Middle East: Metal in the Middle East? A Music Scene Emerges

In front of the band a dozen or more young men in black T-shirts and blue jeans are jumping, bumping and generally moshing the night away.

“Many new expatriates are surprised to find any kind of metal scene in Dubai, or they’re surprised that Arabs listen to metal at all,” said Baraa (Barry) Kassab, a sound engineer who works with bands in the United Arab Emirates. “The Middle East has metal bands and they’re growing in popularity.”

One such band is Nervecell, a death metal band born in the Emirates that has released its second album, “Psychogenocide.” “Metal in the Middle East is a little different,” said Rami Mustafa, Nervecell’s 27-year-old guitarist. “The fans rarely sport the stereotypical complete metal look — tattoos, long hair, spiked bands, jewelry and leather. The focus is on the music and lyrics, and of course, the band T-shirts.”

The music is a little different, too. Psychogenocide broke new ground with a track that its lead vocalist Rajeh (James) Khazaal said contained the “first-ever Arabic growl.” It’s difficult to imagine any menacing sound from the affable Mr. Khazaal until, in an interview, he plays the track “Shunq,” featuring a duet of deep and powerful gutturals between Mr. Khazaal and Karl Sanders, lead singer of the American death metal band Nile.

“Shunq means choked or to be hanged to death,” Mr. Khazaal said. His band’s “stuff is generally in English, but we wanted to experiment our genre in Arabic.”

He added: “The track is basically about the struggle of humanity versus evil and the conclusion is the judgment of Lucifer.”

There is a widespread but mistaken assumption that metal and its various subgenres primarily appeal to young white males, said Sam Dunn, a Canadian anthropologist who has directed two documentaries about the music scene — “Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey” in 2005 and “Global Metal” in 2008.

While researching for “Global Metal,” Mr. Dunn travelled to the Gulf to attend the Dubai Desert Rock Festival, not expecting to find much of interest. The experience challenged his preconceptions. “I did not expect to find fans in the Middle East,” he said. “The fan base in the region was much bigger than I thought.”

Mr. Khazaal said metal music was first brought into the Middle East by returning students who had attended Western universities.

“Most fans and friends I know were introduced to the music in the late 1980s and early 1990s through older siblings, cousins or peers, who had a foreign connection,” he said. “In those days, we had tapes and magazines that were passed around.”

The Internet, however, opened a whole new world, allowing metal fans to enjoy unlimited and uninterrupted access the music — albeit through illegal downloads — even while it remained unavailable in mainstream music stores. The Internet, and social networking in particular, today provides the key link between the region’s bands and their potential fans.

Gene, a Syrian rock and metal band that performs in Arabic, addressing the angst and aspirations of Arab youth, is a case in point. The band benefited hugely from an easing of Syrian restrictions on Facebook and Twitter, said Maen Rajab, its guitarist. “Our fans are mostly from Syria, but the base is expanding due to our concerts abroad, our Web site, Facebook and YouTube,” Mr. Rajab said.

Performing in Syria and the rest of the Middle East remains a tough proposition, if only because production companies and event organizers are more interested in staging pop music concerts, with their mass appeal and easy marketability.