Four Egyptian hard rock and metal bands performed on Friday night at the "Rock Nation Night" live music festival. This was the fourth edition of the rock festival to be hosted by Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel, in Zamalek. The bands - Scorched Legacy, Anarchy, Headstock, and Last Remaining Light - entertained black-clad, head-banging audiences with both rock covers and original songs. Originals sung in Arabic were, however, missing from the festival. Scorched Legacy This five-piece cover-band (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, and drums) got the audience head-banging and slam-dancing with their renditions of rock classics from the 70s, 80s and 90s. They performed impressive copycat covers including Black Sabbath's “Headless Cross,” “Wishing Well” by Free, “Gutter Ballet” by Savatage, “Breaking the Law” by Judas Priest, along with Iron Maiden's “Run to the Hills” and “Flight of Icarus.” Scorched Legacy's guitarist also led the band in performing neo-classical rock covers of Yngwie Malmsteen, including “Black Star.” His virtuoso finger tapping, sweeps, dive-bombs, and other guitar techniques left the audience clapping and shouting for more. The other band members also impressed the congregated head-bangers with their musical prowess. The lead singer, who has a powerful and brutal voice - although his voice could use some minor tweaking to stay in key - was very interactive with the audience. He asked the audience if they had "any requests" for songs to perform, even though the band didn't play any of the requests. The drummer, bassist, and keyboardist performed all their lines spot-on. Scorched Legacy is a band with huge potential as a cover-band, yet they did not perform any of their own songs. Anarchy This relatively new five-piece band (vocals, two lead/rhythm guitars, bass, and drums) is of the progressive metal genre. Anarchy was the only band in the festival that exclusively performed originals. The band took to the stage uniformed in black T-shirts emblazoned with “anarchy is order” symbols in red. Band members cited Opeth and Lamb of God as being their primary musical inspirations. Like Scorched Legacy, Anarchy proved to be a very musically-tight band. Long technical songs and instrumentals - with different movements and transpositions - were performed with the band members exchanging well-coordinated solos back and forth. Only a few minor glitches and slips were noticed throughout the performance of their set-list. The audience interacted very positively with the band. A mosh-pit formed in front of the stage, as youth ran around in circles and slam-danced to the music. The vocalist motivated the audience into action as he head-banged, played air-guitar, kneeled, kicked, and gyrated across the stage. Anarchy played “Battle Within,” “Twelve Gates,” “Sound of Silence,” along with “Dragon and the King.” The band also performed an instrumental entitled “Headbanger.” Before performing this instrumental the vocalist announced that the "people who head-bang hardest" to this track would receive prizes. The hardest head-banger, a young female, was awarded an Anarchy T-shirt, while other memorabilia was tossed to the audience. Headstock The first thing noticeable about Headstock is that they have a female guitarist - a rarity in the Egyptian rock/metal scene, which is overwhelmingly dominated by males. Headstock is a five-piece cover-band (vocals, two lead/rhythm guitars, bass and drums) with a unique line-up and a ton of energy. The band performed covers of “Back in Black” by AC/DC, “The Mob Rules” by Black Sabbath, “Electric Eye” by Judas Priest, Aerosmith's “Dream On,” Deep Purple's “Smoke on the Water,” along with Iron Maiden's “Be Quick or Be Dead” and “Fear of the Dark.” Another cover performed was Metallica's “For Whom the Bell Tolls” - in which the bassist took over the microphone, and the female guitarist got onto the drummer's stool. Although the audience clearly approved the selection of rock/metal classics, many of these covers were performed somewhat sloppily. Headstock's lead vocalist has a powerful voice, and is impressive in terms of his stage presence, but his singing and screaming did fall out of key several times throughout their performance. The (male) lead-guitarist, while also being extremely talented and fast-fingered, did encounter repeated guitar-tuning problems. Some of his solos - especially the ones performed during their rendition of “Dream On” - were over-done. Headstock reached out and interacted brilliantly with the audience; the vocalist passed the mic and led the crowd in sing-alongs. The band is extremely entertaining, but not well coordinated or synchronized. Last Remaining Light This Egyptian band is characterized by ultra-heavy down-tuned guitars, brutal screeching vocals, seemingly limitless energy, and a breathtaking drummer, who sounds like he has grown additional arms and legs. Last Remaining Light is yet another five-piece band that performed covers of groove-metal and metal-core bands: Lamb of God and As I Lay Dying. The brutality of the music was balanced by beautiful harmonic guitar solos and bridges. The whole band, except for the drummer jumped up and down in unison throughout much of their set-list. The band's backing vocals do need some tweaking, however, as much of their singing was out of key. A major mosh-pit was formed in front of the stage, the audience jumped in synchronization with the band and then moved to body-slam each other. The vocalist stepped off the stage into the mosh-pit, and even stage-dived into the audience - although there was not enough room to bodysurf. The band's sheer energy spilled over into the audience, which head-banged like there was no tomorrow. People loved the Lamb of God renditions “Laid to Rest,” “Redneck,” “Dead Seeds” and “Hour Glass.” Last Remaining Light closed off their set with an original song that was also very well received. This band shined in the festival. Despite their ultra-heavy music and brutal vocals, the crowd loved Last Remaining Light.
