The following is an interview by LebMetal with Makar el Amwat, whose members are anonymous. Each member of the band answered the questions on his own way, which we kept intact, without any editing or “enhancing”.

  • Questions

1- How is it like for underground bands? You cannot risk playing on public metal shows and you are obliged to remain a bit non-heard of. (That must be hard to do)

2- Does Makar el Amwat have any recorded material for the fans to listen to ?

3- What’s your ultimate purpose in being an underground band? Some state that the whole idea cannot be implemented fully.

4- What’s the band’s opinion of the local scene? Any recommendations?

5- Any last words for other underground bands and fans of Underground?

  • Answers

1- Legion: This is the name we’ve gone by with for a long time now. In translation, it’s “Where the Dead Reside”. If one has to be more philosophical, where do the dead really go? An underworld waiting to be crossed by the boatman? This underworld soothed us in terms of enjoying not being part of an aggressive system yet also gave us a feeling of being more superior because when one passes away, one ascends into an eternal and ultimate lifeforce.

The name has been labelled with us for a long time now and if you haven’t heard of us, then we kept an outstanding job living to our reputation.

Legion: We do not enjoy labelling so I’ll leave it as “extreme” nothing more nothing less.

Legion: I cannot speak for behalf of other underground bands but for me, it’s been a rite of passage and a journey of self fulfillment. Metal, just like any sort of music, is a way of expressing oneself. The lyrics may be dubbed or termed “wrong” but who is to judge what is right or wrong over my forms of expression?

Why risk if we do not even want to be part of the community on an entire basis? We have performed live however with some of our neighboring countries and you will be surprised how there are other talented bands from Arab origin. These performances, however, were private and included a limited number of the dedicated.

2-Yes, we do, but I doubt anyone loves a primitive phone recording.

3- Yes, the idea is indeed hard to implement but people forget that a band’s key to success is when all members have the same cause, goal and respect for one another. How else would we still be strong after all this time? We travelled and were invited by many others yet we did not even have a penny worth to buy water.

Our goal is simple, let the truth be told easy or hard way and enjoy doing it.

4- Our apologies we know not what goes on nor do we care

5- As a matter of fact I do, I personally wish luck to those who follow a similar path.

*How is it like for underground bands? You cannot risk playing on public metal shows and you are obliged to remain a bit non-heard of. (That must be hard to do)

Vocalist: we don’t really try hard, it comes naturally. most our material is improvised, memorized and executed later and most of it stays between us members.

*Does Makar el Amwat have any recorded material for the fans to listen to?

Vocalist: a few demos

* What’s your ultimate purpose in being an underground band? Some state that the whole idea cannot be implemented fully.

Vocalist: quietly enter the underground scene, create some commotion, leave the people wondering, and then disappear without a trace.

*What’s the band’s opinion of the local scene? Any recommendations?

Vocalist: (.)

*Any last words for other underground bands and fans of Underground?

Vocalist: yep, don’t take yourselves too seriously, ahamma shi.

The only reason we stay “underground” is to avoid labels and scene drama.

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My (stage) name is The raven, i’m the band’s bassist initially… I was supposed to be left out of this interview, I didn’t want to be asked any questions and I personally requested of my fellow bandmates to tell Lebmetal we were actually a 3 piece band, just so I could conceal our goals and visions, but the opportunity to vent out all the things I’ve been bottling up about the scene here in lebanon ever since I started making a living in this goddamn country… was just too sweet to pass off.
All I’ve got to say is…. if this piss-poor excuse for a metal scene is a sign for things to come then i’d rather not think about the future and save me a few headaches… The overgrown meatheads with the Slipknot shirts, the hardcore boys with a libido the size of a fucking asteroid, all these desperate sudden trance-fag-turned-metalhead type guys that try to make a move on me at gigs by flaunting their “knowledge”… all of these people depress me beyond words…
Seeing these kids getting excited over horrible bands, ripping them off by creating an entire EP without even a single shred of creativity, unearthing good death metal bands, covering what they think is “their best material” and believing their projects are on their way to the top by doing so…
…. just talking about all this shit making me sick to my stomach, so i’ll save the detailed description…
From what i’ve heard and seen, nova and lacite are turning into real bullshit dispensers that SOME corporations (won’t name any :)) capitalize on so they could reel in the morons and get in on their cash, the same type of morons you see performing on stage… to think these talentless hipsters actually believe they’re entitled to record and perform in front of an audience…it should be made illegal… i swear that alone is enough to make me want to erase this entire population of fakes you call a “metal scene”, overpopulated with “bands” and every single time one of my mates from the scene updates me about their “band” (and i could care any less), it gives me even more incentive to hate all of you…. because you people just keep running down the spiral staircase… voluntarily! and what pisses me off, is that you even have a fucking method to doing it!:

1- someone starts up an incompetent band,
2- he makes it seem as if he just assembled an all star cast -> publicity
3- two weeks later 3 members pack up and leave,
4- 3 others join,
5- bullshit ensues,
6- and a month from then, the band’s already history,
7- the members seek revenge on their ex-bandmates,
8- more bullshit ensues,
9- same cycle repeats, etc…

tbh, you can keep replaying this routine for as long as you want, but i’ll be damned if i have to go down into the fires of hell with you lot.
I’m backing Kain on this 100%, he and i see eye to eye concerning this issue; even though it’s one of the few things we agree on… that and the fact that we are one of the few out there who have what it takes to survive;
i’m a (pretty, lol) raging ball of hatred and insulting expressions, our drummer is an anti-social misanthropic freak who speaks with his fists, our guitarist is visionnary that will probably go down in history and our vocalist… well our vocalist…he’s a crucial element in the band for other reasons.
We have traveled far away from you people, and personally… i hope to never hear from you again or have to see any of your faces.
The more i stayed there, the more i found out that Lebanon is saturated with a type of corruption that people like us can never stand, i’ve got my whole life and musical career ahead of me, and i won’t tolerate spending it in this kind of shit-hole… effing horrid… ah well, i’m done talking.

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It’s Kain.. and yes we took time to reply back to your interview questions but it’s because i never knew the reason why i should be contributing to the fucked up Lebaneese Metal Scene and give them the answers they seek while they wouldn’t even know how to deal with the scene itself.. and yes i am sorry to make them feel how superior i am it’s because they forced me to become one for as long as i’m still witnessing this scene is going right straight to my garbage can standing outside my door. I kept my music way too pure and way too raw for the Lebaneese Ears to hear.
I’m sorry i won’t accept the fact that i’d share my material online so all the posers in Lebanon would brag about it but nevertheless i won’t be such an asshole and i will deliver maybe a small demo so you’d check out what it feels like to be mad at the world and to be pissed off at the way of living “specially” in such a scene they call it a Metal scene in Lebanon.

And i tell you folks from now : i will never know how to care less about what the Lebaneese Metal scene have to say against this article , i won’t give a shit and i will never bother myself replying back !.. and may the so called big bands such as Kaoteon , Kimeara , PostMortem and so on stay busy waging war against each other corrupting the scene even to the worse like they always did.
And for the other underground bands.. i don’t have anything to say for i know barely about you like you barely know who the hell i am , but i give you much respect for keeping your music clean and pure way far from the hands of those who we detest the most !