So, who is Anuryzm?

Anuryzm is a progressive metal act which was formed in 2003, in the mountains of Lebanon. The band began in college as an alternative rock band playing originals and a few covers.
They played a couple of shows in Lebanon before John Bakhos (guitars), had to move to Turkey for work in 2004.
“I was working on more originals and tried to keep the band alive, with every visit home to Lebanon, so we could record our debut in 2005,” says John.
At the end of 2005, their original rhythm guitarist passed away due to health issues. The band automatically disbanded and the members went their separate ways.

John Bakhos - Anuryzm guitarist and founder

“In my mind, I had more reason to finish the album, at least as a memory to our lost friend. So in 2006, I continued writing originals and kept changing them up to sound heavier and a little more complex, wondering what I’m supposed to do next,” says John.
“I realized my time in Turkey was up and I was ready with enough material to go to Canada, start a band, play shows, and try and make a career out of it. ‘Live the dream’ as they say.”
John moved to Toronto in 2007 and started auditioning people for the band.
“It was literally over 100 auditions before I found the right members,” he says.
They had rented and re-built a jam/recording studio where they spent the better part of the two years practicing and playing shows across Toronto.
Their fan base started to take shape and their name was beginning to be recognised across the local metal scene.
In mid 2008, Anuryzm decided it was time to record the first album, since the songs were nearly ready.
“The process took a while, since we had to continually buy and rent gear, and we had to deal with singers coming and going. No one’s voice seemed to fit, but, the recording process continued and we progressed far enough and managed to record most of the drums, guitars, and bass.”

Winds of change
In mid 2009, being dissatisfied with the way things were moving musically, and having to deal with personal issues, John told the guys he was done with Canada and was going back to the Middle East.
“At this point, after all the gigs, the studio building, the countless auditions, I felt that I didn’t want to lead a life like this anymore… and as I grew a little older, my priorities changed and my idea for Anuryzm started to change. I starting feeling like just releasing albums, and maybe putting out only a few select shows every year, if I had the time. So I started packing to go home,” says John.
“I had an old drummer friend in Lebanon whom I used to work with in other bands [before Anuryzm] and thought that it was the perfect time to start working with him again on this project. He was the right person for it.”
This drummer was apparently top class and he had a good home studio ready for recording.
“As soon as I spoke to him, it was settled. I’d be in Lebanon for a few months in winter 09-10 before moving to UAE… We had to finish the whole entire Anuryzm project.”
As soon as John got there, and as they were setting recording schedules, things took another bad turn.
“The drummer had medical issues and doctors told him to never play again… The idea of not seeing him behind a kit anymore was insane.

Joe-Jean Bart - Guitarist

I felt really bad for him and I was REALLY confused about what to do, I almost called it quits, but I snapped back into search mode again.”
John quickly found a second guitarist (Joe Jean-bart). Their plan was to get Joe prepped for studio recording and playing live. Next was to find a drummer.

Famous faces
“We had come across nobody good enough… for such a project, until I woke up one morning in January this year, and was listening to some Opeth, which I am a big fan of, especially the ex-drummer, Martin Lopez. I kept asking myself ‘where did he disappear to?’” says John.
“I did my investigative work, found him online, and managed to contact him on an informal basis. I gave him a listen to some Anuryzm demo tracks, and he only had great things to say! That quickly prompted me to ask him the biggest question I would ever ask in my life… ‘Would you, Martin Lopez, take Anuryzm to be your lawful music vessel?’ hahaha. Ok not like that, maybe more along the lines of ‘Would you like to be the drummer for this album?’… and the rest is history!”
Martin Lopez has now joined Anuryzm, as a sessionist, to help the band write up their debut album.
One of John’s band mates from high school, Nadeem Bibby, has also just joined the band as a singer to add clean and aggressive style vocals to the tracks.
Growler vocalist Serge Lutfi has also just joined the band and completes their line-up.
Anuryzm are nearly finished recording drum tracks and are just doing the final touches before getting into studio this month to begin recording guitars and bass.

Courting fame
John says that after Martin Lopez’s positive response to their music, he was inspired to try and get some more famous metal musicians on board. He says he has three lined up.
“I cannot name names, of course, but if we do manage to make this work, they would only sign on as guest musicians on the album, not as full time members, since they all have their own bands… We will probably only have the opportunity to pick one of them to come in and do a track, not the whole album… but then again, I’m usually spontaneous about these things… we’ll see!” says John.

Metality UAE asked the boys some questions to get to know them a bit better:

What was the first rock/metal song you remember hearing when you were a child? Tell me where you were.
 Probably The Beatles, Sabbath or Deep Purple as my dad collected vinyl. I must have been about five or six, in the UK.

Nadeem Bibby - Vocalist

Nadeem:

Joe: Metallica – Enter Sandman. I was with my cousin and he said he wanted me to listen to some “real” music. Since then I went and started collecting tapes of Metallica and then Guns N’ Roses…. I was 12 years old.

John: Civil war – Guns N’ Roses. Happened while I was visiting my cousin and her family. Her room was very artsy with a lot of rock band posters, and she loved Slash. She had Guns N’ Roses music blazing all day. I am younger than her, so I thought she was so cool at the time… I must have been 11 years old or so… so I immediately went out and bought all their cassette tapes…before the age of the compact disc!

Serge:  Europe – The Final Countdown (whole album). I was five years old, in Lebanon, sitting on the floor in my house next to the stereo with astonishment on my face!

 Do you guys have good luck charms you carry with you when you play or is there something you do before you go on stage?
Nadeem: No good luck charms, but green tea helps the voice so I keep it handy, Axl Rose supposedly used to have honey tea in his Jack Daniels Bottle on stage for his voice.

John: No lucky charms… a shot of whiskey and three visits to the WC prior to taking stage. Need to make sure I don’t need to go when I go on!

Joe: A couple of shots of Jager.

Serge: My supposed ‘good luck charm’ is wearing my Emperor – Wrath Of The Tyrants long sleeve t-shirt (wore it to 80% of my live gigs).

If you could be any famous person for just one day, who would it be and why? 
Nadeem: Probably Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. What a trip to be the first person to have left the natural boundaries of earth and gazed back upon it with a grin.

John: I’d like to be Brian May (Queen’s guitarist) for a day. Only he can pull off wearing his hair like that and have people just love him the way he is… and yes to play his custom guitar.

Joe:  No one.

Serge: Chuck Norris, so I can roundhouse kick everyone for a day!

Ever had something embarrassing happen to you on stage?
Nadeem: Nothing too embarrassing but when I was in high school, sometimes I would forget lyrics and repeat the same chorus… but

Serge Lutfi - Vocalist

I’m pretty sure no-one noticed.

John: My first ever gig, just started the second song of the set and a guitar string pops … I had a Jackson V with a tremolo unit, and you know how long it takes to put in a new set of strings on that thing and tune it… plus, I had no backup guitars.. stood there huffing and puffing while people were like “hmmm, now what?”… and ended up just using the other guitarist’s guitar while he just sang. It turned out to be not that bad of a set in the end.

Joe: One time at a gig, I was head banging on stage and one foot was one the volume pedal and I accidentally switched it to the Wah effect and people started looking at the sound engineer like “what a shitty sound system they got”. Then I realized what had happened (maybe it took me a while because of the Jager shots) so I switched it off and kept on playing like nothing happened and we lived happily ever after… not a very impressive story, sorry.

Serge: Forgetting the lyrics to Death’s The Philosopher while I was on stage… even though the lyrics were written on a piece of paper right in front of me!

The music:
Anuryzm plays progressive thrash acoustic symphonic metal, according to them. It is guitar driven music that is edgy-melodic-technical-powerful, layered with punchy-sophisticated-in your face drum patterns, passionate soft-hard-growl vocals, surrounded by melodic-funky bass beats, and in some places empowered with symphonic ambience.

The band cite their musical influences as Megadeth, Opeth, AC/DC, Porcupine Tree, Queen, Meshuggah, Cynic, Yes, Suffocation, Emperor, Testament, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Alice in Chains, Akercocke, Camel, and Dream Theater!

Have a listen to the teaser from their track  Breaking the Ballot:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20q8v6Y_UxI

Album:
The album release date is tentatively before this winter. Because these guys are more of a project based band, they are more looking to get great musicians collaborating together in studio, rather than focusing on live gigs.
But, John says if the stars are aligned, then they might be looking at a select few shows per year.
 They may be playing some shows on the release of their new album, we shall keep you posted!