The Hourglass is a Syrian band gathering Rawad Abdel Massih (Guitars), Aram Kalousdian (Drums) and Bassem Deaibess (Vocals) from Lebanon. The Hourglass released two albums “Resurrection of the horrid dream” and “To the land of the Free” and an EP entitled “Ancient Hope” in which they covered Diamond head and Lorena Mckennitt.
I would like to thank The Hourglass on behalf of Lebmetal.com for this Interview that took place one day before Summer Fusion at the bands’ soundcheck.
Rami: The hourglass is missing a bassist and another guitar player for a complete line-up. How is the line-up completed for the stage?
The Hourglass: We have Raffy Fakes joining us on guitar and hopefully joining us soon in The Hourglass. A session bassist will be taking care of all Bass guitar music on stage. Our friend from Syria was supposed to be playing the bass but he could not cross the borders for military service issues.
Rami: Where have you guys performed before?
The Hourglass: We played in Aleppo in Syria supporting our 2007 release “Resurrection of the Horrid Dream”. We had the opportunity to go to Desert Rock Festival the same year, we prepared ourselves and went for the battle of the band organized to choose the opening act. We were chosen but then something went wrong and we didn’t receive our confirmation nor an excuse till a day before the event. That affected the band a lot and discouraged all the members back then. We paid for our first travel to the battle and all our expenses and have exhausted our entire budget for the band expecting a big concert that never happened.
Rami: What are you guys planning for after Summer Fusion?
The Hourglass: We are planning for a big concert in Syria. There will be other bands sharing the stage with us. We tried to plan metal concerts before but it’s barely accepted, actually not allowed.
We formed a cover hard rock band “Glamours” to be able to be musically active and play in clubs. The only metal concert we did in Aleppo caused us some problems so we are trying to have everything fixed and confirmed with the authorities before going for this one.
Rami: I know that an artist in a metal band cannot have a career in Syria or any other Arab country, so I wanted to ask you Aram and Rawad. What do you do for a living?
The Hourglass: Rawad works in the field of marketing in the renewable energy market. Aram works in a music shop selling Instruments.
Rami: How much of your personal money goes for the band Rawad, because I read that you pay for the production of every album.
Rawad: Until now I have paid more than 20,000 $ to push the band forward.
