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anTS band w. meTal InSIde oft avy from Thelando crowcr elI he Tem by or Sra SyS arab I e The ow an chang h o T
[Warning: this story may contain electric ouds!]

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photographs by Feras NaddaF aNd orlaNdo crowcroFt

ackstage at the Sublime Club, Tel Aviv, June 2011, and Feras Naddaf is sitting opposite Barney Greenway, the lead singer of Napalm Death. A couple of hours earlier Chaos of Nazareth, his band, had opened for the British heavy metal legends and now an animated Greenway is singing his praises. For an up-andcoming metal musician it doesnt get much better than this. As Feras tells the story of that show, I am smiling, sitting in the passenger seat of his car as we drive through the darkened streets of Nazareth, Israel. He recalls how Napalm Death had played that night. How, between songs, Barney had stopped and shouted to the crowd: Now, go and tear down that wall, or something like that, referring to the separation barrier that cuts off the West Bank from Israel. The crowd were shouting back and had their middle fingers up and suddenly seeing me still smiling Feras looks at me deadly serious and says: This is not funny. They were shouting Death to Arabs. Napalm Death walked off stage after that, Feras says, and as they headed on to the next stage of the tour, maybe it left a sour taste, who knows. Chaos of Nazareth, meanwhile, go on. The band, along with over 1.5 million of Israels population, are Arabs with Israeli citizenship. They are residents of cities like Nazareth that are primarily Arab but became part of Israel in 1948, as the Jewish army pushed east in the war that followed the declaration of an Israeli state. Arab-Israelis now number among twenty percent of Israels population, and while life is more tolerable for them than the Palestinians cut off in the West Bank or Gaza, it is far from easy. As a Palestinian, as an Arab inside this country, I dont have all my rights. When I go to airports, I get stopped, and I know why. I see the people who are passing through and they are not Arabs, says Feras. And when we are standing on the stage, looking around at the crowd, I know that when I turn my back, people are talking. Despite these significant challenges, Chaos of Nazareth have enjoyed some serious success over the past two years, placing them among the best-known Middle Eastern bands. Feras, who plays rhythm guitar, is the driven, passionate and undisputed leader of the band, alongside Shadi Far on vocals and Oday Safadi on drums. Fadi Mab and Sharbel Sa play lead guitar and bass, respectively, and on electric oud is George Kandalaft, the newest member of the band. As well as opening for Napalm Death in 2011, the band have supported U.S. metal bands, Lamb of God and Arch Enemy, playing huge venues and getting to meet and support their idols. But, cut off by Israeli promoters, Feras has not got these gigs easily. In all

(Left) Feras Naddaf with Angela Gossow, lead singer of Arch Enemy. (Right) A sellout crowd at the Lamb of God show in Tel Aviv.

three cases he contacted the U.S. managers of the bands to organise the shows. The U.S. managers reported back that they had come under significant pressure not to let a Palestinian band play. When some people got to know that we were playing with Lamb of God, they started talking to their manager and saying why dont you get an Israeli band? Like we are not Israelis, Feras says, with a good humoured but slightly exhausted laugh. The manager called me and said: Feras, you have no f***ing idea where you are living. He said he had calls from more than twenty managers urging him not to let us play. As well as being Palestinians, Chaos of Nazareth make no qualms about the fact they are political. Their songs, with names like Damage in the Wall and Stranger in My Land, are clearly directed at the Israeli government and the apartheid system that cuts off Palestinians from Jerusalem and elsewhere in modern day Israel. While not as pronounced as in Jerusalem, the historic and heavily touristy Nazareth is quite obviously divided Arabs and Jews take different buses and buy from different shops. Nazareth Illit, a new Jewish quarter built six kilometres away from the city centre, will only serve to increase this separation. The songs speak for themselves, says Feras. Damage in the Wall is how we see that wall that separates Israel from Palestine. Israel sees it as a solution but it is the exact opposite. The wall cuts some peoples backyards, their houses, in two. Its not a good solution. Shadi [the vocalist] wrote Stranger in My Land, and he told me that it refers to us being here, as Christian Palestinians living in Nazareth. We always felt like strangers here, we want to belong, but nothing is pulling us together. Chaos of Nazareths practice room is in a dark, empty industrial area of Nazareth, surrounded by warehouses and car parks, which means they can make as much noise as they like. The building is used as an art and cultural space for Nazareths art and music community, and the corridors and stairwells are full of paintings and sculptures as we walk up the steps to their second floor space. Outside the door, we are greeted by George, a classically-trained oud player and music therapist, who has customised the traditional Arabic instrument to allow it to play heavy metal. Physically it looks like a violin, but when he plugs it into a Marshall stack you would think it was another guitar. George is a recent convert to metal. A Nazareth native and expert in traditional Palestinian folk music, he was brought to the dark side during his time as a student in Jerusalem. He was shocked to be able to see the separation wall being built from outside his window, and while continuing to play his oud, did not

(Left) Feras and George Kandalaft jamming in their practice room in Nazareth. (Right) Feras with Lamb of God drummer, Chris Adler

feel like the soft, melancholy traditional music of Palestine did his feelings justice. He was trying to express a new feeling through music. He was trying to express his rage. Palestinian music is very sad music, because of everything that happens to us. We start to be sad and to play sad music, about people who have been killed and so on, says George, as we sit down in the small, sound-proofed room. But over time I started to hear something else inside me, screaming. I was so angry and wanted to find new ways to play that screaming, to play the anger. When I heard metal music, I found what I was looking for. George contacted some friends, who put him on to Chaos of Nazareth, and when he returned to his home city he was surprised to get a call from Feras, who had already been tipped off about him from some other friends. I told him it was very strange, but that I knew this would happen, he says, and they both laugh. Georges electric oud is essential to the new sound that Feras is trying to harness in the band. He says that during his chat with Barney Greenway in Tel Aviv, the singer told him that he should stop trying to copy other bands. It was something of an epiphany. He said, Feras, listen to me. Youre a great band. You play really good. Your drummer, you and vocalist are tight. But stop trying to sound like other bands. He said: You have your own great music, your own great culture, you should bring that to a new place, and to metal. Since then I have been trying to get it. But taking the music to a wider audience still remains a challenge. The same managers of other Israeli bands that contacted Lamb of God to try and persuade them to cancel Chaos of Nazareths support slot, waded in when the band secured the Arch Enemy gig last year. This time, however, it wasnt just voices from within Israel that were gunning for the band. The Boycott Israel lobby, which at the end of 2012 criticised the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Madonna for organising shows in Tel Aviv, also hassled Arch Enemy, arguing that by playing in Tel Aviv they were condoning abuses of Palestinian rights. Feras, as a Palestinian, was livid.

goIng To have a Show In The mIddle of Tel avIv and I am goIng To STand uP In fronT of all TheSe PeoPle and Tell Them my STory, Tell Them how I See TheIr PolITIcIanS?

donT you underSTand ThaT I am a PaleSTInIan, and Im

I respect their cause, but I dont believe that boycotting live shows will make a big difference. Its the exact opposite. If you bring people like Arch Enemy to Israel, they call for unity, they call for human rights, for peace and for stuff that is really meaningful for people to see, he says. They started contacting me and telling me not to support Arch Enemy. I was like, Dont you understand that I am a Palestinian, and Im going to have a show in the middle of Tel Aviv and I am going to stand up in front of all these people and tell them my story, tell them how I see their politicians? You dont want me to go there and tell them how I think? Tell them that they should tear the wall down and we should live in peace and people should look at each other as equals? Im shouting in front of them, youre shouting from outside. Excuse me, but I am doing better. It is fundamental to Chaos of Nazareths philosophy that metal has a role to play in Palestine; moreover, that Palestinians need it, and should give it a chance. In the West Bank, Chaos have an issue dealing with the stigma that greets metal in the wider Arab world they are the only known Palestinian band playing this kind of music. Feras has approached the Palestinian Authority to try and get their support, but was met with a gruff response. The PA said it could not be associated with a heavy metal band. So, blocked by Israelis and Palestinians alike, Chaos of Nazareth are alone. Yeah, we are a political band, but we are also a band that wants to bring people together. We have anger issues about different subjects, and I know that if Arab people could understand what we are saying then they would connect, asserts Feras. Our band brings people together, he continues. We talk about peace, humanity, about equality, but its always angry about the fact that the world is nothing like that. Were trying to make people realise that if we dont go the way that John Lennon said in Imagine, then we dont know how it will end but I think it will end badly. So, thats it, he says, and sits back in his chair. A few moments pass in the rehearsal room, as we all seem to digest what was said. Feras seems to be thinking about something he hasnt yet said. George, a quiet, thoughtful young man in comparison to Ferass enthusiasm, fiddles with his oud. Its going to happen, it will, Feras suddenly says. Its happening already. When I am playing with George I can feel it. We need the album, the crazy music and his crazy scales and his instrument, which is so beautiful. I close my eyes sometimes and I can see the steps that I need to climb. I can see them, and it seems simple.

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