Underground Bands in Dubai

I have pretty much settled in with my office condition. I know how to describe its location, the staff, the bosses, cool lunch places (but still looking for cooler ones) and style of work. I have also obtained my Residence Visa which entitle me for UAE bank accounts, property rental & purchase and UAE driving licence.

I am officially a resident of UAE

The one thing which is pending, is my crib. But I hope I will move to my flat by this Thursday or Friday as I have been informed by the landlord last night. Otherwise there will be a big hole in my pocket !

I quite like the location of my new hotel. Everything is within a walking distance, so I can save money from the exorbitant taxi fares and get to exercise by walking a lot. There is a mosque just in front of the hotel, a Carrefour, the Creekfront, kebab stalls and last but not least Karachi Darbar Restaurant, which is a famous Pakistani restaurant, recommended by my friend Qamjat before I come to Dubai. I ate mutton briyani accompanied by chicken chilli and man.....I cried in happiness (because it was so delicious).

Mutton Briyani & Chicken Chilli

Ok enough about mutton and coming back to the main topic, yesterday I spent half the day browsing books in Magrudy which is a local bookshop chain in UAE. After purchased a new novel by John Grisham - The Appeal, I headed off to Starbuck (no choice, no kopitiam here). Whilst having my coffee, it strucked me on how long I have not been enjoying my music. Yes I do listen to and watch a lot of music videos in Dubai MTV but those are not my type of music. My music means the underground metal music and Malay traditional folk songs.

So I headed off to Virgin music store and approched one of the staff. I asked him whether there was any underground metal albums from the UAE. I wasn't expecting anything as I was just fishing information. But to my surprise, the dreadlock staff showed me a CD by a band called BILOCATE. I listened to its first track and WOW....they play dark death metal in the style range of Vital Remains and My Dying Bride. The vocal growl and the double bass kick really raised my hairs. The band is actually a Jordanian death metal band but their singer and frontman, works in Dubai. So I bought the CD. For further information you can check them out in their BILOCATE website and Dubai TimeOut magazine and metal underground.com website. You can listen some of their tracks in Bilocate Youtube.

I asked the dreadlock staff again whether there was any venue in Dubai which holds metal gig. The dreadlock staff called his long-haired mat salleh colleague and the mat salleh informed me about a place called Touch Club where every Wednesday night they hold event called Blacklist, which feature local underground bands. They gave me the club's address and I think it is not far from my hotel.

I also found out another local underground act in Dubai which is called NERVECELL, who was said to be the veteran of death metal scene in the UAE. Checkout their Nervecell website. I will visit their merchandiser next week in Mazaya Shopping Centre (I have been to this place for dinner last week but did not notice a music store). You can see their video footage in Nervecell Youtubes.

I have also read that every year there is a Dubai DesertRock Festival and amongst the bands that have played last years were Sepultura (2005), Megadeth (2006), In Flames (2007), Iron Maiden (2007), Prodigy (2007), Korn (2008) and many others. Coming soon is Opeth in March 2009.

Damn, I am digging more about this ! If you guys know anything about underground scene in this region, please drop me a line. I feel aliveeeee....

"Forever Underground"

Album by Vital Remains
(1997)