Interview with Deathless Anguish

 DEATHLESS ANGUISH

Interviewed by: Corix

Asalam walaikum!

First off! I am really amazed that you guys played this kind of music, are you all Saudi nationals?
- Kamal[guitars] - Alikum Asalam, first of all I'd like to thank you for this interview and your support, and yes we are all Saudies.

Is there any of you study and grow up to any other open country? Is there anyone still studying? Working? What you guys do for a living?
-Our bassist and drummer spent sometime in the U.S but they came back and both of them are still studying, Fawaz the bassist studying electrical engineering and Talal the drummer just got graduated from high school and Abduallh the lead guitarist works in some bank and I work in the Saudi electricity Company as a customer representative

Who influence you with metal music? And how did you come up with this kind of music? When did you discover metal, by the way?
-I believe that the first one let me listen to metal and I learned metal from him is a friend of mine called Omar, so it was only him and I listening to this kinda music till we found another guys having a band named WryWreathe. We became friends and actually I joined the band and learned guitar. That was back in the year 98 or 99 I don’t' remember really. WryWreathe were disbanded and I started Deathless Anguish coz I loved death metal a lot.

The band started as a one man band, is it because you haven’t found any members at that time? You have release some demos as a one man band, have you scattered it to zines and labels to other countries besides the Arabs like US, Europe and Asia ?
- Exactly after I left WryWreathe I started Deathless Anguish and I didn't know anyone would be interested in death metal in my area so I made it alone. I didn't send any demos out and actually I was recording them and putting them online so people can download it for free and listen to it and I got nice feedback on that.

What are those zines, books and literature that you think change the way you think about life?
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Is there any bands inspire the existence of Deathless Anguish?
- Suffocation of course, This band inspired me and made me love death metal and I wanted to play the same music they play.

Pls. tell us what kind of music you are into nowadays? How about zines you are currently reading?
- I'm mostly into all kinds of music from death metal to jazz to rock and even classical Arabic music and I listen to mixture of these stuff daily. I'm not really into zines.

I have checked the website called S.A Metal, is it a webzine? I guess you are the one who edit and run this webzine, how dedicated this one to the underground? Is that site 100% percent underground?
- Yes mostly S.A. Metal is a webzine that supports and put the news of the local Saudi bands and organize gigs in the eastern province of Saudi and ofcourse it is 100% underground since it is mostly about local bands and other mid-eastern bands.

For sure, you know the band S.O.D right? What can you say about their song called “Fuck The Middle East ”?
- Not really maybe I heard the name but I didn't hear anything by them. I might check it out in the future.

Mostly people here are still in the traditional way of lifestyle and culture, how did your parents reacted when they saw you wearing metal shirt instead of wearing your traditional clothes like the “tob”? Have you guys encountered any problems with your religious leaders or “Mutawa” regarding your clothes you wear? Your long hair and stuff like that?
- Well, my parents are fine with it and actually I don't wear bands' t-shirts all the time only when I'm in a concert or something and in general my parents are fine with the music I play and they know about it. I personally had no problems with them yet. I have no long hair too and as I mentioned before I care about the way I wear I don't go out in social life with metal t-shirts I wear normal casual stuff. I believe that metal is not the way you wear or how you look like. Metal is what you hear and how you play it.

We are planning to form a band with my friends here in Riyadh but since we don’t have any equipment like the drums and amps so we look for any rehearsal studio but until now we haven’t found any, where do you guys rehearse not to disturb your neighborhood? And by the way, the sound quality of your recording is really good, where did you record your demo and any of your releases? Is there any recording studio in your place? Or it was just a home recording using some recording softwares?
- I think it is not possible. We don't have this kind of studios in here. We rented a warehouse and we rehears there. It is kinda far from the city also. There is no studio in the country can really record metal music coz they don't have the equipments for that. We bought our own equipments and we record our stuff by ourselves. I'm glad you like the sound of it. We got it all from the sound card to the softwares to the mics.

How did you guys manage to organize gigs here in Saudi since gigs are prohibited I guess if you do it in a public place right? Unless you do it in basement that Mutawa couldn’t see and hear you are doing some noise right? How about the female audiences because females are not allowed to collaborate with males? How did you feel about this? That you could not express your music and anger without hiding the authority? Have you tried questioning your authority? Have you tried doing some actions like protest to this kind of system since you guys tackle political in your lyrics?
- Actually our first 2 gigs were in some place that is kind of public but we didn't disturb anybody coz it was also far from the downtown and as you said it will be hard to get females in since this will be a crime and also we don't want them to get harassed by the guys there since that anybody can get in. However, in the third gig we made it in some compound so it was possible to organize them and let females in but I don't think that females are not really interested that much in metal music or local bands. You live in Saudi and you know everything about it brother heheeh I can't protest or question them. We just hope that they don't catch us and put us in jail. This is what we hope.

I have talked to a Saudi guy, and he said he don’t like the culture, lifestyle etc. because of its traditional way and lots of restrictions like you cant talk to a woman in public, mandatory for a woman to wear “abaya” (for the readers: “abaya” is a long black dress that covers the whole body of a woman from head to foot) women has no freedom and actually he said there’s no freedom at all for everybody, prohibition of alcohols and beers, some websites are blocked etc. etc. that’s why he decided to settle down in other country. For you, did you ever feel the same sentiments like him? What can you say about your country’s culture by the way?
- Well, not really to be frank I might be kind of congestive guy. I don't say that I like everything that's going on. We need to change but not everything and we don't need to imitate any other nations. As I'm proud of my heritage and all I'm also trying to live the modern life. I say that we just need to look around us and take what's good and leave what's bad and learn from other's mistakes.

All of my packages from my contacts abroad were opened from the PO before it came to me, how you managed your incoming mails that you have traded or bought from your contacts from other countries?
- Same thing, we receive them opened and searched and sometimes they take some stuff out.

I heard about a group of Saudi women doing some protest to have their freedom, have you heard about that too? Does that group of women still exist?
- I read about that in the humans right watch website and I don't know if it really happened or not coz that takes lots of guts to be done. I really don't know about this group but I just read about the story.

This question doesn’t mean to criticize your religion because I know you guys are Muslims right? In Metal or in the whole underground thing, religion has no place at all! What can you say about this?
- Well, through the years I've learned that Metal is just a kind of music and it is not necessary to be anti-religion or Satanist to be a metalhead. A lot of Satanists are not into metal they listen to jazz or country or any other kind of music. I believe in what I believe in regarding that I play metal or I listen to it.

Going to the mosque every “salah” or “prayer time” is mandatory for all the Muslims here, do you guys go to mosque and do salah everyday?
- I pray of course but not daily in the mosques. Sometimes at home sometimes at the mosque so it depends.

Do you think there will be a possibility that Saudi Arabia will become open like other countries do?
- That depends on the people in here. Depends on the society itself. Probably Saudi will be come open someday I'm sure but that will take a long long time. As you know Saudi is based on tribes and traditions so it will be really hard to forget all about this.

I have noticed that the Americans and the British are treated special here in your country, they can do whatever they want, like in their compound, they can drink their fave alcohol and beers, can eat pork meat, men and women are open to see each other that even “Mutawa” has nothing to do with them. My question is; How special they are in this country? Why they are treated special than the Arabs here? Why isn’t equal to all since Saudi Arabia has a lots of various nationality?
- I'm with you in this. This is real and I really hate that. Americans and british live better than even saudies in Saudi Arabia and politics controls religion so this is why mutawa can't do anything to them they just come to us hehehe. I don't think that they are that special but I think their governments and their embassies are so special to the kingdom. I don't think that India or Pakistan would be as helpful as U.S or U.K to the politics.

By the way, about the Arab-Israeli conflict, do you think it will reach a lasting peace?
- I really don't know about that Arabs don't know what they want till now, Isralies taking full advantage of the current situation. Civilians are killed in both sides. I dunno man I hope peace comes but I also think that it will take long time.

For my last question, will you die just for your country?
- I will die for the land I was born on it. Guess you got me.

Alright, brother! Thanx for sharing your thoughts for my readers worldwide, this space is all yours, you can say whatever you wanna say. Maasalama!
- Thank you again for this great interview I've really liked the questions. For the readers please check us out on MySpace www.myspace.com/deathlessanguish add us and all. We hope you like it.

Thanx again.