1. First of all I’d like you to fill us in on what’s happening in the NERVECELL camp at the moment. 

Rami: We just came back a month ago from a very successful European tour entitled Preaching Venom European Tour 2009, where we played some major European clubs and festivals. We also finished our last show of the European Festival Tour which started in June played Rock am Ring, Wacken, With Full Force and many more. Our new album was released not so long ago, in October 26, 2009 in Europe so that was really exciting for us! December 19th we will be going to Sri Lanka for a show with AS I LAY DYING and we’re really looking forward to this show as we never played Sri Lanka before. We’re also working on more live shows to support the “Preaching Venom” release in Europe, nothing is yet confirmed but we hope to have something concrete before the end of the year.                                                                                                    

Barney:  Definitely playing Wacken Open Air this year was a very important experience for us, not only because were we the first band from the Middle East / Persian Gulf  region to play at Wacken but also because it was the 20th Wacken Anniversary which made it all the more special! It was great to see all the hard work and sacrifice that went into this band pay off after our 9 year history. Another recent and also very important moment for us was when we found out that Lifeforce Records wanted to sign us, that was truly a dream come true as a metal band being based in the Middle East and getting signed with a European Label. It really gave a lot of hope to metal heads and the other bands from this part of the world.

Rami: “Preaching Venom” is a mix of old school death metal and modern death metal sound with a thrashy edge, lots of groove and a oriental/Middle Eastern-hints in the melodies. The album highlights are in the songs “Vicious Circle of Bloodshed”, “For Every Victim Fallen” and “Ratios”. Wow I don’t think there were any weak points. It’s for the listener to decide!   

Barney: I think we differ from most death metal bands in the sense that we are not really a complete death metal band to start with anyway! We never claim we are technical or prog or whatever. What we write as a band is what we feel comfortable with and which we would like to call our own sound, its purely a defined mix of death and thrash metal if you listen to just the guitar work. When you pay attention to the lyrics that itself is in fact purely death metal. Also we write a lot of melodies in our riffs which again is not intentional in any way, it’s just the kind of music we like to listen to in our taste in metal! Lastly we tend to have a Middle Eastern flavor in our tunes, it’s not very dominant in any song but there is always that hint or touch that you will become familiar with the more you listen to the songs. 
I really don’t know what to say about what we can offer to the metal scene, but from my experience with the band I think we are setting an example that extreme metal will never have an expiry date…we are fans of old school death metal and we incorporate melodies and a modern touch in our music. 

Rami: Thanks for your words! Well it really starts with the guitars in the writing process. Barney and I compose all the riffs and do all the song arrangements, then we program a rough idea for the drums, of course the drummer follows those ideas and adds his own ideas on top or does whatever sounds good, and we finally give the songs to James where he writes the lyrics. There is no state of mind, sometimes it works when we plan to write riffs, and at other times it’s totally random where a riff comes in my head or by total coincidence, and then I track it down so I don’t forget it haha. 

Barney: Certainly for me PANTERA and SEPULTURA man!! PANTERA had the right attitude and SEPULTURA sang about shit that was going on right outside the world’s doorsteps! 
Both those bands I felt were speaking out to me, I mean it made so much sense the subject matter and the messages about holding yourself up in this world, it was something I could easily relate with growing up in the Middle East!  

Rami: Personally, “Ratios”, it’s a very heavy, technical, and deep song which got all the goodies of the album… It’s an instrumental!  

Barney: Yeah ignorant fanatics could very well be one of them actually…basically it speaks about those people in higher authority who use their power to influence and brainwash the innocent into wrong doings. It kind of explains that not everyone out there is as good as they may seem to be in the public eye!

Rami: James’ lyrics are inspired on both personal level and also on what goes around us in the world. The topics are about hardships in life, miseries, society, humanity issues and how the world is being looked at in our everyday lives. 

Barney: The artwork was done by a very talented dude named Dennis from Monument Studios! It’s connected in the sense that the character on the cover is beginning to show his true colors. Like I said before it indicates a person’s true identity when you can see the evil characteristics in this person who most people put a lot of trust in and count on.
The album cover shows that there is a hint of evil that does exist in us humans and especially in those who maintain some sort of control within certain communities out there, therefore the snake features mixed in with the human flesh. 

Rami: As I mentioned before, we will be travelling to Sri Lanka on December 19th to play with AS I LAY DYING. We are also working on more live dates for the near future. We cannot really give you many details, but once things are ready to be announced, we will definitely elaborate more. We will promote “Preaching Venom” by touring and our label Lifeforce Records is doing a great job marketing the album in the media, mostly magazines, webzines and other media sources. Also we promote our work on our MySpace page, website and of course through our mailing list, Facebook group page and so many other resources. 

Rami: On the last European tour, we were playing a show in Belgium (Mass Deathtruction festival), and one girl tried to pull my foot twice! I was putting my leg on my monitors and a drunken girl on the front row just simply came and held my foot and tried to pull me down. I looked at her and she was smiling! I just warned her by pointing my finger at her haha, she stopped afterwards. I had no idea what she was trying to do, but whatever it was I was going to fall down! 

Rami: Well I think the internet did screw up lots of things for record labels and many artists/bands, yet it helped a lot spreading the word out about a band or certain artists. People do download music nowadays, faster and easier than ever, but really, if a band got what it takes for listeners to buy their album then it will do well regardless and people will buy that album. The financial crisis came and did even more damage, yet labels can find alternative ways to promote, distribute and market their releases using so many different techniques. It all depends at the end of the day on the label, band and situation. We cannot really generalize. 

Barney: I would like to say a feeling of realization that speaks to the listeners and makes them be more aware of who they are and the people and things going on around their lives. We may be writing these songs based in Dubai but we have the twisted, materialistic and evil kinds of people that exist all over the word. Everyone goes through a loss in a family, everyone sees people around them getting mistreated and taken advantage of, so our songs are speaking more from a humanitarian point of view  where anyone is free to relate with it as it suits them best.

Barney: To be honest it’s probably at its worst at the moment, there just aren’t any bands anymore and finding other musicians is the hardest task ever! Which is also why we resort to having a drummer who is based in Australia when the rest of the band lives in Dubai…haha! It’s hard and probably not very helpful for any serious band but really what can we do? We are left with no other options. 
The scene used to be crazy some 6 years ago when metal was actually banned out here but today there is really nothing at all to brag about. The biggest problem is that we don’t have consistent gigs taking place here and for any band to survive or be motivated you need to play shows as often as possible…so with hardly any venues to offer gigs for the local bands it’s really hard for bands to take things seriously!  This is another reason why we started taking the band overseas and began targeting the European promoters instead. So far it has seemed to work pretty well for us, we actually consider Europe our prime market even though we live in Dubai as musicians…haha! 

Barney: It would have to be a close tie between “ONLY THE STRONG SURVIVE” and “IMPOSSIBLE IS NOTHING”. 

Barney: Well first thanks for having this interview with us, our album “Preaching Venom” came out recently all across Europe through Lifeforce Records on Oct 26th so go grab a copy at your nearest store and please do drop us a line and let us know what you think of it! Also check us out on myspace.com/nervecell and nervecell.net for all the tour updates which we will soon announce for early 2010.