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What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you? Ziad: My name is Ziad, I play rhythm guitars, I am 28 years old Hassan is the drummer, he is 21 years old. Danton is the bassist/backing vocals, he is 28 years old. Adel is the main vocalist, he is 27 years old and Peter, the lead guitarist is 19 years old.

Have any of you played in other bands? Adel:We all had previous experiences. For myself I have been playing with a lot of bands, and before Divulgent I was the lead vocalist with Phenomy then DeathTone for a short while. Ziad and Danton are founders of another thrash metal local band called Madjera which is still active. Hassan had previous experiences when he was still in Saudi Arabia and is the drummer of Blaakyum beside Divulgent. As for Peter he recently joined Eden which is another local Progressive Thrash metal band.

How is it that you started playing music? Peter: Being the youngest at home with all musician brothers it was no surprise that I will sooner or later pick up an instrument and play it. Especially when you have brothers who teach music and helped me through my switches starting with classic guitar then I learning jazz. But metal for me was always a passion especially after being introduced to Dream Theater, specifically John Petrucci.

Have you had other previous members? Hassan: We had Joseph Kisswany as a lead guitarist when peter was busy getting started with his university before coming back and Charbel Saade on bass. But both were before we announced the band to the public or even tracked anything.

Did you make music even when you were young? Danton: For me making music has been a passion since childhood and I still get more enthusiastic about it with every that passes.

Where are you from? Ziad: We are from all around Lebanon. Except for Hassan, he is from KSA but half Lebanese.

What year did the band form? Hassan: The bands officially formed in 2016. Later, there was a slight line up change, but that was before we’ve announced the band members.

What's your style of genre? Adel: Our music is mostly experimental groove metal which is a combination of all our influences containing elements from groove, djent, technical death, progressive, alternative metal and nu-metal.

What inspires you? Ziad: I personally get inspired by movies, videos games other music artists. But when it comes to the band we always look at under-mentioned topics that keeps happening in our daily life especially ones who can cause major changes in how we live our lives.

How often and where do you rehearse? Peter: We usually rehearse at BACH Music Institute which offers one of the very best rehearsal rooms especially for metal music. But since we are writing now, we usually meet at Hassan’s home every one or 2 weeks since we can plug both our guitars and his drum-set into a software and play the parts while writing them and edit what we came up with during the time we have between writing sessions.

How have you developed since you started with the music? Hassan: We realized that complex is not always better. Having a solid rhythmic foundation as well as a strong song theme will generally be more appreciated than bands who change time signatures for the fun of it.

Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Danton: I actually do. I have my own business which is a live music pub called “Black Pearl” and I enjoy doing some activities away from music such as surfing and hiking.

Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? Adel:For sure, we will be looking for a booking agency as soon as we release our debut album. We do want an agency that can book us as much shows as possible since we aim to become a touring band for the longest period possible since no dream for us is bigger than this.

Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? Ziad: Definitely looking for a label, but we are hoping to find a label that can offer us reasonable terms and help us expand our fan-base. Mainly a label with which we can actually progress and keep doing what we love to do.

What made you decide to make this music? 

Peter: Seeing the caliber of musicians we have in the band it was obvious that something unique

will be made. Especially with the very different influences and experiences each member has, it personally made me more excited to make music with them and slowly it was obvious that we can make natural music together and the chemistry was increasingly showing since the early stages.

What are your songs about? Adel: We tend to find really sensitive topics to talk about. They vary from politics, society, futurism, human unconsciousness, war, capitalism and much more topics. We talk about it in a third person point of view so the message can be delivered in pure manner away from direct and personal point of views.

Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Hassan: We always brainstorm and discuss ideas and themes as a collective, which forms the skeleton of what the song will look and sound like, we then structure it according the storyboard we came up with. Adel then lays down the lyrics since he is usually the one who does the researching homework and at the same time is the main lyricist.

Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Ziad: Mostly we start with the music and then the lyrics. But as Hassan said, according to a concept we already spoke about.

Do you compose in a certain environment? Danton: We have 2 ways of writing. It’s either while jamming the riffs together or by Ziad laying down tiny ideas we came up with on GuitarPro and developing them into full songs. Both ways are working very well with us.

Have you done any covers live? Peter: We played 2 covers in one of our shows which were “Desolation – Lamb Of God” and “Gift of guilt – Gojira” since they do have a nice theme and conatin elements that are close to the style we play.

What language do you sing in? Adel: I sing in English since it is a universal language most people understand.

What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? Ziad: The least was around 60 people and the most was around 200, knowing that we only played 2 gigs so far since we are very busy with writing our album.

What ages are most of your concert attendants? Hassan: The whole djent/modern metal genres are not widely appreciated by the older generation of rockers in the Lebanese music scene. And so they are a minority in our concerts in comparison to the newer ‘internet’ generation.

Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? Peter: Having a special signature in the music we write we always find it better to stick to our own originals but we don’t mind to play any cover for any band in our own way and that will always depend on the stage we play and the type of crowd we expect to see.

Do you have a regular place you play live often? Danton: In Lebanon it’s very hard to find good venues for metal music but we already played 2 different venues in both our shows.

What was your first gig like? Adel: Our debut performance was at the Wacken Metal Battle Lebanon 2018. It was a great first appearance and opened a lot of doors for us.

What was your latest gig? Peter: Our latest was at the “Metal United World Wide – Lebanon” which is a concert that was happening on the same day (may 5th) in 65 different cities around the world.

Have you had to cancel a gig? Ziad: It never happened yet and we hope not to face such an unfortunate incident through our career.

Where do you plan to gig the coming year? Hassan: Of course! We have 1 or 2 gigs left for 2018 and we are planning to finish our debut album ASAP and start touring by 2019.

What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records nowadays? Peter: At this age of technology downloading music means more reach while at the same time it can be for a small fee which means both sides can win from it.

How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? Hassan: Less money to be made through selling music but definitely more exposure of artists across genres.

How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? Adel: First we would like to thank you for this interview. This is actually our second interview outside Lebanon so it absolutely means a lot to us that we could reach people in far-away countries and get interviewed by them. It shows us that we are walking the right path and gives us a huge push to keep working harder and give our ultimate best to reach the most people possible.

Do you have any role models or idols? Ziad: In the guitar world I’d say Andy James, Marty Friedman, Adrian Smith, James Hetfield and Dave Mustaine.

Why do you think that they exist? Ziad: In my world they exist to relate, learn from and improve.

Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Hassan: A lot of what modern bands attempt to do is fusing genres such as jazz with metal, or fusing some elements from pop into the metal genre etc. Some of these endeavors have been in my opinion very successful such as in the case of Igorrr. Old music still maintains its appeal as the foundation unto which newer music was made.

What have been your biggest obstacles? Adel: Every band has its obstacles and since we are located in the middle of the middle east it’s a bit hard knowing that we do not have the financial support or even fair priced equipment to help us upgrade and come up with more advanced outcomes. That beside the lack of experienced metal producers and studios made to record this type of music.

Do you have any new material? Danton: We currently have 4 songs finished and the rest of the album is still under development but the ideas are there and being worked on intensively.

How can people reach you? Hassan: Through our Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube pages. Links are below.

What are your plans for the future? Adel: We currently have 2 good quality demos released online and working to get in the studio as soon as possible to record our debut album. Then we’re planning to play a lot of concerts both in our region and abroad. Hopefully that gives us an even bigger push to start planning our second album.

Do you have something to add? Ziad: just stay tuned ;)