In a heartfelt statement, Riverwood’s founder, vocalist, and guitarist Mahmoud Nader announced his decision to step away from the band due to health challenges after nearly 8 years of battling Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. As a dedicated father and artist, Nader emphasized the importance of channeling his energy into family, recovery, and a new personal path in music.

While stepping back from band life, Nader assured fans that music will remain an essential part of his identity. He will continue as a solo artist, focusing on instrumental metal covers and video game-inspired compositions, keeping his creative fire alive.

Riverwood, who have carved out a unique place in the Middle Eastern progressive metal scene with albums like Shadows and Flames and Fairytale, remain committed to carrying on the legacy Mahmoud helped build. Known for blending progressive, symphonic, and oriental metal influences, the band has become a cultural bridge, resonating with audiences both locally and internationally.

At Rock Era Magazine, we’ve had the honor of covering Riverwood’s remarkable journey and witnessing their rise as one of Egypt’s most ambitious and artistically fearless bands. Mahmoud’s contribution to Riverwood is immeasurable—not only as a musician but as a visionary who inspired countless fans and fellow artists.

This is not the end of Riverwood’s story but rather the beginning of a new chapter. We stand firmly by Mahmoud Nader, Riverwood, and the band’s loyal fanbase as they embrace change while staying true to their passion for music.

We look forward to the band’s upcoming announcement of Mahmoud’s replacement and to supporting both Riverwood’s continued growth and Mahmoud’s solo musical endeavors.

Unlike many bands today in such an AI rapid-digitalised era, the German metallers Dark Lightning dedicated real-time for songwriting and production for their debut album, The Demons We Create. Let’s delve deeper below.

Based in Malmö, Sweden Dominick Keath’s career and presence in the music scene can be traced back to several bands he was involved in in the 90s, before taking a long break until earlier this year when he regrouped and focused all his energy into his songwriting and his own solo career, fruits of which include today’s ‘Providence De La Paycheck. 

‘Providence..’ is a classic rock, a driving anthem that harkens back to glam and hard rock from the 80s with its simplistic but hefty drum and bass groove, its wealth of glistening synth leads, and of course with Keath’s hearty and passionate rock vocal delivery. The lyrics, written from the standpoint of someone living the high life so much that he finds himself missing the simple pleasures of the common man’s day to day life, this anthemic cut features riffs that are catchy and powerful, right next to the healthy classic rock mix done by Anders Theander and Johan Snofeldt.

‘Providence De La Jetset’ is an exciting and comtemplative return to form for Dominick Keath. A showcase of his songwriting talent and his vocal abilities, it is a powerful single that will easily find an audience of hard rock lovers. 

A captivating second single from ThunderSister’s upcoming debut album Valkyries’ Call, the all-female outfit are shaping up to be a very exciting new addition to the euro metal scene. Hailing from the Portuguese capital Lisbon, ThunderSisters are debuting with power and confidence. ‘Saga of Love and Steel has it all. The captivating melodies, anthemic strings, and lush, distorted rhythms, a song that is absolutely fulfilling.

Very accessible too, it is not possible to describe anything about ‘Saga of Love and Steel’ as harsh or polarizing, as is the case with most things metal. On the contrary, ‘Saga of Love and Steel’ is very charming and easy to love. The production is healthy, and the mix is a joy to behold, the melodies and arresting and the atmospheres are carefully prepared by a mix of rhythm guitars, a driving bass and drum performance, a rich string arrangement, and an empowering vocal delivery from the frontwoman. 

A pretty song that’s balanced, mature, engaging, and well made, ‘Saga of Love and Steel’ is a total breeze. A cinematic and enjoyable piece of viking metal to whet our appetites for more viking metal, and for anything more from ThunderSisters.

Usually, when I listen to new bands I lean to whom have some Eastern influenvces, maybe because I am already from Egypt, and it goes in my vein, not sure really, anyhow, I love the fusion movement that drives the rock/metal forces these days. Well, add to this an expireneced and professional artist who already had a great path with the Turkish band Element since 2007, and the past few years he has been releasing many successful rock/metal hits! ‘Istanbul Sky’ is a six-minute tune that you literally won’t feel the time through, actually, you will put it on repeat! I loved the engaging intro so much and how it’s melodic and symphonic in a very modern way.

I believe that Kilicer is trying to add his new flavour and years of experience to his music, which he did it perfectly! Well, I don’t find any negative points here really, we are talking about powerful vocals, catchy riffs and melodies, iconic chorus, insane soloing, plus, extraordinary Eastern flavour. Realy, well-done man! Check out ‘Istanbul Sky’ on his Spotify below, and don’t forget to check his other hits! Enjoy! 😉

The crowd was awesome that night. Everyone was excited, yet sad because this will be the last gig before Ramadan, however when Pull Box started playing everyone stood in the front and gave them a great support. Seriously,Pull Box how do you guys pull off a great performance like that? The front female is just energetic and when they play they put everything into it.

Pull box

Around 9:32 Svengali started setting up the stage and now the crowed is getting closer to the stage, let’s not deny the fact that Svengali is on everybody’s favorite bands in the UAE list, so I personally did not expect anything less than what they did that night. Performing their best hits ‘Sink’, ‘Conquer’ and ‘Embrace’, Svengali got the crowed in a mosh pit and headbanging!

Svengali

By 10:40,InnerGuilt were setting up the stage to perform for the first time in Dubai performing their best songs, such as ‘Burned of Guilt’ their single from 2010, ‘Through narrow Corridors’ single from 2014 and a Gojira cover ‘Lizard Skin’, as well as a Sepultura cover ‘Troops of Doom’. The crowed really loved their Thrashy/ death metal tunes from their album Slanderous Society that was released on April 11th, 2012. InnerGuilt’s front-man has a charismatic stage presence which is something that’s very important for a Thrash band like themselves. They pulled a great show.

Inner Guilt

The Lebanese veteran metal band formed in 1995 Blaakyum came down to Dubai to share their groovy/thrashy metal music with us. Even though the band’s set was marred by the sound system of the venue, Blaakyum got everyone in the Music Room head banging and supporting them. Right before they went on stage I had a small chat with Rabih Deaibess the guitarist and he told me how delighted they were with the hospitality they received and with the support they got from both the crowd and the other bands. With his Middle Eastern flavored voice,Bassem sang two of my favorite songs ‘Lord of the Night’ and ‘Cease fire’ along with the rest of their songs from both their albums Line of Fear and Lord of the Night. Thank you Blaakyum for coming down and playing in Dubai, I can now add you to my top favorite bands I’ve seen live.

JoScene and Metal Bell, thank you guys for giving us one of the most memorable nights. You guys rock!

Blaakyum

Check the rest of the photos here.
All photos are copyrighted to the photographer George Durzi and JoScene.
Check George Durzi’s page here.

Written by: Rim Jurdi.
Edited by: NJ Bakr.

Jahr contains 6 tracks. The first one is ‘Mirrors’, – that was released around a 2 months ago – it’s a great start for the album. It carries the positive impression to make you excited to listen to the whole release, you can check our review for ‘Mirror’ here.

The following track is ‘Jahr’, it begins with heavy symphonic way, accompanied with harsh vocals. I will be more honest with this one, when the second track started I thought, “Yeah, it’s good with impressing tones,” until 3:10, for me it was a great turning point. The interlude of the guitar and the clean vocals then how the solo connected both with the usage of guitars. It was excellent. I feel that thepart from 3:10 till 4:55 carries a different taste, though. Another point concerning the second track is how it somehow carries the essence of progressive music.

Moving to the third track ‘Curtains Of Conformity’ starting with a heavy start, I thought the track reflects a kind of a war with the whole parts of its plot. The performance of the vocals was more of a narrative one, the solo is always the climax and reflects that greatly, the drums are the signs of disturbing the universe. ‘Sin’ the fourth track began with an oriental taste. It carries a darkened heavy riffs, as well as addressing the dark chapters of the human.

I really enjoyed listening to ‘The Line’, their fifth track. It might be the best track in this album. ‘The Line’ talks to human. Emotional attractive impressive guitar tunes with catchy effective vocals; once the music began, you were bombarded with feeling all over. The final track, ‘Shell Shock’ was like a mirror for circus or life is as a circus or maybe as a stage like how Shakespeare mentioned in his masterpiece ‘As You Like It’. The track was an angry, rebellious, and sarcastic. I liked when they mixed the traditional music or theme of Circus within the track in exactly the minute 3:12. The high pitched-vocals expressed the hatred and anger through the music. I liked the way Enraged decided to end the album, with some emotional guitar tunes in 5:51.

Jahr is a unique release of our 2015 releases list. It carried the anger, the hatred, the strength and the madness. The riffs carried a meaning of creativity and harmony. The tunes of guitars, the sounds of keys, the beats of drums and the vocals were on fleek, every riff wrote a chapter. The Rate is 9 and I highly recommend it.

Written by: Rana Atef
Edited by: NJ Bakr

Check more features for Enraged here.

I liked the guitar tunes in the part from 00:50 to 1:00 and how it appeared and was introduced. At 1:57 the mixture between both vocals were great. The speed of the riffs changed more than once, it changed from 4:02 to 4:30 and from 5:20 till the end of the track. When the riffs became faster, you will listen to some whispers and evil laughter. It might reflect what human face in their lives, war between himself and the world or maybe it an inner war between the ID, Ego and Superego.

From 4:30 till 4:37, it was a nice interlude with keys and from 4:47 till 5:20 we meet a wonderful solo. Finally, the lines of the track were accurately organized and every line had its chance to be clear throughout the track. The quality of the recording was also great. There is no doubt that Enraged is one of the most successful bands in Egypt in addition of having their own style and their creative music so my rating is 9 out of 10.

Written by: Rana Atef
Edited by: Ahmed S. Khalil

Check more features for Enraged here.

A quick introduction about the band is a must. Ambrotypeis a solo project based in Syria by Mr. Adel Saflou; he writes all of the music. The band is a “Progressive metal/rock, jazz” as per their Facebook page. So let’s get this party started, shall we?

The intro track of the album ‘Wretch’ introduced a gloomy and mysterious atmosphere with just the acoustics and synths in motion. Add the distorted radio like vocals and you have a really good vibe coming out of the song. It reminded me of Antimatter‘s work a lot. Then ‘Crown Of Thorns’ started and it pretty much never looked back. Those were some real progressive metal riffs! The variation of the notes was undeniably genius. The moods changed throughout the song a lot. As I was listening to this song and pretty much every other song in the entire album, I couldn’t help but to feel like the music is highly influenced by Opeth and Steven Wilson. The acoustic passages, the solos, the growls. It all fits.

“Name the quest and I shall rise again…. beside my grave. Name the quest and see me fall down again…. In your hell”

That part of the song was so catchy I couldn’t shake it off. It haunted my mind for days after.

The guitar work in the entire album is great, I personally loved all of it. There wasn’t a single note that felt out of tune or out of place. I didn’t quite hear the bass playing in the album, and I don’t know why actually. The drumming is progressive but if compared to other progressive releases it’s a slight meh. It did the job perfectly though. As for the vocals, I admired the clean vocals a lot. They were unique and outstanding in their own way. You rarely ever listen to clean vocals like these. The growling was surprisingly strong. A slightly narrow range, but holding the lines pretty well.

There were some oriental influences in the mixture as well; in the intro of ‘I Am the Beast’it was undeniably clear. And it showed in other tracks as well. The influence was too mild to be added to the genre though.

My favorites from the album were too many. I honestly couldn’t choose what I liked the most; I changed my mind so many times. Then I finally made up my mind and decided to choose ‘I Am the Beast’ and ‘The Ambrotype’. And they also happen to be the longest tracks in the entire album.

The band is a true gem, and I’m very glad that I had the opportunity to review this album truly. So the true question is “Do you have to get the album?” Absolutely. You are going to enjoy this release.

Edited by: Ahmed S. Khalil

One word will sum up all the talking; they are highly influenced by Amon Amarth. Even the lyrics talked about the traditional topics of Amon Amarth “Wars and fights to conquer more lands.” If you are a fan of Amon Amarth you will distinguish that easily.

The music also was deeply influenced by Amon Amarth. Their music took me to the land of the Vikings with their strength, wars, fights and gods with ‘Nordic March’ powerful and strong tunes, catchy melodies and attractive solo. The vocals were incredible! They were like the actual screams of Viking warriors. All the lines of the track were highly organized and all the lines were put accurately together. The volume of each was excellent, no line louder than the other or faster, all served in one harmony. I loved the way, which the solo was represented; the melodies of the guitar break them all and force them to take a calm direction. The guitar proudly roared, “I am the king here.”

A final note about the vocals, though, Amr Hossam’s performance with Thorvald hundred times better than his performance with Excimer. This track is definitely a 9 out of 10.

Although Thorvald is still considered as a new band in the scene, it has great expectations with positive feedback from the listeners. They are beginners but they are beginning well. Will we have the Egyptian Amon Amarth and Viking Mythology spread more into our scene? Listen to ‘Nordic March’ and let us know what you think in the comments below.

Edited by: NJ Bakr