This Interview was conducted with three Vritian band members Jad, Ahmad and Abed.

On behalf of Lebmetal.com I would like to thank the Vritian band members for this interview.

1) Who are the members of Vritian? When was the band formed under the name “Baphomet” and how ?

Jad: Well, the band is formed out of 4 members, Ahmad (the bassist), Abed (the guitarist), Shady (the drummer) and I, Jad (the vocalist). The band was called Baphomet around a year ago, but since the band have undergone a lot of changes, band member wise we decided to change the band name for it to be some kind of a “new” start.

It was really funny how all of this happened. I was sitting at Concorde in hamra with a couple of friends, I was already in a band but I wanted to play black metal. So it was the first time that’d I met Ahmad and I asked him what music he likes the most and he said black metal. So I suggested that we’d start a black metal band. He directly agrees. After that, about a week later Baphomet was formed. So mainly Ahmad and I are the founders of the band and we have been the sole surviving band members since last year.

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Ahmad: The members of Vritian are: Jad Jawhary (vocalist), Abed Farshoukh (guitarist), Ahmad Chami (bassist) and Shady Abou Fayad (drummer). The band was formed under the name “Baphomet” in august 2008, it was first the idea of our vocalist Jad who told me about his desire to play traditional black metal and so we decided to work together and search for members who were influenced by black metal, shortly after our 1st guitarist joined and he came up with the name Baphomet.

Abed: We are 4 members in Vritian Jad (Vocalist)–Ahmad (Bassist)-Shady (Drummer)–And Myself Abed (guitarist)…Baphomet was formed in 2008 by Ahamad and Jad then they found me in the beginning of 2009 but we had a big problem with the drummer we waited 3 or I think 4 month till we found Shady and know it’s a band…then we decided to change the name to Vritian.

2) I know that until now Vritian is a cover band / preparing originals. When did you guys start practicing and who where the chosen artists to cover?

Jad: Well after the band was “officially” formed, meaning all the members are not “variables” anymore, in July this year we started practicing somehow every week. We are currently covering second wave black metal bands such as Darkthrone, Satyricon, Immortal, Mayhem and others. In addition to that, we are covering some bands from the first wave of black metal every now and then mostly Bathory. As for the originals we have about 4 originals that are going to be worked on after the gig.

Ahmad: Since we started as Baphomet we wanted to play traditional black metal and it’s still the case today with Vritian so we have always covered bands like Mayhem,Satyricon and Darkthrone. But we haven’t always practiced on a regular basis since we always had a problem with line-up changes but after several line-up changes and finally settling on our current line-up of band members, we started practicing regularly since July 2009.

Abed: We started practicing in 2009…the chosen artists are mostly 2nd wave of black metal bands and some bands from 1st wave like bathory-venom-hellhammer and some really blowing mind bands…we are covering darkthrone-bathory-mayhem-gorgoroth-immortal and satyricon…

3) To talk about the gig in Jounieh! Do you think you guys are ready to give the Lebanese metal scene a Black metal orgasm?

Jad: Yes we are ready…we were ready a long time ago. Let me just say that this band is going to be different. We are somehow going to revive what is somehow “forgotten” in this scene which is Black Metal.

Ahmad: This gig in jounieh has been a long time coming, we always wanted to play some live gigs and let all this energy out so now we have the chance to play some black metal live and it will be chaotic and insane, this kind of black metal in the Lebanese metal scene is somewhat forgotten, we are here to remind you of the brutality and the wisdom that is black metal.

Abed: ohhhhhh haha what a question ! we will…it will be a night that will blow the black metal fans minds.

4) Can you tell us what are you preparing for the gig? And what are you expecting as metal head response?

Jad: Well I can give you guys a hint. The general theme is going to be about the “MOON”. We don’t know what to expect honestly, I think there will be some mixed responses, I guess that we will have to wait and see. That is the beauty of it ,to expect anything.

Ahmad: We prefer not to talk about the songs we’re about play live. I am not completely sure when it comes to a response coming from the Lebanese metal heads, it really differs from one person to another if they like this music or not.

Abed: we prepared hard to play this gig…I respect all the metal head in Lebanon and all the world…I expect that they will cause chaos.

5) Any last message to the Lebanese metal heads?

Jad: Accept and respect each other. We are somehow becoming a community let it not reflect a negative one.

I would like to thank LebMetal for giving us this opportunity to go and play for their first event. I hope you people will support them because they have been working hard at organizing this event, other than that they have given new bands the chance to start their musical “career”. Thank you Rami and thanks to the LebMetal staff.

Ahmad: Prepare yourselves for a monstrous night on the 26th of this month!

Abed: I want to say as usual I say to my friends “niko i5ta”…don’t be pussy mosh, drink beer, headbang till your head is full with fuckn music…and keep your metal in your soul….