Beirut?
We are very excited to be in this world wide event with the other bands and we are excited this being our first time live we wanna have fun.
Make sure not to miss Angry Farmers’s Performance during Metal United World Wide on June 15 at The Palace Hamra
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH Angry Farmers ON: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
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1- How has your music evolved since you first began playing music until now?
Humanity evolved through years so as the music that we played from keeping updated in listening to new music styles and new genres of course it also effected through aging in life…
2- What has been you biggest Challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so how?
The biggest challenge was and still is to survive playing music in these extreme conditions that we are living in Lebanon but for the love of music we keep on doing what we do, to overcome is to survive in a way of course and yes by the music inspiration we have in these years with each member in his or her way, in the end music is more than a language and more than a feelings but it speaks in us all and that’s how we are doing it…
3- What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
There are no directions but doors and we are trying to open any door stand in our way and hopping for best and about the fortune when we started to play any instrument we didn’t made a career choice on it but only for the love of the instrument and nothing more and when we are sharing the moment while playing together with our own instruments well we don’t need money or fame
4- What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
Play what u love and play with your heart and never quit for small reasons
5- How much are you looking forward to perform during Metal United World Wide on June 15th at The Palace Beirut?
Well we are excited in the end its our 1st live performance but we only had a little time to be prepared for a live event but we will give our best and have fun, cheers.
Make sure not to miss Armian’s Performance during Metal United World Wide on June 15 at The Palace Hamra
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH Armian ON: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
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1- How has your music evolved since you first began playing music until now?
Many factors play a role in our musical evolution since we first started playing together. Emerging as a university band had the biggest impact on us refining our stage show because we were faced with very tough crowds that listened mostly to Arabic music, thus we didn’t hit them at first with the all-out metal tunes. Nevertheless, and after many lineup changes, we stayed true to heavy metal and we continued covering legendary bands including mainly Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath hence their influence can be felt in our first EP album entitled “A Cry For Sanity” which will be released on the 29th of June.
2- What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so how?
Our biggest challenge was finding the resources to get our music heard and our message delivered. As a Lebanese local band, finding opportunities to reach our goals does not come at ease, yet we persevered and played many shows in order to be able to self-fund our musical projects.
Another big challenge was finding and retaining members who are true to the craft and are willing to commit and compromise for us to deliver our music in the best ways, and this problem took its toll on the band as it had its fair share of lineup changes.
3- What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
We seek to deliver a message of hope and change especially regarding the Lebanese deteriorating situation through our words and music. If fame and fortune come along the way, it will definitely help in our goal. It’s been a fun ride during the entirety of our journey, we made great memories together and hopefully left a mark on some people. We want to be able to continue releasing music and do what we do.
4- What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
To the fellow musicians wanting to form a band, the best advice is to ensure the success of the band to be committed fully in order not to break when faced with the smallest of obstacles. A band needs a lot of time and dedication so wisely choose the people you want to share your greatest of memories with.
5- How much are you looking forward to perform during Metal United Word Wide on June 15th at the Palace Beirut?
We are pleasured to take part in the Metal United Word Wide, a global event that ensures every year the place of our beloved capital city on the global metal map. Moreover, this is our first encounter with the metal community in Beirut for we are a North Governate based band, and we are looking forward to performing in front alongside amazing bands and in front of a great crowd.
We will be playing a couple of metal anthems especially dedicated to this event alongside some tracks of our upcoming EP.
Make sure not to miss SaneSirens’s Performance during Metal United World Wide on June 15 at The Palace Hamra
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH SaneSirens ON: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
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How has the music evolved since you first began playing music until now?
There’s always new ideas when it comes to music composition. The first album, Once And For All, was mainly influenced by the bands we used to listen to when we started (Metallica, Pantera, Testament…). The second album, T.W.O, was more defined and we took some inspirations from Tribal music. The third one will definitely sound different, we are defining our sound in this one, it’s gonna be extremely heavy, watch out!
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What has been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
Every day is a challenge being in a Lebanese metal band and being located in Lebanon. Travelling, making deals or getting heard of is really tough. But we are thriving for that and we are doing our best to make it out there in the metal music industry.
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What’s the ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
Just being able to make music and play in front of more people is what we enjoy doing. Making a living out of it will be all that we ask for. But the whole journey is fun with its highs and lows and we’re really enjoying every side of it.
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What advice do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
Consistency and Passion. Be unique, and if you appreciate what you’re doing, just do it, the rest will come with time.
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How Much are you looking forward to perform during Metal United World Wide on June 15th at The Palace Beirut – Hamra?
We love to stay active and play frequently here and we are really excited about this event, not only because this event is happening all over the world on the same day but also because we will perform a new song from our upcoming album. We really took a huge turn on this one and we can’t wait to play it for the first time on June 15th.
Make sure not to miss Phenomy’s Performance during Metal United World Wide on June 15 at The Palace Hamra
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH PHENOMY ON: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
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1) How has your music evolved since you first began playing music until now?
It’s been two decades. Everything evolved in and around us, not just our music.
With time, we expanded our tastes and of course we got more mature on a musical and personal level, besides the fact that we had new blood coming to the band every now and then, which made our music more versatile and it would be hard to classify or label it under one Genre.
Our music now has a mix of Doom, death, symphonic and even some black metal elements, and for the record, we started off as a heavy metal band. Quite a change.
2) What has been you biggest Challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so how?
The first thing that would come to mind would be the lineup, and finding the right musicians in the right time. Being in Kimaera always demanded extreme dedication, time and some sort of sacrifice.
We changed a lot of members throughout the years, m the only the surviving member of the original line up since I formed the band in 2000. And that caused us many setbacks in the past 20 years, though things have been a bit more stable for the past 7 years, the current lineup is simply perfect.
We overcame that through patience and perseverance.
3) What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
Fame and Fortune? For a metal band?
Metal is a passion, and most of the time it makes us lose money. We simply do it because we love it.
4) What advise do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
Don’t. It is a lot of hard work and you will probably split in no time.
5) How much are you looking forward to perform during Legion event on June 11th at Metro Al Madina? Are you preparing something special for this event?
It is always exciting playing here between our friends. And this concert will be our first performance with actual backing tracks… something we have been discussing for a long time, since our music has too many layers so we wanted to incorporate this to give it its value, and to have our old female vocals back in live concerts! Pretty awesome stuff coming up!
Cheers, thank you!
Make sure not to miss Kimaera’s performance during Legion Metal Concert V1 on June 11 at Metro Al Madina.
(Keep your ticket of the concert to get 50% off Metal United World Wide ticket on June 15 at The Palace Hamra)
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH KIMAERA ON: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
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1) How has your music evolved since you first began playing music until now?
Since we started playing music we had many influences over the years and now we’re more open to experimenting with different styles and approaches in making music, we no longer restrict ourselves into one genre. But overall we still keep our melodic approach since it’s what we’re mainly into.
2) What has been you biggest Challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so how?
Our biggest challenge as a band is that all of us have day jobs so sometimes you find yourself burnt out and not being able to progress with your music.
Another challenge is to find members that shares your vision of the music and future of the band.
As always we keep on overcoming whatever challenges we face since we were all friends for a very long time and we are all passionate about the music.
3) What’s your ultimate direction for your band? Are you seeking fame and fortune?
Our ultimate direction of the band is to reach as many people as we can with our music (via streaming platforms or being able to travel on decent tours) and to make people feel what we do when we play our music and to keep doing this for as long as we can and evolve as musicians.
4) What advise do you have for people who want to form their own bands?
Do it for the fun of it, let it be your escape from your daily stress and invest in yourselves to improve your music and your shows.
5) How much are you looking forward to perform during Legion event on June 11th at Metro Al Madina? Are you preparing something special for this event?
We are very excited about this event since we are fans of all the performing bands who have always been there for us as supporters and friends.
We have something special prepared that will please metal fans of all genres and ages. So we hope to see many of you there!
Make sure not to miss Nocturna’s performance during Legion Metal Concert V1 on June 11 at Metro Al Madina.
(Keep your ticket of the concert to get 50% off Metal United World Wide ticket on June 15 at The Palace Hamra)
KEEP IN TOUCH WITH NOCTURNA ON: Facebook | Instagram | YouTube
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Hello and thank you for granting us the opportunity to interview you.
Hey guys, thank you for this opportunity.
1) Let’s start the interview with something simple, like the name of the band. What does Khavar mean? And why did you choose that name?
Khavar is an Armenian name, it means total darkness. I chose this name because it has the right meaning for the band, its dark and its sounds darker too haha. Exactly like the music we want to make: “dark”.
2) Was Khavar a new project that was born because of the disbanding of Weeping Willow, or was it a separate project in progress that would have happened regardless of Weeping Willow’s departure from the scene?
Khavar was born where Weeping willow had no future to continue what I started 20 plus years ago. I killed it and moved on with Khavar. Khavar is the new Weeping Willow and we will keep playing some of my favorite songs of that era.
3) Would you look at Khavar as an all-Star band since it is harboring band members from Legendary local and international bands like Element 26, Nervecell/Innerguilt, Weeping Willow of course, and Ex-Nile drummer Derek Roddy?
Yes it definitely is, all the guys are great musicians and motivated, still hungry for it. Everything we do is challenging, having those guys is a blessing for me.
4) The band’s youngest and freshest member would be Yousef Helayel, The N-Jam Music School graduate who was the last addition to the band. How did Yousef join the band?
Youssef joined after I asked my longtime friend Elias Njeim [Owner of N-Jam Music School] about wanting a crazy ass guitar player. [Elias] knows me very well, and he knows that I needed someone to keep up with my driving force lol.
Youssef is not just a guitar player, his a main force in the band, and a great guy that has a lot to show for and do.
5) Was there any challenges or obstacles for Yousef to become part of and get synchronized with the band considering that the line-up is from very big names in the local metal scene? Or did it all come naturally?
He has more talent and musical ear/taste than many of the experienced musicians. So he managed things like a boss. He is 24 [years old] and ready to kill!
6) The band started in August 2018, and you guys haven’t been wasting any time, already released 3 singles and a drum playthrough with Derek Roddy. Does that mean we are expecting the album to be out soon?
Yes the album should be ready soon, Derek [Roddy] is taking care of all the studio stuff which is awesome.
I wasted some time before but now no time to waste, haha!
7) What does the three singles already released: “Death Card Dealer”, “Red Snakes”, “The Prey” discuss in terms of theme and lyrics?
“Death card dealer”: is a very personal song, since it talks about the death of Weeping Willow and questioning the future.
“Red Snakes”: Kamal had a great, political war oriented, idea for [the song]. It talkes about rivers of blood and what actually is the truth… He will take you deep into it, trust me.
“The Prey”: is about the predator and the prey. Killer lyrics from Kamal and awesome mood.
I think we should put some lyrics out there, haha.
8) What should we expect from the album? How many tracks (if there is a ready track list, can we have the titles of the songs?)?
The album will be a is mixture of everything we love, no standards or limits or anyone to please lol. Just straight out darkness and aggression.
The album should be 8 tracks, we will be releasing something soon hopefully after the concert. We don’t know all the titles for now, we have to ask Kamal haha, he will come up with sick stuff I’m sure.
9) Do you have anyone in particular that will be working on the Album art? If yes, can we know who?
No idea about the cover art for now, but yeah its a trend now to have someone famous doing it right?
Hahaha.
10) Next stop would be your first performance ever as Khavar headlining the Legion event that will take place at Metro Al Madina on June 11. What should we expect from Khavar during the concert?
Yes first time for Khavar but many times for us, we are so exited specially having Derek fucking Roddy behind you like a tank! That alone makes my blood boil haha!!
We will be performing surprise songs from Weeping willow, ahh sorry not a surprise anymore, haha, and also some Khavar for you. We hope everyone shows up to the show, enjoys the bands headbangs and drinks some cold beer with Us.
Expect aggression!
Thank you for your time and see you at Legion Metal Concert VI.
Thank you Metal Bell, you guys rule, see you at the gig.
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FEATURED EVENT
