Formed in 2000 as one of
the first extreme metal bands to emerge from Dubai, U.A.E. and having supported
legendary metal bands such as Metallica, Anthrax, Morbid Angel and Suffocation
– Nervecell have become the most prominent band to arise from the Middle East
and truly are the torchbearers for a Middle Eastern wave of metal. Delivering a
unique blend of Middle Eastern death / thrash metal, and maintaining a
reputation for highly energetic live performances, got the folks at Metal
Hammer Magazine to include Nervecell as one of the "DEFENDERS OF THE
FAITH" – listing the band as one of the "50 Heroes Of The New Metal
Revolution" in 2011.
After consistently playing the underground metal scene for four years,
Nervecell independently released their first E.P. entitled "Human
Chaos" in 2004. With the release of the E.P. the band opened for
international metal bands Sepultura and Machine Head in Dubai at the Desert
Rock Festival in 2005. The band later headlined a tour in Australia in 2007 and
even performed at Metal Camp Festival in Tolmin, Slovenia that same year to
promote the E.P. It was only until 2009 however, when the band released their
debut album "Preaching Venom" under German label Lifeforce Records
(Europe) and Spellbind Records (Middle East). The band members decided to focus
on touring for the entire year to promote the album and set out to establish
their new European fan base for the first time. Soon after booking and
completing their own European club tour in early 2009, Nervecell immediately
set out on an impressive 2009 European festival tour which included
performances at a number of well renowned European festivals such as Wacken
Open Air, With Full Force, Rock AM Ring, Rock IM Park, Way of Darkness, Metal
GDL and many others, clearly marking Nervecell as the first Middle Eastern
based band to ever play at such high scale European festivals. In early 2010
Nervecell hit the road supporting New York death metal legends Suffocation for
an entire month on the "Legacy of blood European / UK Tour". With
another successful tour under their belt the band continued touring extensively
for the rest of the year around Asia and the Middle East next– this saw the
band open for acts such as Deicide, As I Lay Dying, and Decapitated.
In May 2011 Nervecell released their highly anticipated new album entitled
"Psychogenocide", intertwining the raw brutality of old school death
metal with modern thrash metal elements of no-holds barred aggression and speed.
"Psychogenocide" featured Karl Sanders (Nile) as a guest vocalist on
the track "Shunq" – this made it the first ever extreme metal track
to included both English and Arabic lyrics. The success of
"Psychogenocide" also gained Nervecell an award for being the
"All Time Best Selling Metal Act" in the Middle East and North Africa
region. The band received a plaque of recognition from Virgin Megastores (MENA)
in January 2012 to certify this huge accomplishment. "Psychogenocide"
was also sited as one of the "Top 10 Death metal Albums of 2011" by
many webzines, magazines and critics around the world. With the ongoing success
surrounding "Psychogenocide", the band had carried on touring
consistently, taking their brand of Middle Eastern death / thrash metal to all
the corners of the world, headlining shows in countries as far as India,
Philippines, Australia, Turkey, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Qatar, U.A.E among
many others as well as playing the main stages of such great European festivals
such as Summer Breeze, Brutal Assault and Rock IM Betonwerk in the summer of
2011.
In October 2011, Nervecell were selected to open for Metallica in front of
30,000 people in Abu Dhabi as part of the "Death Magnetic World
Tour". Shortly after the band had gone on the road for an entire month
with Tampa, Florida Death Metal icons Morbid Angel, supporting them on the
European leg of the "Illud Divinum Insanus Tour" in November /
December 2011, marking the end of what was an incredible year of achievements
for the band. The legacy of Nervecell in 2012 certainly looks promising, with a
new album in the works for next year, the band remain confident in seeking to
achieve their goals and proving to the rest of the world that heavy metal is
indeed alive and well in the Middle East!
Well, here Rami (Guitars) talking about NERVECELL.....Let's check it out now :
John
Yoedi : Hi there. Thanks first of all for agreeing to this interview. And I
Hope you are well there. Kieran James (Australia) and I share for this blog.
Anyway, How are things going at the moment for NERVECELL camp? And who will be
answer for this interview ?
Rami:
Thanks guys! We recently came back from our Middle East tour supporting our
latest album “Psychogenocide”. We played great shows in Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and
we’ll be continuing with the second part of our “Psychogenocide Middle East
2012” tour with tentative dates in Lebanon, Egypt and hopefully more countries
in the Middle East region – exact dates to be confirmed.
JY
: Firstly, I want to say Congrats on the great ’Psycogenocide’ album and it was
release last year 2011 with 10 track and one an intro ‘Anemic Assurgency’. I
know you have been working hard to make this album available in the world.
Well, would you like to tell us a bit, how long you been working for this album
and also the recording process ?
Rami:
“Psychogenocide” is our second full length album released on Lifeforce Records
for Europe and Spellbind Records for the Middle East last year. We pretty much
started coming up with ideas for the album mid-2010 in between our European
tour supporting Suffocation and other tours happening at that time mostly in
Asia and Europe. It was a very busy period for us - starting the writing
process and being at the end of the touring cycle of our previous album
“Preaching Venom” was pretty challenging. Writing the album was a pretty cool experience
- coming up with the guitar riffs first - as we usually do when we write -
after that we throw parts together and we start brainstorming unto forming full
complete songs. The writing process was completed around 3 months before
entering the studio. We locked ourselves in the studio for a good month just
focusing on arranging the songs, recording demos, working on the drums, and
lyrics and everything in between. It was fun times with a little bit of
pressure - aside from the writing process I also produced/engineered the album
- recording the guitars, bass, vocals in Dubai, as well continued sessions in
Qatar. The drums was recorded in Australia by Dave Haley (Psycropitc), and we
sent the final recorded tracks to Hertz Studio in Poland who handled the mixing
and mastering process.
JY
: And what has been the reaction/feedback thus far from medias/fans?
Rami:
The reactions were great! The fans are definitely happy with it and we were
very happy as well. The media and press gave us overall great feedback with
reviews so we were very satisfied.
JY
: On this album, especially for ‘شنق - Shunq (To The Despaired…King of
Darkness) song , you’re an invite Karl Sanders as guest vocals. This made it
the first ever extreme metal track to included both English and Arabic
lyrics…that’s awesome. Would you like to tell us about this ? And how did you
get in touch with him ?
Rami:
“Shunq” is the only song on the album that has Arabic lyrics/singing parts. The
idea came up when James (vocalist/bassist) wanted to use Arabic lyrics on the
album which is pretty much a first timer in extreme metal. We thought “why not
bring another person to sing the English parts to make it more versatile
vocal-wise?”. So we thought Karl Sanders would be a great addition as we are fans
of his music and his vocals style which goes well with the style of the song.
So we got in touch with him and he was very interested to do it and he did an
awesome job!
JY
: Also would you like to tell us a bit about Official Video of ‘شنق – Shunq’ (To The Despaired…King Of Darkness)
featuring Karl Sanders ?
Rami:
Karl Sanders was invited to our album launch in Dubai. So we thought it would
be perfect to shoot the video together since he’s already in the country. We
planned it ahead and selected a location in the desert of Al-Ain - a city in
the UAE with beautiful nature which fits the mood and theme of the song
perfectly. The video's been out now for a while you can watch it online at our
official Youtube channel.
JY
: How do you feel ‘Psycogenocide’ compare to your previous album ‘Preaching
Venom’ ? Are there certain things you would like to have changed ?
Rami:
Overall it’s a heavier album. It has it’s “thrash” and it’s “death” metal dose
spread out well. Some listeners classify it as "technical death metal”
sometimes, which is surprising in a good way, and I do agree it’s in a way
technical yet it’s not intended to be classified as “tech death”, but it’s cool
to hear so for sure. We mixed it up and tried our best to balance it out as
much as possible. I feel it’s less melodic in most of the songs, yet some songs
are melodic too. It definitely got a dark vibe to it, which happened pretty
naturally in the writing process. It’s definitely a mature album as well. We
matured as musicians as well as persons, so it’s bound to happen. I wouldn’t
say that we wanted to change anything on this album but we will definitely push
the envelope in the next one.
JY
: Any new and different techniques you have approached this time ? And do you
think the new one is more ‘old school’ or ?
Rami:
It’s definitely old school with a modern sound and production, and that’s what
we wanna keep in our music really. I see both “Psychogenocide” and “Preaching
Venom” are old school death/thrash metal yet modern sounding albums on the same
level. Our techniques are pretty much the same in “Psychogenocide” yet we do
keep exploring new ideas and techniques and we do bring them in whenever
possible as long as it sounds good.
JY
: Which bands have been your biggest influences and how much inspiration do you
actually take from them?
Rami:
I grew up listening to thrash metal and death metal mainly. Some names would be
Testament, Slayer, Megadeth, Death, Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide,
Suffocation and many more. The rest of the guys have more or less the same
influences. Some of us like hardcore, black metal, and other sub-genres.
JY
: When you released Full length album ‘Preaching Venom’ , for behind the drum
kit was David Haley, as we know he is Psycroptic Drummer. How did David Haley
came to play on drums for this album ?
Rami:
We came across each other after our first tour in Australia in 2007 and I was
in touch with him since then. His drumming style is pretty much what we are
looking for. So I spoke to him and agreed to record our first album and we
worked with him again on “Psychogenocide”. He recorded all our drum tracks in
Australia where he's based. We pretty much worked together through
sessions going back and forth.
JY
: And who is permanent drummer for Nervecell ?
Rami:
Unfortunately we do not have a permanent drummer. We have been sessioning
drummers since 2008. We've been working with Louis Rando from Australia (The
Furor, Impiety etc.) for a good 3 years and now our current session drummer is
Kevin from French metallers Benighted.
JY
: The current members of Nervecell is James Khazaal (Bass,Vocals), Rami H.
Mustafa (Drums Programming, Guitars) and Barney Ribeiro (Guitars). And the
members are from Lebanon, Jordan and India. How do you manage to adapt to
things and get the job done, because each other not living closer ?
Rami:
The band is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and this is where James and I
went for our university and met Barney. We all come from different countries
but we are based in Dubai.
JY
: I know you are all good and highly impressive musicians. What was the reason
or the inspiration from you all then decided to playing Death / Thrash Metal
music for NERVECELL ?
Rami:
Thanks. We all pretty much started listening to metal at a young age. I come
from a musical family. My father is a professional musician. My uncles are
musicians as well. None of them played any rock or metal but my inspiration and
passion for music started being around my family really. I started picking
up different instruments like keyboards, bass, drums, guitar when I was young
and just fiddling around, you know, instruments laying around the house growing
up. I got my hands on a guitar at around the age of 5 and started teaching
myself. I started getting into metal when I started listening to bands as
Megadeth, Metallica, Sabbath etc. and gradually getting into other bands and
styles.
JY
: I assume you write the music individually but how is the whole process of
putting a song together ?
Rami:
We start with writing guitar riffs or musical parts individually and
collectively. It really depends. We then meet up or send each other ideas to
develop into full songs or we keep them in a library/bank to try out with
different ideas and so on. Once we start forming a skeleton for a song, we
layer down the drums demo or patterns and then pass them on to the drummer.
Lyrics and vocals are then worked on at a later stage.
JY
: The lyrical themes of death /thrash metal usually talking about Hate,
Humanity Issues, Society, Misery, Corruption, politic, Injustice and etc. Did
you write the lyrical themes as I said before or ? Are they based on reality or
fiction ?
Rami:
We speak about reality. Whether it’s personal or describing what’s happening
around us in the world. Metal is all about reality.
JY
: And how do you approach a song, given that you use so many different layers,
styles and elements ? Did all the band members throw ideas into Nervecell music
or did you have one uniform concept from which you built the picture up
gradually ?
Rami:
As I mentioned it’s mostly guitar driven. We come up with guitar riffs first,
drum patterns next, and write the lyrics. We always push each other and
recommend to each other ideas all the time. We keep in mind that we want the
best for each other and we go ahead with ideas once we're all satisfied with.
JY
: What gears do you use to record and do you use the same amp/guitars, drums
and etc for live shows ?
Rami:
for "Psychogenocide" we used ENGL Special Edition amp head. TC
Electronic G-Force for some guitar effects, which I use live sometimes as well.
For guitars Barney used an LTD and I used a BC Rich Assassin which I don’t use
anymore since I’m currently endorsing Ibanez. For bass, we used a Tech 21
SansAmp Bass Driver DI and Spector basses which James uses live. Dave used
Pearl drums, which I’m pretty sure he uses live as well.
JY
: And do you have any endorsements ? If yes, please tell us ?
Rami:
I’m endorsed by ENGL amps, Ibanez guitars, EMG pickups, GHS strings and In Tune
Guitar Picks. Barney endorses Madison amps, EMG pickups, GHS strings and In
Tune Guitar Picks. James is endorsed by Spector basses, EMG pickups, GHS
strings and In Tune Guitar Picks. We all endorse Monster Energy Drink.
JY
: How did the deal with Spellbind Records ? Are you satisfied with things like
promotion and such ?
Rami:
We signed with Spellbind Records which is based in Dubai for the Middle East
region as we got approached back in 2008. For Lifeforce Records (Europe) we
spoke to the label as we were seeking for a European home and they were very
interested and we signed with them after our European Festival Tour in 2009. We
are very happy to be the first extreme metal band from the region to become officially
signed. They are both good labels, very hard working, so I would say so far so
good.
JY
: Has there been any offers from any big labels yet ? Independent or mainstream
label, which of these would you choose to be on ?
Rami:
We are on 2 independent labels so I don’t know how it is like to be on a
mainstream label yet , but we did speak to major labels before yes. For us as
long as we have creative control and we are free to do what we want with our
music then it doesn’t really make a difference. Sure, mainstream labels would
be bigger but not necessarily better. It all depends really.
JY
: I know you never been tour to Indonesia. Lots of great bands have toured to
Indonesia like Dying Fetus, Disgorge (San Diego-Ca), Suffocation, Misery Index,
Kataklysm, etc and Indonesian has a reputation as a country with a strong metal
fan base. Did you have ambitions to come here ?
Rami:
It would be great to perform in Indonesia! We are very aware of the metal scene
over there. Some of my old high school friends are Indonesian so they keep
telling me about how good the metal scene is over there. We also get alot of
requests from Indonesian metal fans to come down for a show so we stoked about
that. We are touring in Asia this September with Decapitated but unfortunately
we're not doing Indonesia - yet hopefully we'll make an appearance in the
near future for sure.
JY
: What has been your touring experience since the band was formed ? What other
bands have toured with and what countries has the band performed in ?
Rami:
when we started we never knew we will be traveling and performing so many
countries. Its phenomenal to think all about it now. Being based in the Middle
East was also a challenge for touring but that never really stopped us.
Fortunately we have traveled to play many countries and regions so far
including Europe, Australia, Asia, North Africa and Middle East. We directly
supported, toured, and shared stages with bands such as Metallica, Anthrax,
Morbid Angel, Suffocation, Deicide, As I Lay Dying and more.
JY
: On September 13th 2012, your band will be touring to Singapore with a
great band ‘Decapitated’ from Poland. And then Decapitated will be continue to
do tour in Indonesia. Will you coming to Indonesia with them on September
15th 2012 ? It would be nice if your band could be coming to Indonesia.
And I really want to watching your great band here.
Rami:
we are touring with Decapitated on certain dates including Singapore, Thailand
and Nepal in September 2012. We are super excited and we were hoping to play
Indonesia but unfortunately we wont this time yet it's gonna happen one day.
JY
: The cover artwork from your all album is awesome and very sick … i like it
very much . Who came up with the concept, and how many designs did you have to
wade through until you came to this one ? Is it same artist for all cover
Nervecell album ?
Rami:
he's an artist named Bjorn Gosses from Germany who we basically told him what
we are looking for. We gave him the album lyrics for some inspiration and which
we worked on it further. It's our first time to work together.
JY
: And how important do you think the artwork is ? Should there be a certain
synergy between the artwork and the music ?
Rami:
we always work on getting the artwork to be related and complimentary to
the music and lyrics. It can be very challenging sometimes, but for sure its
important to work around artwork that is distinctive, unique and meaningful.
JY
: And Just as a side question, What do you think about Busuk Webzine ? On Busuk
Webzine we just trying to make two language, English language and Indonesian
language.
Rami:
you guys are doing a great job supporting metal! Keep up the great work!
JY
: Honestly I don’t know much about Extreme Metal bands in Dubai. What is the
current situation of real metal scene in Dubai ? Any bands I should be checking
out ?
Rami:
there are very few metal bands in our scene nowadays. Back 10-15 years ago
there were more metal bands. Unfortunately nowadays bands break up or do not
take their music seriously so very few bands do last. Check out Perversion and
Midway - those are the only metal bands I recall now.
JY
: Are you going to tour in support of ‘Psycogenocide’ ? If you could go on tour
with any old school bands in the world, who would you choose such as Slayer,
Iron Maiden, Hammerfall, and Exodus ?
Rami:
since the release of "Psychogenicide" we have been touring a lot
actually. We've toured Europe, Asia and recently the Middle East in support of
this album. To tour with Slayer would be crazy!
JY
: And how did you feel when your band ‘Nervecell’ as opening for the big show
with Metallica, which took place in Abu Dabhi, United Arab Emirates last year.
And I think it was awesome show and a 30.000 audience came to there.
Rami:
it's really the pinnacle of our career. We've been a band for more than 10
years now and to open for the biggest name in metal music is a dream come true.
Not only we got the chance to exclusively open for Metallica, but we had the
opportunity to meet the band, and get to watch them perform live for the first
time. To perform for our home crowd with Metallica cannot get any better.
JY
: Would you like to tell us a little bit about your lives away from NERVECELL?
Work, Interest ….. ? And if you were not a musician, what do you think you
would have done as a day to day job ?
Rami:
we all graduated from universities and we have our side things going on other
than the band. I run a small business. Barney works in a record label and James freelances different jobs.
JY
: Before closing this interview, I want to asking about what is meaning the
‘BIG VAL’, the nick name from James Khazaal hahaha.
Rami:
if you ever watched the infamous Pantera home videos you'd be very familiar
with Big Val. He is one of Pantera's crew member and James simply looks like
him haha!
JY
: Well, many thanks for your time and support. Best of luck for Nervecell.
Would you like to say something to the readers here ?
Rami:
Thanks for having me. I would like to thank the readers. Hopefully we will
visit and perform in Indonesia soon! Keep up the good work and stay metal!
Best regards,
Rami / Nervecell
(Interviewed
by John Yoedi, July 23, 2012)
If you want to know more this band, please click this link below :
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