DARK PHANTOM (Death/Thrash Metal – Iraq) – Interview for KICKASS FOREVER via Angels PR Worldwide Music Promotion #DarkPhantom

DARK PHANTOM. The first Death /Thrash Metal band from Iraq, Kirkuk

Hello Murad and welcome! When did the idea to form DARK PHANTOM come to you? 

The idea was Metallica after Iraqi war 2023 I get a Metallica CD from USArmy at the street and I listen to them everything was a different from our traditional music that always talk about love and romantic things specially we were living in war and terror and I think about creating a metal band to share our live by music

Was it difficult to find the right members and form the band?

IT’s was so hard to find members at that time and now too when u look for any metal musician but at the beginning me and my cousin (Ribeen) the lead guitarist we get deal to play together and looking for another members we find metalheads not a musician but they accept the band idea through college and social media

What are the problems a metal band from Iraq has to face? The big problem is our community that they not accept this type of music most of the musician have problems with family cuz they not accept that metal music it’s a music as any other genres Some parents force their children to leave or sell his or her instruments

Are there restrictions from the government? Our government is now busy stealing people’s rights and money when they done they will attack us in the name of religion

Do you have enough venues, rehearsal studios and music instrument shops in Iraq? 

There not lot of Venus for this type of music or open stages most musicians gathering in his room with man’s mates and for recording at this time it’s not hard they can record at small home studio as we did before

Are there lots of metal bands and fans in Iraq? Most of the old bands did some small gigs and they left the country or they used to play different genres because the situation at that time

Is there an active metal scene? The metal scene is very small here and they are not growing because no many bands and no festival to give them energy

Can you recommend us some bands? Actually, I remember accrassicouda and now they are in the state since long time ago

You are the first Iraqi band to play in a festival in Croatia! How do you feel about it? We are the first metal band from Iraq played in EU it was so hard to me I was working on this before years  ago and then we faced covid you know we are from Middle East the visa is not easy for us but finally I contact with Goathell the organizer so super one and we build a trust between he makes our dream come true and this just a first step for us we will not stop here there a lot of plans after the goathell we are so thankful to everyone in pula for support they made our day

How do you write music for DARK PHANTOM? 

My daily practice and listen to music as same my friends do in home and we contact each other and sent some records with phone or pc and when we meet together 4-5 time in the week we discuss about what we write who have a note who want to put points all the music written together

Do you follow a certain routine? There is no routine cuz when we write or feel something directly we work on it

What themes have the DARK PHANTOM lyrics?

The them of our lyrics and topics is all about corruption of religion and politics than we faced in our country since 20 years

Have you played live in Iraq or bordering countries like Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan or Turkey?  We played in Syria in 2019 it was our first time to play outside the country it was an forgettable show Syrian metal sense

Did the fans appreciate DARK PHANTOM? So much even some of them came from different cites at that situation for the show some of them came from Lebanon we appreciate everything what they do for that night

What do you think of today’s metal music compared to that produced in the 80’s and 90’s? Do you see something new coming in metal music to renew it? 

At that time, I imagine that music had more value among the listeners, and their tastes were more beautiful than the current time, but now you can publish your music and works easily, because of technology, and also with regard to music in general, every day we see new music, a new genre, and sub genres , and we hope to preserve This music because it is not just ordinary music, it is music that brings us together despite the different cultures, nationalities and religions, and this is the main reason that makes me feel happy.

How important is it for DARK PHANTOM to play live shows? How do fans react to see a metal band from Iraq live? And how do you feel about it?

It’s so important to us for playing live for me and my friends show always give energy and push us to make something new we see the audience like and shout for us that’s mean there is a live there is future but to be serious without show you only share in social media that’s not enough cuz every musician want to show his music to people play front of them and the audience of Croatia made our day cuz they like the sound of Middle East with extreme metal tune it was something different for them we get lot of attention even our shirts was different metal logo with Arabic font they like it

Please give us your top 5 all-time favorite metal albums.

Slayer – raining blood

Megadeth – Rust in peace

Lamb of god – wrath

Metallica – Master of puppets

Pentagram – unspoken

What are your plans for the future of DARK PHANTOM? How can the fans contact you and order DARK PHANTOM merch? There is a lot of plans making more good music and planning for EU tour and maybe USA tour in the future and for the merch we don’t have a site at this time but they can contact us through our pages .

Band Links:
https://www.facebook.com/metalbandIraq/
https://www.instagram.com/dark_phantom_band
https://darkphantom.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/666darkphantom666