2018 began with one of the biggest achievements in the history of the scene, which was Odious’ participation in Septicflesh/Inquisition EU tour! It was the first Egyptian band to participate in a massive, 23 show tour with such wide known bands as Septicflesh.

We still with Odious’ activity, Another massive achievement in our scene was to see two of the best and most popular Metal bands in Egypt share the stage together. Witnessing Odious and Scarab on one stage is phenomenal! Especially for those who didn’t witness the good old days back in late 90’s and early 2000’s. It was on the occasion of Scarab’s celebration for their upcoming album “Martyrs of the Storm” and launching a slogan will be Egypt 2019 Metal Slogan “The Storm is Approaching”.

Another great achievement witnessed in the Egyptian Metal Scene was the honorable activity of Crescent. No doubts, 2018 was a happy but also busy year for Crescent; the band released one of the best Egyptian Metal albums in the year “The Order of Amenti”. In addition, Crescent participated in a number of shows in Germany, France, and Ukraine.

Last year also had a wide impressive activity for Medic. Those Egyptian Progressive Metal veterans gave the whole Middle East a gem called “Ascension”. A wonderful story framed in the unique enjoyable Progressive music.

Ahl Sina didn’t want to let 2018 go without their presence, so the band released 3 wonderful, dynamic singles from their epic not yet released masterpiece “Troops of Pain”.

Massive Scar Era also weren’t far Away from Egypt and the Middle East in 2018, as they released a widely successful EP called “Color Blind”, which featured two music videos, “Unfollow” and “Color Blind.” In addition, they had cross Canadian tour for 18 days – check tour details here.

Also, the scene witnessed new singles by many popular bands as Al Azif and Mephostophilis. In addition, we had single releases for impressive rising bands as Riverwood, Thorvald, Chains of Destiny, and Catharsis.

We can’t deny Segadoras’ return to action, also Meddox Theory released a very good full length album.

Egyptian Depressive Black Metal band Frostagrath released an outstanding single “Under Your Black Wing” featured Sayed Ragai and Devour released a new single called “Freak”

The Greek band Dimlight rocked the stage of the lands of pyramids and Nile, alongside French Heavy Metal legends Nightmare at this last MB Fest night.
But, because the world is not always beautiful, the scene had major problems. First, the tragedy of the final Metal Blast Festival. It was one of the greatest shocks that conquered our scene as it was the only active event for Metal Concerts.

Another shameful trace in our scene, was some childish actions by some bands and fans who didn’t respect the voting system posted by Metal Blast Festival for choosing a band for the opening slot at the final MB Fest.

That was a short reminder for the main events of our Metal Scene in 2018.
Hope things turn be better in the upcoming years.

Edited by: Amged Abdel Moghny.

Have you missed our previous rewinds? Get to know more about what happened in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

Shady before YPH, you founded “Bliss” a death/doom metal band covering bands like Katatonia, anathema. What’s the secret of switching to this style of music?

Shady: I really got sick and tired of the metal scene here and there honestly.. At a concert in Alexandria and a concert here in Cairo, someone was worshiping and praying towards me when i was on stage and that lowness completely sickened me.. beside i got fed up of the stereotyping in the metal scene so i just decided to entertain myself and have a laugh making myself a “traitor to metal”. Most of the people now in the metal scene just got involved with it just to look and feel different whilst understanding nothing, they made the metal scene “the place to be, if you’ve got no place to be”. Most of them had to idea wt this kind of music was and felt nothing of it, just treated it like a cult. I hated the organizers of the concerts as well.. like Ahmad Gamal who’s stolen almost 2000 pounds from me when I did him a favor letting him make a Metal Accord concert at my grandfathers farm…

Shady, were you the last member in Your Prince Harming line up?

Shady: no, I joined the band after it was properly formed in the year 2006. We got to know each other through Adham the drummer of “Bliss” before he joined the army when they were looking for a vocalist. I joined Your Prince Harming to sing as many vocal styles as possible because i love to have variation, I’d hate to be called a “screamer” or something so small like that. I’ve went through composing for nearly every single genre because of this, such as alternative/grunge rock, doom metal, black metal, funeral doom metal, Trance/House composer, oriental music (which was when I learnt how to play oud) and classical music which is when I’ve had a place as a singer at the opera (as you could maybe hear a touch of it in my voice).
Your Prince Harming was going to be my next challenge because the vocals in the Screamo genre are difficult to sing, varying from extreme singing to extreme screaming of every sort..

I believe you have seen that TV show on Dream channel that was called “The Truth” by Wael El Ebrashy when he had some Emo people in an episode.

Shady: no i actually didn’t watch it, but those kids know nothing about our music.. they sometimes talk to us and appear at our concerts but they know absolutely nothing about what we play and feel so little of it.. I believe you have seen our fans today in the concert, could you see any Emo?? Not a single one.. Its retarded calling us “Emo” because we are not emo, we dislike them, we know nothing about them and for the people who love to stereotype.. I’m sorry, we don’t cut ourselves and we don’t write much poetry expressing our loneliness… just because Patrick (the guitarist) and I have long hair/put on a side and the whole band love to look good and stylish shouldn’t ever mean we are emo…

Do you plan to include more international bands to cover soon in the band like “Underoath

Shady: we enjoy covering, but its not much our thing at this stage… We have our originals which we are currently recording now and our originals are wt we enjoy playing most.. about underoath though, yea sure we could maybe dot that why not… but i don’t really like them much to be honest, but we’ve covered the devil wears prada and bless the fall before who are actually more famous/commercial in the Screamo/Hardcore scene now. They are some of our most influential bands, even though our music doesn’t sound like theirs much…

The name of the band “Your Prince Harming” do you mean anything with it?

Shady: well the name came from “your prince charming” a character which appeared many times in children stories however an irony of it. Not being charming, but being harming meaning hurt and pain ends it up with our very tightly original band name “Your Prince Harming”..

What is your lyrical theme?

Shady: our lyrics are usually about relationships and friendship, and hey hey before i continue I’d like to explain something to the metal-heads and guys out there who call it gay to write about women and relationships…. If someone’s lyrics are based around women, sex, lust and problems… you tell me, *how on earth could he be homosexual??.. I mean honestly, this is unbelievably really.. To be gay, you’d have to write lyrics about *men* going to (so-called) “war” *together* and talk about their (so-called) “man to man wrestling” together basing your chorus’s on things like “OH THE WAR!!” or “THE STORM HAS COME!!!” I mean we see this everyday and no one ever comments..
If someone hasn’t went through at least one relationship to be able to relate to our lyrics and you’re over 16 years old.. you’ve got some issue’s.. and word of advice, you’ve gotta get off your computer you’ve got more important things to do/think about than read this interview..

Do you see that the style of the music you play nowadays is the most positive music?

Shady: the genre is pretty positive, hardcore lyrics are usually religious or more like christian.. however ours.. pretty negative actually.. I guess we’re just being real.. and reality has no other interpretations.. we were sadly taught by our parents when we were kids that life was beautiful, people are beautiful inside, and to stay away from deceivers.. but just had to get the big shock when we became teenagers/adults, that staying away from deceivers actually meant isolating yourself… they kinda badly misunderstood human intentions…

Did you sign any contracts with any major label?

Shady: no we need some help.. 🙂

Do you have any albums or singles recorded?

Shady: right now we have MANY originals that are finished and are already being planned for our first album (after this upcoming EP currently being recorded) and i can tell you this as the vocalist of the band and as a simple listener” the music really sound amazing!… but we are just a little lazy and we are going a little slow with the EP right now.
We really love composing and we have made some really good music rockers and metalheads will really like and it’s full of variation like you heard tonight in our concert, we had a couple of tracks that are filled with electronics making us sound like Trance music..

Tell us about the bands you played with before.

Shady: we’ve played with so many.. Brain Candy, Fishing With Guns (the french band which came a couple of months ago), Idle Mind, scarab and many I cant really remember right now.

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

Shady: this band has so much potential, the guys have so much “fire” inside of them whilst jamming and gigging live.. so much energy.. and as far as *composing* goes.. you’ve got 3 multi-musician geniuses (the bassist “moose”, myself and Patrick the guitarist) that could go solo all by themselves combined into one band because of their love to head-bang to hardcore music in a band.. All composing together using their unique and diverse backgrounds in music.. its great honestly, and i cant wait to record.

What are your plans for the future?

Shady: we are hopefully planning a tour to England and Europe (hopefully with Fishing With Guns from France) next winter.

Is there any message you want to deliver to people?

Shady: if you don’t enjoy going clubbing and getting herpes, drinking your heads off and “raving”.. it doesn’t mean you aren’t cool, it just means you’re not following.. your not cheap.. you were born NOT to follow… be proud of it.. its a gift..

Thank you, Shady for your time.

Shady: you are welcome Hany