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The history of Nephelium traces itself back to the late 1990s in the small Arabian city of Dubai. There, guitarist Alex Zubair and drummer Alan Madhavan formed their first band, Cyanide, with vocalist Heidi Habib, bassist Roysten D’Souza and percussionist Marwan Parham. Back then, the relatively small underground music scene was nurtured only by one event, the annual Battle of Bands which was organized by local British high school Dubai College. In 1999, Cyanide performed together for the first time at the DC Battle of The Bands and won the awards for ‘Best Original Song’ for Arabian Lie, an Arabic music-influenced track, and the much-coveted ‘Best Band’ category. This drew the attention of the scene and earned the band a chance to record Arabian Lie professionally. The song floated around the internet for a few years, before disappearing into obscurity after the band split up.

In October of 2001, Alex and Alan were introduced to Zaid Adham, fresh back from a year abroad studying law in the UK and formerly vocalist of a small high school band. Together with Alex’s childhood friend Sameer ..boards, Nephelium’s first incarnation was formed with the name Cimmerian as a response to a Metal scene saturated in mediocrity and closed-minded stagnation. The four founding members had a vision of a band with equal amounts of brutality and complexity, which stayed true to the roots of old-school Death Metal yet forged ahead with experimentation and with a proud nod to their numerous musical influences from Metal and other genres. In the few weeks afterwards Cimmerian moved from being a four-piece to a five-piece band with the rejoining of Heidi as female vocalist alongside Zaid and changing the band name to Nephelium.

In December of that year, keyboardist Sameer left the band on what seemed to be a three-week sabbatical to Pakistan, but did not return. The band were then approached by Mazen Ateia and Bilal Yehia, both of whom had just left another Dubai-based band, Nervecell, having served as guitarist and vocalist respectively. Deeming Bilal’s vocals more suited to the band’s direction and still in need of a bass player, Zaid left his vocal duties to Heidi and Bilal to join the rhythm section as bassist instead.

This line-up was still plagued with turbulence, as in January of 2002 Heidi left the band to continue her studies in Calgary. This did not deter the band’s progress though, as the UAE underground music scene was growing in leaps and bounds. Thus the band secured themselves their first gig together, the Battle of The Bands 2001 which was held by the Abu Dhabi International School. The band performed three songs together and won the respect of the crowd, with Alex winning the award for Best Guitarist.

Several other concerts were played and the band’s first EP, Archaic Malevolent Sorcery, was recorded with the five members of the band before the band’s hectic schedule took its toll on Zaid, and he subsequently left in 2003 to form his own one-man progressive death metal project. The band struggled to find a bassist, first settling for Tamim Daoud, and then acquiring the more stable Mahmud Gecekusu from the band Cerberus. This line-up released one EP together, 2003’s Ignite the Wrath of Silence, which saw them move to a more technically complex sound and garnered incredible reception from their rabid local following.

The band now set their sights beyond the Middle East and a momentous decision was made to relocate to Canada (home of legendary Metal bands like Sacrifice, Cryptopsy, and Gorguts) to further spread what they termed Nephelium’s “insidious gospel”. So, with that in mind, Alex moved to Toronto in March of 2004 and set about finding musicians to fill out the rest of the line-up until Alan caught up with him that summer.

Upon his arrival, Alex immediately contacted his long-time friend Boyan Guerdjikov, a Metal singer already infamous for his role as front-man for local band Bleak Destiny. A chance encounter after a Metal show saw the addition of guitar prodigy Dan Glover, an invaluable addition to the band, and in August of 2004 when Alan finally arrived from Dubai, the band commenced rehearsing and writing for the follow-up to Ignite the Wrath of Silence while looking for a bass player.

After months of searching, the band acquired formally schooled bassist Jay Cockerill (formerly of Progressive band Thangelic) to complete what would become the definitive Nephelium line-up. Word of the newly completed line-up spread quickly, and the band was immediately offered a show opening for Death Metal heavyweights Skinless. Such an impression was made that a show with Deicide was offered almost immediately afterward. It has been a long and tumultuous journey across 7 years and 2 continents, but Nephelium has finally become the unstoppable Metal juggernaut its members always knew it would be.

And the best is yet to come...