JZ: First off, how about a small introduction for those who don’t know the band?

Arabia: We are Shabeeb Al-Haremi on guitars, drums, and vocals. Tarik Al-Haremi on rhythm guitar. Saeed Al-Mahmoody on keyboards. And Kumail Al-Lawati on bass guitar.

JZ: Guitar, drums, and vocals!! What about live gigs, what instruments do you handle on stage?

Arabia: We come from a place where metal doesn’t exist; there are no musicians and no live shows here, and that is exactly why we moved to England to find a drummer and continue our journey as a band and play live, that’s how much we all love metal, it’s the air we breath and we sacrificed by moving to Europe for our metal, the whole band play under my supervision, I personally taught them to play the songs, Tarik for example who is my nephew was one of those who I taught how to play, and now he’s 20 and he’s the youngest in the band.

JZ: So back in oman, did you ever play live? And now that you’re in Europe, are you getting any offers to play live?

Arabia: In Oman we played once with the help of a drummer friend of ours who left the country right after the concert, we played to see what kind of reaction would the people have and a lot of them liked our music, but also, a lot of them didn’t, and accused us of so many things such as devil worship.

JZ: How’s the heavy metal music scene in Oman, would you say bands are allowed to play live? And are there enough bands?

Arabia: There isn’t any, there’s no metal bands, and there’s nothing at all, we were the only band in there.

JZ: Do you have any favorite Middle Eastern bands?

Arabia: Well, what I love about the Middle East is how we’re all different and how we all play great music yet we don’t sound the same. Some of my favorites are Deathless Anguish, Wasted Land and Al Namrood from Ksa, Ajdath and Tyrant Throne from Jordan, Nervecell from Uae, and more.

JZ: A lot of black metal bands have anti-religious messages in their music and lyrics, as well as all sorts of radical and satanic thoughts. You on the other hand are pro-religion, what can you tell us about that?

arabia: We prefer writing about issues that matters, we would rather write to open up the eyes of the western world on the things that are happening everywhere, like the killing and confiscating of the lands in Palestine and Lebanon, the historical facts of why this all happened, and Zionism and their plans. We even have a tribute track to Hassan Naser Allah, it’s called “Master of Resistance” to show the world that he isn’t a terrorist, instead he’s a guardian and protector of his people.

JZ: But why Black Metal, why did you chose it to express your thoughts and not any other genre of music?

Arabia: Because we grew up listening to it, it’s what we love and what we listen to, just because we disagree with a lot of black metal bands because we’re Muslims, doesn’t mean that we can’t use the music to spread our own thoughts, and because it fits in well, not like dance music or hip hop for example.

JZ: Well, speaking of that, when would you say you started listening to metal and how?

Arabia: I personally started listening to metal when I was 14 back in a boarding school in England, and now I’m 31 and I still listen to metal, the first band I listened to was maiden and I just fell in love with the music, after that I started listening to more bands such as Immortal, Slayer, Death, Emperor, Venom, Bathory, Obituary, Dissection, Vader, and many more.

JZ: So other than music, do you guys have full time jobs?

Arabia: I used to work as a chief in the Hayat hotel but after an accident I had to make the band to survive, Tarik is studying to be a pilot, Kumail works as an assistant in an oil company, and Saeed is an electrician in an oil field. After my accident they had to take away one of my eyes, so my vision was affected and that’s why I’m living from my music right now.

JZ: Are you all staying in England currently?

Arabia: Currently they’re not but they’ll be following me soon, I’ve already bought a house for the band here, so they’ll come over to live here, and if not to live, they’ll start coming over for live shows when I find a drummer.

JZ: Well, you’ve released your first album a while back! What can you tell us about it, and where can it be found for those who want to buy a copy?

Arabia: The first album was called “The Black Pearl” which is basically about the oil in Iraq, the album talks about the war in Iraq and how the US lied about weapons of mass destruction just to get into Iraq and steal their oil, the CD is only available through an online site called CD baby, all the details can be found on the band’s Myspace, however, currently it’s out of stock but it’ll be back in stock soon, as soon as I get back to Oman because the CD is there. We are currently working on our second CD called “Arabian Blood”.

JZ: Is it ready? When will it be out?

Arabia: It’s nearly done, it’s already recorded and mixed, we’re just putting the final touches and it’ll be out Insha’Allah in 2 weeks.

JZ: Where do you record, and who mixed the album?

Arabia: Because of the current situation in Oman and because no studios wanted to help us record, we had to build our own studio from scratch, and after a lot of work and money we were done, we got all the equipment and we did every single thing on our own. I also do the mixing and mastering, as well as the composing of the music, at first I was the only one composing since I play all instruments on the band, but with time the guys started helping me out with things

JZ: I wanna wish you the best of luck with your music. Do you have any last words for JorZine.Com readers?

Arabia: I’d just want to thank you all for your support and wishes, and my last words for the fans are, never give up on your dreams no matter how much you’re told you can’t make it because of where you’re from, we are an Arabian metal band, and hopefully someday we all will unite under our cause, which is METAL.