Element 26 is another metal band from Lebanon with a promising future. It includes Alexy Khoury (guitar), the founder of the band, Kamal Khoueiry (vocals), Chris Michael (drums), Ray Hajj (guitar) and Robert Bzdigian (bass).
Thrash play covers of thrash/new wave of American heavy metal and they have already released a demo CD and are currently preparing for a full-length album to be released on Summer 2011. Element 26 will be performing in Rockin’ the Woods event on August 27th, so be there to catch their show.
I met with Alexy, Roby and Chris and sat down for a short interview. On behalf of Lebmetal.com, as usual I would like to thank the band for this interview.
Rami: What do you think about the local metal scene?
Element 26: We are very optimistic about the scene because we have great bands and great music being made. Already there are several bands whose music has reached the international scene.
Rami: Were you impressed by Kimaera playing in Czech Republic this summer?
Element 26: Kimaera’s performance in Czech is a huge step for the scene. We are proud of Kimaera and the achievements they have done.
Rami: Tell me about the album. Is it ready? When will it be released?
Element 26: The album was ready 8 month ago but we prefer not to release it now we will wait till next summer.
Already we have some material for a second album but we are focusing on finishing this one and having the best recording quality possible so we are taking our time and I am sure with the help of Karim Sinno it would be a satisfactory album.
Rami: Do you think that if you guys were living in the U.S.A, you would have had bigger and faster success?
Element 26: If we are in the USA ,there are many bands there you can never bring attention to yourself.Here in the middle east there are far less bands and the talents are easily noticed.
Rami: Who writes the music? What are your lyrics about?
Element 26: Music is done by Alexy and Chris and Lyrics are written by Kamal.
Our lyrics are about social and cultural state of Lebanon, the difficulties we face and the way we live through them.Its mainly about us in Lebanon all that is expressed with the aggressive drive of the thrashy/Death Metal…
Rami: How were you invited to play in Rockin’ the Woods? How do you expect it to be?
Element 26:The co-organizer with NRJ Elia is our friend. He told us about Rockin’ the Woods being prepared and wanted Element 26 to be part of it and we simply said yes!
We haven’t played for a year, we worked on ourselves and developed our skills and we are now more than ready to rock the stage again!
I guess it will be a great Event!
Rami: What will your playlist include?
Element 26: It will include few covers of Slayer, Gojira and Lamb of God and six originals the two tracks in the demo “Rise Over Lies “and “Under the Flag” and four tracks of the upcoming album “Another Day Another War”, “Confested”,”Pantomyne”and “Sickness of Existence”.
