Tag Archive: Coat of Arms

One of our favourite UAE metalcore bands, Coat of Arms, has been mighty quiet of late so that can only mean one thing – a new album in the works. We grabbed an interview with the band’s vocalist Mohammed Bailouni to sniff out the dirty little secrets they have been keeping from their fans for the last six months.

Coat of Arms have been quiet of late – what are you up to?
Taking time off in all honesty. To be honest, 2011 has ended up being a much busier year for this band than we expected going into it. So we decided to take the summer off because there aren’t as many people in the UAE that time of the year for shows, so since our last show we have just been prepping and getting things behind the scene moving.

We hear something about new songs and maybe an album – can you elaborate?
Yes, we have written a majority of the record so far, tracked about half the songs to demo them. We’ve spent a lot more time and energy into writing the new stuff, so we’re taking our time with it and seeing which songs stand out from others. No idea when it’ll be ready, but eventually it will be.

When can we next expect to see you on stage?
We’re not entirely sure yet because with the recent member change, but we’re aiming to be hitting the road sometime early 2012. At least we hope so…

We heard that you have changed your drummer – and who is the new guy and where did he come from?
Yes, unfortunately Kareem decided to leave the band almost 2 months ago. It was best for everyone to be honest, but like we said on our fanpage, we won’t forget the great 12 months he gave us. It obviously affected our plans for playing shows, but we’re working on that. We have found a replacement, and have a couple we’re looking at, but I don’t think it would be fair to announce anything yet until we’ve completely finalized the decision.

We have been watching your YouTube series on the band, so, when are you going to do a meet Amir?
This is frequently asked question believe it or not. To put the record straight, when we did the “Meet” profiles of everyone in the band, Amir was still just sessioning for us. However, by the time the DVD came out he had joined full time so we didn’t have enough time to incorporate him in. But he’ll be in the next time we do for sure.

CHECK OUT ALL OF THE BAND’S YOUTUBE SERIES HERE.

What has been Coat of Arms’ greatest achievement so far?
Not entirely sure, but I’d say persevering in an extremely barren scene. There are a lot more things we want to achieve and haven’t yet, and I think that sticking together is probably the hardest thing to do in a band, so with all the member changes that have taken place, I think the way we’ve kept CoA going is a huge achievement.

Having listened to all your albums and demos so far, there is a definite progression to your music and with the last album, there came a certain maturity of sound – do you reckon your next album will knock the socks off the first ones?
Very much so. Like I said, we’ve tracked some of the new ones as demos already, and unmixed or anything, theyve given us goosebumps. The new songs will seperate us apart from any genre people thought we were in, and itll take people places im sure. Every band says their latest work is their best, but I genuinely think that with the new stuff so far, it’s far more mature and concentrated.

There were slight sound issues on the ‘This is Manslaughter’ album, how are you going to make sure that the next album is clean?
Here’s the thing, when we started doing “This is Manslaughter”, we were still a completely unknown band in the scene. So all the songs were done at my house. It wasn’t until we played Yas Flash Forum that we realized we had an album people were waiting for. Therefore for the sake of consistency we just finished off the album the same way we started it.  Our knowledge and engineering skills have a come long way since then, and we’re not planning on recording it the same way again. We just didn’t have the cash or time to properly do it at that time. I think this time will be completely different, we know what were dealing with before we start, and we’re aiming to get it as good as can be, quality wise.

If you could slap any single singer alive or dead, who would it be and why?
Lil Wayne… for obvious reasons. Now im pissed off already haha

What is the least ‘metal’ thing about each of you?
Haha, I would say mine is that I have a LV wallet which was given to me by a family member for my High School graduation in 2005, and that I know every word on the Craig David – Born to Do It album. Liam is actually quite metal all in all, so im finding it hard to identify something. Amir’s is that he used to be a break dancer and loves the generic crap rap people despise (sorry Amir, it’s true) … represent (inside joke, don’t ask) haha