Dubai Metal Festival: Meet UAE's Svengali

UAE’s Svengali is one of the most active Metal bands in the Middle East. It is a strong performer for most of the Metal acts organized in Dubai in the past few years. The band will participate in the Dubai Metal Festival. Here is our interview with the Svengali on Saturday’s performance.

Being part of the first Dubai Metal Festival that is Organized by two of the biggest Metal forces in Dubai: Metal East Records & JoScene, how was your impression, especially, since you cooperated with both before?

Metal East Records & JoScene have both been an integral part of the Svengali story. Our very first show ever was playing the “Metal Eastern Night” in 2015 organized by the same two.

Being part of the first iteration of Dubai Metal Fest feels like hanging out with family.

You participated in several local Metal performances with several recognized names in Dubai, how can you describe the local scene in Dubai?

The local scene in Dubai is small but mighty. The bands that stick around, and that are fighting to get back on stage are very inspiring to us. The Middle Eastern Metal scene as a whole is in a very good place, it feels like big things are ahead.

Early this year, you mentioned that the band faced a lot of obstacles, how can this performance help you in reloading your powers again?

The pandemic put obstacles in front of a lot of people and we were definitely not immune to that.

In 2020 we were lined up to play a show with Lacuna Coil, which ended up being the first to get canceled due to the pandemic - so jumping on stage with them now feels almost like we get to jumpstart and redo everything we weren’t able to do for a few years.

We’ve started working on new music and booking shows again. We are very excited for the future!

Your last album was released in 2020, and “Freight Train” was selected by Metal Hammer in 2020 as one of The Best Of 2020 - 15 Songs That Defined One Wild Year. What are the concepts of the album?

Sayonara was an album that tackled a lot of different concepts. That album was a collection of songs we wrote over a 5-year span so the spectrum was really wide.

“Freight Train” in particular is a song that we wrote to remind the listener to keep pushing forward, and not to wait for someone's validation.

Are you planning to perform any new songs at the concert?

There will be some surprises during the show, for sure!

Did you have any cooperation with one of the participating regional bands in the festival?

We know a lot of the bands playing and look forward to catching up with them at the festival. Also very excited to check out a few bands we haven’t been able to see before!

You will share the stage with Lacuna Coil, what does the band’s music mean to you?

As we mentioned, for us the pandemic started with a canceled show with Lacuna Coil. This show has a “revival” vibe to it. Lacuna Coil’s music has been something that we’ve been around for most of our lives and we can’t wait to celebrate 20 years of their album Comalies with them.

How are you preparing yourself for the concert?

We’ll need to get some rest on the day to make sure we deliver the best show possible that night

If you want to send a message to your fans, please do

Support your local and regional musicians, artists and promoters! The support goes a long way not only for the local bands you enjoy but for the scene as a whole, opening it up for things like Dubai Metal Fest to happen.