Based in
the Commercial City of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and surrounded
by a music scene that is dominated completely by the mainstream musical
hype, Nervecell independently worked their way up the ladder to do the
needful and are now considered as metal veterans in the Dubai metal
scene and one of the most potential metal outfits in the area to date,
delivering a powerful mixture of death metal & hardcore with a thrashy
edge.
The band emerged early in the year 2000 consisting of founder members
Barney Ribeiro (guitars), Hatem (drums) and Brogan Costa (vocals). As
one of the first hardcore bands in the city, Nervecell made their debut
performance at the Battle of the Bands 2001 in the city's capital Abu
Dhabi, with the addition of Mazen (guitar) and Carol (bass). Together
with their intense performance and stage presence the band won themselves
'Best Performance' award and Barney picked up the 'Best Guitarist' award.
What was meant to be their first live gig was also a huge wake up call
to all depicting that they were here to stay.
However it was in 2002 when Brogan and Carol departed Nervecell to study
abroad and Mazen left the band to pursue other projects. Recent vocalist/bassist
Rajeh AKA James joined Nervecell in late 2002 after the departure of
vocalist Brogan & bassist Carol. James decided to handle both duties
and take them to a whole new extreme level. Nervecell also welcomed
Rami in 2003 as a full-time lead guitarist. Rami was an old time friend
of both James and Barney before joining Nervecell. The band carried
on with this line up and were working on new material before they went
on to perform. It was not too long again when they had to start a new
search for a drummer as Hatem had to leave the country for personal
reasons. This led to Nervecell's greatest problem and left them with
no choice but to leave the kit for session drummers as Mark Deeb (ex
- Threshold of Pain) and now currently with Alan Madhavan current drummer
of Nephelium.
2003 was a year for a lot of ups and downs for Nervecell with old members
departing and the addition of James, Rami to join Barney and what was
left of the band. There were a lot of rumors of the band breaking up
but it took the 3 of them to prove the scene wrong. Six months of immense
jamming and writing new material enhanced Nervecell's degree of musicianship
and help them conceive a new sound which combined death metal, thrash
metal and with hardcore elements not forgetting their roots. The band
returned headlining one of the annual festivals in Dubai; Turbulence
3, leaving a shocking impact on 1,700 fans who attended that Nervecell
was on a new level.
Towards the end of the year 2003 the three-piece had set some serious
goals ahead of them. Being convinced that this was the steadiest lineup
in the band's history, they decided to release of a 2-track demo entitled
'Vastlands Of Abomination'. It was at this point where Nervecell decided
to set no limits in their sound of letting the classic death metal of
the early 90's flow together with their hardcore groove. The demo acquired
Nervecell a dedicated following from the underground circles in and
around the Middle East with the help of performing continuous shows
all over the country.
In the summer of 2004 the band hit the studio to record their debut
EP 'Human Chaos', following the success of the first demo. This much
anticipated CD included 5 songs with re-recorded versions of the first
demo and 3 other tracks that are considered as Nervecell's old school
classics! The release grabbed a lot of attention from both the underground
scene and the media in Dubai locally and the masses from around the
globe. Being aired on local station Radio One's weekly metal show Heavy
Metal Thunder and various international radio stations as UK'S Total
Rock and Germany's The Metal Observer Radio, ranking their Top 20. 'Human
Chaos' also received many positive reviews from many webzines &
magazines in Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Italy, Morocco, USA, Czech
Republic and Britain's metal bible Metal Hammer. At that point in time
Nervecell's name reached the other side of the globe where they signed
a distribution deal for 'Human Chaos' with Mexican label Atolinga Records.
The success of 'Human Chaos' led the band the opportunity to open for
the annual festival Dubai Desert Rock in 2005. This was an epic moment
for Nervecell as their passion, dedication and efforts were all made
worth when they were asked to open for legendary Sepultura and the mighty
Machine Head. The festival also gave them the chance to play alongside
Saxon, Within Temptation and The Darkness. It was confirmed at this
festival that Nervecell were crowned as Dubai's metal representatives
and continue to influence and inspire the many in and around the Middle
East.