Kimaera is a Lebanese metal band that was founded in 2000. Known for its international success and recognition, this band is one of the best in the Lebanese and Middle Eastern Metal World. Kimaera’s music is derived from Doom/Death metal and could easily set you on a path of musical wonder.

1- It is the all time interview question, asking a band how it all started and how the ‘birth’ took place... So I hope you can give us a brief description about Kimaera from the very beginning.

Jean-Pierre: I founded KIMAERA back in 2000. We wanted to cover some heavy metal classics back then, and we did that for a short period of time...

But I didn’t want KIMAERA to end up being just another local cover band since we had plenty of those, so we started composing our own music, and everything kept evolving since then despite the constant problems with our lineup.

We managed to release a single in 2004 entitled ‘God’s Wrath’ that grabbed the attention of our current label Stygian Crypt, and they offered to release our debut album ‘Ebony Veiled’ in 2006!

Then we signed another deal with them for the release of our upcoming album ‘Solitary Impact’ that should be out worldwide in few months time!

2- From the start, in 2000, I’m sure things have changed for the band, as a whole, and for the band members, as individuals. What are those changes?

Jean-Pierre: The first thing I can think of is the line-up.. A lot of members came and went, due to different reasons, mainly for leaving the country, until we settled down with the current line up that proved to be the most solid one till now.

In these ten years we grew as individuals and as musicians, we’ve matured, and so our music style, that kept evolving with time, due to the different and various musical influences of each member, from classic, Jazz/Blues & Rock to Extreme metal, and that helped in making our music richer and distinctive, even if the main direction was and still Doom/Death metal!

3- Kimaera released a single, entitled ‘God’s Wrath’, in March of 2004. How did you go about doing that?

Jean-Pierre: After few years as a band, we had to put something out. We had a lot of materials written but nothing recorded. So in 2003 we thought it is about time to record something so people can get the chance to know the band and listen to our stuff, so ‘God’s Wrath’ was the perfect choice! It is an epic track that combines all the elements of our music! So it was out in 2004 and got excellent feedbacks!

4- How long did the whole composing, recording, producing process take for the first album, ‘Ebony Veiled’?

Jean-Pierre: It took ages! The composing started around 2001 with ‘Among the Dead’! We had a lot of ideas and riffs, but we gave the album the time it’s worth. The music in ‘Ebony Veiled’ is not simple, it is in a way complicated with too many layers and genres into it, so we didn’t want to rush it and let it flow naturally so it can reach its best, and that’s what happened!

The recording took place in my own room. It was very expensive to record in a professional studio so we worked our asses off and got the equipments we need and got on with it!

We finished recording around 2005 I think, the constant changes of line-up didn’t help at all but we finally managed to finish everything up after that Sabine recorded her lines in Australia and sent them via mail.

The mixing/mastering took place in Belarus, and it was out in March 2006!

As u can see, it took a lot of time! It is very hard to get an album done and release it in this country, some of our fellow Lebanese bands have been working since many years on their debut and still…It is quite a hard task!

5- What did you think of the local and international reactions to the album? Was it all that you expected?

Jean-Pierre: Actually the reactions and feedbacks passed our expectations. We got excellent reviews all over the international media, through webzines, magazines, we even got featured in the Greek Metal Hammer and our songs were played on different radio shows worldwide!

It was a huge step for us and made the name KIMAERA well known in the ME and gave us a good exposure in the international metal scene considering that we a Lebanese band!

6- What does it feel like to represent Lebanon in the metal world?

Jean-Pierre: It is an honor and a great achievement, especially after all the hard work we’ve put into this band coming from a small country like Lebanon where Metal was censored for so many years. So we know all the shit we went through didn’t go to vain and we got awarded and appreciated for our persistence and our music!

And I would like to salute the other Lebanese bands who have been working hard for years and getting recognition like ‘Oath To Vanquish’, ‘Kaoteon’, ‘Blaakyum’, ‘Weeping willow’ and others who are in the process of releasing their debuts like ‘Postmortem’, ‘Nocturna’, Tristmoon’…

7- Have you gotten any surprised reactions when foreign bands or metalheads know you are a Lebanese metal band?

Jean-Pierre: Actually many were chocked; they didn’t think that Metal even existed here! One can see that in most of the reviews written about us, and even interviews.

Some other people didn’t even know there was a country called Lebanon until they heard the band! So I think we proved that good Metal can be found everywhere, even in the smallest Arab countries!

8- Did you know, upon starting this band project, that Kimaera would be such a big deal?

Not really! When I founded the band I didn’t think that we might go international and be one of the best bands around, it was just for the sake of playing the songs we love! But when we started composing, we knew that we had something really interesting going on, and the band became our obsession, so we gave it our all, well at least I did, and things just kept happening for us since then, but of course, this is just the beginning!