Friday January 13th 2012 saw two album releases in the Lebanese Metal scene, one of which was Amadeus Awad’s “Time Of The Equinox” album, which featured collaborations from international names in the Rock / Metal world.
We headed to The Quadrangle pub in Hazmiyeh at 9:30 PM after attending Blaakyum’s album release at Sins Pub, and as we arrived to the event, we were glad to find a full house as well.
The event itself started at 10 PM with a slideshow showing local photographer Youssef Nassar‘s works which were both interesting and professional.
Due to the large attendance, Amadeus took a whole hour to sign albums and take photos with the fans (check Amadeus photos with the fans here). Everyone was really supportive and enjoying their time.
Now the event also featured some live performances, the first of which featured Lebanese band Dual Act, with guitarist Rishard Samia and keyboardist Raffy Nordigian. They played a Dream Theater medley, and after a nervous start, the band really showed good musicianship. I wish them nothing but good luck and I hope they would go live soon, this time with a bigger playlist.
The second live performance was Patrick Akkawi and his band, who played original instrumental music, with great melodic guitar solos. They have good potential and they can get a whole lot better with more and more practice and live performances. Good luck for the band.
Animal Lebanon, an organization whose goal is to help animals right in Lebanon took the initiative to show a video animal cruelty and abuse in Lebanon, in hope that with further media coverage, the authorities would take action.
The second video that night was a video clip project by Youssef Nassar of Porcupine Tree’s “Normal”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRc9Tp5AI50]
The final video was about Time Of The Equinox where Mark Boals, Liz Vandall, Tiziana Hurd and Timo Somers talked about the album along with Amadeus Awad. After that Amadeus gave credits to everyone who helped him with the album, including friends, family and professionals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3NavmxFDto]
Now for the night’s main event, Amadeus Awad got on stage and performed some live tracks from the new album. Hearing the tracks for the first time was enjoyable, they were full of melodies and guitar solos, which I personally enjoy the most. After listening to the whole thing, I was really impressed by the music and the work it had; I bet that it will give Amadeus plenty of international spotlight and opportunity. The set also included a non-prepared track, basically a jam that fit the night’s stormy mood, and last but not least the band played a great cover of Joe Satriani’s “Cool #9” song, with noticeable contribution from all band members, including great bass slapping and a drum solo. Great job by the band and good luck to Amadeus Awad.
