Tyrant Throne – תועבה מירדן

Jordan doesn’t seem as your obvious choice for a brutal death metal band to grow in, yet Tyrant Throne proved all skeptics wrong. This technically proficient death metal group has just released it's debut EP – Abominations, and they are bent on taking over the world. To find out more about the band and the almost unknown metal scene in Jordan, we spoke with Phexataan (Muhannad Bursheh), the band's bassist and vocalist.

Hey man, congrats on your debut EP – Abominations, first, what does the title refer to?

Hey, thanks a lot, I hope you enjoyed it! Well I consider every track on the EP as an Abomination, so to bring them all together it makes them "Abominations". The title is related to the lyrics and brutality of the music of course; the lyrics talk about mental and spiritual anger, and about being disgusted by society and humans and their mental filth – so hateful and rebellious, but in a philosophical way. The word abomination is like something extremely disgusting or that leads to being disgusted, but I mean being mentally disgusted. So every track is an Abomination, a world of mental disgust.

What's on the cover, does it relate to the lyrics?

It’s a goat skull. Yes it is related to the lyrics and the overall concept of the band; Brutality, disgust, berserk, hate, ancient ones, ancient ethics, anger…

Why did you release an EP, and not a full length album?

Because it is yet our debut work as Tyrant Throne, so it is more like we're still trying ourselves. Also, because we're still an unsigned band, so we didn't want to waste a full-length album that wont be distributed very well, because you know, you can't distribute a self release the same way labels do. Our music is well worked, we don't like to release any crap just to say that we have a release, so it will be a waste if we release a full-length without a label. We're looking for a certain level of labels, and we wont get good offers except by promoting ourselves with a killer release like Abominations. Yes, we began searching for labels; we're preparing some kind of a plan, so wish us luck!

Musically I would describe the band as a combination of technical death and brutal death metal, how would you describe your music?

Exactly like you said; a combination between Brutal Death Metal and Technical Death Metal, but I'll add: a Thrashy touch as well… It is Brutal, technical, aggressive, hateful, rebellious, and spiritual…

What bands influenced you most in writing this kind of music?

We listen to many bands from different genres of Metal, but we're mostly into Extreme Metal (Death, Black, and Thrash). But anyways, considering that Tyrant Throne is a brutal band; then definitely Death Metal bands had the biggest influence on our music. Bands like Decapitated, Cannibal Corpse, Hate Eternal, Morbid Angel, Immolation, Suffocation, Cryptopsy, Malevolent Creation and so, and of course there is a Thrash influence as well from bands like Exodus, Pantera and the rest of the kings… But gladly, we don't try to imitate anyone in our music; we just do what is on our dark minds…

?Why use programmed drums on the EP? I understand you're now looking full a flesh and blood drummer…

Yeah, we finally found a real drummer after struggling for 3 years to find one; he's a really good drummer! Well, on the EP, programmed drums were used obviously because we didn't have a drummer at that time when it was recorded. But we worked our asses to make it sound real so that it wont spoil the music, I spent days working on normalizing it and humanizing its sound hehe, and the result was great, it sounds extremely perfect and organic with the music. I guess the real question lies in: why didn't we have a real drummer! The answer is simple; you can't find technical drummers with great stamina and speed in Jordan and probably the whole Arabian world.

The reason why our current drummer (Hanna Marzouqa) reached the level and specifications we were looking for is that he's an old friend of ours, and we used to jam a lot with him for years, so he understood what we exactly needed and worked on himself. There is another reason for using drum machine on the record, which is Jordan's main problem that Metal bands face; lack of good equipments and lack of support material wise. There isn't any good place in Jordan where you can record drums in good sound quality, and since we don't like bad sound quality we preferred to use well programmed drums. Hopefully the drums recording problem will be solved soon with my personal studio "The Phexagon".

Some history, how did you originally start out listening to metal?

I was always into music since childhood; music has always been the main part of my life. So as I can recall, I used to listen to rock music at the age of 9, that was in '95 I guess, so I went to the music shop next to my house and the shop owner gave me an Iron Maiden tape, and that’s how my story started with Metal as a kid. Then of course, in school, you meet the Metal dudes, and you start jamming and talking music and shit, and that’s what happened with me when I met the guys at school and we formed "Augury", which is my first project, and then the story went on with "Phex" and "Tyrant Throne"…

Hailing from Jordan, what kind of a metal scene and shops that carry metal do you have there?

Well, our scene!!! It is confusing. You don't really get much support. There are a lot of Metal listeners, but only few of them are Metalheads. There are many posers, loads of show offs, loads of ass kissers and so. But still there is a good sense of Metalhood (if that’s a word) at some point… The scene was totally amazing before the year 2002, but because of trouble with the authorities and police whom are accusing us of being Devil Worshippers (the usual story), a big gap happened between the old scene and the new scene, all the older generations and real Metalheads vanished to avoid more trouble, so a new generation of Metal fans began rising, a generation which grew up on modern Metal crap, so the understanding of being a real fuck fist in the face Metalhead has been almost erased.

Those kids have no idea what we suffered in the past and what we're going through to do good music, so not a lot of people really care about local bands right here… There's a big problem in the Jordanian scene which is jealousy and envy, the more good your band is the more hated you become by most people, the more show off you are, the more you get loved, no matter how much your band sucks… None the less, there are some very good bands in the scene whom are working hard as well, bands like Bilocate, Infested Mind, and so… And I must mention my too other bands again: Augury and Phex, they do deserve to be recognized in a good manner! About Metal shops, currently there is only one in Amman (Mute Records) and one in Zerqa (Kottage). In the past there were a lot of shops, but they all closed with time!

Is the country conservative towards such musical genre? Or is it treated the same as in western countries?

Definitely not like western countries. Yes, Metal isn't so accepted yet in the country, especially by the authorities. Although the situation is much better than before when it comes to understanding the music by normal people, but still we face a lot of shit, and it is really hard to be in a Metal band in Jordan. You have to double your efforts to achieve something. We don't have much freedom, we have no support, and not much to encourage us to go on. The two things that keep us going on are our love to this wise music and our hate to everything that surrounds us – I don't know about the rest, but that is the case for Tyrant Throne…

How did the band first take form?

Well, Zaher Siryani (guitars) and I are cousins, so we've been together since childhood and we did everything together, so when we began playing Metal music we used to jam together all the time, we played live together in the old days in an older band called Walpurgis. Tyrant Throne started officially in 2004, because I was busy with Augury and Phex before that. But still we used to make covers for silly songs together, like Elvis Presley, hehe, we used to make his songs in a Death Metal way, or religious chants, we used to record them with heavy guitars and I used to do Death Metal vocals on them, but at that time it was all for fun. In 2004 we decided to officially form the band and make real bone crushing Brutal Death Metal music of our own. So the line-up was Zaher Siryani on guitars and myself on bass and vocals, and this may, we were finally joined by the drummer; Hanna Marzouqa.

Why did you change your name from Canopus to the current one? And what do they both mean?We don’t hear much about metal bands from abroad appearing in Jordan, what kind of shows do you have there?

There are no big Metal festivals in Jordan, only 1 day gigs and shit. Well, Opeth and Anathema we're confirmed to play in Jordan in 2003 and 2006 respectively, but both concerts got cancelled one day before taking place for different reasons. You hear different versions of the canceling reasons from everywhere, but I guess the managers behind these two concerts are the only ones who know the truth! Well other than that, bands from Arabian countries do come and play here, especially from Lebanon.

Being close neighbors to Israel; did you get a chance coming here for some metal purchasing or shows?

Hopefully when there is peace we will consider coming.

Do you know, or like, any Israeli metal bands?

Melechesh (if it is considered so), Orphaned Land, Salem… I guess that’s about it!

What is it about this music, you think, that makes its listens quite similar in some aspects, being different than most of their environment, more globally aware than others, what is it that unifies metalheads?

Well Metal music is basically built on 2 different sides; the musical side and the ideological side. When it comes to music, Metal scales are mostly influenced by blues and symphonic music. The ideological side is rebellion, hate, anger, aggression, philosophy, frustration … and so, it all depends on the musical overall sound and style, and lyrics of course. So that’s the basic reason why Metal music has this unique sound which is similar all over the globe in some aspects. Metal must be aggressive and hateful in my opinion, and then comes the additions and articulation to the music, like folk influences and others… What unifies Metalheads all over the globe is the sense of being different, being wild, rebellious, and so… And of course the loyalty to the music that makes psychological differences for us!

What are the band's current plans for its future?

We're currently busy preparing for gigs outside the country and doing some plans to search for labels and stuff. I think we'll be busy with gigs until November or the end of the year, after that we'll start working on new material for our next release, which will be probably a full-length album…

That's it, thanks for doing this interview!

Thanks for the support! Keep it coming, and stay Metal!!!