I have been a fan of this band since I heard about them a little under a year ago. Transitions is the band’s 3rd studio album and it is unlike anything they have done before. The album was recorded in the US and they were joined by non-other than the incomparable Mr. Joe Rickard of Inflames on drums. The album has 10 tracks including 2 instrumentals and I have to say that I was BLOWN AWAY by the diversity in composition, sound, and overall feel of the album. It is simply a masterpiece.

I have been listening to nothing else for the past 4 days, the first time I heard it by the time I reached track 8 all I could think of was “DAMN IT why does it have to end?”I want to share some anecdotes from my experience listening to that album, without revealing too much and maintaining the mystery and the hype.

On one of the 2 instrumental songs, ‘Track 3’of the album I remember listening to it while driving, and from the get go I start head banging so hard I felt I was going to give myself a concussion. The amount of insanely heavy riffs this track contains is enough to fuel 3 whole tracks, but nooooo, Jay decides to stuff them all in one track and serve the listener one of the heaviest instrumentals I think I ever heard. I remember at one point glancing at the screen to see how long is left in the track and I was shocked to find that it was still half way there, which put a silly grin on my face if I’m being totally honest.

As for the other instrumental, it felt as if Chuck Schuldiner, Slash, and Zakk Wylde decided to come together and create a piece of music. It also has such a catchy melody that I guarantee you will be humming it for days after.

Moving on to the rest of the tracks, one of my favorites is ‘Shine your light’ which actually has a music video that was released a little over a week ago, where you can watch it here. Its heavy, has a beautiful melodic solo and the vocal melody is so catchy it haunting.

There is another music video that was released a while back for another track called “Low” on this album. The video is a very cleverly made animation, I highly recommend you check it out. You’ll find the video by the end of the article.

Overall, in my very humble opinion, this has been my favorite release so far of the year 2017 on a global scale. This is international level stuff and I can totally see this album catapulting the band into fame and stardom.

I’m going to say something that I never said before. I give this a solid 10/10. Hands down. No contest.

Edited by: NJ Bakr

You probably never felt classy if you haven’t attended David Grey’s performance, this talented indie rock artist – which is in my opinion a lost art nowadays – gave us a true meaning to music with his Guitar and Piano skills.

It’s been 5 years since David had performed in Dubai, and as he strolled to the microphone, surrounded by a six-piece band, which fleshed out the songs with keyboards, cello, double bass and harmonies, they gave us a beautiful spiritual experience.

The captivating, melancholy Night blindness has Gray asking “What we gonna do/When the money runs out?” while by far the track most reminiscent of his older work with its droning strum, is an ice-cold anthem to frustration. It was perhaps that these songs came from Gray’s heart in a direct way.Gray is someone you look at on stage and say to yourself, “This man understands how it feels to be trapped in a tough world”, and this gives each of the songs a disarming authenticity. While he slipped back into a more straightforward musical mode for a few tracks, like ‘Sail Away’ and ‘Lullaby’.

While Chris Botti was setting up I took a quick look around and went to Adidas to check out their roof top bar and it was amazing, they had a huge blue screen that had an equalizer that was working along with music it caught from the stage and that is creative and catchy. Well done, Adidas! Their roof top also had a good view to the stage which gave their guest a chance to have the best of both world, and the best part of this whole thing was that it was free for whomever wants to go there 😀

Chris Botti

The only actual JAZZ played in the entire festival; Bottiand his band were sensational to say the least. I don’t think I will ever experience a Thursday night like this again. It’s not very common to find a trumpet player as a front man, let alone have a group carry his name. Botti is simply like no other, when he took the stage the crowd roared to the point where I had trouble hearing what he was saying. After his opening piece he invited the mesmerizing Caroline Campbell on violin. She is the embodiment of excellence, beautiful and talented and my favorite thing about her was how she swayed with the music, she wasn’t playing a musical piece, she was acting it. With every fiber in her being; her face, body, movements were all as expressive as the notes coming out of her violin, which made her performance all the more memorable. After she got off stage, Botti gave the crowd a treat that blew our minds. I never expected to hear‘Hallelujah’ played in a spiritual and melodic way; he definitely gave this song another meaning – we have a video, watch it here.

This show was full of surprises, as Botti invited Caroline back to the stage to play a solo because he said “It would not be fair to you all to have her here and not have her perform a solo piece for you.” She started playing this really deep and beautiful piece that had us all close our eyes and get in touch with feelings buried deep within our souls, that was until our eyes popped open wide, a cartoon character’s eyes would 😀 I felt like I was deep within the earth and then got catapulted to space in 1 quick second when that melancholic solo SUDDENLY transformed into something very familiar to ‘Kashmir’ by Led zeppelin. Needless to say the crowd went WILD singing along with the melodies and raising their rock on signs to the sky. Unforgettable…

Chris Botti is not done yet, not by a longshot. He brings on the man we’ve all been waiting for, the one and only Sting. I swear this guy has Benjamin Button disease; he just keeps on getting younger by time. Sting and Chris Botti paid homage to the late great Frank Sinatra by playing a rendition of ‘In the wee Small Hours of the Morning’ and what a rendition it was! It felt very personal since Sting and Botti met for the first time to play a Sinatra tribute concert. Sting gave us a taste of his greatest hits or it’s safe to say songs that we grew on listening to and falling in love with like ‘Fields of Gold’, ‘Shape of my Heart’, ‘Every Little Thing she does is Magic’, ‘7 days’, and of course ‘Englishman in New York’– watch a video here -which resulted in an EPIC crowd chant.

Sting then goes on to play a prolonged version of ‘Roxanne’ that just felt like it went on forever, during an interlude in the middle of the song where the crowd were singing along, the music suddenly stops and he utters those 6 magical words that sent chills through the spines of everyone there ‘Ain’t no Sunshine when she’s Gone’ OH YES HE DID!:D but only to go back to the chorus of ‘Roxanne’ in the end but with double time. It was a Mashup for the ages. Sting then performs ‘Desert Rose’ with the help of Caroline Campbell which a truly pleasant surprise, but not as good as watching him belly dance and shout at the crowd YALLA YALLA YALLA as he does.

Then the amazing Lee Pearson– drummer -plays a ridiculous 7 minute drum solo, it was one of those thing where someone had to collect your jaw from CHINA cause it hit the ground so hard. He used his hands, every type of drumstick known to man, in all sorts of positing including behind his back, he used his elbows,he clapped, used percussion, all in a flow without stopping the beat, I’ve seen a lot of drum solos in my day, nothing quite like this before. Sting performs what we thought was the last song ‘Every breath you take’ but then he comes back after the crowd pretty much DEMANDS IT to play a beautiful, soul healing Encore and he chose to end this unforgettable night with ‘Fragile’.

Written by: Rim ElJurdi and Ahmed S. Khalil
Photography by: Hasan Kaissi
Edited by: NJ Bakr

– Have you missed other festival days coverage? Here is Day One and Day Three.

– For our photography coverage you can find on our Facebook page through here.

The album starts with ‘Lucid’, which is basically a minute long intro that gave a feeling of grandeur. I felt it was telling me “Get ready cause you’re about to get smacked in the face with something awesome”; then comes in ‘Deny’, which is heavy, gory and full of darkness. Personally the line “You’ve become what you despise,” just gave me goosebumps. And get ready for a ballad like bridge, which I guarantee, will give you chills. ‘Floodgates’ comes next where basically the band is showing off their kickass drummer. I’m pretty sure this guy has a blender for feet. Everything from fast riffs, to breakdowns that will make you bang your head regardless where you are and what you’re doing at the time. Once the fourth track started which is called ‘Blindfolds’ I immediately flashbacked to a short clip I saw online a couple of weeks ago where was the producer Hadi Sarieddine talking about this one riff that the band came up with and it was like an indication of how incredible this album was gonna be – remember what I said earlier about how good they were with promotion? That’s exactly what I meant.

When the chorus hit I got all these mixed feelings, I just sighed, a sigh of relief mixed with agony and despair. I know that probably doesn’t make a lot of sense but it is just melancholically beautiful, and I think it give each person a different feeling based on what they are going through at the moment. Something I noticed throughout the entire album is the use of keyboards, its spot on, making the music so much more melodic and diverse. Next track is ‘Skinless’; now this track has a pretty different intro than the rest of the tracks, how can I put this into words, a little electronic, perhaps? 15 seconds in their gory drumbeat and amazing bass lines by Ali Square. What guys? The riff in that bridge would loop in your head for hours.

I’m gonna skip a few tracks in, cause those boys left me speechless for words! Comes next ‘Inertia Part 1’, that intro and that voice! It’s so mellow and tender till they get back with their fast pace. The title though, would make me ask: Is there a part 2? The drummer compliments the guitarist pretty well –JM Elias – great job boys on the riffs, and solo of this track. I really like the clean and harsh vocals on ‘Pray for Sanity’. I like how they arrange it with the rest of the instruments and everything feels ridiculously in place. The bridge “All the voices in my head” sang by Fadi, takes you to a really restful place till it nicely ends and kicks in with short brutals from Adnan.

The album ends – sadly – with ‘Resonate’, just like how it started with a kickass intro that gave you a hint of how the album is gonna be, the outro starts pretty much heavily… too heavy for an outro. But by God, I had to repeat it a few times to find the words to describe this masterpiece. The harmony towards the end of the track is heavenly with those angelic voices and the perfect usage of keyboards.

Would I recommend the album? Definitely! Copies are available at Virgin Megastore and online at their BandCamp Official Page. I now leave you with ‘Deny’ the track that took a piece of my heart. Fear not, the whole album is on their Official YouTube Page!

Written by: Ahmed Khalil and NJ Bakr
Edited by: NJ Bakr

The night started off with Maticrust, a local grindcore band which had sort of a peculiar line up if you ask me. The band consisted of 2 screaming/ brutal vocalists, a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer. They played 8 tracks – about 3 and half minutes each- staring it all off with ‘Die In Vain’. Both vocals were INSANE jumping around and screaming their lungs out – I thought for sure they each swallowed an amplifier before getting on stage. Fast riffs, powerful beats and an amazing performance. They went on to play ‘Identify Their Attack’, ‘Their Lies’ and my personal favorite from their set ‘Forced Patriotism’. Their main lyrical theme revolved around war and it’s effect.

After Maticrust finished their set Moutasem – the organizer – played some awesome tunes to entertain the crowds while the next band set up, but I did not recognize the tracks; so I went to ask him who these where and it was to my amazement to discover that all the music being played all through the night was music from local and middle Eastern bands – find the full list below- I honestly thought this was an amazing initiative to spread awareness to underground local bands and just added so much more meaning to the whole night. It truly was metal Eastern night…

Anyway, after a 20 minute break the second band came on stage at 9:20 and not a minute late. Next up was Tartarus, a black metal band also from the U.A.E.

They started their set with a playback intro that was very creepy and melancholic called ‘Seshot’ followed by ‘Axes of Hatred’. They had sort of a rocky start where the drummer did a couple of minor mistakes and one of the guitarists lost track of where he was in the song but they still carried on brilliantly and very professionally overcame this to the extent that I think only actual musicians could have noticed these mistakes – that we later found out after talking to the band members was due to technical problems with sound on stage – They played another original called ‘Cosmic Storms’ and followed it by a perfectly covered track for the emperors of black metal Emperor ‘I am the black wizard’. The crowd went nuts and started gathering around the stage and banging their heads. They played one last original after that called ‘Grimness and Atrocity’ and were about to close the set but due to overwhelming chants from the crowd screaming “ONE MORE TRACK!” They played an impromptu cover for another black metal legendary band Satryicon ‘Mother North’. They greeted the crowd, got off stage and once again local underground music started blasting through the sound system as Muahmed Jaber – the superhero of the night who worked from 10:00 am till after 2:00 am – went on stage and put up the banner for *drum roll please* Arrivl.

Listen, I was so blown away with this band’s performance that I know that whatever I write in this review would not do them justice. You just had to be there, but I’ll do my best to paint you a picture with words. This blackened death metal band hailing all the way from Tehran, Iran were as good as any headliners in the world. The energy, performance, crowd interaction, accuracy, and tightness were beyond belief. They started off with a very catchy playback intro and then went straight down to business with ‘Deceptions in the Shadows’. The entire band were insanely talented and incredibly technical music wise. Throughout their set they must have played more than 5 or 6 different time signatures, with face melting solos, HEAVY HEAVY HEAVYY HEAVY riffs and drum beats that were out of this world. They played a 45 minute set which was 8 original tracks and no I can not possibly pick a favorite because YES they were THAT good. Half way through their set and the entire music room is just empty chairs and everyone was in front of the stage going mental, there was even a small mosh pit that got started, and the crowd started shouting as loud as they possibly can the name of the band which I could tell made them very happy because guess what, that was their first live performance ever, I found that out after they finished playing and my jaw dropped to the floor like a cartoon character. They went on to play ‘As The Eternal Winter’, ‘Sacrifice in Blood’ and ‘Exile’s Silents’. When the crowd, the words “This is it for tonight” come out of the vocal’s mouth they started chanting one more track and banging on tables and even on the stage itself, and you guessed it, the band complied this time covering one of my favorite tracks for one of my favorite bands Moonspell ‘Everything Invaded’ once the guitarist started playing the intro the crowd went nuts – personally, I put down my pen and paper, took off my pass and ran to the middle of the crowd, sang along and banged my head till it almost got knocked off my shoulders. Even after playing an extra track, the crowd could not get enough of them but at this point the vocal politely apologized and said that their time was up for tonight, thanked the crowd and asked the band members to come together to take a picture with the rest of crowd.

Last but certainly not least, it was time for the headliners, the stars of the show, the internationally recognized band that played many international festivals. It was time for Kimaera *Bringing doom upon us*. Hailing from Lebanon, this band delivered one of the most professional, well rehearsed, musically intense and lively performances I have ever seen in my entire life –and believe me I’ve seen a lot both local and international.

It all started with a very dark, evil and sinister playback intro, which they merged into their first track, entitled ‘Ancient Serpents’. They were true to their word and brought doom upon Dubai. Their originals were creative, inspired, dark, and hit you right in the core of your existence. I’m pretty sure their drummer was from another planet, or was an octopus in another life because his playing was just simply inhumane. The bassist’s performance was mesmerizing and you can see how much he was in love with his music, – I haven’t seen fingers play that fast and that accurate since I saw Opeth last year- the lead guitarist was very talented but was not a show off, playing melodies in most of their songs which portrays the essence of doom metal and only shredding insane licks where it was appropriate. The vocal had an impressive vocal range and a growl that would knock your hat straight off your head from a mile away. They also had a 45-minute set that was 8 tracks including 1 very different rendition of another favorite of mine Anathema’s ‘Lost Control’ which they brought on the incredible Ishtar Inanna to the stage to add her beautiful voice to the mix. It was her first time on stage and you could tell she was nervous but she had a lot of support from the crowd and once she started singing the entire music room was singing along. She has a beautiful voice, which gave a different flavor to the song, she did miss the last word of the last verse but the crowd sang it instead and clapped and cheered her on. But this was not the only surprise Kimaera had in store; the very energetic extremely talented guitarist JM Ellias from the band Svengali joined the band for a track, which the crowd really loved. The band took a break in the middle and their alien drummer played a 5-minute drum solo, which proved my theory beyond the shadow of the doubt, this guy was not human.

They finished strong with ‘God’s Wrath’ with the crowd chanting and cheering and banging their heads as hard as they can – me included. It was a perfect ending to a perfect night. Oh, one last thing, Muhammed Jaber went on stage to thank the bands and the organizers and the amazing crowd and announced that Metal Eastern Night 3 will be on September 27th and will be featuring Svengali and Perversion from the U.A.E as well as Benevolent from Lebanon and Kahtmayan from Iran. So stay, keep your eyes pealed for our next review and if you are in the U.A.E this is one show you DO NOT want to miss.

Reviewed by: Ahmed S. Khalil
Photography brought to you by: Alexandre Antozzi

Edited by: NJ Bakr

• Check the rest of the photos here.
• For bands full set-lists check it out from here.