The Middle Eastern Music Scene is Dying

[Zeus 7997]

http://jorzine.com/page.php?menu6&P=viewArticles.php&id=73

 

There's a lot going on, even more than this blog post can capture. But from what I can gather, Middle Eastern countries frown on the metal genre for a multitude of reasons. This makes it hard for local metal bands to be heard, as well as difficult for bands from other countries to tour there.

 

 

It had a lot of potential, a lot of passionate musicians with goals, but most of them either shifted to the alternative Arabic rock music where our society accepted it, or they just either leave the country or have left the scene completely.

 

We had a lot of issues with the Jordanian government, a lot of bands went to jail just because they played a genre of music that they couldn’t accept or understand, and for that we couldn’t bring any international bands to perform in Jordan even though we received a lot offers.

 

 

 

Our event for Vader on the 6th of March 2015, the CID received a complaint from a competitor.

 

[...]

 

The reason they do this, is that they are sadly not on our same level of professionalism and would rather ruin it for everyone instead of trying to raise their level and help make it better for the entire scene.

 

Sadly many fans and bands from all over the world came to Dubai, excited to meet those bands but failed to see them perform and instead just maybe hanged around them and took a photo or two.

 

Still a good outcome, yet it’s not the satisfaction we promised to deliver, and we are sorry for this but it’s out of hands at the moment.

 

Yet we like to thank those bands by name, for actually accepting our invitation and coming although they weren’t allowed to play.

 

 

 

 

Swallow the Sun came on Feb, 2016 even though it caused problems and they weren’t able to perform live for us.

 

The members of STS were amazingly great people that even when they came to Dubai and knew about what happened they refused to take their fees. 

 

Although it didn’t happen, but there were still fees, because that was the deal, mainly because the issue was from our side not theirs, but anyhow they were great enough to come support the Even organisers  and didn’t take any money.

 

Thank you Swallow The sun For being professional and completely nice to to us.

 

Instead of having them on stage, we had them as guests, playing couple of songs for us while having some drinks and chatting with them, it wasn’t what they/we were expecting, but we enjoyed it a lot!

 

[..]

 

After couple of months, Mikko vocalist of (Swallow The Sun) And I were talking and we agreed on trying again! 

 

I wanted them to perform in Dubai really bad and wanted to make it up to them for what happened last time, and they wanted to do the same!

 

We tried again and the date of the event were set on 30th of August, 2016. 

 

All got accepted except 4 members, who got rejected.

 

Why? 

We don’t know!

 

Have we tried to talk to someone to know the reason? 

 

Yes we tried, no one is listening. 

 

I even printed some pictures of STS while they were in Egypt, and translated some of their lyrics just to show the authorities that there is nothing wrong with this band! 

 

But it was useless! 

 

This effected not only The UAE but also effected The MENA region in general!

 

Now when you speak with a band about coming to MENA region they hesitate, and we do not blame them for it, especially if they cannot afford coming without being paid.

 

 

Sounds really sad.

[Komorebi 2193]

Could there be religious reasons behind all those problems? Islam is very strict in many aspects. It's really sad for middle eastern fans :/

[ぺるしゃ猫 67]

I agree with @Komorebisince Islam is so strict, metal (and even some rock) is pretty much frowned upon. I remember watching a documentary about Iranian metal bands practicing in secret.

They have an abundance of pop music though which I don't understand. I can't speak for the entire ME but since I'm Iranian I know that many popular Iranian musicians are based from elsewhere (America, Europe, etc).