Benevolent live at Ratsky 3 Gig Experience

Hey guys!

So it's been an awesome few days, my brothers-in-metal came down from Kuwait and Bahrain to slug out a Benevolent gig and boy was it a great experience.

Our new session drummer Prasad Jayaruwan flew in on Tuesday night, Fadi and I drove down to Sharjah pick him up. It was awesome meeting Prasad, we've been buddies through the interwebs for a while and been talking metal for long enough to finally get to not only meet up but also gig it out together. The cool part was that Prasad and ourselves IMMEDIATELY hit it off with great chemistry and the excitement vibes were all over the place for the gig. We were really psyched to be opening for Nervecell and to be playing in Dubai again!

After picking up Prasad and chilling for a bit, Fadi and I made our way to pick up Sarj (from Sarj's Studio) who came down to be here at our gig and hang out with us! It was great seeing Sarj again and was awesome catching up on geek gear talk with him.

Wednesday night cometh, Fadi, Prasad, and myself went to In The Mix studios for our first official rehearsal (Sarj joined us too, he's the band's babysitter when he's not making us sound awesome). It was such a fun experience playing those songs straight up from the get go with Prasad, it's crazy thinking that this is the very first time we get together as a band (well, half the band that night) and the very second day that we hang out as peeps. CRAZY!

The rehearsal was electric, we all vibed right off of each other and had an absolute blast.

Right after rehearsal, we all went out for dinner and hang out right until it was time for Mohammed Gad and Hisham Khalil to arrive in town. The guys arrived safely, it was great seeing the guys once again. I haven't seen Hisham since leaving Kuwait back in March, but I did see Gad when I was in Lebanon last since he came down to visit.

The next day (Thursday) was when it all got pretty crazy, the very first (and only) pre-show full band rehearsal. The entire gang head over to In The Mix studios once again to prepare for show day. The rehearsal was great! We all prepared for those songs individually as per the album and since we're playing those songs live down to the tick it all just came together neatly. Again, it's pretty crazy that with just one rehearsal we all managed to put it all together for the show!

Show day comes, June 29th, no kidding, it's happening! We were up to an early start, had breakfast together as a band and then went out to buy some last minute things (new picks, spare strings, etc). Right after, we immediately made our way to the venue and arrived around 3:00 pm. The drums were still being setup and we just carried our gear inside and made ourselves comfortable with the location.

We helped the crew setup where we could, hung out, took some videos and photos, looked around the area, warmed up on our instruments, ate again, and what not.

When it was time for us to get onto our soundcheck, we got up on stage and put our pedalboards up (I was using my new POD HD500, which sounded unbelievable! Hands down the best live tone I've ever had...more on this!). Everything was plugged in perfectly and we played The Quantum Paradox at sound check. I was really psyched about how insanely HUGE my tone sounded straight into the mixer, I wasn't plugged into any amp and could hear myself perfectly through the monitors. I only had the new POD for a couple of days before the gig but I've just toyed around with some of the built in presets and downloaded a few tones from the Custom Tone site and with some tweaking I've found the right tone, it just sounded amazing and made me play better!

The guys from Nervecell came into the venue straight from their earlier all ages show while we were going through The Quantum Paradox and hailed us as they walked by. The entire time after getting off stage from sound check we just hung out with these guys (whom if you haven't met, are the nicest most genuine people you could meet), the crew, the band, and just everyone around.

People started coming into the venue and the energy was great! Echoes With Laughter kicked off the show playing a killer set of rock n' roll/metal covers by Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Metallica, some originals, and more! They had a great energy about them on stage and played with great enthusiasm and got everyone going and singing along, awesome band!

We were up next, we got right up on stage and put up all the gear in place and plugged everything in and got our metal faces on. Our setlist for the show was:

1. Haunting Shores
2. Purgatory
3. The Quantum Paradox
4. The Tyrant

Halfway through our first song, Haunting Shores, I realized that the backing tracks weren't playing through the PA and are only playing through Prasad's in-ears (the backing tracks basically have all the atmospheric stuff that sit in the back, which is important to our full sound and basically would be damaging to play the show without). Right after we finished playing through Haunting Shores, I jumped down to the house board to check on what's going wrong and Barry helped out immediately in solving the problem.

From that point onwards, the show went in a great direction. We all got into our muse and had a blast playing the songs. The 4 songs we played felt like we were up there for no longer than one minute, it all flew by really quickly. I definitely cannot wait for our next outing! It was a great pleasure for us to be performing alongside Nervecell and to have met so many great people and made some new friends at the gig.

Huge thanks to Spellbind Records, Thomsun Pure Music, the organizers (Sary, you the man!), the awesome guys at Nervecell and Echoes With Laughter.

And finally, thank you to all for coming out and I can't wait to see you all soon!

Don't forget to check out our page for more updates on dates and news on the new record at HERE

Hadi

Opening for Nervecell: June 29th Show Poster

SWAGGER

Hadi

Settling in Dubai; Exploring the Metal Scene; Writing/Recording Solos for the NEW BENEVOLENT ALBUM

Hey guys!

So I've been busy settling into my new life out here in Dubai, loving it! I've been to a few shows already and I am really enjoying how vibrant the scene here is here. Fadi and I went to the Avenged Sevenfold and Anuryzm show back in early May, and it was phenomenal! Both bands really rocked out and we had a blast. The other show I've been to was the Hate Eternal / Perversion / Creative Waste show done by Spellbind Records and the bands were freaking crazy good!

Besides settling in, snooping around my new home, and getting to know Dubai, we've been hard at work on finishing the Benevolent record. Vocals and solos are underway! We are having a blast putting this thing together!

I have kind of found that I am taking to a more organic way of writing the solos for the new album. I think that I am reaching a deeper and more sincere level of intimacy with recording the solos on my laptop in the room on my own without the studio pressure of having to get the very next take down. I think both recording in a studio with an engineer/producer guiding you through things AND recording on your own have advantages and disadvantages.

I often worry that the solos I am writing may sound good to me because I am engulfed by the wavelength of creativity that I am feeding off of. Although, what I am doing is am keeping Sarj involved in the production process so I keep sending him the takes in scratch tones for some feedback, alongside the rest of the band obviously. My good friend Bader Nana is also one the trustful ears that I turn to for feedback. Those guys say it as it is, and I find myself always seeking their "approval" over bits before they are confirmed as the final ones for the record!

Much to talk about, stay tuned for more updates! And give us a like on Facebook HERE

Take care now.

Hadi

BENEVOLENT: TWO YEARS OF ALBUM CREATION (PART ONE)

December 2010: 

Psyched as F*** from Divided EP's reviews, reviews, reviews, and feedback / resulting in early demoing for the upcoming material.

February 2011: 

The song "THE 2011" is born with the main intro riff. Listened to lots of djent bands here so that's been an influence.

March 2011: 

"The USB riff" becomes the new song of focus; also heavily influenced by the djent bands I was listening to then. Sadly this song wasn't completed but didn't make the cut. Check out a half demo of it here!

May 2011: 

At this point the song "The 2011" is in the finishing phases of the writing process and being scheduled for tracking and release in the summer of 2011, hence the name! At this point I had been working heavily on generating other ideas but lightly because I prefer to finish the song at hand before moving on to other ones. I guess that's what happened with "The USB Riff" I just hopped into other things and never got around to finishing it, and I haven't "felt" it since then!

July 2011: 

Tracking "The 2011" takes place at Sarj's studio. We spent quite a bit of time tracking this one since it's got a set of really challenging riffs with specific picking patterns. At this point the working date for the new record's release started popping into mind heavily and whilst working on finishing "The 2011" we began to define a blueprint for the record. This was done in close consultation with Sarj as well! He's kind of like the band's babysitter in a sense.

September 2011: 

Benevolent signs to Spellbind Records. Can I get a hell yea?

Most definitely one of those proud moments for us as a band and myself personally, being on the same record as metal icons Nervecell is a true honor!

At this point "The 2011" was finished but due to so much going on at that moment we were taken away from focusing on the finalizing of this song and decided to let it hang as the album's picture starts to come more clearly into play.

At this point I began working on a song which I finished rather quickly, this was "Nice Introer"; to me this song is kind of like a Dream Theater meets Scar Symmetry with a nice acoustic topping here and there! I would say it's one of the best intros from the songs on the album!

October 2011: 

I started to toy up with two songs back to back at this point, and with working titles of "Paid to Rest" and "Sacramento" you guys can take a wild guess what I was listening to heavily then (Lamb of God FTW). The songs were demoed at my studio and finalized, however, they didn't make the final cut because I felt that they stood out distinctively from the rest, had a much too different feel about them, and I found myself losing interest in fixing them while rather just wanting to move on to fresh and new songs. Those songs were on the main picks of songs to track for the record's final product up until March 2012 (see in PART TWO!)

November 2011: 

Benevolent debut gig in Dubai at Metal Asylum Festival 2011 marking the band's first show in the UAE. We had a blast performing alongside the bands such as Zygnema, Firezone, and the rest!

I remember waking up at 8 am after sleeping at 5 am post the gig, really wired up from the show's energy, grabbed my laptop and started writing what later became the song "OBOBOBZEN"

At the point I was also grappling with a song named "EPIC2", which never got finished but I got a feeling this one will be making an appearance on future Benevolent releases. I remember recording a few ideas with my homie Khalid Al Mansour while we were bored and lonely in Dubai, waiting for rehearsal time.

Early December 2011: 

Demo recording of "OBOBOBZEN" comes to life. This was a turning point for the album's creation; it was the begin of the shift in tuning for the entire (well, most of the) album. I tuned down to E D A D G B E for a maximum sinister feeling when playing guitar.

Unfortunately, "OBOBOBZEN" sounded far too rushed and rather immature as a song, so it was scrapped, however, I feel this one song's presence in the process is key in this album's essence because it paved the way for the upcoming tracks, which in my opinion have made this album!

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!

Discover YOUR Musicianship

One of the main things that definitely set things in motion for me as a musician is coming to an understanding of who I am as a musician; the solid yet dynamic definition that sets the stage to channel all the hard work into a unified path and opens up the gates for even further dedication.

The trick behind this deal is the simple reality that when you know and understand what you're all about (or plan to be all about) as a musician you develop this tunnel vision giving you that focal point and an edge in which this new found dedication becomes all you know, all you think about, and all you look forward to. It almost (or very much so) turns into an obsession where all the hard work involved with getting it done becomes a very light task and you find yourself able to activate your inner genius.

The results of your work and the gratification entailed with watching all the elements align from the work of your very hands is a beautiful and addictive feeling.

Tunnel vision is what it's all about; whether you are a musician, a painter, writer, etc; whatever it is, it's all about the go-getter attitude that automatically goes into positive-haywire mode once you find yourself at peace, knowledge, and full acknowledgement and understanding of what you're on about in that domain.

Talk soon folks,
Hadi

A Musician's Canvas: Translate Your Inspiration Into Sound

I was having a conversation with a friend just today about that "blue" feeling you get when the creativity bulb gets lit up and how having a working "canvas" can get you in a position of power in a sense, it allows you to tap into that creative feeling in a way to utilize it and get ideas out in a productive form. I like to think of this as a translation process where you hop on the same wavelength as your inspiration and start to decode that "blue" feeling into riffs and song ideas. 

I've already covered inspiration with a previous post, and though it's hard to explain such a dynamic thing as inspiration into words, I would highly recommend exploring what triggers your inspiration and gets you going so the process of being inspired can become a somewhat manually-induced. Do check out my previous post here  which covers my approach to inspiration.

Back to the idea of a canvas;

I can't stress enough on the importance of creating/setting up a working "realm" for you to be able to easily walk into and hammer out your inspiration into auditory lines.

Some of you may have faced issues that made you feel you can't get yourself to write songs or music and this may very well be the byproduct of not having that comfortable working space to let it out.

I, personally, have found myself on a whole different level of musical productivity once I had a small home studio setup where the only thing standing between me translating my inspiration into recordings was just plugging in my guitar. The reality of that is not the fact that I couldn't write as much songs as a musician as much as it is the fact that having that setup on my computer where I can, not only record ideas, but also expand that possibility into writing complete songs and thus allowing me to make quick decisions about riffs that come up because I'm writing songs each and every time I pick up the guitar and jam. And in turn, making full utilization of being inspired.

Signing out!

Hadi

Songwriting: How to Save a Helpless Song / Guide to Pwning Writer's Block

Being a songwriter, you’re going to encounter (sometimes more often than none) quite a few of those songs that are just not really THERE, you know? Songs that while you’re working on them you get that feeling inside telling you this is going down a different direction; bad different that is.

As difficult as it may be to really make a decision on keeping/pulling the plug on a song , a lot of things are worth considering. Check it out:

1. Is this song hopeless? 
2. If not ENTIRELY hopeless, where is the song taking a dive into obscurity? 
3. Is this song much too far from what is originally intended and you’d like to reapproach the original idea from scratch? 
4. If yes and you’d like to start from scratch, what are some of those riffs/bits that you’d like to preserve and use in future songs (if not the re-approached version even) 

As a budding songwriter I can tell you it’s quite difficult to let a song go, lots of hard work go into those. BUT hard work isn’t always pleasurably audible.

Let’s examine the above points in the bullets section…

IS THIS SONG HOPELESS?

I don’t mean this as a “Do you feel helpless about this song?”, this question is directed to the song itself (musician therapy posts may come later, I know I need those! Haha).

I’ll tell you this, I don’t think any song is hopeless. If you’ve got a couple taste riffs down with a basic structure in mind, any song can be saved. But you gotta be ready to throw some hard work down the bin, once again it’s important to note that songs aren’t measured by the hard work put into writing them but merely by how appealing they sound, I assure you that some of those big hits we’ve listened to for years might have been a spree-of-the-moment type songs, the raw factor in those is usually what makes them so electric to listen to.

DICOVERING WHERE YOUR SONG IS TAKING A DIVE INTO OBSCURITY

Listen to your song over and over from the beginning while doing nothing else, just listen to it and feel it out. Tune in to that feeling where you start to truly realize when and where the song just strays off the true essence that the rest of the song is conveying. This is not an easy step, but it’s not hard either; figure out when the song stops being fun to listen to, that’s usually where you need to take a closer look.

EXAMPLES OF WHY YOUR SONG IS TAKING A DIP AT THAT PARTICULAR MOMENT

This could be one of many, or a combination of a few things. Check out the below possibilities and examine those against your song:

• Too much repetition 
• Dangerously progressive; in a sense that it feels like you just started a completely new song with no relevance to the main one 
• Uninspired riff 
• An “Awesome” riff that you are trying really hard to throw into the song, but it’s leading to a bottle neck situation where it’s not fitting into any upcoming transitions 
• Maybe you need to rediscover this song’s true essence, it’s very possible that you are now inspired to write something completely different (What I usually like to do is, if something has inspired me to write in a certain direction, I don’t allow myself to explore any other source of inspiration until I’ve finished working on what I’m inspired to do. Mixing different sources of inspiration can be damaging as it’ll stray you off and divide your work’s essence into different feels that don’t complement each other) 

Those are just some of the things that are worth considering and that I’ve personally came across, the reasons could be much too many!

SIDE NOTE: THE DANGERS OF HAVING AN AWESOME RIFF

I hate those awesome riffs that get stuck in your head, and personally try to avoid them as best as I can. Here’s how I think about it:

A riff, no matter how great or bad, is meaningless unless placed in the right place and the right time within a song. What is an IMMENSELY amazing riff in standalone, could be the weakest link in your song; as on the contrary, the most uninteresting riff in standalone could be your game changer in a song, think about it.

ONCE YOU’VE FOUND THE WEAKEST LINK…

Once you’ve found your song’s current weakest link, get rid of it and just start writing from that leaves you off. This approach usually leaves me happy by the end of the songwriting process.

Above all, make sure you’re having fun, not rushing, and keeping it genuine. You should be able to enjoy the song with no regrets by the time it’s done.

Talk soon

Hadi

[PRESS RELEASE] Benevolent Lead Guitarist Hadi Sarieddine now on AMT Electronic's Official Artist roster

Hadi Sarieddine, Lead guitarist of extreme experimental metal band Benevolent, has been added to AMT Electronics' lineup of official artists, marking him as the first Lebanese musician to be featured on the Russian comany's roster of artists.

Hadi Sarieddine had this to say about AMT's products, "I've recently picked up the E-1 from AMT Electronics' line of Legend Amps and was shocked by the quality from the get-go"

"The E-1's tone fits perfectly with the tone that I go for with Benevolent and I absolutely cannot wait to take this beast out live, and the best part is it can fit in my guitar gig bag's pocket" 

The Legend Amps series line from AMT Electronics features the emulation of legendary amplifiers in a full analog designed based on JFET technology, all in a stomp box design. The stomp boxes feature 2 output options, one that is a dry signal output and is designed to go directly into the effects return of your amplifier head; while the other output option features an emulated speaker cabinet intended to go directly into the PA or sound card.

Hadi Sarieddine added, "if you were to listen to a clip of how tuneful those little stomp boxes are without being told where all the preamp sounds are coming from, there's no way you'd guess it's coming out of something as small as a cell phone; I've never been so psyched about a tone like this before" 

Benevolent released their debut EP in November 2010, received rave reviews around the region; the band is currently in the recording process of their debut full length record which is due for release with Spellbind Records. You can listen to Benevolent's music on their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Benevolent.band

Check out Hadi Sarieddine's profile on AMT Electronics on http://www.amtelectronics.com/artisty/hadi_sarieddine/, and make sure you check the rest of AMT Electronic's products on their website.

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