BILOCATE is a Dark Oriental metal band from Amman, Jordan

Jordan

Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

, founded in 2002 by Ramzi Essayed, Waseem Essayed and Hani Al Abbadi. The band's style combines doom metal

Doom metal

Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much "thicker" or "heavier" sound than other metal genres...

 and black metal

Black metal

Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, blast beat drumming, raw recording, and unconventional song structure....

 with Oriental elements.

History

BILOCATE was founded by the brothers Ramzi and Waseem Essayed and their friend Hani Al Abadi, and got started when they were joined by guitarist Baha' Farah, and later by guitarist Rami Haikal.

Their first full-length album, Dysphoria, was released in the winter of 2005, and received significant airplay on the local governmental radio station Jordan FM, with a 5-hour show being dedicated to the band and the album on October 27. They released a music video for "2nd War in Heaven." A second video, for "Days of Joy," was produced by Jacknife Video Productions. Bilocate added a new drummer, Ahmad Kloob, in late 2006, and started preparing for a new album.

In July 2008, Sudden Death Syndrome was released, mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth

Opeth

Opeth is a Swedish heavy metal band from Stockholm, formed in 1990. Though the group has been through several personnel changes, singer, guitarist, and songwriter Mikael Åkerfeldt has remained Opeth's driving force throughout the years...

, Bloodbath

Bloodbath

Bloodbath is a Swedish death metal supergroup from Stockholm formed in 1998.-History:A year after being formed, the band, then consisting of Mikael Åkerfeldt on vocals, Dan Swanö on drums, Anders "Blakkheim" Nyström on guitar, and Jonas Renkse on bass, released their EP Breeding...

, Katatonia

Katatonia

Katatonia is a Swedish metal band formed in Stockholm in 1991 by Jonas Renkse and Anders Nyström .-1991-1993:The early Katatonia releases, such as the EP Jhva Elohim Meth.....

, Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

, and others). The album received positive reviews from magazines and websites such as Decible and Blabbermouth.net

Blabbermouth.net

Blabbermouth.net is a website dedicated to heavy metal and hard rock news, as well as album and music DVD reviews. Blabbermouth.net was founded and is run by Borivoj Krgin. The first version of the website was officially launched in March 2001...

. The album was self-released and is now distributed in the United States via The Omega Order, the distribution arm of The End Records

The End Records

The End Records is an independent record label, founded in 1998 in San Diego. Founder Andreas Katsambas initially wanted to bring attention to some underground bands he admired. In 2002, The End moved to Salt Lake City, when his wife took a job at the University of Utah. The label moved...

. In December 2008, Terrorizer reviewed Sudden Death Syndrome, calling it "a tasteful and sophisticated piece of work that determinedly puts the Jordanian metal scene on the map." The album has led to extensive coverage for the band in the West in the heavy metal media online as well as in print, such as interviews with Terrorizer and Metal Hammer

Metal Hammer

Metal Hammer is a monthly heavy metal music magazine published in the United Kingdom by Future Publishing, and in several other countries by different publishers. Metal Hammer articles feature both mainstream bands and more unusual acts from the whole spectrum of heavy metal music...

; the latter praised their "rich, doomy sound" and called Sudden Death Syndrome a "stunning, heartfelt metal album." Metal Storm

Metal Storm (webzine)

Metal Storm is a webzine specializing in various forms of heavy metal music. It is based in Tallinn, Estonia but caters to an international audience, symbolically recognized by the acquisition of an EU domain in 2008...

 nominated the album for its Best Doom Metal Album Award; Bilocate's album finished in sixth place (of ten).

Heavy metal music is still controversial in Jordan, as suggested in a brief interview with Terrorizer, December 2008, in which Rami Haikal said, "We have even been told to dissolve the band and to stop publishing our music by any means." In an interview with Metal Hammer, Waseem Essayed said, "We are facing a lot of pressure and a huge rejection from security, religious authorities, and the community." The UAE newspaper The National

The National (Abu Dhabi)

The National is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi. The editor-in-chief since June 8, 2009 has been Hassan Fattah. Prior to this, and from the launch of the newspaper Martin Newland was editor-in-chief. Mubadala Development Company, an investment company...

reported in October 2008, in a series of articles called "Young in the Muslim World," that a Bilocate concert in Jordan was canceled by authorities, "citing unspecified 'security reasons.'"

Current members

• Ramzi Essayed - vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  
• Rami Haikal
  Rami Haikal
  Rami is a prominent musician in the Jordanian metal scene. He is well known for his distinct guitar work in the band BILOCATE.-Biography:...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Waseem Essayed - keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  
• Hani Al Abadi - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  
• Baha' Farah - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  
• Ahmad Klob - drum
  Drum
  The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
  
  s

Track List

1. "Humans & the Dark Affiliation"
2. "Blooded Forest"
3. "The Dead Sea"
4. "Ebtehal"
5. "Inoculate"
6. "Pure Wicked Sins"
7. "The Stone Of Hate"

• Co-produced, mixed, and engineered by Jens Bogren
• Mastered at Fascination Street studios, Orebro, Sweden, by Jens Bogren
• Drums by Ahmed Klob & Waseem EsSayed, recorded by Ahmed Kloub, and digitized by Waseem EsSayed; engineered by Jens Bogren
• Guitars and Arabic Oud recorded by Rami Haikal and Baha' Farah
• Bass recorded at The Phexagon studio; sound technician Mohannad Bursheh, Amman, Jordan
• Vocals recorded at In The Mix studios; sound engineer Nash Planojevic, Dubai, UAE
• Keyboards, percussion, and pianos recorded and engineered by Waseem EsSayed

Track List

1. "Intro"
2. "2nd War In Heaven"
3. "Passage"
4. "A Deadly Path"
5. "The Tragedy Within"
6. "Shrouded"
7. "Days Of Joy"
8. "A Desire To Leave"

External links

• Bilocate.net - Band Website
• Bilocate @ Myspace.com - MySpace Page