Interview by Dan Debling for metalmusicarchives.com (Part 1)

If a blend of black and death metal with some classical influence sounds intriguing to you, then you should give Lebanese band Lagrima some attention. After around a decade of activity, Lagrima has recently released their debut album "Hannibal Ad Portas", which can be downloaded for free here. I contacted Tarek Yazbek, the only original member remaining in the band, and he gladly answered my questions regarding his band. _____________________________________________________________________________ A Google search of the word "lagrima" gives a spanish-to-English translation as "tear" or "teardrop". What inspired you to use this word as a band name?

TAREK YAZBEK : The inspiration for the band's name came actually from a Spanish guitar piece by the famous composer Francisco Tarrega ( 1885 –1909 ) named "Lagrima" , and I actually liked its meaning and how the word sounded. So it became my choice for the band's name, also there would be a little history or story behind the band's name.

According to your bio, Lagrima formed in 2003. Could you go into some detail about the band's history leading up to the recording of your new album Hannibal Ad Portas?

TAREK YAZBEK : Before Lagrima I had another band named "Enormity" actually, we mostly played covers for Metallica, Sepultura, Death. Even I composed two albums in that band but nothing was actually recorded, that band project was put aside because of the big musical difference between the band members. After that I started working on a new band project around 2000 - 2001, with new songs and new style of composing. That's when I started working on "Hannibal Ad Portas" and at the same time looking for band members which was completed in 2003, but after 3 month or so, the band started having member changing which was a big step back for the band. We first changed the drummer, and it's really hard to get a really good drummer in Lebanon. Then we finally got a great drummer after trying 3 or 4 and during that time we also changed our bassist, also couple of times, until we found a real good bassist (he is now the lead guitarist of the Lebanese band 'Innerguilt"). Also we had at that time a lead guitar player (after having couple of other lead guitarists). Problems started again (talking here around 2005), for every one wanted to orient the band to a different direction and even to turn the band into a cover band. The final result was that I broke the band up turning it into a one man band (during this time I was composing the second album of the band) and asking the help of our lead guitar player, Hany AL-Hassan, to add some solos to the songs and introducing me at that time to his friend, Bilal Al-Aghar, to do the vocal works on the songs and he agreed. Recording started at that time on the guitars and drums (there are earlier recordings of the album done in crappy ways actually) and Bilal would join me later to record the vocals while Hanny didn't record the lead parts for the songs (for personal reasons), even Bilal at that time didn't record any vocals (the reason was the lousy acoustics in the room in which we were recording) - during that time (2005 - 2006 ) was composing music for the third album for the band. In 2006 or 2007 I was introduced to another vocalist, Nabil Raad, who actually recorded the whole vocals lines of the albums except for "Death of the Father ... Saguntum" which was left without any vocals. Another year or two would pass until I decided to call Bilal again in 2009 since I liked the way he re-arranged the way the lyrics are sung and he accepted and I re-recorded the album another time with a better quality ( and re-recorded it again in 2011 - which is the current released version ).

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Lagrima - Hannibal Ad Portas reviewd on fredblogdotcom.wordpress.com

Hello Everybody. This is my first review ever and i have decided it to be dedicated to Lagrima’s new and debut album. In Lebanon, not many black metal bands exist. And the ones that exist are few and of those few some of them are not active. Many bands come to mind like Ayat, Kafan, Cimmerian Path, Melankoly, Black Folly, Damaar, Whoredom, Tristmoon, Selvmord, Molodost. It is not easy to form a black metal band in the Middle East, those are defying all the odds. Lagrima are completely new to me, i actually don’t remember how i found them but i’m really glad to have found them. Lagrima are Lebanese black metal band formed in 2003 and on the 28th of september 2012, they released their new and debut album “Hannibal Ad Portas”. Before starting in on the songs, I wanna talk about the cover art of the album. I think the album cover art is a very important element of any album, it is what attracts the “listener to be”, it gives information on what is waiting for the person about to listen to the songs.The cover art of “Hannibal Ad Portas” has in the main frame horses that have on their musle up to their head a certain metal. Their eyes look like zombie eyes. One cavalryman is riding one horse only out of the four displayed (could be the survivor of a war). Trees “dénudés” in the background and on the sides. Everything is caught up by some “hell-fire” flames. Giving an illusion of hell. The title of the album “Hannibal Ad Portas” is actually Latin for “Hannibal is at the Gates” an expression that dates back to the roman times, when roman parents would threaten and frighten their children when they misbehave. To the songs now. The first track from the album is “Prelude (… To the Gods of War)” a symphonic introductory track. followed by “Serenade Upon Mount Aryx” (one of my favorites personally) which starts with clean guitars and then the whole clean/calm music goes away with the most violent intro into a black metal sound, the shrieking vocals come in and there is the occasional death metal growls; from the minutes 2:45 breaks in a great melody accompanied with the shrieks perfectly creating a certain additional influence to their style, depressive black metal. “Conquest Of Iberia” shows a very dark side of the band without having all the shrieks, in a certain 3 minutes-long part of the 7 minute song, clean vocals are introduced creating a very dark atmosphere. Whereas “A Final Fight” shows nothing other than the band’s passion for black metal. “Trepian Trazimian Cannie” and “Sealed With Poison”, two songs of the album that have nothing as instruments other than a guitar, and both have a certain depressive, sad way about them (they are very nice). “Arise And Arrest the destiny of rome” and “Death of the Father… Saguntum” both have great melodies that will keep you listening to them over and over. And finally “Abhore the Antagonists”, well the end at around 4 minutes is just really exciting and original where you could distinctly notice a folk-ish and accompanied afterwards with more folk-ish sounds ,the shrieks of the vocalist and the fast rhythm of the drums associated with both black metal and oriental music. In conclusion, i think it’s a great album. When all the songs of an album are liked it means that it has been confirmed, the album is great. Lagrima have shown a diversity in their music with elements in their music ranging from symphonic to melodic to depressive. And a mix between Black metal and Death metal as emphasized by the vocals. Not only have they stood around shrieking and growling they have created great atmospheres and melodies for the listener to be entranced in. I would be really glad to hear about a new album If you wanna download the album, it’s available for free download, in my topic “Album Of The Week” TO READ THE ORIGINAL POST PLEASE FOLLOW THE FOLLOWING LINK: https://fredblogdotcom.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/review-1-lagrima-hannibal-ad-portas/

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Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas Reviewed by Dory Khawand

Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas Reviewed by Dory Khawand from (metal-temple.com) 8/10 stars

Have any of you fine ladies and gents heard of Lebanon before? Come on! No? Oh well, our Metal music scene is very small, barely active, and with one silly release over here a band is satisfied for a lifetime from what I found. However, LAGRIMA have something else to say about this. LAGRIMA recently released their debut album “Hannibal Ad Portas”, a dark magic circle harvesting energies from the Black and Death Metal kingdoms. The album is a breath of fresh air, and is absolutely interesting. Now I shall explore this release’s contents again, to prove to you what I just said. The album opens up with an amazing prelude equipped with some Gothic keys and strings, setting you in the perfect mood to enjoy what’s to come. By the Gods! The second track is an epic onslaught of Black Metal at its first half, accompanied by some decent Blackish shrieks and growls, and the other half contains some great acoustics, guitar chugging, and some over the top guitar riffs. If this isn’t a great impression so far, then I must be losing my proper sense of hearing. The next summon goes by the name of “Conquest of Iberia”, and here we witness a more Death Metal approach to the formula preached in the second track, with some melodic riffs and Deathly chugging thrown in with a variety of growls and throaty screams, while maintain a steady Black Metal formula. With the third coming to a halt, the fourth comes in with yet more and more variety. This track’s arsenal is now armed with keyboards, minor guitar soloing, mood swings into more Black Metal territory, and more harmony. This 9 minute battle proved to me that defining LAGRIMA’s style with one word is absolutely impossible. The second part of the album which initiates after the end of the 3 minute intro “Trepia Trazimian Cannie” goes into the Death Metal realm with much less Black Metal now. “Abhore the Antagonists” and “A Final Fight” put up a good show and really change the album mood to a more hyper and aggressive one. With this album finishing, I quote the legendary Varg Vikernes “This is… huh! Wow!” Variety is one of this album’s interesting sides. The listener will find a lot of influences to keep him listening through each and every track, although, the album could have been recorded better. For example, the guitars at the last half of “Arise and Arrest the Destiny of Rome” sound totally out of place compared to those from previous tracks, and the Black Metal shrieks, despite being decent may need a little more work. In the end, this album has something to offer for a wide variety of listeners in the Metal realm. It’s new, and has a lot of hard work put in it’s making. What’s even better, it’s free! This release is just a click away from the band’s pages. Download, and enjoy! I give this 8 motherfucking points. You can Read the Original Review here : http://www.metal-temple.com/site/catalogues/entry/reviews/cd_3/l_2/lagrima-hannibal-ad.htm

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Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas - Review by William from

Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas - Review by William from( http://avoiceofskepticism.blogspot.com/ )

I normally get excited when I have a chance to hear metal bands from the Middle East, so when I saw “melodic black/death metal” band from Lebanon, I was like, sure! And “melodic black/death metal” sounds just about right for a description of Lagrima. Some fairly clean tremolo sweeps, vocals that range from generic black metal screams to a grisly guttural growl (used for contrast/accent). I think the band has a fairly ambitious/progressive leaning, which isn’t to say this is Dream Theater. Truth said, they’re very rough around the edges in terms of their musical development, both as songwriters and as musicians (I’m not suggesting they’re bad.) I think they could’ve tightened up the songs a bit, cut out some of the mellow clean parts (I have no idea what they were thinking in the middle of “Conquest of Iberia”, the chanting/groaning thing was awful), and I think the drummer could’ve been more creative; some of the fills sound awkward. Still, recognizing the challenges of finding competent musicians, studios willing to record a metal band, fuck, just getting to band practice in that part of the world…I’m willing to tell Lagrima to keep working at it, take criticism constructively, and keep the horns up. ORIGINAL POST HERE : http://avoiceofskepticism.blogspot.com/

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Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas - Review by Battle big on Facebook

Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas - Review by Battle big on Facebook

Band: Lagrima Titel: Hannibal Ad Portas Genre: Melodic Death Metal Label: Eigenproduktion Website: www.facebook.com/lagrima.band.lebanon www.myspace.com/lagrima1978 Review: Vor einigen Tagen erreichte mich eine CD aus Beirut. Die Band heißt LAGRIMA" und hat dieses Jahr ihr Werk „Hannibal Ad Portas" in Eigenproduktion veröffentlicht. Der Opener „Prelude" kommt mit ruhigen, klassischen Tönen daher. Ohne Gesang entsteht hier ein Song zum Relaxen und Genießen. Doch, dies ist nur die Ruhe vor dem Sturm! „Hannibal Ad Portas" entwickelt sich im weiteren Verlauf zu einer echten Melodic Death Metal Scheibe. Tiefschwarze, aggressive Metal Töne bilden zusammen mit dunklen, einfach gehaltenen Riffs das musikalische Grundgerüst. Die Riffs werden variantenreich und niemals langweilig dargeboten. Dabei wird auf Highspeed Gebretter gänzlich verzichtet. Vielmehr bewegen sich die insgesamt neun Lieder ohne Ausnahme im Mid Tempo Bereich. Das stets im Hintergrund gehaltene, aber dennoch kraftvolle Drumming gibt Variabilität und Frische. Es entstehen musikalische Welten, die dunkel und ohne Hoffnung erscheinen. Kälte und Einsamkeit in musikalische Bilder verpackt. Dabei treten LAGRIMA nicht auf der Stelle! Durch geschickte Mischungen von Tempi und Soundgerüsten, entstehen Kompositionen, die nach vorne gehen und innovativ sind. Die variablen Growls geben zusätzliche Härte und gleichzeitig Nachhaltigkeit. „Hannibal Ad Portas" ist eine sehr hörenswerte, ambitionierte CD geworden, die ich nur empfehlen kann!!! Man kann „Hannibal Ad Portas" übrigens kostenlos downloaden! Ein weiterer Anreiz sich mit LAGRIMA näher zu beschäftigen und vielleicht finden die Jungs ja auch schnell ein Label, das ihre CD vertreiben möchte!! Battlepig / Claudia English translation: A few days ago I reached a cd from Beirut. The band is called LAGRIMA and released this year their opus “Hannibal Ad Portas“ in in-house production. The opener “Prelude“ comes in with calm, classical tones. Here develops a song to relax and for enjoyment. But, this is only the quiet before the storm! “Hannibal Ad Portas“ develops over the further course to a real Melodic Death Metal cd. Pitch-black, aggressive Metal tones generate along with dark kept simple riffs the musical base frame. The riffs are presented multi-variant and never boring. Thereby is utterly renounced of highspeed thrashing. The all in al nine songs rather move without exception in the mid tempo area. The steadily kept in the background but nevertheless powerful drumming gives varibility and freshness. Musical worlds develop which seem to be dark and without hope. Coldness and solitude packed in musical images. Thereby LAGRIMA doesn't mark time! By skilful mixing of speed and sound frameworks come up compositions which move forwards and are innovative. The variable growls give additional severity and simultaneously sustainability. “Hannibal Ad Portas“ becomes a very worth hearing and ambitious cd which I can only recommend!!! By the way you can download “Hannibal Ad Portas“ for free! A further incentive to have a focus on LAGRIMA. Perhaps the guys will find soon a label which would like to distribute their cd!! Battlepig / Claudia Current Line Up: Bilal Al-Aghar – Vocals Tarek Yazbek – Guitars Hussain Soufan - Bass Tracklist: 1.Prelude (...To The Gods Of War) 2.Serenade Upon Mount Aryx 3.Conquest Of Iberia 4.Death Of The Father...Saguntum 5.Arise And Arrest The Destiny Of Rome 6.Trepia Trazimian Cannie 7.Abhore The Antagonists 8.A Final Fight 9.Sealed With Poison ORIGINAL POST LINK HERE : https://www.facebook.com/notes/battle-pig/lagrima-hannibal-ad-portas/538552699492427

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Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal ad portas reviewd by stone

LAGRIMA – Beirut Lebanon is home to a Metal band that I want my fellow Metal brethren to know about. This Metal band is called LAGRIMA and they blend everything from classic guitar to (melodic) Black and Death Metal; with Heavy Metal and Power Metal influences in-between. Overall, I would classify LAGRIMA as an Extreme Metal band that also respects the art of capturing melody, while they are very astute at conveying their Metal craft effectively. The mood and atmosphere of this album projects an open-mindedness to music that LAGRIMA saturates with their Metal.

Their debut studio album, Hannibal AD Portas has just been self released and it’s free! (See their Reverbnation link below). LAGRIMA is: Tarek Yazbek (Guitars, Bass, Drum Machines, Synth) and Bilal Alaghar on vocals. Originally formed back in 2003 with a different lineup, Tarek Yazbek is now the lone founding member.

The album opener, Prelude (… To the Gods of War), is an intro of orchestration; an intro that gave me every indication that LAGRIMA has set no boundaries to their interpretation of a Metal album and I applaud them for that. There are many moments where LAGRIMA will shift gears and subdue their Metal extremity, with melodic guitar passages and intros that musically illuminate their Middle East roots (Death of the Father… Saguntum and Trepia Trazimian Cannie are fine examples of this).

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Tarek Yazbek is quite the talented multi-instrumentalist! His guitar skills cover an extensive range, from acoustical and melodically mellow to all-out blazing fret work and riffs that should make every Metal maniac out there raise the horns to the sky. Bilal Alaghar has Black Metal written all over his vocals and he has more than impressed my eardrums and Extreme Metal saturated brain! This Metal duo from Lebanon have downright succeeded at recording their debut album and they both should be Metal proud.

In the event LAGRIMA were to be discovered and signed by a Metal record label tomorrow, it would not surprise me at all; of course the Metal door should be open for some production tweaking. LAGRIMA has recorded a product of Metal that stands on its own merit of being very memorable to me. This band is not just another carbon-copied multi-Metal genre act that wants to play extreme. There’s some diversity in LAGRIMA’s Metal that needs to be heard.

I highly recommend you check out LAGRIMA – Stone’s METAL Pick Of The Day!

* To find out more about LAGRIMA and download Hannibal AD Portas for free, click on the link below!

www.reverbnation.com/lagrima

you can read the original article on http://metalodyssey.net

the url link is : http://metalodyssey.net/2012/10/02/lagrima-hannibal-ad-portas-lebanese-metal-band-self-releases-their-debut-album-and-its-stones-metal-pick-of-the-day/

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Our debut Album released for free

get our debut album for free .... from this link

Lagrima - 2012 - Hannibal Ad Portas.rar

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Lagrima - check us out

we are a metal band from lebanon, come and check us out ... we will be releasing our album for free .... real soon

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