Ελληνικά
We welcome you to Metal Invader and I would like you to start our conversation by “introducing” Noor in a few words…
Hi! Well, Noor is a band founded in Montreal by singer and lead guitarist Thomas Karam in late 2018. It was called Roseblood back then and renamed Qareen in 2019. The pandemic decimated the band, leaving Thomas as sole member. He then completed the lineup by Simon Jarmosh on Rhythm Guitar, Olivier Muck on bass guitar and Nicolas Moro on drums, and in late 2020, the band was renamed Noor.
Who are you guys? Who really, I mean really send you? (hahaha) You were like manna from the skies for all who dig pure underground band…
Well the best way to describe us is 4 friends who humbly put an album together and found themselves in an amazing situation overnight. We honestly don’t even know ourselves how this happened but this has been a crazy experience. To be fair, in our point of view, our audience were manna from the skies for us as well hahaha. We are seriously grateful for their support and the credibility they gave us locally. A lot of bands in Quebec are anxious to share the stage with us, solely on the credibility our fans in Greece, Germany, UK, Italy, France and all over gave us.
In what specific style is your musical direction? Does Progressive/Power as a term describe you 100%?
Initially, Thomas’ vision for the band was a heavier version of Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Old school heavy metal with classical, oriental and prog influences. Influences included everything under the metal sky, like Crimson Glory, Pentagram, Riot, Metal Church, and even Greece’s own Wardrum. However, with the official lineup of 2020 together, the sound of Noor came together, as we are all very different in terms of musical taste and that musicianship come across the band’s material, which we believe is important. Thomas is the melodies. Simon is the heaviness. Olivier is the prog influences. Nico is the mixing of old-school and modern rhythm. All in all, we didn’t consider ourselves to be power prog at first, but the term makes sense to us now and we wear it proudly, especially considering that there is barely any power metal scene in our province.
Have you settled on the sound or will you continue to experiment and change?
The second album shall be heavier and more ambitious (slight spoilers). But all in all, our goal for the future is to avoid sounding the same over and over again, but all the while respecting the Noor sound, which can be described as melodic metal influenced by classical and oriental music. We definitely want to experiment musically but we also want to sound like us.
What does Noor mean?
Noor is Arabic for “light” or “holy light”. It is also a very common name in the arab world. We have two arabs in the band (Thomas and Simon) and we have a lot of Arabic music influences in our sound. It also depicts the dichotomy of our dark lyrical themes and the positive message that come out of those, like a light in the dark. It also has a bit of Christian theology influences as both Thomas and Simon are Christians and the bible often teaches positives morals through dark and gruesome stories.
Tell us more about the artwork cover which is at least weird, but personally speaking so grotesque that I love it! (The model is like a Balkan woman which is also weird for a Canadian band…in a way, no that it actually matters or something).
Hahaha the model on the cover is Canadian. The coloring of the picture probably makes her look Balkan.
The artwork depicts the dark story of the album. A man must get rid of his “inner mother” that keeps him in the comfort zone and forbids him from moving on in life.
Our real mothers are protective and caring. They protect us from danger. They tell us not to go play in the street or to talk to strangers so that we don’t get hurt. They do this for our own good and that’s a good thing.
However, as we grow up, we develop a second mother, a voice in our head that tells us not to apply for that dream job, or not to follow a business idea or even not to start a band, because it’s risky, and can lead to failure. It is a mother figure that refuses to let us grow if we listen to it to much and decide to stay in our comfort zone.
So this album cover depicts the liberation from this “mother figure”. However, the comfort zone is not something that you can get rid of only once. It always creeps back in some other shape or form. This is why the “mother” is smiling and not showing agony. She will come back. Ironically, this album cover made a lot of people uncomfortable, which bizarrely somehow works with the concept of the album.
Any plans for a proper album release not just digitally?
Yes we have physical copies finally! It was so difficult to make our online store. We had so many issues that we faced! We know that initially you asked that question last spring. Sorry for taking so long to get back to you.
Tell us more about the album title…
The album title came to Thomas when the concept of the album came to his mind, as far as 2017! The idea came when he heard somewhere that the greatest sacrifice a mother can make, is to let her child go, meaning that a mother will one day have to let her children fly on their own when they come to age, even though it fills her with worry and anguish. So Thomas came up with the opposite of a “Mother’s Greatest Sacrifice”, which is a “Mother’s Guilty Pleasure”.
Lyrically speaking which are the issues you are dealing with?
The main lyrical topic of the album is to let go of the comfort zone. When the narrator kills the “mother figure”, he wants to fly on his own, as explained in the last verse of the title track. However, the comfort zone comes back in later songs in other forms. In Golden Coffin, it is inheritance money and greed. In Flaming Rage, it is anger and how it is sometimes used to take control of messy situations. In Hills of Qartaba, it is nationality.
This is something we all have to face in life. In our work, after some years and through accomplishments, we get complacent and don’t progress or innovate anymore. In our relationships, after some years, we get comfortable and the fire slowly dies. In our health, we start getting too accustomed to the couch and the chocolate cakes and we get out of shape. We must always escape the dreaded comfort zone and always continue to strive for improvement. All in all, the message of the album is to find comfort in discomfort.
“Les Canadiens sont là” is going to be on 7”?
We never really thought of that option. This song was released as a simple tribute to the Montreal Canadiens, the best hockey team in the NHL (wink)! Who knows about the future, but it is not something that has crossed our mind so far.
Up The Hammers Athens Greece, a great Heavy Metal Festival already booked you for next year show. Can you explain why Greeks love your music so passionately? What can we expect there?
Well, it did really came out as a surprise at first. With time and a little hindsight, it actually makes total sense, since the metal scene in Greece and a lot of Europe is way more melodic than what is popular in North America. So for a band with a more old-school sound, to connect with people there is a crazy love story come true, but it does make total sense, and we are thankful that it happened every single day!
What are Noor’s next plans? Is there already a tour plan, any closed dates/festivals/tours in Canada or abroad?
Yes! Well our plan is to do as many show as we can. So far we have played all over the province of Quebec this summer and will continue to play in Canada. We even got to open for Anvil in September. None of this would have been possible if it wasn’t for the credibility that our audience gave us and we are so humbled and grateful. We have several other shows in Canada coming. We might even record one in order to have live footage of good sound quality! We also might have a surprise single coming soon. We have a couple of festivals in Canada in 2025 as well, including the Gaspesian Metal Fest! We would love to do a more extensive European tour, and we are looking into it.
To thank you for your time and wish the best for Noor, and to you as well. The last word belongs to you.
First, we would like to thank you personally for reaching out to us, and your patience for us to fulfill this for you and for everyone to read. We would like to thanks everyone who have supported us since they found us. We cannot thank them enough. The best way to pay them back, is show up in Athens, and give them the best we got!
Secondly, we apologize for the delay of this interview. Everything happened to us so fast and we were kind of disorganized.
Lastly, we would like to address something important. Noor is authentic. We are NOT A.I. The songwriting has been done through human brains and we can all play our instruments. Thomas’ voice is not A.I. generated. We believe it is important to say this because soon, A.I. will be impossible to distinguish from real artistic effort.
Thank you again!
