• Jad

I was looking forward to this event because the idea of it was new and it was a creative one. However, the event lacked the “karaoke”. I didn’t see a lot of people singing or choosing what to sing, there were many bands going up and playing 2 or more songs. However, the event gave a chance to newly rising bands to experience the stage. Some bands showed some potential and others sounded really annoying, the “Iron Maiden” tribute band was impressive, they managed to decently play some of Maiden’s best songs like: Fear of the Dark and Dance of Death. There was also a guitar performance by Fady BK who proved to have good talent.

The only bad thing about the event was the sound; sadly we have to accept that the sound at every Metal concert is going to be bad, organizers always fail to install a good sound system or even a decent one. There was also an important announcement from Elia Mssawir (from Lebanesemetal.com), he is currently filming a documentary about the Lebanese Metal scene and from what the teaser showed us the documentary is going to be a great one.

In conclusion, the event was fun and it was a new experience and it gave hope to new bands and made them feel that they aren’t left out.

• Rami Rouhana

As already mentioned by Jad there was not much Karaoke as there were bands filling most of the time. Well maybe because it’s the first Karaoke of its kind in Lebanon, not many people participated or even understood the concept the first place. Still the solution is simple; less bands and more promoting for the idea. Still the event was successful from some points of view:

1) People organising (Jad Joubran and all who voluntered to help him) are not experienced in event organising and still too young to handle such big responsibilities. Still they managed to come up with a decent organizing.

2) There was not enough money to efficiently fund the event so a hybrid mix of sound equipments was used to come up with the best sound possible … I noticed several channels used in amplifiers which caused some speakers to fail. Sometimes the sound was only on the main right channel (Jacks…). We could hear the music playback but not the performer.

Still Mr Roland Azar did a great job with what was available. Definitely a good sound engineer; tuned the sound frequencies/feed back / Reverb… at best it can be done.

3) The Idea was new and not much people were expected to attend. Still the number of attendees was good; I can estiamate about 150 but I will leave it to Jad to give us the real number if counted.

As for Bands’ performance I can only mention few things that I mostly noticed:  Frozen Flames Performed good … but all the time I was hearing “Are they copying Rock in Rio “. Many commented on the vocalist’s attitude on stage “So much Bruce ” … Whatever the comments were, Frozen Flames made the crowd move!

Fadi BK performed good, still the sound of his guitar was low especially when he was giving it the best of what he learned in Kamasutra!

A couple soprano /Tenor sang Phantom of the Opera! The female singer had an amazing performance !  Amazing ! … Amazing !

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Related posts:

1. Review || The Final Call
2. “Beyond the Grave” Review
3. Review Of Bandage and Moonlight gig at Nova Pub

• Band Lineup
  

Reblaized
Oblivion
Thrashstorm
Takween
Ahmad Awad
Nocturna
Northern Winds
Before We Drop Dead

• Jad Jawhari
  

Many people had high hopes for the event and many people also thought that it would be a success. Unfortunately, the event proved to be way below average because of its dysfunctional sound system and because it was badly organized. The sound system was horrible it was annoying at times, each band had to stop 2 or 3 times during a performance in order to get the sound “working”, at times the bass was too high at others the guitar was too low to a point that it couldn’t be heard! This happened with Oblivion and Thrashstorm. I, in my eyes, saw Oblivion’s guitarist go near the sound monitors and lowering his head in order to hear his playing! Another thing that was hilarious is when someone, a staff member, put music while Oblivion where playing which seemed to be extremely rude. I can’t judge the bands’ playing or their performance since there was no appropriate sound in order to do any judgment or to make any comment. Event organization requires a lot of planning and a lot of hard work and organizers should try their best to minimize any sort of error, and to foresee what might happen in the event, and they should pay most of their attention to the sound! No matter HOW good the concert is and no matter how it was planned, if the SOUND isn’t good the event will lose all its value and the organizers hard work would go in vain.  It was sad to see such event head for a free fall, I hope the organizers learned from their mistakes and hopefully they will prepare for another and a much better event.

• Rami Rouhana

Yes the sound was a Major issue at this concert! It was hard to enjoy any band’s performance. Takween’s performance seemed very short although it was the main band and the band behind the event’s organising. There was a good and somehow expected message said by Mr. Emile Moussalli (Takween’s vocalist and event organizer): “I know we are singing Jesus and I know we are not all Christians here, but there is something that unites us Christians, Druze and Muslim and its GOD”. The most interesting and catchy thing at the concert was a young year old baby, Emile’s daughter dancing on the Bass speakers next to the stage and headbanging!

• Amer Alameddine
  

Along with the other fans and activists in the metal scene, I had anticipated this event for a long time with high expectations because the concert involved diversity. There were bands playing black metal, heavy metal, thrash metal, melodic metal, thrash metal, instrumental rock, and metalcore. However, it was a bit disappointing and a lot of people left unsatisfied.
People have different motives to go to concerts, but what they all commonly want is to hear decent music. The sound was terrible taking away from the quality of the music. There was too much bass most time which got fuzzy and annoying to an extent that the guitar solos were generally unheard even by the guitarists themselves. This limited the bands from sounding the best they could. I personally couldn’t hear the music well enough to give an opinion about it. Another downside of the event was how someone cut the sound when Oblivion were playing and put music instead which was very unfair and offensive. Many people complained about this issue. Another bad thing I noticed was the disrespectful attitude that some of the security members treated the fans with, even the ones that weren’t doing anything wrong.

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Related posts:

1. “Beyond the Grave” Review
2. Old School Tribute II’s Review
3. Interview with Oblivion || LebMetal Night

This article is not for promoting Last.fm but to show music lovers how they can benefit from the services from that website.

Last.fm can be very helpful to the scene and the Lebanese bands.

Broaden your musical knowledge, taste and increase your musical addiction …

I have discovered Last.fm in 2005 joined and never was able to leave … as much as Facebook is interesting for people to keep contact and dating, Last.fm is even better for keeping contact with the bands and “dating” your musical match!

The best thing available only on last.fm is called “scrobbler”. (reflects the status of any band or artist). It’s a safe software you download after you register in the website. You activate the software through a Windows Media Player Plugin (or Winamp.. ) and it keeps records of tracks you listen to. At the end of each week you will have your own top tracks / top albums of the week. (The month / 6 month / year)

Sample page: http://www.last.fm/user/scorpiondevil

I encourage any Lebanese metalhead to have an account on Last.fm which will result in much scrobbling of the Lebanese Bands since the software posts the track on you page and adds one scrobble to the band you’re listening to (when you listened to more than half the track).

Listening to more and more Lebanese bands will increase their scrobles and attract more listeners and more interest to the bands.

Usually international starting bands with low media attention promote themselves through Myspace and Last.fm and reach scrobles close to 15000 as a start.

In our local scene, there is one band with enough considerable scrobbels >>  Kimaera: http://www.last.fm/music/Kimaera with more than 21000 scrobble.

Other Lebanese bands are still under-rated with the scrobles they have gotten.

Bands like:

Blaakyum: 200 scrobble    http://www.last.fm/music/Blaakyum

TristMoon: 250 scrobble http://www.last.fm/music/TristMoon

Alan Azar: 280 scrobble http://www.last.fm/music/Alan+Azar

The Cimmerian Path: 330 scrobble http://www.last.fm/music/The+Cimmerian+Path

The Kordz: 450 scrobble http://www.last.fm/music/The+Kordz

The Arcane: 1400 scrobble http://www.last.fm/music/The+Arcane

Kaoteon: 3400 scrobble http://www.last.fm/music/Kaoteon

And many others …

There is already a Lebmetal.com group on Last.fm, through which we are working to create pages for local bands, update their biography and promote as much as we can. Join us here: http://www.last.fm/group/www.Lebmetal.com

The numbers show how low the Lebanese activity is on Last.fm and thus reflecting lack on interest in Rock/metal music in Lebanon. We need to change that!

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1. Metal Requiem I
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3. Alan Azar in another Live performance!

I have decided to review not an album this time but an EP. Back in 1992, Emperor decided to record their first EP “Emperor” and it is regarded as one of the first, if not the first, black metal releases to feature the keyboards, and this EP to some extent gave birth to what we call now “Symphonic Black Metal”. With its moderate sound quality, aggressive riffs, kickass drumming and Ihsahn’s pre-mature yet menacing vocals, the EP clearly showed that Emperor isn’t just a black metal band, Emperor is THE black metal band.

The EP contains 4 tracks: 2 re-released tracks and 2 new tracks: Wrath of the Tyrant and Night of the Graveless Souls (both tracks were included on an Emperor demo called Wrath of the Tyrant), I Am the Black Wizards and Cosmic Keys are the new tracks (both got re-released and were featured on the first Emperor album “In the Nightside Eclipse”). When I heard the EP at first I didn’t like it much since it sounded poorly recorded and I thought that it was noisy and annoying. However, after listening to it several times it grew on me and I realized how important and great it is.

• I Am the Black Wizards

This is by far Emperor’s most famous song and why wouldn’t it be? It is perfectly mastered in every way possible. However, this version of “I Am the Black Wizards” is different from the re-recorded and “known” version and in my opinion it is better than the newer version. Although the newer version was enhanced, quality-wise, this version is actually rawer and sounds more aggressive. Ihsahn’s vocals fit this version more than what his vocals were going to become; they are not as high pitched as his usual vocals but nevertheless they don’t fail at sounding just right!

• Wrath of the Tyrant

This is one of the re-released tracks and it is also the title of their 1992 Demo “Wrath of the Tyrant”. This release is different from its predecessor in a sense that keyboards have been added to it. The quality is also much much better than the older version. The song is one of the relatively slow songs and the keyboards play an important role on this track, and they make the song sound somehow atmospheric and the guitar riffs also help in achieving an atmospheric atmosphere. What really stands out on this track is the outro since there are clean vocals and harsh vocals together, and it foreshadows a lot of songs to come in the future Emperor albums where clean and harsh vocals are featured together simultaneously and it is most apparent in their 2^nd full length album “Anthems To the Welkin at Dusk”.

• Night of The Graveless  Souls

Let me just add this that most of the members during the recording of this EP were 16 – 17 years old. Now many people might say that age is just a number, but I dare any 16 year old to make any song or attempt to make a song similar to one on this EP. Night of the Graveless souls is the best song on this release, this song is also a re-release and it was also included on the Wrath of the Tyrant. The song is so aggressive, not to mention that the drums sound somehow “thrashy” making it more of a “traditional” black metal song. However, suddenly everything calms down, and then the keyboards enter the song with a simple yet mesmerizing melody. After that the song peaks with an amazing guitar riff, again having a “thrashy” feel to it. The song then goes back to its first verse and ends with a fade out.

• Cosmic Keys to My Creations and Times

The last song on the EP was re-recorded and included in “In the Nightside Eclipse”. The latter version however is much better than this version, since this version sounds “weak” at some parts.

• In nutshell, this EP won’t sound close to being good to any non black metal listener, since the quality isn’t relatively good. However, black metal fans will enjoy this release and realize how significant it is. This Emperor’s first “different” album and it was the first album to divert from the black metal scene because it included the keyboard! This is Emperor’s first symphonic black metal album and it gave birth to Emperor’s best album which is, in my opinion, “In the Nightside Eclipse”.

The Emperor is dead…Long live the Emperor.

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Related posts:

1. Emperor’s “In the Nightside Eclipse”
2. Ihsahn
3. Carpathian Forest ’s Defending the Throne of Evil

• Review

Endless Illusion is Inner Quest’s first album (released in 2009 by LM records) which contains 7 songs and runs for 40 pure instrumental minutes. The band was formed in Palermo, Italy in 2003 by drummer Riccardo Barbiera, bassist Marcello Butera, guitarist Giuseppe Di sparti and Alberto Butera Marcello’s brother on keyboard.

They started off with a vocalist but after some lineup changes, they decided to make instrumental metal music mixed with some classical, thrash, progressive and power.Those influences are clearly heard in their songs, along with some space rock atmospheres and slow tempos. Still, the Symphony-X and Dream Theater base is present which keeps the listener interested throughout the entire album.I liked the song titles which do explain the album’s concept without the need of lyrics.

• The first song Apophis 2036 refers to the potential deadly asteroid that scientists predicted to hit the Earth in 2036 (more detail here). The song itself is most certainly one of the album’s favorites. The intro is amazing and the song is pure progressive influenced throughout the 7 minutes. It will surely please progheads and encourages others to appreciate instrumental music!

  Rating 10/10

• The next song September Stars is also one hell of a catchy song, with piano parts, great guitar riffs and transitions between slow and fast tempos.

  This one definitely deserves a Rating of 9/10.

• Last Planet (reference to the Earth and the apophis?) is also one of my favorites on the album (ain’t them all!!). Just check the flow from the 3:45 minutes mark onwards!! Great performance by all the members, with noticeable keyboard and guitar solos, great drum and bass lines as well.
  

  Rating: 10/10
  

• Strange Sensation is a 9 minute song which kicks off with a spacey mood and solo guitar which Lebanese fans can relate to with local guitarist Alan Azar’s style. If I need to get someone to listen to Inner Quest, I would simply put this song, fast forward till 6:52 and play. From that point onward, the word “Epic” gets defined and oh yes, kudos to the keyboardist! Great job along that heavy riff / harmonics from hell.

  Another 10/10 rating!

• Cossyra (The Daughter Of The Wind) which is an Italian island characterized by strong winds coming from North Africa. Keyboards are only played here and the song’s mood is dreamy, power-metal influenced but played at a slow tempo.

  Rating: 8/10

• The Night runs at 2 mins and is also another slow tempo track with no drums. I like the mood here and the bass lines in various parts, but I didn’t appreciate putting two down tempo songs right after one another, especially with a 7 song album like this.

  Rating: 7.5/10

• Thunder In The Middle Of The Night is the last song on the album and the most power metal influenced song on the album. Great performance by all members again here but comparing to the progressive feel of the other songs is a bit low here.

  Rating: 8.5/10

So for the next album, I’d like to see a better arrangement of songs, because in my opinion this album could have been more ‘complete’ if it had the first 4 songs only. Still, I support the band’s choice of going instrumental and I’m surely expecting their next release!

Killer album, surely one of my favorite of 2009!

Listen to this Inner Quest Medley

• Interview

• The most important aspect of the band is the musicianship of the members. What would you say are your biggest influences as the band and how did that affect you being an instrumental band?

Hi Patrick, first of all thanks for interviewing us. Our favorite artists are Yes, Pink Floyd, Dream Theater for the “progressive side” and Symphony X, Derek Sherinian, Deep Purple for the most heavy moments. These are only a few of the artists we hear because we always listen to a lot of new music. We are an instrumental band because we think it’s funny writing music without the (obviously) rules dictated by the presence of a singer. So, we play a kind of music that is similar to a picture / a portrait or every kind of art that is “without words”. We think that’s the most direct method to hit the souls and hearts of our audience.

• Congratulations on releasing Endless Illusion, your first album. How was it like to work on these 7 songs?

Thank you! This first album is the result of about two years of work. Some ideas are old from many years ago but we think it’s a good start. We always want to make things better. We are currently working for a better production and ideas are never missing!

• Is Inner Quest playing enough gigs on the local scene or abroad? Describe your best/worst show experiences.

Our local scene is a little poor of possibilities. We have about ten gigs a year. We have  many fans here in Italy that would like to see us on stage on their own city, but you know, it’s difficult for an emerging band.

• Any upcoming releases from Inner Quest? If so, are you guys sticking to the instrumental idea?

Of course. The second album is ready. We are finishing the pre-productions, so we’ll start recording in September 2010. We think that the instrumental idea is “The Idea”. Our fans appreciate this kind of music, so why stopping that?

• Any last words for the LebMetal.com Community readers and to Inner Quest fans?

We would thank LebMetal.com and especially all Inner Quest fans around the world that bought our CD. We love you all! We would like you to check www.innerquest.it where you can listen to some free music and know more about the band.

Official Website

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2. Jordan Rush || Interview / Review
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• Pre-Intro

Check this Related Article first ||  Heavy Metal Encourages Teen Suicide?

• Introduction

Definition (From Wiki): “BackMasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward.”

In the beginning, the general public feared these so called ‘hidden messages‘ for they imagined an ability to reach the listener’s subconscious and affect their behavior and actions. The media world suddenly appeared as this giant brainwashing forefront that was blocking people’s free will and directing them towards bad actions. The “Big Corporations” were having their way with commercials that included hidden messages, but no one could stand up against them of course; but when the music industry, especially rock / metal started “messing” with that field, people jumped into an attack mode, blaming music for issues of suicide, violence, etc.

• Heavy Metal on Trial

On December 23, 1985,  after listening to Judas Priest, drinking beer and smoking marijuana, James Vance and Ray Belknap shot themselves in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. Belknap died instantly while Vance died several years later after 100+ surgeries. Their parents filed a lawsuit against Judas Priest and their record company demanding 6.2$ million dollars and contending that the boys were brainwashed by subliminal messages on a Judas Priest’s “Stained Class” album and specifically the song “Better by You, Better than Me” which the attorneys claimed to have a hidden message “do it” that pushed the triger for these young men.

Still, the judge ruled in favor of Judas Priest since it’s clear that the boys’ past was already violent with tons of personal family issues, etc:

Ray Belknap’s parents split up before he was born. Ray had a police record, had quit high school after two years and used marijuana, hallucinogens and cocaine.

James’ mom used to hit him as a kid, and he grew up and hit her back. He was also a drug addict and abused alcohol on a daily basis.

• Many rock bands have used backmasking but that doesn’t mean it affects the listeners in any way. This argument can be supported by simply saying that there are thousands and thousands of rock and metal music fans around the world, and the world have yet to see them all commit suicide. That should be a big evidence right there!

So after noticing the people’s reaction, rock/metal bands began to humor the public by inserting messages on purpose just to piss people off.

• Examples

Pink Floyd - Empty Spaces (”Hello, hunters. Congratulations. You’ve just discovered the secret message. Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the funny farm, Chalfont.” (voice in background) “Roger! Carolyne is on the phone!”)

Tenacious D - Karate (”Eat donkey crap”)

“Weird Al” Yankovic - I Remember Larry (”Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands”)

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Taste the Pain (”Come again some other day”)

Tool - Intension (”Listen to your mother. Your father is right. Work hard. Stay in school. Listen to your mother. Your father is right. Listen to your mother. Your father is right.”)

The most famous one may just be Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven which Robert Plant commented on:

“I think it just goes to show how sad the world is, that people actually allow themselves to become audiences to other people with nothing better to do. To me it’s very sad, because “Stairway To Heaven” was written with every best intention, and as far as reversing tapes and putting messages on the end, that’s not my idea of making music. It’s really sad. the first time I heard it was early in the morning when I was living at home, and I heard it on a news program. I was absolutely drained all day. I walked around, and I couldn’t actually believe, I couldn’t take people seriously who could come up with sketches like that. There are a lot of people who are making money there, and if that’s the way they need to do it, then do it without my lyrics. I cherish them far too much.”

• I encourage you to download Audacity, a free software found online which you can reverse songs and listen to them in that way. Thus, you’ll be able to listen and analyze any song you want to and draw the appropriate conclusions.
  

• Conclusion

No matter what’s the “Hidden Message”, it won’t affect the listener in any way!! If you want more proof, I have dug out these next examples just to show you that EVERYONE uses “hidden messages” still none gets really affected by them. These next examples might be REAL or MADE-UP but as I said earlier, it wouldn’t matter since it doesn’t do nothing to you!

- For all of you parents / rock-metal haters, I got a treat for you:

Drop a comment if this article seemed interesting to you and if you have something to share.

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Related posts:

1. Heavy Metal encourages Teen Suicide?
2. Rumors or facts?
3. Smart Metalheads

For all those who want to be a part of the LebMetal.com Community, to share their articles about anything and everything related to Metal music (including rock/punk), this article contains the answers for your questions. Please send any questions to admin@lebmetal.com since the comments will be closed on this article.

• An Applying Writer:

- has to submit TWO articles to be checked by the LebMetal.com staff (Editors and possibly Admins) to complete the first testing stage.

- should have sufficient knowledge about Metal (a meeting could possibly be arranged).

- should be over 16 (Just in case he/she would be requested to review a live concert with age restrictions).

- should be good at English: grammatically and structurally.

- (optional) Should be creative and not only write about one thing for example: reviews.

- Has to have some information about the current local Lebanese Metal Scene.

• Once accepted, a Writer:

- will be given sufficient activation information (Personal e-mail, Wordpress username/password, Staff username/password, Facebook groups invites, MSN groups invites)

- has to publish 2 articles per month. (will be checked by editors)

- has to understand that he/she will be joining a staff of people (respect / good staff relations are required).

- should try his/her best to attend staff meetings, to be up-to-date with everything.

- shouldn’t have any conflicts with other musical organizations or any individuals in the scene whatsoever (if so, the person will solve his/her issues not in the name of LebMetal.com ; and when individual problems affect the team, the person will no longer be in the team)

-Should respect everyone’s opinion about a certain article, should be able to debate in an educated and RESPECTABLE way and not offend the user involved.

• Benefits of being a LebMetal.com Writer:

- Write about anything related to metal, which broadens the idea scope.

Example: there exists on LebMetal.com articles about Tales that influenced Metal music “Lord of the Rings”, several analysis articles on Metal related subjects “Heavy Metal and Teen Suicide”, “Smart Metalheads”, videogames that relate to Metal music “Brutal Legend”, cartoon series “Metalapocalypse”, “Influence of Classical music on Metal”, etc.

- Get the chance to review local or international gigs (if one attends any) and post pics on the LebMetal.com gallery.

- Get interviews with one’s favorite bands by being a part of a successful community that already interviewed local and international musicians.

- Review your favorite albums whether old ones or new ones (Black Metal, Metalcore, Punk, Thrash Metal, Avant-Garde, Experimental, etc).

- having a chance to get Press passes at local gigs (depends on the writer’s commitment to the site and the actual quality of the work).

- will have some “connections” in the metal scene / will be an active person in the metal scene.

SEND US YOUR ARTICLE THROUGH THE SUBMIT PAGE AND SEND YOUR INFO TO ADMIN@LEBMETAL.COM

No related posts.

• Interview

• This concert is surely an interesting idea and hopefully will be well received by Lebanese rock/metal music fans. Explain briefly the process of getting people and organizations to support this event idea?

Contacting people and organizations to get support, was one of the hardest processes, because of two main reasons:
Considering this is RMLB’s first event, so no one expects a good thing, they think that their involvement may be somehow risky and no one expects good results out of it.

Considering I’m 16 years old makes people doubt how serious I am about this event.
On the other hand,some organizations (sponsors) and people helped me a lot. I would like to thank them.

• Are you well prepared to handle a large request of performances? And when exactly will the event be over? (in case there’s still more requests)

We are already getting a large request of performances. To be fair, we will be working on the basis of : First come, First served.

• 
  

  Bands and people playing should be on Friday 5 March at 7:30 pm sharp to register their bands in the pre-subscription. They have a limit of 10 min
  The event will end at 1:30 am.

• What is RMLB?

RMLB stands for Rock Metal Lebanon. It’s not an event management organization. It might organize future events, but it will be in charge of creating new ideas (could be services, events…).

• Any message you’d like to deliver to possible attendees of this event?

I would like to tell people and attendees that we really need their support. If they are interested in getting new ideas from RMLB, they should just support us. Thanks a lot guys.

• Event Details

When: Friday March 5th 2010 from 7:30 PM to 12 A.

Where: Tantra (Hektik Hall) facing Mocean.

Sick of the `same` concept for the rock/metal events?
RMLB presents, for the first time in Lebanon, a Rock/Metal Karaoke Night at Tantra (Hektik Hall) Kaslik on Friday 5 March.Do you sing or play any instrument?
have a band? Or you simply enjoy listening to Rock/Metal Music?
Then this Karaoke night is certainly the best deal for you.
Ticket: 20 000 L.L. + 1 Drink + 1 pack of nuts (BZOURAT! - Thanks for Sannine Roastery)
This is a new kind of event, a karaoke for all the band, not only for the vocalist . Support this new idea in Lebanon.
You just have to add your song to http://RMLB.freehostia.com
and your song will be available for the concert (in 2 versions, with vocals and without vocals).N.B.: The bands performing will be playing along with the music on stage (without a vocal) this is the main concept of this event…this is why it’s karaoke to all the members of the band..Be careful!!

• Tickets
  

Tickets are sold at the door.

Gates will open at 7:30 pm and the event will start on 8:30 sharp (this means that pre-subscription will be closed at 8:30, if you didn’t register your song before 8:30 then it’s too late)
———->And if you want to make sure that your song will pass, you have to come at 7:30 so you can register your song in the pre-subscription before that we get a big number of songs)

We also have guest Bands that will play each one for 10 min:
>Yesterwind (Avenged Sevenfold)
>Placid Buz (­psychedelic progressive rock)
>Between The Lines (Rock)
>Monarchy (Dream Theater + Originals)
>Symphotherapy (Powermetal: Stratovarius)>> Guitarists and bassist, you have to get your own guitars (and pedals if necessary) with you (they will be stored safely in a closed room).
>> Drummers:
Drums: Premier 2000
more info soon
(if you want more cymbals you can bring your own)

>> Keyboardists: there will be a keyboard (not professional) but you can also bring your own (more info about the keyboard coming soon)

For Bands that have a logo, please post in on the group and it will be displayed while you are playing on the LCD Projector.
Sound Engineer: Roland Azar (Special thanks for Roland, he’s the sound engineer of Alan Azar’s Band and was the sound engineer of Alan at LebMetal.com’s event)
You have a sound-check limit of 2 minutes.
The show is presented by Diva Khoury, Randi Stephan and Rym Faddoul.
Sharp Objects & Drugs are strictly not allowed.
The event should end at 1 am

• Bar - Drinks (Don’t forget the free drink with your ticket)

Small Beer Cup —> 2 000 L.L.
Small coke Cup —> 2 000 L.L.
Big Water Cup —-> 1 000 L.L.For tranportation from saida contact Mj , 03-930269. Thanks Mj Malulein!

The event is sponsored & supported by:
http://www.lebanesemetal.com
Almaza Beer
Sannine Roastery
BeirutNightLife.com
Shadow Metallica (giving prizes)
Tannourine

Invite all your friends to the event with this code:
- Click on “Invite People to Join”
- Select all of your friends or put
javascript:elms=document.getElementById(’friends’).getElementsByTagName(’li’);for(var fid in elms){if(typeof elms[fid] === ‘object’){fs.click(elms[fid]);}}
that as the URL up, and press enter, all of your friends will be selected!
- Then send the invitation!

Hope to see you all there playing! and thanks for all the people that help me realize this event =D \m/

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In death metal, few musicians have been able to match up to the creativity and proficiency that Mikael Åkerfeldt brings to the genre. He has made a name for himself particularly with his main band Opeth which is recognized as an unorthodox, yet influential death metal band.

• Mikael was born in Sweden on the 17^th of April 1974. When he was young he studied guitar in classical context, however during his teenage years he discovered bands like Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, so he decided to switch gears and move towards metal. This lead him to form Eruption, a short-lived death metal band that only lasted from 1988 until 1990. Later on, he was recruited by David Isberg to join Opeth as a bassist which caused all the other members to leave. After two years, David left so Mikael decided to take over the vocal and guitar duties in the band. Later on, after several lineup changes, the band released it’s debut album titled Orchid through Candlelight records, the same label that released albums by artists like Emperor, Ihsahn, Zyklon and 1349. The album differed greatly from what was generally defined as death metal. Focusing less on speed and aggression, and employing clean and acoustic parts along with odd timings gave the band it’s unique progressive sound.

• Mikael’s vocal skills are highlighted by his ease in achieving flawless growls as well as his serenading clean voice; two skills which vocalists can rarely possess simultaneously. However Mikael proves to be an exception.

• Mikael has been with Opeth ever since the beginning, regardless of all the lineup changes, and the band’s trademark sound hasn’t changed because Mikael is the one who leads the composition of the songs’ music and lyrics. Whether it’s Morningrise, Deliverance, Still Life, etc, all the albums maintain Opeth’s signature style while each one has some uniqueness to it. For example, Still Life and My Arms Your Hears are both concept albums telling a story through the songs. Damnation is the smoothest album by the band which excludes growls, fast drumming, and heavy guitar parts.
  

• Regardless of the success that Opeth had achieved, Mikael decided to form a death metal band with Dan Swanö on drums, Jonas Renkse on the bass and Anders Nyström on guitar. Unlike his position in Opeth, Mikael only sang in Bloodbath. The band released their first EP titled “Breeding Death” on Century media records in 2000, and later in 2002 released their full-length album “Resurrection Through Carnage”, which was the last album to feature Dan on the drums. After that, it Opeth’s current drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot and Dan took the second guitar spot.

The band’s sound differed dramatically from that of Opeth. Utilizing lower tunings, and focusing more on blast beats and speed, the band played pure death metal, with lyrical themes revolving around gore and carnage. Compared to Opeth, Bloodbath was faster, more aggressive, and heavier.

Mikael’s contributions to both bands shows his versatility and well-roundedness as a vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist. His creativity makes him a true icon in the world of metal.

• Some of his other contributions
  

- Lead vocals in Katatonia’s Brave Murder Day

- Guest vocalist with O.S.I (Stockholm song), Ihsahn (Unhealer song), Porcupine Tree (Contributions in the Deadwing album), Dream Theater (spoken word in the song Repentance), Edge of Sanity (Contributions in the Crimson album), Soilwork (A Predator’s Portrait), Ayreon (plays Fear in the Human Equation album)

• As far as gear is concerned, Mikael generally uses PRS electric guitars, and was recently attributed with a signature SE model, Martin and Takamine acoustic guitars, Laney amplifiers, mainly the GH100L model, and Boss GT series multieffect pedals, mostly the GT-8 model.

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Hello Metal Music Fan !

I know that most of music loving people keep an mp3 player with them in all places … If not at least the cell phone packed with music and earphones in the pocket …

But have you ever wondered how can you get the best sound of what you have or does it even provide enough quality to the emitted music ?

Have you ever wondered if your Ipod is giving you the ultimate music quality ? Or can an mp3 player with less memory provide you with better sound  ?

Have you ever asked your self why is there preset equalizers for music like “Rock” , “Jazz”  and others and not always custom equalizer ?

I have personaly tried many music players, read about most enhancement features and explored and tested all possible music playback settings. I will now tell you some of the things I know and I think you should know too. Some of what I will be explaining in the few lines to come is scientific some is purely related to people’s taste and other things are pure facts.

I will explain some facts and somethings to look for when you want to buy a music player.

First there are three types of common music players today :

1) Shuffle player with no display and generally no or limited equalizer settings. Shuffle did not gain much popularity for the simple reason that it is impossible to listen to the track you want to .Its all random . Shuffle usually have small memory 1 - 2 gb .

2) Player with display screen and standard equalizer settings or WOW /SRS technology. ( which I will explain in few moments depends on your reading speed ). For me this type of players is the best choice for any fan of music and anyone that wants the best quality of sound . Memory is usually 1- 8 gb .

3) Ipod  Nano / Touch … Ipod provides the best in terms of storage , functionality and style . Memory is 4- 1000 gb .

P.S. : Mp4s are not considered music players for the simple reason that the sound they produce is not decent enough to talk about especially what is found in the Lebanese market.

Before talking about the portable music players , let me briefly explain what is an Equalizer , how does it work and what is SRS WOW ?

Equalizer is already available in windows media player as in any other music player and most of portable music players.

SRS WOW is although available in windows media player but not in all portable music players.

You can explore it on the software for a better understanding of the changes it makes. I advise you to plug in earphones or headphones while listening to music ( Choice of earphones and headphones will be discussed in another article for it alone is a broad topic).

Equalizer

Sound is a physical phenomenon that occurs when a pressure impulse is created in a medium like air ( although in liquids , solids , other gases and plasma ) . We all know that sound does not propagate in space because it is a mechanical wave propagation that requires a material medium. Humans are capable of hearing a limited range of frequencies which is considered to be between 20 hz ( as 20 impulse per second ) to 20 000 hz . It is although currently known and proven that with age our hearing capability diminishes and frequency limit tends to 15 khz .

To relate in a simple way music to sound frequencies we can state that low frequencies are what we call bass and high frequencies are what we call treble ( that is not totally exact as music is not simple frequencies there are allot of different factors that give an instrument vibrating at the same frequency a different “Sound” )

The equalizer you see below is aavailable in windows media player . You can see frequency values at the bottom of the picture . Increasing the level of a chosen frequency will increase the “volume ” of that frequency alone (and some of the neighboring frequencies) .The frequency volume control is what we call gain.

In most sound systems and simple music players you will have the option to increase bass in general thus increasing the gain of frequencies between 20 hz and 250 hz and increasing the gain of treble thus adding “volume ” to frequencies between 2000 hz ( 2 khz ) and 20 000 hz .

Over adding a gain to a certain frequency will induce noise in the sound and making the music listening experience unpleasant (Some expensive sound cards maintain clean sound on maximum gain ).That is the reason why presets are there for the listener to choose from, custom equalizer is not easy to use for an inexperienced listener ( well it wont make a difference for him as for sure he will not notice any noise :p).

Most portable music players do not include custom equalizer and if they do most of them result in noise in case of custom equalizer.

SRS

SRS WOW is although available in windows media player but not in all portable music players.SRS does not stand for sex reassignment surgery ! It stands for sound retrieval system.SRS is a relatively new technology developed to enhance music and add an environment effect and a spacial effect to music . SRS is mainly used to mimic 5.1 surround by using 2 speakers ( which are for the portable music player the earphones ) .Stereo sound initially developed for two speaker sound systems was a trial to make sound systems more realistic with different sounds emitted from left or right . After extensive research it was found that to mimic a 3D sound ( like in a live concert ) with all reverb effect a minimum of three speakers in the front were needed and two in the back which was then called 5.1 surround .

Unable to use 5.1 earphones !  SRS was developed resulting in a great sound experience.

Although SRS is available in windows media player , it does not have the same quality as SRS hardware . Windows media player can only give you a hint of what SRS is .

Some modern music media player have SRS included in their hardware and software . Some of these player are few Samsung “YEP” series , some iRiver portable players and Korean MobiBlu.

Apple has recently realised the importance of SRS effect in portable music players and cooperated with SRS labs to produce the new i-WOW hardware plug in that can be attached to I-pods. i-WOW currently costs 59.99$ and if successful it is estimated to rise in price .

While MobiBlu mp3 player costs 120$  with SRS built in but with a limited memory of 2gb.

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