Lowen are still reeling from the news they’re supporting Zakk Sabbath, featuring legendary Ozzy Osbourne sideman Zakk Wylde, in Europe this month. “We lost our minds when we found out,” says vocalist Nina Saeidi.
Guitarist/bassist Shem Lucas explains: “I’ve been a Zakk Wylde fan for years – I love the way he plays and looks on stage. It’ll be really nerve-wracking to be on tour with him every night!”
They’ve earned the gig with a sound that marries classic death metal tones with Middle Eastern and North African rhythms, along with lyrics inspired by ancient mythology, sci-fi and fantasy, all delivered in soaring English and Farsi vocals.
The pair met in the front row of an Akercocke show, bonding over a love of extreme and progressive music. Growing up in the UK, severed from Iran – where heavy metal is illegal and women face execution for singing unaccompanied – Saeidi carried a profound longing for home.
“But when I found metal, there was a whole community of people who didn’t fit in. I’ve always been in this liminal place, between cultures, races and worlds. My music has been a way of exploring and connecting.”
Lowen have honed their sound since their 2018 debut, followed by a 2021 live EP that delved deeper into folk traditions. Their 2024 album Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Mazandaran was greeted with rave reviews.
For Lucas, their quintessential track is Najang Bah Divhayeh Mazandaran, opening with a haunting two-finger tapped melody in 5/4, before showcasing their love of technicality, shifting polymeters and crushing riffs. Saeidi says: “For some metal and prog bands, that Middle Eastern element is an influence or undertone – with us it’s an overtone.”
They consulted several musicologists about their approach. When Lucas asked expert and composer Richard Dumbrill whether microtonal music could be played on Western instruments, “he looked me square in the eye and said it couldn’t be done.”
Undeterred, Lucas immersed himself in folk music from Egypt, Turkey and Iran, and recreated microtones using quarter-tone bends, pre-bends and slurred phrasing. “I noticed that that music is less chord-based and more rhythmic – Saeidi spotted its connection to brutal death metal, where guitars are also used more as percussive instruments.”
Mixed meter also brought huge possibilities: “It’s almost like cheating! so many bands play in 4/4 and don’t even realise what they could be doing,” Lucas says.
Saeidi goes further: “When we use 4/4, it has to be intentional. There’s so much constriction in Western music – 4/4 is like the corset of music. We need to get rid of it.”
Lucas builds his tone around a Boss SD-1 into a hot Marshall, noting: “All the knobs are cranked on the SD-1. I love how it sounds!” He’s also passionate about the Neural DSP Quad Cortex. “I saved up for ages to get it. I love effects and tweaking, and I want to understand the mixing side of things to give the best sonic performance I can.
”I’ve used the Fortin Meshuggah plugin for a long time, I but recently changed to a Friedman BE-100 for its reactivity and less modern sound.” That sound is brought to life on stage by his beloved Orange Pedal Baby.
Tom G Warrior is his art. The Celtic Frost album Monotheist is my biggest inspiration
Shem Lucas
He started out with a Squier Baritone Jazzmaster in drop A, but soon switched to a seven-string Iceman, which he calls a “nasty, brutal guitar,” adding: “I went to seven-strings not for the extra-heavy string, but because I wanted to improve my technique for tapping, sweeping and so on, and I needed the top E. The Jazzmaster’s bigger frets also limited the technical stuff I wanted to do.”
With multiple uncles claiming to have jammed with Jeff Beck before he joined The Yardbirds, Lucas unsurprisingly grew up steeped in guitar music. He cites a dizzying array of extreme metal, prog and jazz influences including Trey Azagthoth, Bob Vigner, Al Cisnero, Nate Newton, Allan Holdsworth and Chick Corea.
But he especially admires Tom G Warrior: “Having had the pleasure of meeting him, he is his art. The Celtic Frost album Monotheist is my biggest inspiration. I discovered it during a really depressed and sad period in my life. It captures being at your lowest ebb when everything is trying to crush you – but you decide to hang on only for spite. There’s something really incredible about that.”
Despite not co-founding the band until his mid-30s, Lucas’ passion for “true, good art” and fostering accepting, tolerant community is unwavering. “We’re trapped on the path,” he says. (Saeidi agrees: “We can’t not make art; it’s a compulsion.”)
Lucas reflects: “This is the band I’ve wanted to be in since I was a kid playing in my room. Some people start a band when they’re 16 and are over it before they’re 25 – but I’m in this for the long haul.”
- Do Not Go To War With the Demons Of Mazandaran is out now.
