My first contact with the HardRock was at the age of 6/7 years
I put myself in front of the turntable or cassette station
and began to scream on two Hard rock albums which my big brother had in his small collection
This was "Blackout” of Scorpions and  the Live "No Sleep 'til Hammersmith" of Motörhead
which I nicknamed the black tape.
When I became a teenager, I started getting interested in this music
with the albums "Crazy world" of the Scorpions and the famous "The razors Edge" of AC / DC!
At the beginning, it was very hard to get albums
Because the fans of this music could be counted on the fingers of one hand
Thus, access to this music was done in different ways:
Either it was someone who went abroad and to whom was entrusted the task of bringing us some tapes
which, once here, went around to all fans of that time.
Either, it was on TV with shows broadcasted via satellite , so there were:
Headbangers Balls on MTV, Metalla on VIVA, Metal Express on M6, BlahBlah metal on MCM...
Not to mention the few broadcast on Spanish Radio channels that we managed to capture only in summer
Otherwise there was also magazines that came from abroad like :
HardRock magazine Hardforce, Harn'heavy, Metallian....
I started learning to play music in 1992,
I got registered to the "Beaux-Arts" school of   "Champs de Manoeuvre"
to take classical guitar lessons
and one day I met Reda Bouali who was at the same high school as me
and introduced to me by Mehdi Zerhouni.
I had learned that Reda played heavy metal and had formed a band
that he was planning to name "Frites Omelette" but ended up being called "Rascass" later on.
After summer 92 it was College, I came to get to know a neighbour,
another Reda, "Reda Guesmia”,
who played Blues on guitar and was selling a bass guitar .
It was "the famous eko bass of that time”,
which I managed to acquire after two monthly student allowances.
Sometime later, I was contacted by Mehdi Zerhouni, who had heard that I had acquired a bass guitar
and that's when he suggested to me to integrate a metal band.
So, after  Mehdi's call (it was February 94),
we decided to meet and he introduced me to Samir,
who was a rhythm guitarist and vocalist.
He told me about their band, "Neanderthalia", he had formed in December 93
and asked me to join them on the bass guitar.
I immediately accepted
despite the fact that I wanted to be a singer and guitar player.
We started rehearsal the three of us: Mehdi, Samir and I.
It was at Mehdi’s home in the Bois de Boulogne.
Mehdi played on drums with skins made with semolina bags,
I plugged the bass on a rotten stereo hi-fi system (it made a hellish distortion),
and Samir borrowed an amp which he later purchased.
We worked on some cover songs like "War for territory" and "Refuse Resist" of "Sepultura"!
I was introduced to Yacine who was with me at the same  university
and who was Rock guitarist.
I had approached and told him we were looking for a guitarist to play Death Metal.
I also told him that we were playing cover songs of: Sepultura, Loudblast, Entombed ...
He immediately accepted without having understood much.
We had a first rehearsal, we didnt feel the need for an audition.
It was amazing! We were all all smile,  this guy was playing with great precision,
He was an outstanding guitarist.
And frankly it was the first time I saw a talented musician in front of me!
I was really impressed!
For our first concert we were invited to a party at the roman theatre of El Aurassi Hotel
it was around April 1995.
We just played two or three songs with Yacine on guitar
and me and our friend Nadir (who will later become our first manager) at the vocal.
On May 18, 1995 took place, finally, the first real concert of "Neanderthalia".
We will say that it was the first ever metal concert organized in Algeria.
It was in the "Mouflon d'or" hotel hall.
This is thanks in part to Nadir our manager of that time.
At the concert we shared stage with "Last Soul"
(the grunge band that played  Nirvana cover songs) .
There were about 70 people who attended the concert.
Later on, we had a new drummer
Kamel, who was a close friend to Yacine had integrated "Neanderthalia".
In June 26, 95
at the Roman theatre of El Aurassi Hotel,
during a concert that brought together several  Rock and metal bands
(crossroads, etrragga, Neanderthalia and others),
we met, for the first time, Sabri who was the drummer of the Rock band "Crossroads".
I was playing in a rock band
and I met "Neanderthalia" and we connected immediately
When Samir saw him, he directly said he was the drummer we needed.
In the next concert he was with us
and he played a few songs with us sharing with our second drummer Kamel.
And right after, he was the official "Neanderthalia" drummer.
My motivation was that I wanted to play  metal
and that I had made the artistic decision to play this style of music.
Arafat, who worked over the radio
and was the younger brother of Chetrane (my first guitar teacher),
whom we met once when we took part to a radio show
and with whom we got a good connection immediately
become our new manager!
In October the same year, we entered the famous Amadeus studio
with Arafat, who, anyway had believed in us
and who paid for us the recording sessions of our first demo.
There was also Farid Yamani at the mixing console
and Mustapha Mkerkeb at the PC (the old Atari ST of that time).
We had three songs recorded using the Atari drum machine.
Arafat was a great negociator and had contact with Mr. Fellahi, the director of the Ibnzeydoun hall,
he told him there was a rock band formed by a group of young Algerians living in Sweden
who wanted to perform in his venue.
It was a first in Algeria that a metal  or a Hard Rock band
performs in, let say "official" public and large Venue.
Rather, we were used to playing in small venues ,  with limited audience
and there we had over 800 people.
Samir was of a very special temperament,
he wanted to be the leader and the one who would make the decisions
without necessarily taking into consideration our opinion.
But us, we wanted a band
where all members had their say on all levels.
He had a vision of what he wanted to do
and we had a different vision.
I think we had made already a long way together
and it was time for everyone to follow his own path at that the point.
And for that, we decided, the three of us (Yacine, Sabri and me)
to write to him a letter, with our terms.
After having read it, Samir did not accept
and decided to go solo by telling us:
"See you in hell!"
After that fateful day we had become three.
And meanwhile, we needed a name for the band;
at first we thought of "Quds”,
for it is the name of a cafe where we used to meet all three.
We continued to search, for a simple name that will make a little Algerian and a little metal.
I took the dictionary and I came across Litham.
We said yes, it is "Litham"
We were looking for a rythmic guitarist who could support Yacine.
After a few tries, we thought that Lamine would fit perfectly.
He immediately agreed!
In 1996, I was contacted by
two friends of mine who were musicians,
one was a drummer and another was a guitarist.
They had founded a new band,
they were previously members of the band "Neanderthalia",
and they had left the group to form this new band,
precisely the Litham band.
I joined the group in December 96.
What motivated me was already the ambitions of the band,
which stood apart from the others.
There was a desire to do something on the local scene,
to have, let’s say, a little more weight than other bands, try to do concerts.
There was ambition to record a cd,
to really fulfil the dreams that we had as children,
to make a video, to live a certain lifestyle,
making a living from music, something new.
It was really satisfying a passion,
it was not just making music like a young student could do,
just for fun for a period and then move on.
Thus, it was somewhere a career project.
The first "Litham concert" took place in the venue of the university of Bab Ezzouar on 8 March 1997
to an all-female audience.
When we started playing covers songs of the band "Death" we were laughed at by the students
because it was very strange to them to hear such vocals.
Afterwards, there were several concerts including those in the "Afrique" Venue
with more than 1,000 people and even sometimes more than a hundred people outside.
Not to mention that at the open venue of the university of Bab Ezzouar, on May 9, 1998,
where there were so many people that it was difficult to see the end of the crowd!
If I got to organize concerts at that time,
it is primarily because there was a gap
in this period of terrorism during our youth.
We had no entertainment, we lacked a lot.
So, we gathered ourselves around music,
especially in the students community.
In fact, we were many to listen to the same kind of music,
we listened to the metal, and we listened to the Hard Rock.
And out of there grew the idea of doing concerts, just like that, between us,
and at first it was not, in a sense, for profit or production or anything,
it was just for us, to entertain ourselves, to go out.
We were doing it for the music only, not for something else.
During a TV doc on national TV with Litham and Rap bands
there was a certain Cherif Afelah.
He was a businessman who had lived for awhile in France,
and who wanted to invest on musical styles that were considered new in our country
and that were highly prized by the Algerian youth.
We signed a (historic) three years renewable contract in December 1998
in order to release our album "Dhal Ennar”,
which was no other than the first Algerian metal album.
After signing the contract with SOS pub, we started looking for a recording studio of the album
and the main difficulty was to find a studio to record the drums,
which was almost non-existent at the time.
So we decided to record the drums during the soundcheck of a concert at the "Ibnzeydoun" Venue
(held March 99)
with the help of the sound engineer Mamoune Senouci.
We had noticed that in the DAT of the drums,
there was also the sound of  the monitors coming out,
but we did not have a choice, it was that or the drum machine
And after some time, we had found the studio to make the other recordings and mixing them,
it was Saad Kezzime studio, which was near my to home
and which had, coincidentally, as sound engineer, Farid Yamani,
with whom we had recorded the first "Neanderthalia" demo.
And as we had a very tight budget,
we had six days for recording and two days for mixing.
Nevertheless, we were very satisfied with the result!
After recording the album, we made a video of the song ‘El Djamra’
which served as promotional material to the release of the album.
And in July 1999, which coincided with the third anniversary of "Litham",
the album 'Dhal Ennar' was released!
The first album of Algerian Hard Rock was in stores!
We were all four very proud of this event
because we knew that somewhere, it was going to be a historic moment!
Nobody dared or had been able to do it before us!
A month after the release of the album, we took part in CAP99,
the first National Rock Festival in Annaba and
which had gathered rock and metal bands of the entire national territory.
We were proud to be the headliners of this festival
but also to find out that our album was sold in record stores in Annaba.
Then in '99, we left to promote our album that had just come out.
We began to accumulate several concert dates
and it came out that we were made to be taken out of Algiers.
For the first time, we found ourselves in another wilaya,
namely Annaba for a festival named CAP99.
There were many bands.
I think it is at that moment that we somehow realized where the extent of Hard Rock movement was,
because we discovered bands of many other wilayas
who were barely known
In October 99, we performed for the first time outside national territory
in France during the Bledstock Biplan festival in Lille.
That day we had brought the house down
because it was weird to them all to see an Algerian band playing this style of music!
Thereafter we will say that we had a concert outside our country
we were brought from Lille.
This is another dimension to it.
We realize that we are a grain of sand,
that we are very small because it is a whole different scale abroad
there are many bands.
A month after our return from France, Lamine came to me in the early evening in the gym
telling me that our manager Cherif Afelah was murdered!
We thought it was a terrorist act.
it was a landmark episode, the time we learned the assassination of our manager.
We did not know if it was a murder or an assassination,
or whether it was terrorists.
Was it was only an isolated act.
It was not easy to make plans for the future
to say if we will resume our business normally, should we continue?
Should we stop? Should we perform on stage again?
Or not?
In October 2000, Lamine left the band for personal reason and was replaced by Ismail
who was one of the biggest fans of the band.
It was a good thing because he knew almost all the songs of the band by heart.
I decided to leave the band.
I think that we had already gone full cicle
We had already achieved our dreams.
It is true that we had begun working on a second album,
but I think I wanted to do something else,
to play other styles of music,
not because I do not like the Hard Rock or the Death Metal
but quite the opposite. I wanted to discover something else.
almost three years with the band, Ismail left "Litham"
and we had decided to continue as a trio.
In 2002, things started to stagnate a bit for "Litham",
this was 3 years since we had released "Dhal Ennar”.
Fans just kept on asking for the second album.
"Waktache le deuxieme album”, the second album is for when?
So I thought it would be nice to create a festival that would bring together metal bands of the current scene
and later make a big event.
The first edition of the 'Lelahel Festival' was a bit difficult,
there were 3 bands Litham, Melmoth of Tunisia and Meltdown of Constantine.
But finally Melmoth could not participate for paperwork reasons.
In late 2002 and thanks to our friend Farid Sebki,
we were able to approach the "arts et culture" institution and make several concerts,
including the second edition of the Lelahel festival and the famous concert together with Suhrim,
the first European metal band to play in Algeria.
Everyone was dazzled by the Suhrim band because it was a first.
In 2002/2003 I was employed in a government structure.
We did have a large venue in the city of Algiers.
And we had a program and we could manage to sell only 35 tickets per concert.
So, at some point we discussed with the director and with those responsible
and we proposed to include concerts for young people
every Thursday afternoon with a small access prices.
It is true that it came from nothing,  it was just a date every two weeks
and it created a movement, a habit.
People came in during the week to ask what concert there will on Thursday.
We had not done much communication on that but it created a habit.
It is the reason, actually.
And in the end we ended up with an almost full hall.
We got to sell 700 or 800 tickets
this was the case at the Suhrim concert.
With the festival, I thought why not create an underground movement
with lelahelmetal.com website, which spoke about metal bands,
first in the Maghreb, but for lack of material at the time, I opted for bands of 22 Arab countries.
I continue the adventure with a Fanzine named Lelahel’zine
with 2 issues published one in 2003 and the second in 2004.
Not to mention the mix Lelahel metal vol1. "The total sound of the underground"
which brought together no less than 18 bands mainly European
but also Litham and the Lebanese band Kaoteon.
In early 2004 there was our tour in Belgium,
it was our first experience of this kind that was organized by Nicky Neyah
which was a generous woman who has been very supportive of the metal movement
during the 90's and 2000's.
For us it was a shock in a way,
we saw professional bands perform on our side
and we were not used to that.
We saw professional bands in Algeria but not in the metal.
We represented, we can say, the professionals of the metal in Algeria.
So, it was a bit intimidating, but motivating
at the same time as far as we wanted to show what we were worth
and we wanted to show that we were big
The first concert was a festival called the Front fest at Fontline in Gent.
It was like a slap because there were mainly Dutch and Belgian bands
who were among the best in the underground scene of the time.
After this we made three dates with a second festival
always with renowned bands.
We understood it was not enough to be good or
to have talent to be successful,
there were lots of bands that had to play very well, who had talent
and who did not  live from music
Who had another job
and doing it for the passion of music not for money.
Not forgetting that we all approached thirties and needed to make a situation
because we had staked everything on the band
disregarding the realities of life that were beginning to catch up on us.
"It was the end of the dream",
"it was the beginning of the end."
The other member were no longer committed to the band as before
despite our participation in the "Boulevard des Jeunes musiciens" in Casablanca, Morocco
which was an exceptional concert
which brought together no fewer than 10,000 fans from across Morocco.
Not to mention that we signed a deal with the American label Obscurus Angelus Records
who wanted to firstly re-release "Dhal Ennar",
and then fund us for the recording of the the long awaited second album.
But unfortunately, Jerry the owner of the label had left to Iraq and we never heard of him again.
In late 2004, just after the third edition of the Lelahel festival,
I really felt that "Litham" was no longer like before,
that's why I wanted to do something else,
try a new experience with others,
and that is when I got to know Hichem
who had a death metal band with Ashraf.
The band was called "Homicidal",
and which had the same passion and the same desire to play grindcore like me.
So we, us two, formed "Carnavage" and we integrated Ashraf as the band guitarist
who was an excellent musician.
We had recorded our first demo "Carnival of Carnage" at Ashraf’s house
which was released twice by underground labels (in Portugal and Turkey)
and has been very successful especially the track Carnival of Carnage
After recording the demo we were contacted to play in a multi-day festival
with bands of different styles.
Everyone was waiting for the new band,
everyone was impressed!
A week after, we were in Tizi Ouzou and it was explosive!
Thirty Algerian metalheads came with us and took to the stage,
people in Tizi believed they were part of the band!
For the first time, we felt that there was no barrier!
The underground spirit was present
and everyone had fun without any stress
Then there was the 4th edition of the Lelahel festival with the participation of the French band "Slavery"
which was headlining the festival with "Carnavage".
This edition was the penultimate and the best on all fronts.
There was a variety of different styles
(black metal, death metal, grindcore, metalcore, grunge ...)
and different backgrounds (Skikda, Algiers, Paris ...),
a very good audience
and especially the ultimate carnavage/slavery who marked the spirits.
This time we had really felt the spirit of a festival, we felt that things were taking shape,
but it was just an illusion.
Just after the festival Utila and Ghostok left "Carnavage"
because we had to give much without necessarily hoping the return!
In April 2006 took place the last concert of "Carnavage"
with Adlane on drums and the return of Utlia (Ashraf) on the guitar.
After that concert we found ourselves looking for new members.
Later on, there was a great event for "Carnavage".
Our Ep "The Hairless Fat Carnage Deed" was released on CD,
by the German label Apathic View Records
which distributed the CD and made the name of "Carnavage" circulate in the goregrind scene!
Without forgetting that this CD is the first Algerian metal album (all styles included)
to be released abroad in original CD format.
Despite this happy event, it was the end of "Carnavage".
We could no longer find members!
Towards the end of 2006,  it was the 5th edition of the Lelahel festival
to be held at "the Ibn Zeydoun" Venue.
But we were contacted a few days before,
being told that the venue had to be made available for a governmental event
in reality, it was a Gnawi music concert.
This did not stop us to look for other venues in Algiers and its outskirts,
and we opted to do it in the "Maison du peuple" venue
which was the venue of UGTA, main Algerian Trade Union.
"We had to this edition because it was that or nothing!"
We were still be able to do the festival!
Also thanks to the valuable assistance of Walid  who was co-organizer of the event
event which was held over three days with an addition of a fourth day
because the drummer of "Bloody Sign", the French band which guest-starred the event,
had come at the last minute.
The surprise of the festival was also the return of "Litham",
but it was also the last official concert of the band.
At the end of the festival the results were dramatic
quite substantial financial loss, and there I said “Stop”, for what good is all this?
I stopped everything: the website, the festival, and all other Underground activities.
It also coincided with the end of "Carnavage"!
Everything stopped!
After the failed attempt to re-start "Litham" at the last Lelahel Festival,
we had begun in my home studio to record some tracks for the second album.
we could only do three tracks (El Djamra (new version), Obsession and Madness Gate)
which, alas, remained in their demo stage.
This recording allowed me to acquire some knowledge in the recording process
and to get more interest in it.
And that is when I decided to offer my services to local bands and musicians such as:
"The Kult of Satanachiia", Lamine  (former Litham), "Baghlerass", "demokhratia",
"Profanas" and of course "Devast".
We had once again tried to get "Litham" back on track by re-recording the second album,
but this time hard drive problem; everything was erased!
In 2008, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of "Dzair band",
Hakim vocalist of the band contacted me offering to play with "Litham" in this concert.
We met on the big day on stage.
It was awesome!
It was like an old couple
who had lost sight and met again
Hakim wanted "Litham" to reunite, we played two songs that day
but the recovery did not happen,
and this time it was really the end of "Litham".
"Litham" it was something powerful in our lives
and it allowed us to take up challenges
After having recorded the first album "The art of extermination" of Devast,
which was released in  Usa by Deep Send Records,
Idir had offered me to join the band on vocals,
I said yes because it was a way to stay involved in music and especially not to give up.
After having shot the video with "Devast",
Athman of "Barbaros" and Idir had found an excellent concept:
it was to make smaller Underground concerts
every week in a youth hall around Algiers and close towns.
We played in Kolea, Belfort, Tizi Ouzou, Rouiba and Saoula
With "Devast", We did not have a drummer but we chose the solution from the drum machine on stage.
The approach of Idir and Athman was excellent
because we was left to play in places where people understood nothing at all
to this music shit but liked to unwind.
We made them discover, in a way, what was the metal.
We would have liked it to be done with the best and with support from the authorities but we did it anyway!
After the end of the tour in 2010, Idir told me he was leaving the country for Argentina.
He was tired of this lifestyle.
At the same time I had a new project, I started on the guitar.
Because the musicians of the older generation had all stopped and new ones were not mature enough.
There was such a wide gap that had developed.
So I thought why not do everything by myself in a one man Band.
I started looking for a name for this project,
I simply added an 'L' to my nickname and it gave "Lelahell"
Lelahell began in 2010 with the recording of a first demo of seven tracks which were never released.
because, for two years, I was doing tests to improve the sound,
which gave birth to "Al intihar" the first Lelahell Ep.
Meanwhile there was one last attempt to restart "Litham",
aiming an EP of three tracks, but due to time, these tracks are still in my hard drive.
This time I was selfish because I decided to concentrate fully on  "Lelahell".
Athmane and Rafik the "Barbaros" bass player,
came to me and I talked to them about my one man band "Lelahell" and trouble finding musicians.
A few days after, the phone rings, it was Lemir, , who was the current "Barbaros" drummer
proposing to be the "Lelahell" drummer.
"Lelahell" began in 2010 with one man band by Redouane,
thereafter I joined the band in early 2012.
I entrusted him the task to contact Rafik who in turn joined the band on bass.
January 2012, "Lelahell" was complete!
Thereafter, we moved on with concerts on the local scene,
and at the same time working on the first album. We did a promotional tour of the Ep in Eastern Europe.
In 2014 the band released their first album "Al Insane ... The (re) birth of Abderrahmane “,
under the American label Horror Pain Gore Death Productions.
This outing will be followed by participation in the 3rd edition of Death Malta Fest
and the "Al Insane Tour"  which took place in December 2014
and which went to Switzerland, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic.
The future of "Lelahell" is summarized at the moment to working on the next album,
which is a short- or medium-term project;
and also to get to the European scene
and why not take a step further and make an American tour, which is a feasible goal
Not forgetting to give metal music the place it had in the Algerian cultural landscape!
The current metal scene has a few bands that are active,
and for an Algerian metal band, it is increasingly difficult to do concerts in Algeria if not impossible.
This is It is due to the on-going problem of lack of venues, for more than two decades now.
These are movie theatres and not concert venues!
So, to make metal bands play, Directors of venues have to think it through
Today, there are some bands that stand out,
but it is difficult to say how many bands there is
and or where they perform.There is no enough promotion,
there are no enough events whatever happens.
There will never be enough, anyway.
I find that the current bands are not investing as they should,
not pushing things up, they do not make things move.
I believe we, as the first precursor band in Algeria:
we have smashed doors for them, we have opened doors for them,
and we expected that the results would be more interesting
To improve the metal scene in Algeria,
you also need to work.
you must improve musically,  invest on a personal level, fix and maintain your equipment,
work on your compositions, have good equipment, good sound
and with it, go and knock on the door of cultural institutions responsible officials.
I think ,to improve metal scene or music in general,
it should be made easy to acquire instruments,
to get people interested in the music,
knowing that there are only seven notes. It is a very simple language
that could be spoken by everyone.
I think that today it is very important to read and write music,
to have academies, schools, real schools where we teach the classical music
or even other music styles, why not.
I pay respect to my band "Lelahell" to which I still wish every success
I hope things improve, that there will be more resources for those who arrive,
be it in the domain of art or else
and I would want that those who will follow,
continue what we started
and make sure that the metal continues to survive in Algeria,
it is a noble cause, I think.
work, persevere .
What do you think of Lelahell ,  Redouane's band?
I find that the music is interesting, Original
And you? What do you think?
There is a tremendous work that has been done, a lot of perseverance
Redouane is a guitar player now while he use to be a bass player
Vocally, he has also evolved, I think
I think that now he is the best ambassador of Algerian metal
It's really interesting what he does, I hope it will continue
Translated  by:
Dr Jeff K Mathe and Rachida Aouameur
