Good evening, Dubai!

Life is too short for worrying about poor service in Dubai restaurants. It hurts, though, when it gets personal - and the Reem Al Bawadi's waiters seemed to be ignoring our order with special determination.

Still, for once, it was probably not aimed at me - given that I was sharing a table with a quintet of youths whose uniformly black tee-shirts and occasionally mad hair correctly implies a Heavy Metal outfit.

After three years together, Mannikind also interact like an authentic road-tested band.

They even feature a classic mix of rock personalities - a singer who talks extravagant guff, a mick-taking drummer and a laconic bassist, who probably takes the inevitable blistering personality-clashes with a wry shrug.

These purveyors of "industrial nu-metal" are also convincingly blasé about the occasion for the interview - their agent's desire to big up their participation in March's Desert Rock Festival alongside some of the planet's mightiest rock bands.

Different and artistic

But what makes it all especially impressive is that the band must fit their practice sessions around studying for their A-levels at Dubai College. Their average age is 17.

"Put that we're amazing," the Anglo-Colombian drummer, Jonny Aitken, suggests with a hint of sarcasm.

"I thought they were fabulous," says Lara Teperdjian, talent buyer of CSM, the agency behind Desert Rock.

"We chose them from the other bands because they are different, so artistic the way they put it together."

The band, though, see themselves as just another offshoot of the UAE's thriving metal subcultures.

Tonight, for instance, they will be performing at Al Nasr Leisureland's Al Nashwan Hall alongside four of the other leading acts of Dubai's metal underground, including rivals Death of Eighty.

"I think we won the competition over the other bands just because we have a lot more live experience," says Jason Connelly, the Anglo-French bassist.

Thriving metal subculture

Given the otherwise solid rock credentials, this lack of arrogance is a tad disappointing. However, these are far from alienated adolescents.

The guitarist Ozzie, for instance, has a nickname synonymous with shambolic, bat-biting rock excess.

But, although he peers out of a shrubbery of curly black hair, he is as courteous and articulate as any parent could want - and his accent could slice cucumber sandwiches at Ascot.

Interestingly, with the single exception of full-blood Irish guitarist Jonny Ryan, the entire band are what psychologists call "third culture" kids.

Ozzie's Anglo-Syrian ancestry is reflected in the memorable moniker Osama Rodgers.

These multiple reference points may partly explain why the band analyse their music with dry detachment.

"Basically, we all had different styles and it all blended into heavy metal," says guitarist Jonny Ryan.

Expressing themselves

The extravagantly-quiffed Anglo-Jordanian singer Sami Shobaki has this to say on the band's 2003 song Gripping the Stone, which despite his comments is still something of a scene anthem: "It's a rubbish song - mostly gibberish," he says.

Yet, Ozzie later warns me not to take it at face value. "The music for us is probably the one way we get to express ourselves and our moods."
 
"We are passionate about it, but we've read so many interviews where artists go on about how important their music is and it sounds cheesy," he says.

Anyway, despite the apparent cynicism, he says they still rock like a bunch of genuine mother-hubbards.

"Oh yes, we are very much into screaming vocals and face-melting solos," says Ozzie.