You can check it out (or download it) with the video here (<-click there, click there, oh please click there)

Anyway, more covers are yet to come, all I can say is that one is for another amazing Lebanese band and maybe some more for bunch of talented guys from Italy.

You can also check out band’s photogallery from Masters of Rock 2010, review of their album or interview with the lead singer and guitarist JP Haddad.

Could you present your band for someone who has never heard of you before?
Seth.ECT was founded in a culture that’s a mixture of “east” and “west”. We decided to mirror this type of culture to our music with extreme emotions and technology. We are currently four people: Aybars/Vox, Mert/Bass, Murat/Guitars, Izmael/Guitars.

Your style of music is very specific. How would you describe it and which musicians or bands are your main influences?
Yeah, that was our main goal (creating a specific and unique type of music). We can describe our music as a mixture of industrial, metal and folk. We usually erase the riffs that resemble other bands’ work. While making songs, we try to make them as original as possible. We spend lots of time on experimenting… But as for the personal favourites, I can give names like Immortal (Norway), The Prodigy (UK), Gojira (France), Massive Attack (UK), Anal Nosorog (RU), Slayer…

And what about your name? Why did you choose it and does it have any deeper meaning?
Seth.ECT is composed of two parts, namely Seth (God of desert, storms and foreigners from Egyptian myth) and ECT (abbreviation for Experimental Chaos Theory). We have chosen “Seth.ECT” because it is a combination of eastern and western culture, philosophy, science and mysticism.

Your newest album will be released on 4th April 2011 online and for free. What were the reasons to make it this way? 
We got like 5-6 offers from some mid-level-EU record companies (I can’t tell their name) to sign a contract, but we decided to deliver the album for free. Why free? Because we wanted to deliver a message to people that everything’s not about money. Actually we are sick of this buy-sell system. While making music, or working on any kind of art, artist wants to deliver some emotions/messages. Godspeak’s message is something like “We are giving two years work for free, just to weaken the loop we all have to live within. Just complaining about facts of life that we dislike won’t fix them. So we took some action against them…”

When it comes to creating the album, who works on what?
We four people share the work. Seth.ECT members are multidisciplinary musicians. For example Murat writes some guitar riff for “Hollow Earth”, he also writes some electronic stuff for “ECT”. But to be more precise, I can say that Aybars recorded the vocals and composed some industrial and guitar parts, Mert recorded the bass and some guitar partitions and he composed some industrial stuff, Izmael recorded some guitar and recorded, mixed and mastered the album, Murat composed some industrial parts and guitar partitions.

Now don’t be shy or too modest – make a short teaser for your newest album. 
Godspeak will contain 11 songs. Last one is an outro. It will be approximately 45 minutes. You will experience a broad spectrum of emotions (if you feel the same way as we do). We tried to be as free as we could while making the album. So, at first glance people may find the album “confusing”, but when getting familiar with the songs, I guess they will start to experience the real emotions beneath the music. You will judge it better.

Don’t you plan a tour to promote Godspeak? 
We will play on ITU Rock Fest (Istanbul) on April 28th as headliner. It will be the album premiere. Touring is not an easy thing in our current country. It costs too much and does not cover itself. We got an offer from Russia, we are thinking about the context. If we receive some tour or show offer after album’s release we definitely will do that.

What bands do you dream on playing on a festival or tour with?
Slayer, The Prodigy, Immortal

You played in MHM festival in Ukraine, quite a big venue in 2009. What I was wondering is how did you manage to get there with only one demo released? 
Sergei, the festival manager, invited us. Bands at MHM at 2009 were not tremendously “famous”. But the festival and people were awesome.

Looking at your live videos from there, what is very eye catching is your image. What was it inspired by?
Our image is constantly changing. At every show we are working on some different style. For example, at Ukraine, we wanted to be like the promo pics, on the other hand, while touring with Quo Vadis, we were more “naturally” dressed. Our image was inspired by Egyptian mythology at first. We were wearing masks just because we are more comfortable with that. Wearing masks is something common with Slip Knot and Daft Punk. But I can’t say that we are directly inspired by this or that. Again, it’s a mixture of east and west.

How important for you as a band is the visual side of your creations?
Our visual side is created by Aybars (Vox). Aybars got a graphical design diploma. So we just let him do the design. Visual side of Seth.ECT matters to us. At stage people “look” at you. So they are not just listening to you.

For your promo shooting you chose Mehmet Turgut, who is a legend among the photographers. How was the cooperation with him?
He was Aybars’s friend. We just phoned him whether he was available for a shooting session or not. He accepted us and we spent a full day at his studio. At the end of the day we got the digital copies of the photos and Aybars worked on the colours. Mehmet Turgut is an easy going and relaxed guy. So, working with him was fun.

Turkey isn’t really taken as a metal country. How difficult is it for band to get noticed there and attract people to go see their concerts? 
Yes. When it comes to metal music Turkey sucks. Getting noticed is not a hard thing but people never come to see the local bands. There are really qualified local bands like Cenotaph, Self Torture, Decimation… But people won’t pay 5 – 8 dollars for a show. Instead, Turkish audience always admire foreigner bands. When under-mediocre foreigner bands come to play at a show, people fill up the venues. But those people do not show up for the better local bands. And I am very objectively observing this situation.

What are the band’s plans for the following year?
We have already started to make the second album. 2 – 3 songs finished already. I guess we will try to finish the second album and try to fix some tour.

Our website’s name is Spirit of Metal, so the question I want to ask is what does spirit of metal mean to you?
Spirit of metal means “rebellion and justice” to me.

Any last words for our readers?
We are just some people trying to make music. We don’t want to be rich, we don’t want to be masters, and we don’t want to build shiny careers… But we don’t want to be slaves either. We observe that today’s world is rapidly decaying to its death. Ideas like justice, equality, sharing and compassion are long forgotten. Instead, people are dominated by fear, jealousy and hate. I don’t know, people living in richer countries may not feel the situation in their bones, but that’s what we observe. Being free of charge, Godspeak is a “little” action to start our intentions become real. We will make music, as long as we can, to keep ourselves and others feel being “alive”. Time will bring the consequences.

Kimaera, doom-death metal band, which is without any coyness described as “Lebanese ambassadors of Doom,” made its first European appearance in Vizovice, Masters of Rock festival. The genre wasn’t the only reason why the band was so outstanding. The quality of the music was a huge surprise for everyone there as well, and there’s no better way to convince yourself that this band has a great potential than listening to their newest release, Solitary Impact. The founder, guitarist and vocalist JP Haddad was willing to answer few questions to present the band and tell about its further plans.

First of all, could you present your music to someone who has never heard of you?
Emotional Instability through a passionate journey.

We fill you up with rage and intensity, then bring you down to wretchedness, or to a more soothing state. So you can say it is an original mix of the darkest genres of metal, that is not quite familiar or similar to the metal you listen to everyday.

Your European debut took place in the Czech Republic, Masters of Rock festival in Vizovice. How did you enjoy it there? 
It was awesome. One hell of a festival, audience, and country! We will always remember it and cherish the times we spent there, especially that it was our first European show!

Czech is famous for its beer, pretty girls, and particularly Vizovice for slivovitz. Any comments about these
Well, hell yeah!!! Beer is awesome, the guys were having it for breakfast! They also brought bottles of Slivovitz back home, it is damn strong!

As for pretty girls, well, personally I think it was the next best thing after being on stage!!!

It is not usual that the organizers invite a band from such (at least for Europeans) exotic country. How did they find you or you found them? 
They found us through Elia Msawwir (Lebanesemetal.com) who has been with the band for few months now, making the contacts and management for shows outside!

A big thank you for him!

Being modest is pointless here – the public loved your performance. So is there any chance to see you play in Europe in next months or year? 
Actually there is a huge chance to play more than one show next year!!

MOR was just the beginning… so make sure to stay updated!

From all the Lebanese metal bands you made it the furthest of all. In your opinion what you have that the other bands from Lebanon or Middle East in general don’t?
I’ll put it in another way. Many Lebanese and M. E. metal bands have great potentials, worked hard and deserve every chance to go international, and I’m sure they will grow bigger in the future.

As for KIMAERA, we have been around since 10 years, released two albums worldwide, ‘Ebony Veiled’ in 2006 and ‘Solitary Impact’ in 2010, with a European label Stygiancrypt that got excellent reviews in the international scene so far. We also produced and released our first official music video of the track ‘The Taste of Treason’ from the new album, band merchandise and already headlined a music festival in Tunis couple of years ago.

So we raised the bar way higher up to international standards if I may say, at least in the Lebanese metal scene and the surroundings, and that gave us the push we needed to make it that far, and this is just the beginning.

Speaking about Lebanon, I’ve heard that it’s not that long time ago when metal music was illegal there. Is that true? Have you personally ever had any problems with it? 
Not illegal, but at some point, few years back, it was oppressed! And the metalheads here had really tough times coping with the government’s ignorance about this kind of music. Fortunately, these days are over now.

Some changes in the band were happening lately. What is the current line-up right now and will it remain this way or are any other changes going to come? 
That’s true… We have two different line ups now. The original line up who worked on the albums and currently recording the new one, and the other one with two new members that played in MOR, mainly for live shows. For now, it will remain this way, nothing is definite yet for the future, eventually we will do what’s best for KIMAERA before anything else.

Did the new members bring any new elements to the music you create?
Not to the music itself because the new members are live sessionists for now, we didn’t work on new material yet. But they did bring new blood and more energy to our performances and did a great job in a short period of time. They are very charismatic on stage and up to the level!

The themes in your music are mostly about love, betrayal, emptiness and so on. Are there any personal experiences behind your creation?
Definitely. Personal experiences have always been our main drive. They are projected in each song through both the music and lyrical themes… And that is needed when you make music as true and passionate as ours.

A great singer, Mona Bassil, appeared as a guest female vocalist on ‘Solitary Impact’. Can we look forward to hear her amazing singing on the next album as well?
Mona Bassil did a great job on ‘Solitary Impact’, and it was a pleasure having her as a guest. As for the new album, I doubt there would be any female vocals in it, except for one track, and our violinist Milia basically will handle that… yes, she can sing!

To sum up, year 2010, even though it’s not over yet, has been very successful for you. But what are your main goals for 2011? 
Third album, more touring in Europe… and hopefully another music video!

Your band has existed for ten years. I am sure there are many moments you are proud of, but is there anything you wish you could change?
You know, I’m not sure. Throughout the years we’ve had many setbacks, but it was never something we can control. But looking where we are now, I think we did it the right way, and we are proud of every single thing that led us here. Though if we were granted one wish, it would be moving to Europe and just focus on making metal music there, instead of having to live double lives here and barely have the time we want for playing music.

An obligatory question – what does spirit of metal mean to you? 
Rebellion, passion and need.

Any words you’d like to send to your fans?
Love and respect!! We’ll keep bringing DOOM upon YOU… Darkest regards!!!

18/20

Never underestimate the power of the first impression – everyone should keep that in their mind, especially when they know it could mean a huge improvement for their career. Valet Parn, a band based in Athens, Greece, definitely followed it and the result is especially good. Not everyone has an opportunity to record their first official release in such a famous studio like Fredman Studios (In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, Opeth, Arch Enemy), but there is nothing better you can do then to use it if you can. Yes, Valet Parn enhanced their great talent and potential by first class quality recording background and the result is more than worth listening – it is almost obligation to check it out!

Maybe it is only my view, but Greek metal/hard rock bands have very specific sound (compare Valet Parn to Scar of the Sun for example and you will understand) and the open minded approach to subliming different genres to the songs. The tracks that seem like the usual rock song include growling, the heavy ones can surprise you with a melodic passage and what I personally love the most about their music is kind of southern melancholic feel in their songs, even though they are overall very lively.

About the lyrics I can’t say anything bad but neither can put it as the most outstanding aspect of this piece of work. Yes, they make sense and no, they are not dumb at all, but in the result it more appears that the words are just the complementary for the music, not that the music is adjusted for the lyrics. Anyway the moods of the both aspects are well combined and you don’t feel any misbalance while enjoying the album. However if your mind is going to be blown up, it’s going to be rather thanks to the guitar solos and catchy, almost addictive melodies.

What is in my view crucial, not for those talented Greek guys, but for every band, no matter what genre they play, is to give the music its own original feel and soul, and for the first release I would give them A+ since the emotions in the songs are expressed very clearly without any unnecessary drama or pushing. And this is in my opinion the thing that is sometimes more important than the technical skills or overly poetic lyrics – even though in this case everything is in perfect equilibrium.

In the end, after listening to the whole album, it is still hard to say how to label it, or if it is even possible. This is the work that goes beyond genres and it’s the originality that is so captivating. And if the band gives at least half as much of the effort as they put into the album into their live performance as well, for sure it would be the show that should not be missed!