FORGOTTEN CHAPPEL ZINE
To cut the story short, Narjahanam is one of those bands I do continue my metal voyage for. It impressed me with its music like noone lately. It reminded me my reaction when I heard the awesome debut album of Orphaned Land. This was the first time I have experienced such intense metal, yet melodic being combined with traditional and exotic to me sounds. Similar in concept but different all together, Narjahanam comes from Bahrain and smuggle Arabic culture inspirations. And it's way heavier and muddy too.... eh, can't wait, let's go, time to start... Questions got answered by Mardus.
Salem Mardus, kayfa ḥāluka ? I guess I won't surprise you with the fact that you are the first band from Bahrajn ever featured on Forgotten Chapel pages. And what about You, have you ever been in contact with someone in Poland?
Waalaikum alsalam. I’m doing pretty good thank you. And no personally I don’t think so I don’t have any contact with anyone in Poland.
This is the first time I got to someone before Necroscope zine ,hehehe Before we start elaborate about metal and Narjahanam I have to back me up in case some geographical dumb asses are reading it. Bahrain - land of two seas – please present your motherland in few sentences touching such subject as history/culture actually whatever you find crucial and important we should know.
Right, as a start I’d like to clear that the word Bahrain actually means Two Seas.(sorry:/ didn't do my geographical homework-mat) An island located in the Persian gulf and east of Saudi Arabia. Islam comes as the dominate religion in Bahrain and Arabic is its first language. We have a long history that goes back to thousands of years BC. Bahrain was known as Dilmun (or Telmun ) back in the Mesopotamian civilization.
Recently Bahrains leader has changed its name from Calif to King. What were the reasons of that change and did it actually change anything? Staying near the political and social matters,do you have a lot of European immigrants in Bahrain? What do they occupy in most of the occasions and does it affect Bahrain anyway?
Yeah, to be honest I’m not really into all of this and why did he went to be King and it didn’t really change anything as I know of (since I don’t care), though there was something called Al Mithaq which Id rather not speak of since I don’t remember what it was all about, was a few years ago and I can’t be bothered. We have a lot of immigrants that live and work in Bahrain and we do have a lot of European immigrants as well that mostly work in places/positions such as Managers or in the Radio, Sports and all sorts of things.
Arabic countries do not have too strong metal scene and no fruitful metal history whatsoever. So does the Bahrain or am I wrong? What I'm heading to is, how did you get in to metal? How did you get attracted by metal music and music itself? What was the first meaningful metal release you heard which made you to think that metal is the way to follow? Did you get any kind of musical education?
Yes sadly Bahrain does not have a metal history as well. Ever since I was a kid I was always into drawing skulls, fire…etc I remember watching TV and watching guns and roses or someone else I cant really remember well anyways I liked the idea of it. I come from a family that play music since the 60’s or something all my cousins play guitar and have bands and such (not metal though) and when I was in England with one of my cousin he let me listen to some of what he listens to and it was Marduk and I got into metal since then and I was like “ this is what I fucking want “ . I loved the intensity of the music I loved the harsh screaming vocals and I just loved everything about it. I started focusing on Marduk and my very favorite album was Panzer Division Marduk as I’ve listening to this album like crazy and it was the way to go for me. And I haven’t gotten any musical education I just got it from experience although I’m planning to start some soon.
How did your firs steps as metal musician looked like?Any funny stories to share. Did you play any covers before you started to create your own tracks? And what about you environment reaction when you grew up your hair and start to create such a loud music??
When I first thought “ Ok I must make a band “ I kept asking a few people to make a group but all failed as only a few people only listen to metal and lets say 90% of them didn’t even listen to black or death metal. Although later one the people I know asked me if I wanted join their group which was mainly for covers such as Pantera and some other shit I cant remember we made a few jams but the funny thing is my vocals didn’t suit that kind of Heavy Metal haha. (I can imagine why:)-mat). Long hair? Man what can I say? When I’m outside near where I live or anywhere else here people give me this look like I’ve just murdered someone, really it to a point where I just got sick of it to the extreme but I’m growing it even longer than it is just to piss them off bastards. And as for loud music in here it’s “ SATANIC “ that’s all I could say. When we Smouldering In Forgotten released our first album from Old Cemetery Records and wanted to promote by selling in one of the shops in a mall they said to us “ we need to have a permission to sell your CD here via the Ministry of information and whaever “ and we were like Okay fine we’ll do as you want. And so we ended up going there and asking for permission to sell this CD inside Bahrain and they’ve said to us “ We need to listen to it first “ and we agreed on that and then a few days later I got a call from the one of the guys that work and said to me “ we cant let this pass a few have rejected it here because they thought it was satanic music and we cannot let it pass, Let me suggest you a thing why don’t you guys change your music a bit lighter than this so it can easily pass “ and I’ve said to him “ Oh and what about Cannibal Corpse? Maybe Dark Funeral? Or maybe Marduk? But only us are satanic to you? No keep the CD to your self and enjoy it! “ These people I call ” hypocrites “ really it’s the same shop we wanted to sell our CD in and they have cannibal corpse, deicide, dark funeral … etc and that’s not “ satanic “ to them but our music was satanic to them and they use the “ we monitor everything that comes to Bahrain and don’t let this pass in “ Yeah right you dumb fucking hypocrite son of a bitch.( maybe it happened because you were locals and there was no big money from musical industry behind you?I don't know... fuckin bastards...-mat)
You have partially answered this question with previous answer but let's elaborate it anway. Have you ever faced any problems because of your creativeness/being metal? What is the general attitude towards metal in Your country? I know Bahrain is constitutional monarchy so it shouldn't be a problem as I suppose politics is distinguished from religion. But as Poland( republic) example shows it's political status not always reflect reality. So do you feel you have have freedom of speech/creativeness in Bahrain or you have to be careful with the performance and your acts?You know Metal by its nature is frequently considered as a music of Satan,sometimes with reasons sometimes without....but if someone wants to pick on to it will find the way.
As stated above yes. Plus when some of the bands here made a few gigs and played also cover songs like Metallica mostly, Megadeth, System of a down and korn …etc and those gigs were labeled in the Bahraini media as “ satanic rituals “ what the fuck are you talking about these guys are only playing what they like and bands they like. It was even mentioned in Blabbermouth.com quite sometime ago when it first happened here and ever since the news papers ( news fucks ) started writing articles about Satanists and them existing in Bahrain and do those “ satanic rituals “ one of the gigs that happened around few years ago was also labeled as a satanic one the next day! Saying that people are reaching their hands to the sky and praising the name of Satan. Sad thing is people were just pointing out to the sky because it was raining haha so satanic, really. And the media even made a radio show about Satanists and such. To come to conclusion here people here don’t appreciate music and especially metal. Barely anyone is buying any of our CDs Smouldering In Forgotten and Narjahanam since both have their albums out. Were trying to promote ourselves by selling our CDs and make money so we can buy better equipments for us and such but you get like 3% interest all in all. And you have to be careful with what you say here if you say it out loud of course I mean we are supposed to have “ freedom of speech “ here but that’s just there and it doesn’t really exist here you cant do shit here people will just go all the way against you mostly. So All metal is SATAN to them no matter what you do you wont make a difference in their eyes.
Same things happen everywhere, all depends on intensity and how long do they last for. |In Poland it comes in waves, all discussion and attacks stops as quickly as they appear. Like after some childish so called ritual murder, a satanist panic has been raised over all country. In one of the cities metalheads were even literally hunt down and beat up by thugs- any reason for brawl is good after all. But it lasted for month and then everyone forgot about it as it wasn't in news and front pages anymore. Changing the subject, I remember when an old person made a cross sing once I entered the bus wearing my metal uniform, long hair and beard,hehehe Anyway let's come back to the main thing. If I'm right Your first serious band was a black metal Grave Dom. What was the music like and who would you compare it with? The band became inactive due to bringing up Narjahanam to life, is it permanent? What motives pushed You to leave Grave Dom aside? Do you think you will come back to this bandsome day? Is there anything from Grave Dom in Narjahanam?
Yes Gravedom started as the first black metal band in Bahrain. The music was really Raw and cheap but to me we made such great songs as a start as we always wanted to. I don’t think really I could compare it with any band to be honest I cant think of anything. Narjahanam wasn’t the reason why Gravedom went inactive and no it’s not permanent it’s just on stand by until we are done with everything else and we’ll have our plans for gravedom later. The only thing that might even connect Gravedom with Narjahanam is the pride of our land DILMUN!
Except Grave Dom and Narjahanam you are also playing in band called Smouldering in Forgotten, another black metal band from Bahrain. Can you please tell us something more about this act. What do you want to express through it? Are you there as a main creator? What are the differences between Grave Dom and Smouldering in Forgotten?
We started Smouldering In Forgotten sometime in 2005. It is mainly influenced by bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem we recorded our demo The bonfire of the apocalypse then and posted it on myspace and we got excellent feedback from people all over the internet and in late 2006 we recorded our first full length album Legions Into Black Flames and we got contacted by Old Cemetery Records and has released our album and currently we are in the process of recording our 2nd full length album and its soon to be done from recording. We posted 3 tracks on myspace to let people have a taste of this coming album because its going to be great were all proud of what we made and we cant wait for the release! And no I’m not the main creator in Smouldering In Forgotten we all work together and decide whatever we need together and we all contribute in making our music. And as for the differences between gravedom and smouldering in forgotten is that SIF is more spiritual and deadly and Gravedom is death before your steps . ( I guess I got the difference:)-mat)
Ok, finally we got to the Narjahanam part. What were the main reason behind bringing this band to existence? Would I be far away from the truth if I called it as Your tribute to your own culture? Those heavy sounded monumental tracks are highly influenced by Arabic traditional music, what express in the smuggled melodies and choirs. When I close the eyes I see caravans heading through deserts to desired oasis or mighty Calif encouraging his warriors before the battle. Where are the Narjahanams musical and non-musical inspirations coming from?
When gravedom was active I’ve suggested making a song in Arabic because I've wanted to but the idea wasn’t shinning to the other members of gravedom. And so Narjahanam was born because I wanted to make metal with Arabic lyrics and with our traditional music and middle eastern music. And not a tribute to my own culture now! But the ones who lived before us 1000’s of years ago and their greatness and the history they made. I’ve always wanted and still want to make Narjahanam’s music like reading a book or watching a movie that you when you listen to the songs you see the KING! The harsh deserts of Arabia and the history, the feeling of being in a great empire of great Arabia in an ancient time. Mostly inspiration come from history like ancient Egypt as my biggest influence for Narjahanam.
Band recorded its debut demo in 2005. It must have been successful release as it made You to record an album in 2007. How do you recall this release from perspective of time? Who has looked after the promotion and spreading it worldwide? What was the underground reaction?
I first recorded the songs myself at my place and have kept them only for myself and to friends and all, after making the SIF’s Myspace page I decided to make another page for Narjahanam and uploaded the songs there and re – recorded some of the songs as well. After that I got an amazing of views on the page and a lot of people did like the songs very much and I thought hey this is going great and so I’ve started making newer songs for the page and at the same time I got contacted by Haarbn and I’ve signed up with them and they have actually made major promotion for Narjahanam worldwide and all over the internet and of course with the help of our fellow metalheads out there.
In 2007 You have recorded your great album called “Undama Tath'hur Al Shams Mn Al Gharb “ for Haarbn prod from Russia. What does the name mean? Are you happy with the way it turned out or maybe there is something you would like to have improved? Where did you record it and how did the record session go? I know it might be very time consuming question but can You please list all the tracks from the album with title translation and few sentences what is it about. If you had a chance to make a video to one of them, which one would it be and how would it look like. Let's say you have unlimited budget...
Undama Tath'hur Al Shams Mn Al Gharb means When the sun rises from the west as believed in Islam it is one of the major signs of the end of the world. And to be honest I am happy with the reviws I got from this album and all but not really satisfied with it completely the drums wasn’t recorded well and we only found this out when the songs were already sent to Haarbn and it was too late and there will a lot of improvements to the newer songs as well things like the length of songs, the intensity, blast beats, middle eastern beats … etc. the album was recorded at my place and each song was recorded every week on Friday and the recording session went really great as we enjoyed recording it and came up with a lot of ideas while recording also.
Taht Alamat Al Nujoom – Under the mark of the stars
This song is basically about ancient Egypt and how the pyramids are right under in the same position of 3 stars
Laheeb Al Nar – The Flames of Hell
Short description of going to hell
Al Jihad – the amount of people dying everyday in Palestine for the sake of their country and all the chaos that happened, happning and what will happen.
Al Shar Waljan – Evil and the Jin (spirits)
What lurks and dwells within darkness of what we (human beings) cannot see