Tuesday, October 15, 2013

From MetalCamp to MetalDays

The MetalDays 2013 in Tolmin Slovenia experience was one of the most important steps in the band's history. Not only is it our first experience on the main stage of a major festival, with all the challenges of having to play in a huge festival that spreads over seven days, a camping area far away from main
stage and a crushing heat that sends almost everyone to the beach side which is even farther away from the main stage, but add to all of this the fact that Blaakyum had to prove that it has earned its place on a main stage opening for huge acts such as Overkill, In Flames, and sharing a festival with such bands as Metal Church, Annihilator, Iced Earth, Samael, Meshugga, Hypocrisy, Onslaught, King Diamond, Vicious Rumours, Wintersun, Powerwolf, and Candlemass.
And we sure hope to have met the minimum required expectation of the organisers, and of the people who took the trouble of checking us out as a newcomer.
But the fact remains that there was something magical about this festival, for not only is it a 7 days long Rock'n'Roll heaven alongside fellow metallers, headbangers, all full of extreme humour, fun, sweetness and brotherhood, but also the organisers, staff, volunteers, even band members and fans being extremely supportive and warm-hearted.
I have learned a bit about the history of the festival since it started in 2004 as a two days festival, evolving to three days, then four days then six days before finally becoming a full week festival. But that is not the interesting part; the interesting part is how the festival was not very much welcomed by the local Tolminians at the start. And this is what we would like to put on here:
The festival organising company (or individuals at the start) needed to rent the land where the festival is to be held, and the fact that the festival area needs to be so huge meant that it cannot be done on a singly owned piece of land, so the organisers need the consensus of all the land owners. as commonly seen in Lebanon, many if not most of the inhabitants of Tolmin were not fond of Metal, the stereotype image of Metalheads being that of marginal, stinky, untalented, retarded junkies; I do not know if they associated them with Satanism (I doubt it though), but that image made the people of Tolmin not really happy about such a festival being held at their town, in fact, many, if not most, of the land owners refused to give their lands to the organisers to rent! Till this day if you ever go to the festival you will see one or two very small parts of land fenced with a sign stating "keep out private property". As I have been told, these are few who still refuse to rent their land to the festival. Of course the owners were able to rent barely enough space for the first few editions of the festival, which as I mentioned were just two days or three days long. Despite their "unusual" appearance, Metalheads were friendly folks, probably and surely they went into town to buy some stuff or to eat (even though the festival has (and sure had) a lot of very tasty food and great variety of drinks with affordable prices) like they still do. When we were there we saw many metalheads chose to venture into town and enjoy some lovely meals and drinks in its various cosy restaurants and pubs. It is evident that the bar, restaurant, pub and supermarket owners realised that despite their leather garments, unusual tattoos, piercings, and eccentric looks, those Metalheads were polite, funny, and unlike the stereotypic image that they had in mind. As well the town folks noticed that the organisers and attendees were very environmental friendly, clean, and did not litter, or do any damage to nature. Indeed the organisers have a very cunning policy of selling drinks with plastic cups for one extra Euro (mandatory) and then the costumer would get his Euro back once he returns back the plastic cup, but that is not all; there is a special kiosk for volunteers who would like to help cleaning up, and you would be surprised to see how many would actually go there, get a bag and start gathering plastic cups found on the floor, in exchange for some free meal coupons if memory serves well . Year after year the citizens of Tolmin slowly started realising that this Metal Festival actually greets nice people, and they rarely ever saw anyone on drugs or wasted, maybe at most drunk; one of the pub owners even told me that "unlike other music festivals like electronic ones we realised these rockers are not on pills or drugs!!" Year after the other, more and more people became willing to rent their lands to the festival, and little by little not only did the owners of pubs and bars and restaurants start enjoying the profit they are actually making from metalheads, but they started appreciating their good manner, so that recently you'd start to wonder whether the festival is inside the town itself as through our experience in the last two years, when we played in the last edition of Metalcamp (2012) and the first edition of MetalDays (2013), whenever we go into town from the sunrise till late at night we'd hear Heavy Metal music pumping out form almost every restaurant and bar in town with lots of Metalheads hanging out. Such a gorgeous sight, to see Metalheads socialising in a very friendly environment, no one making any trouble, all having a good time, and at the same time being so friendly to nature... This IS a Metal Heaven.
Finally, it is very important to note the level of professionalism and efficiency the MetalDays crew and organisers have, how everything goes on smooth and extremely well organised.
On a personal Blaakyum note, we would like to thank the organisers, crew and volunteers, endlessly as no words can describe their unmatchable hospitality, the high quality of their service and extremely tasty food, the sweetness of communication, and the trip they gave us around Tolminska river valley. This will remain in the heart of every Blaakyum member, a memory of the beauty and sweet-heartedness of Slovenian hospitality and their amazingly efficient professionalism.

Bassem Deaibess
Blaakyum
Tolminska River Valley








Sunday, August 18, 2013

Blaakyum Fan pages and websites

Lately Blaakyum has been enjoying success through its live performances wherever the band goes, after Egypt's concert the Egyptian fans opened a fan page demanding Blaakyum to play again in Egypt, since then and few more pages were established by fans, and the Polish fan base has created a website, here are the links we found to these pages and the website:


Blaakyum Polish Fans website: http://www.blaakyum.pl

First fan page established by Metalaxes preior to Album release
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Blaakyum-Lord-Of-The-Night/174454172655201?fref=ts











Fan page established by Egyptian fans after Blaakyum's concert in Cairo
https://www.facebook.com/WeWantBlaakyumBackAgainInEgypt?fref=ts








Fan page established by a Polish fan
https://www.facebook.com/bllakyum.polska
Fan page established by our Fan Group Coordinator Mr. Heinz Szolarz intended to all Blaakyum fans around the world
https://www.facebook.com/WarzoneBlaakyum?fref=ts

We would like to thank everyone who took the initiative to help us... It is you who keep us going
Cheers \m/


Sunday, July 28, 2013

MetalDays

Picture taken by Antonella Malvasi
Blaakyum had a blast in Metaldays, regardless the 38 degree heat, we enjoyed our fans who made it despite the beach temptation and the heat, and we were touched by the amount of support we received. This year Metaldays has surpassed all previous MetalCamp editions, being much more organised, and the staff and volunteers being so sweet and supportive, for 7 days we spent the time of our lives because of the nice people and great atmosphere... Once we are back in Lebanon we will have a detailed statement, but for now all we can think of is that we definitely will be back there one day \m/

Friday, July 12, 2013

MetalDays... Thank you

Blaakyum is looking forward to perform once again in Tolmin-Slovenia at Metaldays (previously MetalCamp).
But during the last two months things started going crazy in Lebanon. From political crisis of the ruling farm so called "Government", then the Hizbolla reckless involvement in the Syrian civil war, to the clashes in Tripoli, culminating with the terrorist war against our Army in the south by Salafist Terrorist Jihadists. And finally ending with the bomb exploding in the southern suburbs of Beirut! All these issues has made our effort to attend MetalDays so hard. First on the financial level, where we as much as the rest of the country are facing a bit of set back in our income, but most importantly through our visa applications and we all know how hard it is for us to have visas! In our case we are probably going to have our visas but we have no idea if we will have it on time to be able to travel. Needless to say that Metal music not only not supported in Lebanon but actually is under constant attack from religious institutions, especially Christian ones, from the Government and from society, so we felt that we were on our own, Just us the band and the Metalheads and our loyal fans.
From within this depressing situation, something happened that lifted our spirit up enormously. We have witnessed the support of people who never saw us, never met us but only heard our music. Such a global show of support is in the essences of what Metal is and why Metalheads are proud to belong to this global Culture, yes Metal is one of the few cultures that bypass borders, religions, political affiliations and all what makes us hate each other.
So we would like to thank Pawel Wojcik from Poland, who has volunteered to be with us, and to help us reach Slovenia, while doing this on the expenses of his job and comfort.
We would like to thank Heinz Szolarz from Austria, who have taken the time to organise a campaign to help us, in the good case that we make it to Slovenia, get as many people to support us, Heinz volunteered to organise our Fangroup in the Couch Surfing Community, we didn't even ask him to do it. Such solidarity and good will prove that no matter what the politicians and media is trying to brainwash us into thinking that humans have become cruel and hateful, when you see people around the world who never saw you, never met you are helping you without you even asking for it, it makes you feel that in reality this world is still great, and life is greater.
But it didn't stop here, Today MetalDays decided to show us their support as well by posting the flyer Heinz did on their Official facebook Page. I guess that was arranged by our management and the Page administrators, but the band had no idea so when we saw that, hell that gave us so much motivation, for that THANK YOU MetalDays, Thank you Heinz and Thank you Pawel, We hope we can make it and give a great show to thank you!

Check Metaldays post HERE.

Metal On \m/
Bassem Deaibess
From Blaakyum

Sunday, June 16, 2013

A Night of Pure Metal it was

16 June 2013


Yesterday was a day that showed all those few who had hope in the Lebanese Metal Scene, that their hope was not misplaced. It showed those who were feeling that this scene is dying, that they were wrong, and I am sure they are more than happy to know they were wrong. I do not want this to be a thank you letter (but eventually it is) but rather this is a simple state of the current Lebanese Metal Scene status, as factual and real.
But first I need to thank all those who supported us, us the Metalheads and not just Blaakyum. In the past many kept criticising me for supporting the scene and performing endless gigs without getting paid, or accepting gigs that were not of very high standard, either supporting bands playing or the metal promoters, many kept saying that “what is the point? Just get what you can because there is no hope in the scene”, well today it showed that every band that supported this scene, played for free, or played in horrible conditions did the right thing, in the end it WILL pay off for our National scene. succeeding in Europe is nice. We performed in Egypt and now have a huge fan base there and that feels rewarding, it feels rewarding when we played in Ukraine and after the gig while we were signing CDs and autographs one fan who is Russian came shouting “WHY DIDN’T YOU PLAY LORD OF THE NIGHT!!?” yes it is rewarding to know that people far away from your homeland know your songs and are fans. But there is no glory for any band that does not connect with its national scene. There is no glory for a band that makes it international and forgets its roots and homeland and its local scene.
MY endless thanks goes to everyone who was there but need to name few and I apologise if I forgot many because really the support was endless:
Rebellion and Nocturna who shared the stage with us and asked nothing in return, they just wanted to do what pleases a Metal musician the most, play loud and play free, break the silence and bestow Metal Art upon the fans and friends. I want to thank Nigol for his endless support and doing more than he could to help in ANY way possible. I want to thank Charbel Kareh who was there from start to end dedicated his time and energy for the better of the whole and being selfless and giving, I want to thank him and Shady “El Marid” for overcoming the obstacles and make the performance happen against all odds, such spirit is inspiring.
I want to thank George (Sigford) Mimar for his true Metal Spirit and great music keeping everyone happy with the best Metal tunes around.
I want to thank InnerGuilt, especially Sako and Serj for their support, for keeping the Metal spirit true, and for being such great Metal Brothers, and great friends.
I want to thank Damage Rite (Previously called Postmortem), and its mastermind Jean Michel Elias, for his support and critics and for attending the gig despite his pressing obligations, JM knows the meaning of support as he was and still is of those who use to give his time go attend band rehearsals, give advice and try to help in any way he can when a band deserves it.
I want to thank Jean Pierre Haddad, and Kimaera for their support and for rising with the Lebanese Metal Scene to higher standards.
I want to thank Elie Braideh (the vocalist of Void) for his endless support and the amount of spirit lifting humour he has blessed us with along the years.
I want to thank Amal Daou for being the best Heavy Metal mother around, raising her kids on good music and supporting them to become great thinkers and great metal fans, don’t we all wish to have a mother who would tell her son:”you can study later come watch the concert now it is amazing”!?!?!
I want to thank Mo Jouzou, and his efforts to support Musicians and authentic arts sometimes on the expense of his own comfort, and working his ass off to create a good comfortable place for musicians to create their art in HMP.
I want to thank Nathalie J and Bandage, maybe one of the most underrated or rather unkown Metal Warrior is Nathalie simply because she supports the bands and push them and help them silently and without drawing too much attention to herself, she is a Soldier of Fortune, sometimes even helping the bands and scene without them knowing.
There are so many I should thank, so many that a book won’t suffice, Bahij El Khatib, Nizar Mikati, Lynn Zien (the Moshpit Queen) and Dahlia Noir, Zeina Ismail, Maria and Talar Jacob (the headbanger Queen) Carmina Khairalla (the wisest of us all) Razmig from the Lebanese Progressive Metal and Dilemma. 
I wanna thank Karim and Tarek from Yukunkun and want to point out the ENDLESS support Yukunkun is giving to the Metal Scene, despite the fact that they KNOW that they will be under scrutiny by local authorities and they know that a metal event does not generate money as much as other events such as Electronic or other mainstream events, yet accepted to support the Metal scene by giving the place on a Saturday night (the night were they make the most money) and despite knowing that Metal Fans are not frantic consumers who would pay so much to just drink and show off, they lowered their prices ON THEIR PEAK day... They helped in every possible way and still are working hard to provide a better experience for Metalheads, asking how can they improve since they have no experience with Metal events... Such great people deserve all our support and endless thanks.
Last but not least I want to thank my band, Blaakyum, I want to thank Jad Rany and Rabih who are rising up with this band against all odds, despite life pressures, family obligations, sickness, and financial situation, and they are making it happen. The amount of sacrifice they are doing for this band is OVERWHELMING.
The band management, Joelle Safi and Elia Mssawir for their unbelievable efforts, to support and rise with this band.
I want to thank Joelle Safi as well for being such a patient girlfriend, having to deal with my chaotic lifestyle and the obligations of the band and the Metal Scene.
This event has gathered a crowd that proved the scene is more than alive and kicking, it was such a gorgeous sight to see in the same crowd people from all ages, religions and walks of life, where you could see teenagers alongside much older Metalheads and rockers who are in their late 30s and late 40s, where we saw many of the well known figures of our Metal Scene supporting younger bands such as Rebellion and supporting their fellow Thrashers and Melodic Death metallers....

The Lebanese Metal Scene is more alive than we even think, and it is only through solidarity, unity and support that it will remain so. Finally the biggest thanks go to the fans, this scene will remain strong when you remain supporting your local bands.

Keep it up, and let us show this society that has marginalised us, oppressed us, and called us names, that we are way more mature, moral, and educated than many of them... We defy them... We Shall Rise \m/

Bassem Deaibess
from Blaakyum, a proudly Lebanese Metal Band

Wednesday, June 05, 2013

Lord Of The Night available now in all Shadow Metallica Shop branches and Virgin Megastore Lebanon



 Blaakyum's Debut Album "Lord Of The Night" is now available in all Shadow Metallica Shop branches in Lebanon: Furn El Chebbak, Jounieh, Bourj Hammoud, Elissar, Verdun.

As well within a week the album will be available in all Virgin Megastore branches across Lebanon (except the Airport):
Downtown Opera Building, Crown Plaza Hamra, ABC Dbayeh, ABC Ashrafieh, CityMall Naher El Mot

Make sure to grab your copy of the Album if you haven't yet.

More details HERE

Friday, May 31, 2013

Blaakyum Tops Lebanon and Beirut Metal Charts on Reverbnation

Blaakyum has Ranked Number 1 on both the National Lebanon Metal Charts and Beirut Metal Charts on Reverbnation. As well on the National Charts of Lebanon Music Scene (including Arabic, Pop, Rock, Metal, Hip Hop, Rap, Classical and World Music entries) Blaakyum Ranked 53 out of the 709 on the Lebanese National Charts, and Ranked 32 out of the 400 entries of Beirut Charts.



Download Blaakyum Application for Android Phones HERE

http://www.reverbnation.com/blaakyum/app

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

BLAAKYUM - CONFIRMED FOR METALDEAYS!

We bare you tidings friends fans and enemies alike:

Blaakyum will be performing for the second time in Slovenia in Metal Days (Previously Metal Camp) this time on the main stage along side great and glorious bands such as Iced Earth, Annihilator, King Diamond, Overkill, Onslaught,

Friday, February 15, 2013

Blaakyum New Album Rehearsal Session

A friend of the band took some photos while we were rehearsing our new songs (composition in progress) for our upcoming album, check out some of those pictures on our Facebook fan page

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.451565191578503.98648.166535280081497&type=1&l=8338cec924

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Christmas Mission Accomplished

After our first ever unplugged performance in Hard Rock Cafe Beirut as part of the Christmas Mission 2012 (Day 1) that gathered more than 13 Lebanese bands to perform free of charge to raise funds to buy Cloth, Food and

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