PHEXATAAN - by
Metalist Magazine (Israel)
Interview by:
Alon Miasnikob, June 8th, 2007
Metalist Magazine: Jordan doesn’t
seem as your obvious choice for a brutal death metal band to grow
in, yet Tyrant Throne proved all skeptics wrong. This technically
proficient death metal group has just released it's debut EP -
Abominations, and they are bent on taking over the world. To find
out more about the band and the almost unknown metal scene in
Jordan, we spoke with Phexataan (Muhannad Bursheh), the band's
bassist and vocalist.
Hey man, congrats on your
debut EP - Abominations, first, what does the title refer to?
Hey, thanks a lot, I hope you enjoyed
it! Well I consider every track on the EP as an Abomination, so to
bring them all together it makes them "Abominations". The title is
related to the lyrics and brutality of the music of course; the
lyrics talk about mental and spiritual anger, and about being
disgusted by society and humans and their mental filth - so hateful
and rebellious, but in a philosophical way. The word abomination is
like something extremely disgusting or that leads to being
disgusted, but I mean being mentally disgusted. So every track is an
Abomination, a world of mental disgust.
What's on
the cover, does it relate to the lyrics?
It’s a goat skull. Yes it is related to the lyrics and the overall
concept of the band; Brutality, disgust, berserk, hate, ancient
ones, ancient ethics, anger...
Why did you
release an EP, and not a full length album?
Because it is yet our debut work as
Tyrant Throne, so it is more like we're still trying ourselves.
Also, because we're still an unsigned band, so we didn't want to
waste a full-length album that wont be distributed very well,
because you know, you can't distribute a self release the same way
labels do. Our music is well worked, we don't like to release any
crap just to say that we have a release, so it will be a waste if we
release a full-length without a label. We're looking for a certain
level of labels, and we wont get good offers except by promoting
ourselves with a killer release like Abominations. Yes, we began
searching for labels; we're preparing some kind of a plan, so wish
us luck!
Musically I
would describe the band as a combination of technical death and
brutal death metal, how would you describe your music?
Exactly like you said; a combination between Brutal Death Metal and
Technical Death Metal, but I'll add: a Thrashy touch as well... It
is Brutal, technical, aggressive, hateful, rebellious, and
spiritual...
What bands influenced you
most in writing this kind of music?
We listen to many bands from different
genres of Metal, but we're mostly into Extreme Metal (Death, Black,
and Thrash). But anyways, considering that Tyrant Throne is a brutal
band; then definitely Death Metal bands had the biggest influence on
our music. Bands like Decapitated, Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal,
Morbid Angel, Immolation, Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Malevolent
Creation and so, and of course there is a Thrash influence as well
from bands like Exodus, Pantera and the rest of the kings... But
gladly, we don't try to imitate anyone in our music; we just do what
is on our dark minds...
Why use
programmed drums on the EP? I understand you're now looking full a
flesh and blood drummer...
Yeah, we finally found a real drummer after struggling for 3 years
to find one; he's a really good drummer! Well, on the EP, programmed
drums were used obviously because we didn't have a drummer at that
time when it was recorded. But we worked our asses to make it sound
real so that it wont spoil the music, I spent days working on
normalizing it and humanizing its sound hehe, and the result was
great, it sounds extremely perfect and organic with the music. I
guess the real question lies in: why didn't we have a real drummer!
The answer is simple; you can't find technical drummers with great
stamina and speed in Jordan and probably the whole Arabian world.
The reason why our current drummer (Hanna Marzouqa) reached the
level and specifications we were looking for is that he's an old
friend of ours, and we used to jam a lot with him for years, so he
understood what we exactly needed and worked on himself. There is
another reason for using drum machine on the record, which is
Jordan's main problem that Metal bands face; lack of good equipments
and lack of support material wise. There isn't any good place in
Jordan where you can record drums in good sound quality, and since
we don't like bad sound quality we preferred to use well programmed
drums. Hopefully the drums recording problem will be solved soon
with my personal studio "The Phexagon".
Some
history, how did you originally start out listening to metal?
I was always into music since childhood; music has always been the
main part of my life. So as I can recall, I used to listen to rock
music at the age of 9, that was in '95 I guess, so I went to the
music shop next to my house and the shop owner gave me an Iron
Maiden tape, and that’s how my story started with Metal as a kid.
Then of course, in school, you meet the Metal dudes, and you start
jamming and talking music and shit, and that’s what happened with me
when I met the guys at school and we formed "Augury", which is my
first project, and then the story went on with "Phex" and "Tyrant
Throne"...
Hailing from
Jordan, what kind of a metal scene and shops that carry metal do you
have there?
Well, our scene!!! It is confusing. You
don't really get much support. There are a lot of Metal listeners,
but only few of them are Metalheads. There are many posers, loads of
show offs, loads of ass kissers and so. But still there is a good
sense of Metalhood (if that’s a word) at some point... The scene was
totally amazing before the year 2002, but because of trouble with
the authorities and police whom are accusing us of being Devil
Worshippers (the usual story), a big gap happened between the old
scene and the new scene, all the older generations and real
Metalheads vanished to avoid more trouble, so a new generation of
Metal fans began rising, a generation which grew up on modern Metal
crap, so the understanding of being a real fuck fist in the face
Metalhead has been almost erased.
Those kids have no idea what we suffered in the past and what we're
going through to do good music, so not a lot of people really care
about local bands right here... There's a big problem in the
Jordanian scene which is jealousy and envy, the more good your band
is the more hated you become by most people, the more show off you
are, the more you get loved, no matter how much your band sucks...
None the less, there are some very good bands in the scene whom are
working hard as well, bands like Bilocate, Infested Mind, and so...
And I must mention my too other bands again: Augury and Phex, they
do deserve to be recognized in a good manner! About Metal shops,
currently there is only one in Amman (Mute Records) and one in Zerqa
(Kottage). In the past there were a lot of shops, but they all
closed with time!
Is the
country conservative towards such musical genre? Or is it treated
the same as in western countries?
Definitely not like western countries. Yes, Metal isn't so accepted
yet in the country, especially by the authorities. Although the
situation is much better than before when it comes to understanding
the music by normal people, but still we face a lot of shit, and it
is really hard to be in a Metal band in Jordan. You have to double
your efforts to achieve something. We don't have much freedom, we
have no support, and not much to encourage us to go on. The two
things that keep us going on are our love to this wise music and our
hate to everything that surrounds us - I don't know about the rest,
but that is the case for Tyrant Throne...
How did the band first take
form?
Well, Zaher Siryani (guitars) and I are
cousins, so we've been together since childhood and we did
everything together, so when we began playing Metal music we used to
jam together all the time, we played live together in the old days
in an older band called Walpurgis. Tyrant Throne started officially
in 2004, because I was busy with Augury and Phex before that. But
still we used to make covers for silly songs together, like Elvis
Presley, hehe, we used to make his songs in a Death Metal way, or
religious chants, we used to record them with heavy guitars and I
used to do Death Metal vocals on them, but at that time it was all
for fun. In 2004 we decided to officially form the band and make
real bone crushing Brutal Death Metal music of our own. So the
line-up was Zaher Siryani on guitars and myself on bass and vocals,
and this may, we were finally joined by the drummer; Hanna Marzouqa.
Why did you
change your name from Canopus to the current one? And what do they
both mean?
We felt
that Tyrant Throne fits the music more than Canopus. There are two
meanings for Canopus as I can recall, the first one which we had in
mind is some kind of a jar where organs of dead people are kept; I
think Ancient Egyptians used canopies. The second meaning is a name
of a star somewhere above us! Tyrant Throne is a more philosophical
name although its straight forward translation is obviously Throne
of Tyranny. Its more creation/society/myths related; the Throne is
Tyrant in sheep's eyes, graceful in the eyes of the wise! It is like
ironic meanings, for example Metalheads are considered to be freaks
in modern society, while for Metalheads normal people are considered
as freaks. Scientists used to be executed in the past. Call us
tyrants; we're tyrants in your eyes... SLAUGHTER FOR SALVATION...
We don’t
hear much about metal bands from abroad appearing in Jordan, what
kind of shows do you have there?
There are no big Metal festivals in Jordan, only 1 day gigs and
shit. Well, Opeth and Anathema we're confirmed to play in Jordan in
2003 and 2006 respectively, but both concerts got cancelled one day
before taking place for different reasons. You hear different
versions of the cancelling reasons from everywhere, but I guess the
managers behind these two concerts are the only ones who know the
truth! Well other than that, bands from Arabian countries do come
and play here, especially from Lebanon.
Being close neighbours to
Israel; did you get a chance coming here for some metal purchasing
or shows?
Hopefully when there is peace we will
consider coming.
Do you know,
or like, any Israeli metal bands?
Melechesh (if it is considered so), Orphaned Land, Salem... I guess
that’s about it!
What is it about this
music, you think, that makes its listens quite similar in some
aspects, being different than most of their environment, more
globally aware than others, what is it that unifies metalheads?
Well Metal music is basically built on
2 different sides; the musical side and the ideological side. When
it comes to music, Metal scales are mostly influenced by blues and
symphonic music. The ideological side is rebellion, hate, anger,
aggression, philosophy, frustration ... and so, it all depends on
the musical overall sound and style, and lyrics of course. So that’s
the basic reason why Metal music has this unique sound which is
similar all over the globe in some aspects. Metal must be aggressive
and hateful in my opinion, and then comes the additions and
articulation to the music, like folk influences and others... What
unifies Metalheads all over the globe is the sense of being
different, being wild, rebellious, and so... And of course the
loyalty to the music that makes psychological differences for us!
What are the
band's current plans for its future?
We're currently busy preparing for gigs outside the country and
doing some plans to search for labels and stuff. I think we'll be
busy with gigs until November or the end of the year, after that
we'll start working on new material for our next release, which will
be probably a full-length album...
That's it, thanks for doing
this interview!
Thanks for the support! Keep it coming,
and stay Metal!!!
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