Why were they absent? Why was the long hiatus for? And many more questions were the topic of this insider look into these Egyptian metal stalwarts – Destiny in Chains.

Most of the bands start with a certain name and genre then change it afterwards due to unknown reasons or circumstances, did that happen to you or was it all set from day one?
Since day one the band has been a metalcore/hardcore band. After a couple of years we decided to include some melodies and a sort of post hardcore influence. But honestly, it didn’t work for us so we did some Deathcore singles. We decided to land on the Deathcore Island and we did it big time. It was obvious from our last concert. We never left the core part out of our music and now we are pure deathcore.

Why Deathcore?
The words we would use to describe ‘why’ would be because it is young, passionate, aggressive, harsh, and straight to the point and all about inner struggles.

Your disappearance triggered a huge hustle between fans who also tried to track down your news but failed. Why did you disappear?
Changing genre requires sometime for new composing. We didn’t want to come back after almost two years with the same track list. We wanted to impress our fans and gain new ones.

One of the last pieces of news we received about Destiny in Chains was a while ago and that was that the band is on a new record label, which supposedly means a new album after your latest ‘Last Forever’. Unfortunately nothing arose from this and no official explanation was released. Can you clear the fog around this?
First of all it was a digital label, not a physical one. This did not give us as much as we wanted and it did not help us with the Last Forever album. It was for the Deathcore stuff that we’re working on and recording. After that we got lost and we didn’t deliver the album on time, so we lost it all. So basically we had this label and then we lost it. This is what every start up band could dream of but hope doesn’t exist in our book, only human will. So we decided to get back to the work.

Congrats on the new bassist. What happened with Moose, the former bassist and how did Squirtle join the band?
Moose had a lot of work, and we appreciated this. We do not really have anything else to say about Moose. If you need more information you can contact him directly. Mostafa Khaled A.K.A Squirtle has been a part of the family long time ago. He did more than we have expected in overall.

Legend says the track called ‘Sayed Ragai’ was written ten minutes before hopping onstage. How could a whole track be written in just ten minutes?
Exactly the same way you write a review while you are standing in the concert – it is your job. This is my job. Actually, the whole track took more like one minute to structure with the never played riff. Writing the lyrics with the music ten minutes before the show is pretty fine for us and ‘Sayed Ragai’ is not that hard to play. We are 100% sure most of the bands did the same thing.

Let’s go deeper – what is every member’s source of inspiration musically and on a human side?
Let’s explain this with the bands that inspire us.

Zander is influenced by Whitechapel’s Bozeman, and Suicide Silence’s Mitch Lucker – God bless his soul. Some Black metal bands, and some Melodic bands like old Amon Amarth, Children of Bodom and some Atmospheric bands such as Septic Flesh.
Men3m; for sure, would go for Opeth because of Mikael Akerfeldt.
Sheva’s influences range between Zakk Wylde, Tuomas, Juha Raivio, James Butler, and Dimebag Darrell. Bands like Cannibal Corpse, Decapitated, Bloodbath, and Beneath the Massacre really influence him as well. When it comes to technical shit and brutal stuff that is where a lot of inspiration comes from, even some post rock for sure.
Squirtle loves a lot of deathcore/metalcore bassists. All That Remains, As I Lay Dying, Suffokate, All Shall Perish, Killswitch Engage, Whitechapel, and As Blood Runs Black are the main influences. He knows how a Deathcore/Metalcore bassist should look like.
Lolo, the breakdown guy, will go for Whitechapel, Emmure, Architects, and a lot of hardcore and Deathcore bands.

Transitioning from pure Metalcore to vicious Deathcore is a ballsy move to take, how did that process go inside the band?
Believe it or not it was done in the blink of an eye. “Hey guys what about Deathcore? We already made like three or four tracks in the very beginning so why not keep it like this” and it has been like that ever since.

About 90% of music makers pour their heart and struggle into their music. If we get a closer look at your music and lyrics, can we see the struggles you have faced?
Every track explains a situation for each member of the band. It is the type of art and music that calls for independence. It means that each one can get by on his own with a complete different perspective from the person standing next to him. That is exactly how it goes for the band members

What is it like being a band and real-life friends?
Simply the chemistry of a band comes from a lot of stuff that we usually call it “being friends”, and for sure if there any problems in the band it does not affect the friendship that we have.

How are your side projects going?
Well, you’d called them side projects so they’re not affecting anything. Most of them are working fine though.

Zander, Sheva, Lolo, Mon3esh, and Squirtle – what are the stories behind all those nicknames?

– Mon3esh for Men3m. That is pretty simple 😀
– “Squirtle” was called this because when he was younger he looked like the Pokemon character Squirtle.
– “Zander” was called this name a long time ago by his friends.
– “Sheva” was called this name back in High School for the football player Shevchenko.
– “Lolo” because he such a big guy and calling him it makes him seem a little smaller.

Future plans? What does the near future have for Destiny in Chains fans?
Working on a lot of new stuff and a lot of changes in the band. Everyone should stay tuned. Thanks for the support; it is all more than we could ever dream of! Also, all those who do not like our music should try the new stuff and tell us your feedback. It will be appreciated!

Edited by: Paul Williams

Back to downtown, Cairo, the same place Metal Station took place – Rawabet theater, anticipation was surrounding this one concert with a “Too heavy to handle” bands who agreed on taking a leap of faith towards spreading a very tight Metal map – moving their music, their audience’s land – in a move even we didn’t see coming. The unspoken agreement between most of the Egyptian bands does never stop pleasing and delivering music to fans.

I was running solo this time which gave me more time to snoop around Rawabet. The number of supporting musicians didn’t go down by time and by multiple gigs in a matter of weeks. Many names from such as Origin, Medic, MaScaRa, Destiny In Chains and others showed up supporting their buddies and encouraging the fans.

Starting THE RETURN was Invaders with the same set list we listened to rocking out earlier in Enraged & Ivaders: Leave your sanity at the door, same line-up and vocals, and a plus point for sounding better this time.

After that was Enraged’s same insanity we saw back in El Sawi Culture Wheel: Leave your sanity at the door, the set list didn’t have any changes. This band is that crazy.. and good. But still crazy!

Scarab’s Sammy Sayed made his appearance as “Mr. Skizzle Zee” who scared the hell out of many fresh faces, it was a hell of a scene to watch the “what-the-hell-is-that?!” look on their faces. Notable at the end that the female vocal Rasha wasn’t at her best that night, hard luck ma’am.

The sound system was pretty impressive, but there was something very wrong with its engineer, you could clearly hear glitches and sound issues as the gig went on.

Spotlights from behind the scenes:
Enraged‘s Wael O invited a bunch of little stray kids, who were trying to discover the place to watch from the stage side.

The whole house was very cooperative, a new spirit was compelling all the people of metal to work together. For example: Ismaeel of Crescent went to fans and told them to hurry inside for Enraged was gonna start.

Back to the massacre, and more sound issues while the Melodic DeathDoom machines SINPROPHECY, with notable solid guitar playing from Fada’y and Sheva the Axe holders. They started with “Tears of A Sinner” followed by “Calling the Undead”; both you can check out below.

Suddenly Sayed calls for Zander (D.I.C) on stage, hands him a mic, and “End of The Tyrant” blows out in our faces. Things everyone noticed about both of them, is Sayed started using pure Death Metal’s well-paced vocaling style, on the other hand Zander proved his true transition from a normal Metalcore front man to a full geared Deathcore vocalist, such sound ruined by an awful mic settings that brought out the dryness of his voice. Needless to say, it was louder than the music. You can check out the track below:

Next track was painful. The whole band admitted they over-played themselves doing it this time, because you can’t play your friend’s farewell while smiling and looking badass. “Farewell bird of prey” is one of SINPROPHECY’s new masterpieces according to a quick survey we did with the audience. Back to the song, it was hurtful. It was full of emotions and anger, the anger of losing a brother who all of us will never see again, Mahmoud Sakr who was a remarkable Death Metal vocalist himself back in the days with his band WORM, try to mix all those meanings into one song and it won’t be different than this one we are listening to:

Sakr, May your soul rest in peace!

Once again the band use the harmony factor against the pure DeathDoom you expect. And yes, they successfully proved themselves as a skilled musical group. After that they played “Spectrum Illusion” from the upcoming album, followed by signature track “The Summoning” with a little surprise: Sayed actually didn’t sing it. He back-vocaled one of the audience called Ahmed Derbawy, a move that grabbed attention and respect of all fans. The guy was impressive, he was taken by surprise but did a tight performance himself.

It would be awkward and depressive to attend a DeathDoom act without enjoying a Doom-ish touch, right?

This is when they decided doing another new track, “You Are the One Who Will Smile at My Funeral”, I’m not by any means a Doom Metal fan, but the audience liked it, a soothing one after the previous tracks.

And guys? Where is Hiba the female vocalist?

The last to conquer the stage was the fan-crowned “The Egyptian equivalent of BEHEMOTH”, the Blackened Death Metal band CRESCENT, one of the oldest bands in the whole Egyptian music scene. Their comeback was established with the upcoming album “Pyramid Slaves” which we had two inside looks on it from the freshly released play through video for the main track, and a streaming track for “An ode to Qadish“.

Sound issues took the band a bit out of concentration but they pulled off a beefy set of tracks such as: An ode to Qadish, Ra men-kheper, Gates of the sun, Temple of the divine gods and Pyramid Slaves.

Their music is still new to most of Egyptian listeners who are more familiar with breakdowns and melodic stuff, but a too-heavy-to-ignore music like Blackened Death is still in the phase of standing still to listen closely and judge. But no worries CRESCENT, you are on the right path.

Thanks to Mr. Mahmoud Amr, for his outstanding efforts on documenting most of the tracks played across the gig. You sir are the man!

Thanks to the ladies Yara Weheba and Doaa Mohamed. Especially Yara for providing some of the coolest shots of the bands in such short notice.

Before reaching ElSakkia I made a few calls with the most helpful Mr. Kareim Al-Sharkawy – the one behind arrangements and organizing the whole night, passes are delivered, while waiting for my partner in crime, Lina El-Gohary – our photographer – I had a stroll around ElSakkia grounds chasing the scent of good old times metal was a hard deal to seal in this place, this same place we used to skip schools and lectures to attend various events that had the deepest impact on our social life and musical tastes.

Nostalgia conquered the air around the stage inside and out. I was astonished to realize that some of both bands’ members came with their new-born children. OH. MY. GOD! We are at the point of handing the flag to next generation. It was a joyous scene to see them walking hand in hand with their younglings.

I always hated the kind of reviews going like “Fans came in, bands rocked, riffs, blasts, blablabla. All good. Bye bye” That’s why I insisted on being there before the crowds to sneak inside the sound check and tough the music in the making. Spirits were on fire and everyone was happy and running around, every band while sound checking threw jokes at the other band. I was happy, I caught the atmosphere.

Numbers weren’t something to be happy about. I mean after Adham Kafafy of Anarchy‘s speech last month about support and the astounding feedback from the audience, I expected a form of determination in numbers but, I was wrong. However, in the weak light in the dark were some faces whom I recognized supporting each and every metal event. Dear comrades, respect. With lightening speed riffs and signature screams of The Bruce Dickinson, Invaders kick started with “Be quick or be dead” shocking the audience who wasn’t familiar to old school heavy metal being live-played at this point of mastering, everyone stood there watching bulgy-eyed like it’s their first time they hear metal – and that’s the greatness of the MAIDEN people! They played with so much passion, I caught myself dancing around with a silly smile all over my face, which I noticed was a common feeling for all the fans there.

Track listing included; Wrath child, The Trooper, The Number of the Beast, Flight of Ecarus, Fear of the Dark, Hallowed be Thy Name and more. 

With a little flaws to be pointed out, their act came out just fine and entertaining with a dual play from Elie Naggar and Mohamad Emam (Guest Vocalists) and a special appearance of EDDIE THE HEAD – Iron Maiden’s Mascot for those who don’t know -whose appearance is a tradition Invaders used to do every gig since forever.

Enraged took the stage next, and took every hope of audience leaving the place with minds intact away, with their powerful – yet political – tracks they threw a spell over the stage, a very quite mood possessed the next phase of our gig. To take a wider look upon what’s going on I took the highland, while at it I bumped in a very familiar “masked” face, he vanished inside the locker room leaving me with one question in mind:“What the hell are they up to?” 

Starting with “Accomplices” followed by “Mirrors“, their audience became familiar with the type of music Enraged plays, then taking things heavy playing “Ma’at” that started with some ( تخييش ) as literally said by Wael of Enraged’s guitarist who turned the bad situation to a storm of laughs.

Remember the “familiar, masked face” I told you about earlier? Well, he freaked me out. That was Mr. Skizzlezee, a WWI veteran who was consumed by the deadly fear of bombs, with his asylum inmate’s white suit and burned faces’ mask crowned by a mysterious symbol. He sung “Shell Shock” which was the next crazy track they played. From this point on their music got suddenly multi-layered with the help of Skizzle Zee’s monstrously changing vocal chords between every verse. This track is something to stop at; rare in Egypt to find a music band crazy enough to project such melancholy on stage. See, the band was caught in it so deep they kept falling to the floor and headbanging then standing still all over again. With the perfectly conducted stage acting of Mr. Skizzle Zee who was running from the sounds of the bombs created off guitar riffs and keyboards screeching sound; for a moment all the audience were laughing madly! A scene not to be believed if not seen in person. The very long track ended for us to realize that Mr. Skizzle Zee is no one but Sammy Sayed the front man of Brutal death metal band from Egypt: Scarab!

Cutting loose from the melancholic fog in the stage, Wael gave an appreciation speech letting the space for his band to tune-up and get it all together again to start “Down” that had a speech inside it – not sure whether it’s a part of the track or just Wael improvising. And again to a heavier track “Hypatia” leading to a track, he started by this line: “The madness you see on stage isn’t fake. We REALLY are that crazy! And please don’t get on my nerves!”

 “Jeremiad” was the ending of the night, for those who didn’t attend I tell them that it was a decent track with Wael hitting his band members, forcing them to headbang even his own wife – the lead vocal Rasha – throwing his own guitar to the floor and stepping on it. Last but not least; he MOSHED with the whole crowd! A real mosh-pit broke out suddenly between him and the crowd who went euphoric along the act.

Final Notes:

1. Thanks to both bands for a concert rich in emotions and music. Thanks to the organizing team from the merchandise table to the backstage who were very cooperative and friendly.

2. To prove their utter support for each other, many of other bands’ members showed up enjoying the night. Some of them are; Sayed Ragai from Sinprophecy, Mohamed Sa’eid from Destiny In Chains, Hani Sami, ex-Sinprophecy, Ehab Khaled from Medic, Mohamed Hassani from Sand Aura, and many others.

Enraged photography by: Lina El-Gohary

Invaders Photography by: Ahmed Montasser 

Why choose Metalcore music although it is not popular here like in the USA for example?

Well because it’s my thing. when I first made my band i actually didn’t care that much about the popular music around here, I also didn’t know that the band would continue till that day. We offer music and different type, if people got into it then it’s ok, if not then there’s someone is, metalcore isn’t the fan base here but it’s around the world specially U.K & U.S.A

Can you tell us about the music competitions you were in?

The band entered battles such as BoO Rock Radio station battle of the bands in 11/2008 and we won the first place after a huge battle and competitions included 12 levels with a huge band we were facing, actually it’s a mainstream one from Ohio ..but our fans out there helped us and of course our friends here, and the special battle after that also was with BOO music, it included the winners of all years and metal camp 2009 but unfortunately we didn’t make it, neither to Warped tour 2008 as well.

I saw some merchandise for the band, can you tell me about it?

Yeah sure, they all have been made with big help from the promoters we’re signed with, like Deathcap Record, and a few other underground promotion labels to spread the word about the band, the stuff they help with is t-shirts – flyers and booking in, from our side we’re printing the shirts soon here so we can use them and sell them in metalblast next show, actually the problem is that we don’t have any pay pal so the whole work must be done from the promoters side, and to keep up with them we have to do the same here, so that’s what we’re doing, fans out there demands our merchandise and here we handle the local, it’s like a small plan to promote the band as much as we can.

What other bands do you like in Egypt and why?

Aha, well there are so many awesome bands in EGYPT, as a short answer without going through many details i like “Scarab – Worm – YPH – Beyond east – Idilmind …and as u can see they are all in different genres and maybe also not my type of music at all!!!!! because i don’t have any problem with any kind of music and of course with any band around Egypt, actually I don’t care about the genre as long as they Understand what they’re doing and that they really dig it and love it and most of all SERIOUS!! These bands are serious and working hard, they just need to be heard more, like many others still unheard yet.

What do you think of the Metal scene and accusations towards metalheads?

That Question is way dangerous to answer, i am just a guy who love to make music and listening to it ..i kind of avoid any Question including our scene specially if it’s around our metalheads!!!
because as i said before, i don’t have any problem with anyone and his/her genre or even their beliefs!! But I’ll answer in general, i Hate the way our scene is going through right now ..that thing that all people know about, doesn’t actually exist, some bands got offended, some great musicians and great minds quite listening and stopped playing because of this curse!! but i don’t where actually our scene gonna take us too, guess nowhere if we kept it unknown, if we keep the talents in shadows till it is dead then there’s no use of trying, You can’t listen to music like metal or hard rock if you’re surrounded with many threats, even if u like to give it the chance you can’t sign a major deal with a big label if you can’t even play gigs and i mean real gigs with many opinions and many people and extreme bands not just your friends coming to show the support and others who comes just to have fun offending the bands and many many things, anyway, you can’t blame anything or anyone specifically

Are you guys planning to hit Europe and USA?

Sure, actually we’ve got the chance before to play Italy and U.K, SupVision are one of our closest friends and we thank them a lot for spreading the word and helping us, but anyway, the main problem is always the money, the legal papers, these stuff is holding up many things, we missed some great chances, I can’t even forgive myself about it, not something i could have done but i still hate the feeling that we’re stuck!!!!

Why make a remix for Resident Evil and what did people think about it?

Resident Evil is the weirdest track we have done, it’s just an idea i came up with long time ago before even starting to work seriously on our EP, the idea came to me when i was listening to the track and i imagining it mixed with vox , so i Recorded it, i consider it an Industrial track!! Resident Evil got the total blessed of many people here and out there specially out there with the high rates we’ve got when we gave it to the promoters, although it’s not our genre and it’s just a remix cover but it did fine, it really helped the band to get more known and i still love it myself.

What are your plans for the future?

We’re just planing and working to have great gigs because we’re way unhappy being away from the stage, the only thing that’s left is MetalBlast, and i wish all the best for the new scene!!
And we need to finish the full Album, and this is still the hardest step till now!

Give us a brief summary about the band, current and former members, how the band started, when and where?

The band started in 2006 in Cairo, we had of course the problem that all bands faces in the beginning when you’re looking for serious and talented members and most important to have the same way of thinking that you have, we had some problems with members coming and going till we made it full, in the beginning the band had 2 European members and actually they are one of the main reasons to make the band a metalcore band. with thier ideas and the way of thinking they had

current members are : Zander – Peter – Kilany – Meniem – gallant

former are : Paul – A.Demuis .

Hany: nice name for the band, is there any hidden meaning behind it?

D.I.C: What people don’t know is that we wanted to change the name after few months from forming the band to AS I FALL!! but we couldn’t because we thought it`ll be hard promoting the new name, so we kept the name, it came by luck and the hidden meaning behind Destiny in Chains is picturing our Destiny controlling us by chains, leading us like puppets, funny but true!

What are your lyrical themes and is it based on inner, social struggles facing the band members?

D.I.C: our themes going with days in our life – relationships – fantasy – Anger !

And yeah it’s based on very personal social struggle facing me personally, specially in Demonized, with the first Singles in our first EP.

Have you guys signed to any major label yet?

D.I.C: No major labels yet but we’re trying to !

Tell me about your demos and E.Ps?

D.I.C: we released for the first time the singles in 2007, bleeding for you and resident evil, then we RE-recorded some of them again like bleeding for you and added DemoniZed that was the name of the first EP by the end of 2007 / 2008, and the other one by the end of 2008 / 2009
I HAVE WAITED MY WHOLE LIFE

How many concerts, tours did you guys perform and what are the highlights of these concerts or tours?

D.I.C: The Bahrain’s Rage to The Extreme concert with bands from the Middle East, that’s it, and as for the highlights, receiving offers to perform in different places, even if it’s locally but still gives an awesome feeling and feedback.

Can you tell me names of bands you guys played with and in your opinion what are the best punk bands now in addition to influences on your music?

D.I.C: We had the chance to play with YPH, Faking It, and for other bands out there like Firecell BoTd.

Is there any release date for an album, and is there any official video for the band yet?

D.I.C: no official video yet ..and the last release was “i have waited my whole life EP 2008 / 2009” ..but later this month we’re about to record new Demos for opinions and a few Cover singles for bands such as BFMV ..ATYRU ..and more ..and in our official myspace there are 2 new demo track, still unfinished yet, just for taking opinions and hope we can record them soon .

Which bands you wish to play with in the future?

D.I.C: so many to go with ..lets say (AS I LAY DYING – BFMV – TRIVIUM – ALL THAT REMAINS – PARKWAY DRIVE – AS BLOOD RUNS BLACK).. the list goes on .

What are your upcoming tours and concerts?

D.I.C: We’re working on getting booked again and we’re trying to go for it outside one more time..but right now we’re working on our upcoming show in metal blast, soon, ..and sakia !!!! specially metal blast the show that we promise all of you that it`ll be so sick and we’re gonna get your heads lay down on your chest, WE ASSURE YOU !!!!!!

Do you see that your band can be a global one?

D.I.C: who knows, maybe, i don’t know actually, i just do what i can do best and the rest is left to god first and our scene second !!!

Did you guys do any interviews with an international music magazines before?

D.I.C: Yeah, lots, one of them is a very popular one called Carange Magazine from Germany.

Do you think Metalcore will be popular here in Egypt someday?

D.I.C: it’s on the way to get known, can’t tell it’s popular yet unfortunately!!

What would you like to say to your fans out there?

D.I.C: Help us and help your scene, don’t lose your hope and support each band because they are all what you got currently, so be with us all !!