It is an honour, and a most satisfying thought, that Blaakyum is:
Rany Battikh on Bass
Jad Feitrouni on Drums
Elias Njeim on Lead Guitar
and Bassem Deaibess on vocals and Rhythm Guitar
Blaakyum: A journey to eternity.
Just a couple of hours before Blaakyum's debut album "Lord of the Night" release party, I thought that this would be the right time to write some of the memories I've had being in the band. It's been almost 5 years now and we are just getting started.
It's a warm day in May 2007, I'm at home going through my daily practice routine then I got a call from a dear friend, Anthony Saab, he asked me if I can get to Cherry's (Lebanon's only Metal pub/venue back then) because Bassem Deaibess wanted to talk to me about a new project. I never met Bassem in person before but I've been a huge fan throughout the years. I've seen him perform with so many bands (Communion, Solitaire, Davinci (I'm not sure about the name) ) and I always told my friends that he is the best Metal vocalist in Lebanon by far. So I called my friend Jad Feitrouni (Blaakyum's future drummer) and asked him if he could drive me to Cherry's.
Once we got to Cherry's, I met Bassem and he told me that he was reforming Blaakyum, a legendary Metal band. So far, everything I knew about the band was their infamous 1998 single "Am I Black". At first, I wasn't so excited about the idea since I'm not into this kind of music (you might want to call it Doom) which was pretty popular in the 90s in Lebanon. Then Bassem picked the guitar up and said: "well I've been composing some Metal songs lately, when I was still with Communion and here's one of them called 'Twisted Evil' ". Believe me I had very low expectations. 19 minutes later Bassem stopped and looked at me and said: "yes, that's an entire song". And what a song! 19 minutes of Thrash riffing, odd time signatures, technical passages...brilliant and just the type of music I was looking for.
We set a rehearsal date and Bassem told me: "this will be a rehearsal and an audition since I've never heard you play before". Blaakyum at that time was: Bassem Deaibess on vocals and rhythm guitar, Ralph Khoury on lead guitar and Georges Nadjarian on drums. I have never met the guys before but I've seen them performing live and they're just top notch musicians. After a week of preparations, the rehearsal day arrived and I actually learned 2 songs (Lord of the Night and Ship of No Return) that Bassem passed to me earlier. The rehearsal went great, I was a bit stressed about the whole idea but when we started jamming I felt right at home. The guys are very professional and some of the nicest people one could meet in the Lebanese music scene.
A couple of days later Bassem called me and informed that I got the gig and we set a schedule for rehearsals, just myself and him so I would learn all the songs he has completed so far. Ralph eventually left the band due to his work. A couple of days later, Anthony told me that Bassem talked to Elias El-Rehbani from the band "Red" to join Blaakyum. I was thrilled to meet this guy since he was one of the best guitarists around (still is). So while Bassem and I finished up a couple of songs Elias joined the line-up and Blaakyum was ready to unleash its fury. We rehearsed twice a week (Sundays and Mondays) at Cherry's and sometimes we would have a whole crowd watching us going through our practice time. I remember very well during rehearsals, Bassem would leave for a few minutes and the 3 of us (Georges, Elias and myself) would start a non-metal jam ranging from jazz/fusion to reggae or some straight-forward Hard Rock. Musically we were getting along so very well. Our first official appearance was at 2007 GBOB's Metal heat at Cherry's. We qualified to the national finals and won. That performance we did in the finals was unforgettable, we were very tight on stage, the crowd was so aggressive so that led us to represent Lebanon in the Worldwide GBOB finals which took place in London, England in December 2007.
Meanwhile, Blaakyum played a couple of gigs at Cherry's and the band was getting much tighter. We've reached a point where the band was divided into 2 camps: Bassem and I defending Metal & Elias and Georges defending Rock and Hard Rock. Georges was already into Metal but he related himself musically to bands such as Led Zepplin and Deep Purple. Shortly after, Bassem and I were blown away by Georges's new Metal techniques, he was all over the place with his beats and rolls and the adaptation of the double-bass technique. Georges is simply a phenomenal drummer.
Traveling to England in December of 2007 was very exciting for me, it was my first airplane experience. The gigs there went fantastically well. Our first gig at "Underground" was the semi-finals of GBOB worldwide. We met so many great people from all over the world and the bands were all great. It is worth mentioning that we were the only Metal band to participate that year. We played our set then went backstage and I told Bassem: "listen, I just had the greatest time ever but I don't think we have a chance against all these bands so let's just enjoy our stay here from the moment". Bassem completely agreed that he even left the venue along with Elias and Georges. I stayed and watched the rest of the show and when the results came in, one of the jury went on stage with a paper in his hand and announced the winning bands in order of appearance. Our order was skipped so I thought that it's over. As I turned my back to leave I heard the jury saying: "...and finally from Lebanon, BLAAKYUM!" I was jumping and cheering like a typical Lebanese guy then I ran outside and informed the guys that we won, we qualified to the finals!
Most of the bands who qualified to the finals agreed to play the same set they did in the semi-finals. But no, not us, we decided to go with new material to showcase our musical diversity. We played our second gig at "Electric Ballroom" where we unfortunately had some sound problems on stage but we had a good time and the audience reacted positively to our music. We ranked 7th out of 32 bands...well we couldn't ask for more, we were Metal, other bands were mainstream Pop/Rock.
Back to Lebanon, Bassem and I spent sleepless nights playing music then having long discussions about Metal. We put together all of our songs into 2 different concept albums (The Land & The Gate) and we were dreaming of recording them. We were so proud of that material back then. Blaakyum played at "Back to the Roots 3" (the biggest Metal event in Lebanon) in March 2008 and it was our last show with Elias who had lost interest in the style and decided to leave the band shortly after. Bassem and I shared this common vision about Metal and Blaakyum, we wanted to take this band so high, we would sacrifice anything to make it out there, in the tough Metal world. Sacrifice came harder than we expected. Bassem who ran Cherry's for 3 years had to shut the place down due to financial reasons and I had to join a big commercial Jazz/Lounge group just to be able to go on...
The Summer of 2008 was a very hard period for Blaakyum. But we played the final edition RockNation (a yearly music festival) as a 3-piece band and released our anger on stage and this performance is voted to be one of our greatest to date. My brother Hady joined the band on lead guitar replacing Elias. Hady added a new element to the band; we weren't used to such guitar playing. He is a shred master. Influenced by Rusty Cooley and Chris Broderick he came into Blaakyum and brought this new technical approach with him. The solos sounded completely different. We did one gig with Hady and we barely had time to prepare for it. Hady felt that he should rehearse more with the band or he would leave Blaakyum for good. Bassem still preferred old-school Hard Rock solos so there was clearly a musical difference in here. Hady eventually left the band 2 months later. We also lost during that time our drummer Georges since he had to leave the band due to his new job.
The only members left in the band were Bassem and myself. The good part is that we never stopped rehearsing as Bassem kept on revealing old songs to me such as "The Gate". During that time I met Elias Njeim, undeniably one of the biggest names among Lebanese musicians. Just like I was a fan of Bassem, I always admired Elias and when I got to talk to him I found out that he is a great guy and an outstanding musician so I immediately asked him to join Blaakyum and he gladly accepted. The very next day I asked a dear friend of mine and a long time co-worker Marc Bassila to join the band and he surprisingly accepted with enthusiasm. We had a couple of rehearsals with this new line-up and the music was so intense, that was a powerful Metal machine. Marc left the band 2 months later due to musical differences and that happened just a week before we had to open for "Lake of Tears" in Kaslik - Lebanon. I talked to my dearest friend Jad Feitrouni whom in my opinion is not just a great drummer but one of the best musicians in this country. Jad learned our playlist in 5 days and did a great gig. He eventually remained as a permanent member in the band.
Jad revived Blaakyum, he brought us back from the dead. When he first joined the band he wasn't much into Thrash but quickly caught up with the rest of us. Bassem just couldn't believe how fast Jad could adapt to our material and he made us feel like he has been our drummer since day 1. With the band all set we decided it was about time to record our album properly as we already attempted to do so when Georges was still in the band but failed due to wrong recording techniques.
We've been trying to record our album "Lord of the Night" (which is a 'best of' of our 2 previously mentioned concept albums) since late 2008. We've recorded it 4 times in its entirety.
In early 2011, Jad and I founded Phoenikia Studios and we wanted to help all the Lebanese Metal bands to record their music since we have so many lost potential in here. So in Summer of 2011 we decided that it was Blaakyum's time to go again into the studio but this time it's our studio. My bass parts were left from a recording session done in 2010 at Karim Njeim's studios. I wanted to leave them the way they are because they represent the right sound I used for all these years in Blaakyum, the sound that Bassem and I rehearsed for hours while defining our sound together. I do sound different now and I'm using different gear.
With Karim Njeim behind the mixing board we successfully completed our long awaited debut album, I am currently listening to it and can't wait for the release party tonight so people would enjoy it as well. Bassem has practically done nothing, for the past few months, other than working to finalize the albums in every aspect. Jad showed amazing cooperation and Elias would always sneak into the studio to check the progress.
It's great to be in a band with your dearest friends playing your favorite kind of music and living in such a retarded society that keeps on inspiring us. Without our rotten society (a word often used by Bassem) we wouldn't be fueled with anger. We deliver a message of change and respect. I've been in Blaakyum since 2007 and today Friday the 13th of January marks history for the band as we've just started to spread our message to a wider audience. I'm glad to be part of this on-going adventure and no I won't wait for what the future holds, we will hopefully make the future, we shall rise!
Blaakyum is:
Bassem Deaibess - Vocals/Rhythm guitars
Elias Nejim - Lead guitars
Jad Feitrouni - Drums
Rany Battikh - Bass
http://www.blaakyum.com
http://www.reverbnation.com/blaakyum
It's a warm day in May 2007, I'm at home going through my daily practice routine then I got a call from a dear friend, Anthony Saab, he asked me if I can get to Cherry's (Lebanon's only Metal pub/venue back then) because Bassem Deaibess wanted to talk to me about a new project. I never met Bassem in person before but I've been a huge fan throughout the years. I've seen him perform with so many bands (Communion, Solitaire, Davinci (I'm not sure about the name) ) and I always told my friends that he is the best Metal vocalist in Lebanon by far. So I called my friend Jad Feitrouni (Blaakyum's future drummer) and asked him if he could drive me to Cherry's.
Once we got to Cherry's, I met Bassem and he told me that he was reforming Blaakyum, a legendary Metal band. So far, everything I knew about the band was their infamous 1998 single "Am I Black". At first, I wasn't so excited about the idea since I'm not into this kind of music (you might want to call it Doom) which was pretty popular in the 90s in Lebanon. Then Bassem picked the guitar up and said: "well I've been composing some Metal songs lately, when I was still with Communion and here's one of them called 'Twisted Evil' ". Believe me I had very low expectations. 19 minutes later Bassem stopped and looked at me and said: "yes, that's an entire song". And what a song! 19 minutes of Thrash riffing, odd time signatures, technical passages...brilliant and just the type of music I was looking for.
We set a rehearsal date and Bassem told me: "this will be a rehearsal and an audition since I've never heard you play before". Blaakyum at that time was: Bassem Deaibess on vocals and rhythm guitar, Ralph Khoury on lead guitar and Georges Nadjarian on drums. I have never met the guys before but I've seen them performing live and they're just top notch musicians. After a week of preparations, the rehearsal day arrived and I actually learned 2 songs (Lord of the Night and Ship of No Return) that Bassem passed to me earlier. The rehearsal went great, I was a bit stressed about the whole idea but when we started jamming I felt right at home. The guys are very professional and some of the nicest people one could meet in the Lebanese music scene.
A couple of days later Bassem called me and informed that I got the gig and we set a schedule for rehearsals, just myself and him so I would learn all the songs he has completed so far. Ralph eventually left the band due to his work. A couple of days later, Anthony told me that Bassem talked to Elias El-Rehbani from the band "Red" to join Blaakyum. I was thrilled to meet this guy since he was one of the best guitarists around (still is). So while Bassem and I finished up a couple of songs Elias joined the line-up and Blaakyum was ready to unleash its fury. We rehearsed twice a week (Sundays and Mondays) at Cherry's and sometimes we would have a whole crowd watching us going through our practice time. I remember very well during rehearsals, Bassem would leave for a few minutes and the 3 of us (Georges, Elias and myself) would start a non-metal jam ranging from jazz/fusion to reggae or some straight-forward Hard Rock. Musically we were getting along so very well. Our first official appearance was at 2007 GBOB's Metal heat at Cherry's. We qualified to the national finals and won. That performance we did in the finals was unforgettable, we were very tight on stage, the crowd was so aggressive so that led us to represent Lebanon in the Worldwide GBOB finals which took place in London, England in December 2007.
Meanwhile, Blaakyum played a couple of gigs at Cherry's and the band was getting much tighter. We've reached a point where the band was divided into 2 camps: Bassem and I defending Metal & Elias and Georges defending Rock and Hard Rock. Georges was already into Metal but he related himself musically to bands such as Led Zepplin and Deep Purple. Shortly after, Bassem and I were blown away by Georges's new Metal techniques, he was all over the place with his beats and rolls and the adaptation of the double-bass technique. Georges is simply a phenomenal drummer.
Traveling to England in December of 2007 was very exciting for me, it was my first airplane experience. The gigs there went fantastically well. Our first gig at "Underground" was the semi-finals of GBOB worldwide. We met so many great people from all over the world and the bands were all great. It is worth mentioning that we were the only Metal band to participate that year. We played our set then went backstage and I told Bassem: "listen, I just had the greatest time ever but I don't think we have a chance against all these bands so let's just enjoy our stay here from the moment". Bassem completely agreed that he even left the venue along with Elias and Georges. I stayed and watched the rest of the show and when the results came in, one of the jury went on stage with a paper in his hand and announced the winning bands in order of appearance. Our order was skipped so I thought that it's over. As I turned my back to leave I heard the jury saying: "...and finally from Lebanon, BLAAKYUM!" I was jumping and cheering like a typical Lebanese guy then I ran outside and informed the guys that we won, we qualified to the finals!
Most of the bands who qualified to the finals agreed to play the same set they did in the semi-finals. But no, not us, we decided to go with new material to showcase our musical diversity. We played our second gig at "Electric Ballroom" where we unfortunately had some sound problems on stage but we had a good time and the audience reacted positively to our music. We ranked 7th out of 32 bands...well we couldn't ask for more, we were Metal, other bands were mainstream Pop/Rock.
Back to Lebanon, Bassem and I spent sleepless nights playing music then having long discussions about Metal. We put together all of our songs into 2 different concept albums (The Land & The Gate) and we were dreaming of recording them. We were so proud of that material back then. Blaakyum played at "Back to the Roots 3" (the biggest Metal event in Lebanon) in March 2008 and it was our last show with Elias who had lost interest in the style and decided to leave the band shortly after. Bassem and I shared this common vision about Metal and Blaakyum, we wanted to take this band so high, we would sacrifice anything to make it out there, in the tough Metal world. Sacrifice came harder than we expected. Bassem who ran Cherry's for 3 years had to shut the place down due to financial reasons and I had to join a big commercial Jazz/Lounge group just to be able to go on...
The Summer of 2008 was a very hard period for Blaakyum. But we played the final edition RockNation (a yearly music festival) as a 3-piece band and released our anger on stage and this performance is voted to be one of our greatest to date. My brother Hady joined the band on lead guitar replacing Elias. Hady added a new element to the band; we weren't used to such guitar playing. He is a shred master. Influenced by Rusty Cooley and Chris Broderick he came into Blaakyum and brought this new technical approach with him. The solos sounded completely different. We did one gig with Hady and we barely had time to prepare for it. Hady felt that he should rehearse more with the band or he would leave Blaakyum for good. Bassem still preferred old-school Hard Rock solos so there was clearly a musical difference in here. Hady eventually left the band 2 months later. We also lost during that time our drummer Georges since he had to leave the band due to his new job.
The only members left in the band were Bassem and myself. The good part is that we never stopped rehearsing as Bassem kept on revealing old songs to me such as "The Gate". During that time I met Elias Njeim, undeniably one of the biggest names among Lebanese musicians. Just like I was a fan of Bassem, I always admired Elias and when I got to talk to him I found out that he is a great guy and an outstanding musician so I immediately asked him to join Blaakyum and he gladly accepted. The very next day I asked a dear friend of mine and a long time co-worker Marc Bassila to join the band and he surprisingly accepted with enthusiasm. We had a couple of rehearsals with this new line-up and the music was so intense, that was a powerful Metal machine. Marc left the band 2 months later due to musical differences and that happened just a week before we had to open for "Lake of Tears" in Kaslik - Lebanon. I talked to my dearest friend Jad Feitrouni whom in my opinion is not just a great drummer but one of the best musicians in this country. Jad learned our playlist in 5 days and did a great gig. He eventually remained as a permanent member in the band.
Jad revived Blaakyum, he brought us back from the dead. When he first joined the band he wasn't much into Thrash but quickly caught up with the rest of us. Bassem just couldn't believe how fast Jad could adapt to our material and he made us feel like he has been our drummer since day 1. With the band all set we decided it was about time to record our album properly as we already attempted to do so when Georges was still in the band but failed due to wrong recording techniques.
We've been trying to record our album "Lord of the Night" (which is a 'best of' of our 2 previously mentioned concept albums) since late 2008. We've recorded it 4 times in its entirety.
In early 2011, Jad and I founded Phoenikia Studios and we wanted to help all the Lebanese Metal bands to record their music since we have so many lost potential in here. So in Summer of 2011 we decided that it was Blaakyum's time to go again into the studio but this time it's our studio. My bass parts were left from a recording session done in 2010 at Karim Njeim's studios. I wanted to leave them the way they are because they represent the right sound I used for all these years in Blaakyum, the sound that Bassem and I rehearsed for hours while defining our sound together. I do sound different now and I'm using different gear.
With Karim Njeim behind the mixing board we successfully completed our long awaited debut album, I am currently listening to it and can't wait for the release party tonight so people would enjoy it as well. Bassem has practically done nothing, for the past few months, other than working to finalize the albums in every aspect. Jad showed amazing cooperation and Elias would always sneak into the studio to check the progress.
It's great to be in a band with your dearest friends playing your favorite kind of music and living in such a retarded society that keeps on inspiring us. Without our rotten society (a word often used by Bassem) we wouldn't be fueled with anger. We deliver a message of change and respect. I've been in Blaakyum since 2007 and today Friday the 13th of January marks history for the band as we've just started to spread our message to a wider audience. I'm glad to be part of this on-going adventure and no I won't wait for what the future holds, we will hopefully make the future, we shall rise!
Blaakyum is:
Bassem Deaibess - Vocals/Rhythm guitars
Elias Nejim - Lead guitars
Jad Feitrouni - Drums
Rany Battikh - Bass
http://www.blaakyum.com
http://www.reverbnation.com/blaakyum
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