Andols Herrick

Former CHIMAIRA drummer Andols Herrick will guest on one track on the upcoming debut album from United Arab Emirates-based metallers BENEVOLENT. The CD will be released in the spring via Spellbind Records.

Commented Herrick in a statement, “I was approached by [BENEVOLENT‘s co-founder and lead guitarist] Hadi Sarieddine awhile back about the possibility of tracking drums for BENEVOLENT. I was quite impressed with the quality of the music and vocals.”

He continued, “I love having the opportunity to work with a great band, who happens to represent the Middle East metal scene very well. I do know it is very vibrant having had the pleasure of performing with CHIMAIRA at the Desert Rock Festival in Dubai back in 2009.”

Regarding the track that Andols is recording for the BENEVOLENT CD, the drummer said, “This song presented numerous rhythmic challenges as I was learning it. If you were a drummer with limited music theory experience, I’d just say ‘Good luck trying to learn it!’ The song is loaded with ‘over-the-bar-line’ guitar riffs, and I found myself, on occasion, discovering some of my transcriptions would be a sixteenth note off here or there!”

Added Sarieddine, “It is pretty crazy thinking that Andols Herrick is going to be drumming on one of our songs; if I go back in time and tell past-me that this was happening I’d probably get a pretty sarcastic reaction.

“The last couple of years since we started the band have been absolutely insanely great for us; getting such great reviews for the debut record, getting signed to Spellbind Records, and now this? I can’t think that things could be any better for the band, I’m really proud of how things are coming together.”

BENEVOLENT‘s debut EP, “Divided”, came out in 2010. The band landed a deal with Spellbind Records in September 2011.

According to Hadi, the forthcoming CD will be “a lot more technical than ‘Divided’; the songs have a lot going on and while it preserves that sound that we’ve created in our debut EP this is a step forward on many levels and it tells a story about lots of dark themes with the lyrical and instrumental direction on the album.”

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