'Don’t try to be the next Metallica’: Meet the UAE metal bands finding their own sound, people and stage

I was 13, when I picked up a Megadeth cassette in a small store in Trivandrum. I took it home, played it on the music player, rattling the quiet Kowdiar Junction with the beats of Symphony of Destruction. It played for a week, till my horrified mother and grandmother requested to change the cassette.

 My cousins were so proud.

They suggested a few more names and the next thing that I did was, buy an AC/DC cassette. One of my other cousins, distant from the world of heavy metal, sent an anxious email, “Megadeth and AC/DC. What is going on over there?”

But it was my first taste of metal, and that’s all I knew. Later, I was educated in a school bus  that there were different ‘kinds’ of metal: Black metal, thrash metal, death metal, and that’s probably when my metal phase petered out silently, barring Metallica that never left my playlist.

It’s 2026 now, and I’m still learning about metal, this time, from the UAE scene. I did make the mistake of calling it the “underground UAE metal scene”, only to be politely corrected: “They’re right there. It’s just about looking around.”

And it’s true. The person sitting next to you at work could be the one to lead you to some of the best gigs in town.

So here’s to letting some of the UAE’s metal bands speak about their love for the genre, what it takes to find the community and what happens once you do. Once you find it, they say, you’ve found family.

 If you’re on the highway to hell, accelerate.

 Dion Matthew Greenwood, the lead guitarist and co-founder of Triton, recalls how ACDC was his gateway to the genre. “I was always surrounded by music as a child. My parents are into music, and they would just blast music around the house,” he says. So, he grew up with music all around him, including Linkin Park and then ACDC, when he was around 12 or 13.

 Yet, like every musician there was that one turning point that fired up every nerve: When he watched a video of them performing Highway To Hell in Argentina. To say that the feeling was electric, would be an understatement, and Dion almost returns to the teenager who watched the video years ago, recalling every emotion. “Every time I hear that sound, there’s such a rush.” The crowds, the music, and Angus Young, the lead guitarist.

 And he kept that feeling with him, hoping to recreate it, one day. Dion started posting covers on TikTok, after taking a break of writing songs.

Soon, bassist Hijazi Zaiton, who would later become the co-founder of their band Triton, looked him up after seeing his guitar covers. The request was simple: Want to start a band? Sure why not? And a few months later, they did just that, after going through several drummers till they found Raeansh ‘Rae’ Negi.  Nathan ‘Nate’ Pravin joined as vocalist, and the band was ready.

 They performed at Melody House, Al Quoz, and graduallykept playing to the point that they could open for local band, Metarust at Season 38 of the Concert Series at The Fridge, Alserkal Avenue.

The metal scene is there, and everywhere, if you know where to look. It isn’t quite the Platform 9¾ scenario I had imagined: Find one metalhead, and soon enough, you’ll find a circle of them.

Dion, who is a 23-year-old social media manager by day, says that you just have to seek out people. “That’s the best bet.”

 And considering metal is a tough genre to play, he notes that it does require commitment. “You have to be a madman to chase it.”  Yet, there’s also something enticing about the chase. Along the way, you meet a community, that becomes like a family to you. “That’s the core of the UAE metal scene,” he acknowledges. “Everyone, is just so supportive.”

 In another corner of Dubai, lives Fahim, the lead singer, and guitarist of the Stowaways. “I didn’t start with metal like others,” Fahim says honestly. “I gravitated much later. People usually start in teenage years, but I started in college.”  Fahim, who is also a graphic designer, started playing when he was 17. The band Stowaways was formed, and as he says, it was not metal at first.

 The band has changed many times since then; he is the only original member still in the band.

 But metal late than never, and after attending several events, and gigs over the years, he found Pedro Gomez, bond over Archspire. And currently, the band is: Fahim at the vocals, Pedro at the guitar, Aditya Pandhare at the guitar, with Joe Abou Zaraa at the bass, and Jancy Tenorio at the drums. Since the band has worked hard to rise on the UAE metal scene, and even won at the NYU battle of the bands.

 The metal community, as he says, is a warm, welcoming one. They found so many connections, who led them to others. UAE is filled with metalheads, and yes they all perform for the passion of the genre, but performing with others is the bigger joy, as he says. “The best way to become a part of the metal scene, is to be an audience member. If you are a supportive presence, the scene will support you.”

 Advice to the aspiring ones? Start showing up. Not just with the intention of pitching yourself, but showing up for others too. Go for the open mics, watch the battle of the bands, find the friends that become family, and the family that makes the band.

The history, they discovered, runs deeper than many might expect. The band says they have since heard stories of rock bands playing in the UAE as far back as the 1980s. Metal and rock, they suggest, have long been part of the country’s musical landscape; they were simply less visible, existing outside the mainstream and without the kind of commercial machinery that might make a genre impossible to miss.

 That is changing, particularly as younger audiences discover and champion local bands. They share music, wear band T-shirts, follow musicians and turn up to shows. For Metarust, that support has been significant. They recall seeing younger fans share their performances online, wear their shirts in malls and approach them at conventions for photographs.

 “They’re the ones who kind of made us feel like we’re doing something and we’re being recognised,” adds Samir.

 The band also sees its role as extending beyond its own music. Their larger mission, they say, is to help make the UAE a hub for heavy metal and bring greater attention to the musicians already building that community.

 For Metarust, metal is also an outlet, a way of processing anger, frustration and negative energy rather than bottling it up. “You release it in a song, you’re zen for the rest of the day,” is the motto.

 And their advice to aspiring musicians is simple: Don’t try to crack the underground scene. Just become part of it.

 If the Stowaways’ advice is to show up, Metarust’s is to keep showing up.

 The band, comprising brothers Saif, Samir, and their close friend Marwan El Messery, assert  that the UAE’s metal scene is far larger and older  than many people might realise. For years, it has existed just below the mainstream radar, with bands playing gigs and building communities that often required a little digging to find. The problem, they say, is not necessarily the absence of a scene, but knowing where to look.

 “Once you find it, you’ll see it around,” as Saif says.

 There are bands, venues and concerts happening regularly, sometimes every weekend, but discovering them often comes down to finding the right person or following the right lead. That is how Saif, was introduced to the UAE’s metal community while he was in business school, through Kamil, a friend and musician from the band Verdict, who introduced him to bands and stories from the scene dating back to the 2000s, and even earlier.

“Keep at it,” they say. That means working on your music, marketing yourself, accepting that opportunities may be slow and refusing to give up when the bookings do not come. For younger bands, age restrictions at some venues can make the journey even more difficult, but persistence can eventually help them find their own “little pocket” in which to grow.

Above all, they say, originality matters.

“Don’t try to be the next Metallica,” they advise. “Show what Metallica inspired you to make.”

And perhaps that is the best advice for anyone trying to find their place in the UAE’s metal scene: you do not have to arrive with a map. You just have to keep looking, keep listening , and, eventually, you will find the people who know the way.