• First, I would like to say that I’m honored to have you with us at Rock Era Magazine and that all the metalhead editors we have are huge fans of the work you guys put out. Who Am I speaking with and how would you like to introduce yourself?

Hello, Thank you for having us! My name is Loïc and I am the co-founder, guitarist and lyricist of the band. I also do management stuff.

• For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that a Lebanese metal band by the name of Phenomy exists, but I’ve never really heard the story of how the band was conceived. How and when did you guys meet? And what does the band’s name mean?

Rudy (Drummer) and I started jamming in his garage when we were kids. We used to jam on some Metallica, Pantera and all these good stuff. Later, we started jamming over our own music which was basically influenced by these bands.

We went through many line-up changes before we got to the current one.

Sam (Vocalist) Joined us to record our first album “Once And For All” and Peter (Bassist) joined later on just before we played Wacken Open Air 2018.

The name Phenomy is just a cool name that we all liked and that derives from the word Phenomenal.

We think it suits our style well and it will fit in any type of music or genre we might want to explore.

REVIEW: Lead Me To My Throne by PHENOMY

• Could you give us some insight into the metal scene of Lebanon? How do the bands manage to record, perform, and fund their work?

Well, it is a real struggle really, if you listen to our first two albums, you can see that the level of knowledge in metal music production is not the best. So that’s why on the third one, we decided to record it ourself, in our own home studios.

Finding venues is not easy as well, but we manage to negotiate with some venues to make events in Lebanon. It is quite expensive for bands that don’t make money out of their music yet. But Lebanese bands are passionate and work hard to make it happen.

Everything is usually funded by ourselves, we have daily jobs and we use our own money to record, play shows and tour.

• How would you describe Phenomy’s musical direction? How would you describe it to someone who can’t define the subgenre?

We started as a Thrash metal band with groove metal influences as well. But we can’t be defined just by that, because we like to try different things when we write our music. It might be from ethnic or cinematic music influences. Everything is allowed as long as we find it interesting and good enough for the four of us.

So it’s hard to find one subgenre that fits it all basically. Just listen to the music and label it yourself, right? haha

• We were all very stoked for you when you won the Wacken Metal Battle in 2018 and got to play at the legendary festival…how did that process go?

We heard that the metal battle was coming to Lebanon and we were so excited about it. Peter had just joined the band and we were trying to figure it out. Honestly, we were in the battle with really good bands, but we were the only ones who really had an album out and that had already toured abroad. Winning the battle and going to play Wacken on the headbanger’s ball stage was amazing. It still feels surreal.

• I heard there was some drama in 2019 when you tried to bring Sepultura to Lebanon…what was that story all about?

Well we met Sepultura in Germany, at Wacke. Our promoter kept in touch with them to organize the tour. The tour was supposed to happen in Russia and it was supposed to end in Beirut. Unfortunately, the Lebanese government has a list of banned bands including Sepultura, because of some false accusations like satanism and supporting Israel.

So, their visas were refused and ours as well. It was frustrating.

• In 2022 you released your concept album, Syndicate Of Pain. Would you like to tell me more about the album’s story and what inspired you to write it?

The album was written and was ready to be released as a non-concept album in 2021. But then covid happened and Lebanon went through an economical crisis before the massive explosion on the 4^th of august. So the lockdown and all the frustration led me to work harder on it and that’s how I came up with the idea of making it a concept album.

We had already a music video covering “The Memory Remains” by Metallica. So I took the story and went on with it, to write the story behind “Syndicate Of Pain”

• And how would you say this album differs, in terms of sound, from your previous releases?

As I said previously, We recorded and produced it ourselves. A dear friend of ours, Bassem Daouk,, helped us mixing and mastering it.

It has a modern approach with cinematic elements. It has also cleaner songs like “When The Darkness Comes’ which is not the type of songs you would hear in previous albums.

• How and Where was the album recorded? Did you tackle any struggles during the writing and production process?

It was fun to experiment and record it ourselves in our home studios. We learned a lot about everything concerning recording and producing an album. It was quite an experience!

• How does it feel to be a live act going on tour and playing shows back to back, especially when this lifestyle is so unorthodox in our Arab culture?

We grew up watching bands like Metallica, Pantera and Iron Maiden touring the world. Of course, we would follow their footsteps. It’s a thousand times more difficult for us with our visas, coming from a third world country like Lebanon. But we manage to make it happen and we are proud of what we were able to achieve all by ourselves. We never thought we would come this far.

• Can you name one artist, living or dead, you would like to collaborate with, one you would like to tour with, and another one you wish to watch as an audience but still didn’t get the chance to?

I’d collaborate with Cliff Burton, I’d tour with Dimebag and I would love to watch Rob Zombie, He’s one of the artists that I didn’t tick out of my list yet.

• Have you played any special venues when you toured? And what are some venues you still wish to perform at?

One really special venue that we played at, was the Arenele Romane, in Romania at Metalhad meeting festival 2018 with Children Of Bodom. It’s a beautiful Roman Amphitheater, it was spectacular to play there.

There is no specific venues, we would love to tour the world in every venue possible. But events like Rock Am Ring and Hellfest are the ones we would like to participate in one day.

• What are your current and future plans with Phenomy, is there any new music in the making, or maybe a new tour or concert?

We are constantly writing new music. We are now based in Europe and we are still managing and figuring out everything. Of course, we will be touring this summer. We have announced two festivals in Czech Republic and there will be more dates announced soon.

• Would you by any chance be interested to come to play a show at one of our venues in Egypt? Since our scene has been going strong and we have hosted many foreign bands here before, it would be an honor to have you guys here.

Same here, it would be an honor for us to play your beautiful country. As soon as the opportunity shows up, we will be there!

• Lastly, what advice would you give bands that are just starting out in Lebanon or a similarly metal-unfriendly place in the world?

If you are passionate enough about what you do, everything is possible. You will make mistakes and you will learn from them, it’s ok to fail and learn. Just hold on and good things will happen.

Thank you so much for giving us some of your precious time and we hope to catch you guys on tour (hopefully you will include Egypt in your plans). We hope you keep rocking our world and putting out awesome groove/thrash records that will definitely “lead your throne” among the world’s greatest metal bands.

Thank you so much for having us, we hope to meet in real life soon! Stay heavy \m/

The band was formed in 1995, they started off as a small garage band, then in 1997 they decided to take music seriously, and they play heavy/thrash metal. Read to know more!

How did your dream of forming Blaakyum start??
Well, it all started back in 1994 when I got my first Electric guitar and I wanted to form a band. I started looking for members and Blaakyum was born in the summer of 1995, here is the story about how it happened: I used to have a neighbor who liked to play guitar, his name was Maroun Azar (مارون عزار), I would go and teach him a little about chords and chord progressions, and then we started looking for members. He used to play the Harmonica as well. It was our first year at university, so we started looking among schoolmates and colleagues, and we put out a few ads around the area were we lived.

After few weeks of search, Maroun came to me and told me that he found a lead guitarist who was one of his class mates back at school; Jad Nohra. We met Jad at my place and jammed. We were all beginners but Jad had something that I found very impressive; with his limited musical knowledge at the time, he managed to put together some great melodic and expressive solos. After the jam, Jad asked if it was good, and my reply was “You are in!”
Our search went on for a drummer and Bassist. After a few jams the three of us decided that it is time to take serious guitar lessons, as all of us were self-taught and had just the basic knowledge of music and our instruments. So Jad and I started taking private lessons with the same teacher.
As we were searching, we were asked to play in a small religious gig in front of a local church, but we didn’t have a drummer or a bassist till the day of that gig. In the afternoon while they were setting up the set on stage and we were getting ready to decline what to do, one of the people who lived next to the church came to us and told us “I heard you are looking for a drummer? I know a very good one.” And he took us to a house close to the church and he introduced us to a young guy called Jean Saad. Jean was still at school, and he was younger than us by four years, we thought he was too young, but he offered to bring his drum kit to the church and said “What are the songs? Let’s try to jam” after two hours of jamming/rehearsing, we were impressed; he’d managed to play all the songs we prepared, even the ones he didn’t know.

After that gig, we started looking for a band name, although I had came up with Blaakyum way before the band was formed, we kept looking for something else, but then we agreed on Blaakyum. We had our first concert on January 13th 1996, by that time Maroun Azar had left the band because we were more into Metal while he wasn’t much of a Metalhead, and had to continue his medical studies. We also didn’t have a bassist, in that concert the bassist of a band called Generation X played with us. After that I hired my brother Samer Deaibess on Bass, as he was a very talented player and that is how the first formation of the band came to be. Later on the band members changed again.

What difficulties faced you as a band??
The band started in 1995! 1996 was the beginning of the attack on Metal music in Lebanon, so we didn’t have peace! We had to hide from the police, and risk our rehearsal studios and concerts being raided; you know what I am talking about as you have faced the same thing in Egypt. So it was hard. But it gave us such an adrenaline rush!

But the major difficulty was keeping the band together, most Lebanese bands struggle to this day, and I do not know of any Lebanese bands that have ever kept their line-ups unchanged.

Also, Metal and Rock music do not generate money, not even pocket money, so it is not a very good investment and usually those who do it, do it for passion. So having a Metal band means you are paying money and never getting any, and people need to live, so many have to study and work and very few could keep up. From 1996 up till the split-up in 2001, we had had already five major line-up changes. By 2001, I was fed up with all the changes and the band split because I couldn’t go on changing members like that, not to mention how bad the economical and political situation always is, we didn’t have facilities to play, practice and perform, and there weren’t any good musical stores; we had two or three musical instruments stores that monopolized the market, and they provided instruments of low quality and high-priced services. From 2007 when Blaakyum reunited, we still went through line-up changes, and we were struggling to keep the band up against all the political and economical disasters.

Through all the hardships, what kept you going?
Honestly I have been the only constant member of Blaakyum, and Blaakyum is like my little child. That’s what kept me going, I always somehow managed to gather some energy and put the band back on track after each blow, each line-up change and each event that affected the band. And during the time before the split-up, I had great support from Mr. Vicken Bajaksian who was Blaakyum’s bassist; from 1997 till 2000 in those three years he really stuck around.

After the band reformation in 2007 I no longer was the only constant member of Blaakyum! Mr. Rany Battikh became my partner in crime, and together we have been guiding Blaakyum ever since, and I really believe that if Rany wasn’t there I wouldn’t have had the strength to carry on. After 2009, new blood joined the band, among which was Jad Feitrouni our drummer, and he has been with us ever since. The three of us have finally become the core of what Blaakyum is today.
A few weeks ago, my brother Rabih Deaibess joined, and now the band has finally become a single unit. So as you can see, what makes us go on is our brotherhood; that we have each other to count on. And that is the very core of Metal.

What inspires your songs and lyrics?
Anything, everything, and sometimes nothing are what inspire us. I mean, I have been doing most of the writings till 2011 when we recorded the debut album, definitely everyone had his input, and the subjects that inspired us were pretty much everything around us. I am personally fascinated by fantasy novels and strategy-based computer games, so most of my writings take on a story-like form, and some songs are related to political events, wars that we suffered, you know we have an endless supply of that *laughs* and some are related to my personal life, but I usually do not like to centre the theme around me, so I take my personal situation and create a bit of a story around it. My personal muse is Bassem Deaibess and eternal inspiration is the Dark Moon, she has been so for the past 15 years and I doubt this will change anytime soon. But now Rany, Jad and Rabih have become totally involved in writing, and I think each will bring his own muse with him, and that is so exciting because no one knows what to expect, not even us… and that’s the best part.

Well, I’m curious about the rock and metal scene in Lebanon, Would you please describe it to us? Do people in Lebanon actually accept the Rock and Metal music?
Definitely not. The Lebanese – like most other Arab countries – have never accepted Rock and Metal, because of their ignorance and primitive minds. Even though we are a bit better than other countries like Syria and Jordan and Iraq where Metal and Rock are 100% forbidden, we still live in the dark ages, the Church and Mosque are always on our tail, although most of the Lebanese Metal heads are religious people, you know the drill, you faced the same thing in Egypt. In Lebanon, between 1996 and 1998 then 2002 till 2005, to be a Metal head was a horrible and dangerous adventure that would land you in jail, like a criminal. But I think all this oppression gave the scene some sort of solidarity and kept it alive, unlike Dubai where Metal is totally free and yet the scene is almost nonexistent. Now things have their ups and downs, so sometimes the Metal scene is great, and other times it’s horrible. We still do not have good concert organizers or proper promoters, this is why I envy Egypt for having Metal Blast, and they are the most professional Metal organizers we have ever met in the Arabic world.

Your last gig in Egypt was awesome; the people loved you and your performance. How did you feel after the gig? And how did the Metal Blast crew contact you?
We felt so happy, we enjoyed every bit of the show, and we loved the Egyptian fans, till now they are our favorite crowd, and I would love to come back again, really. Our gig in Cairo was one of the best we ever gave, and we loved the venue, the organizers and the fans, so hail to you m/

The Metal Blast crew has my contact because many of them were in Jorzine and we always collaborated with it as it is the best Metal webzine in the Middle East. They were working on a concert for Wyvern,who are the oldest Metal band in Egypt, and back in 2002 or 2003 I was in contact with their drummer, so they thought of getting us on board and combining the two elders of the Easter Scene. I loved the idea and accepted, and this is how it happened.

Were you offered a sponsorship package or a contract with a production label?
Well, this is starting to become a regular question; you see, thing is we are enjoying our freedom for now, of course like any other band, we have to climb our way up the music industry ladder, starting with a small to medium label then going to a sub-indie label… etc. But we have just started with our first record, so we thought we’d tour first, start working on our second album then start looking for a label or a record deal, because we know after that we won’t have the same freedom we now have in our debut, or even the second album, and if you listen to ‘Lord Of The Night’, obviously it has a lot of freedom margin by the diversity that it covers, I am sure once we start working with a Label they will start asking us to narrow it down. So I say probably sometime by the end of this year or the beginning of next we will start looking for a label.

How does it feel to release your debut album after all this time?
Well talking about myself, I am finally glad to get this era over and done with. You see, this band is 16 years old, with 12 active years, and endless original songs that were never recorded (If you exclude the 1998 single). So this album is kind of the best of all the past originals, from the oldest and simplest songs to the newest. Not all the songs were written recently, which is why there are a lot of different styles in the album.

Are there any plans for a new album?
For sure!! We’ve already started writing new material, and one thing I can promise, the next album will be faster, and heavier, so keep a look out.

Will we see u again in Egypt?
Wallahi we enjoyed Egypt so much, as I’ve said before, and we would love a comeback, but we definitely cannot just come on our own. I am sure Metal Blast would be there when we come again, as well as the few fans who were watching us and started a group called “We want Blaakyum in Egypt Again.” So yeah! Since fans want us and we have great organizers like Metal Blast, we are definitely coming back.

Any last words for the fans?
Keep up the faith and spirit, you guys are heroes to have held up in the dark days, and we hope these days are over. I hope the future is brighter, and we will be there to support you just as you were so great at supporting us. And thank you for the interview.

Interviewed by: Hossam Ramzy

Is the female band members in the rock scene became a modern phenomenon? In which Moonlight are performing old school music for legend artists,
such as; The Doors, Rainbow and others, so let’s answer this question together while we had the opportunity to know more about the Lebanese female musicians and the Lebanese music scene in general…

Monk: Cool, so how are you Lou and Cynthia?

Lou: good good.
Cynthia: very good.

Monk: Okay, we will start with why did you choose Moonlight to be the name of the band?

Cynthia: Moonlight isn’t a cliché female band name and it’s an artistic name.
Lou: I mean we came up with a lot of names before but then we settled with this one because it’s simple and a nice name that we all agreed on.

Monk: Who are the members of the band?
Cynthia:
Noor Mounzer: Vocals.
Cynthia Maalouf: Lead guitar.
Loulwa Khoury: Rhythm guitar.
Sarah Mrad: Bass guitar.
Tanya Abi Chaker: Drums.

Monk: Okay, what is the concept of the band to be all female members band? is it related to a feminism concept?

Lou: Well no, not really. I came up with the idea last year.
Cynthia: The fact that we’re all girls playing rock music in Lebanon is new.
Lou: It’s not a feminism concept but a new idea like Cynthia said.

Monk: It is a new idea as a female band, but not as rock in Lebanon, because I remember the Lebanese 70s movies were full of rock music, am I right?

Lou: Sure.
Cynthia: Yes of course, but we’re not just playing covers the way they are, we’ve added our own touch and we mixed songs together we played some medleys and so on..
Lou: Plus female musicians are sometimes underestimated in Lebanon…so in a non-feminist way we’re trying to prove them wrong.
Cynthia: Yes and we hope that in the upcoming future there will be more female bands in Lebanon.

Monk: Okay, how was the feedback from the other – male – bands in Lebanon about Moonlight?

Lou: Well…most of them just like the idea that we’re all girls. Others who attended our 1st gig learned more about us and the feedback was pretty good. Especially that no one was expecting the changes we made in the songs we covered.

Monk: Have you faced any aggressive attitude or situation from male musicians?

Cynthia: No, many of them have been helpful to us and motivated us. Still, we have proved in our last gig that female musicians can rock hard as male musicians especially with adding our own touch. You can check Starstruck on Youtube to see what I mean by our own touch.

Monk: What – rock – music genre in Lebanon attracts young people?

Cynthia: In Lebanon there are different audiences for different genres, but u can still see a punk fan in a hard rock concert or a metal fan at a classic rock concert but I would say that pop rock mainly attracts the most of people.

Monk: How did you feel through the first time on stage with Moonlight?
Cynthia: just great and inspiring. Inspiring as playing a good music with an all female band maintaining a high level of musicianship. Practicing with the band did pay off as the show turned out to be a very special one for us and the audience, we both shared the same level of enthusiasm.

Monk: That means you have the same answer, am I right?

Lou: Yeah, despite the technical problems we had during the beginning of the show.

Monk: I see, and how was the audience feedback about the show?

Lou: They all appreciated it very much.

Monk: Is the rock/metal music scene in Lebanon faces any troubles with the authorities or people?

Cynthia: We as Moonlight have no relation to metal or the so called Lebanese metal scene.
Lou: The rock scene doesn’t get in trouble with the authorities unlike the metal scene
Cynthia: The popularity of rock music in Lebanon every since the early 90’s has been increasing not facing any sort of legal trouble since it has kept high standards .

Monk: So is it okay to make a rock concert in Lebanon, or it needs a lot of licenses and permissions?

Cynthia: Like any other concerts, a rock concert needs a license but that doesn’t make it a special case.

Monk says: I see, Okay, how can I find Moonlight online?

Lou & Cynthia: The Facebook Group

Monk: Is Moonlight just a tribute band?

Lou: No, not really.

Monk: Are you going to work on an album soon?

Lou: Now the album isn’t a case to discuss…but maybe later…who knows.

Monk: Are you going to add your tributes to your original work album?!

Cynthia: No! Even if we are paying tribute to big bands, we are adding our own “twist” to it.

Monk: What are the upcoming plans for Moonlight?

Cynthia: Details will be revealed soon on our Facebook group; let’s just keep it a surprise.

Monk says: Describe Moonlight in one word to you?

Cynthia: Creativity
Lou: in one word? Hmmm…Twisted

Monk: A word to your Egyptian fans…

Lou: I just thank them for their support and will hope for them to come and see us live someday.
Cynthia: I didn’t know we had fans in Egypt, but oh well … we are proud to have listeners abroad. Hopefully we get to visit Egypt sometime next year.

Monk: And finally, what is your opinion of Rock Era Magazine?

Cynthia: Great work and interesting concept! Keep it up.
Lou: Honestly I think that you guys are doing a great job. Keep it up.

Monk: Well, thank you Lou and Cynthia for your time, and I wish all the best for Moonlight as I wish to see them in Egypt within an international tour soon

Lou: Thank you and take care.
Cynthia: Thank you!