Country of origin:
Iran, Tehran
Formed in:
2004
Genre:
Progressive Thrash/Gothic Metal
Lyrical themes:
Inner struggles, Afterlife
Current label:
Palapal Productions
In the photo from left to right: Pooyan Madadi, Yashar Mojtahedzadeh, Sanam 5049, Faraz Jabbari and Arastoo Hanafi.
Access Denied Full-length 2008
1. Access Denied pt.1 06:29
2. Be a Cockroach 04:49
3. Judgment Day 05:26
4. 5grs 05:57
5. Access Denied pt.2 04:41
6. City Creeper 05:34
7. Plastic Flowers 05:37
8. Run Away 04:44
9. The Funeral 07:10
10. Judgment Day (video)
Let's Crush Full-length 2011
1. Let's Crush 04:39
2. The Last Time 04:42
3. Winter Knocks 04:32
4. 5grs's Chair 04:39
5. He Drinks to Forget 04:34
6. Like a Silkworm 03:47
7. Hide Yourself 04:04
8. Leaving My Town 05:08
9. Paint Us Green 04:10
10. It's Time to Change 04:19
Yashar Mojtahedzadeh
Drums
Pooyan Madadi
Guitars (lead)
Mohammad Hallaji
Bass (2011), Bass, Vocals
Aiden Hassanzadeh
Guitars (2017-present)
History of the Band
5grs is one of the Iranian Heavy Metal/Thrash Metal Bands formed in 2004 in Tehran by Pooyan Madadi, band's lead guitarist & composer with their discremenating factor being the first Metal band in Iran benefiting from female lead vocal.
The initial lineup of the band consisted of electric guitar players Pooyan Madadi & Mazdak Sadeghi, bass guitar player Navid Naeima, drummer Omid Shahi Fakhr and frontman Arash. They started their gigs with the purpose of covering songs from some Grunge bands including Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam & Audio Slave. these gigs took about a year and during this time the ban's lineup underwent some changes. Shahin Effatian replaced Omid Shahi Fakhr as drummer, but after just some sessions he decided to drop out due to personal reasons and Aidin Radkia replaced him.
Eventually, on 01.09.2005 the band was able to get their first performance opportunity in Taraneh Hall. Upon performing, like the ritual common in Iran, the band experienced the second alteration in its lineup. Arash dropped out & Ali Azizian joined 5grs as the frontman. The aim for having gigs now was performing cover songs from bands such as Megadeth, but this time Pooyan and other band members were composing their original songs aswell. The gigs were not as successful as they thought them to be, and by Ali & Aidin drpping out, the band faced hiatus.
After a short-term halt, in 2006, Shahin Effatian, joined 5grs for the second time and Hadi Kiani joined for vocal. With the new lineup and the goal of performing songs from bands such as Iron Maiden, Savatage & Bruce Dickinson and composing their own songs, the band once again kick started their gigs. The offsprings of these gigs were two singles called "My Dreamful Place", composed by Hadi Kiani & "City Creeper", composed by Pooyan Madadi with song arrangements done by the band. At this point, the main complication was that, Pooyan, who was considered the fixede & main member sensed the productivity in the band's works can not be detected as it should be, so once again he decided to put a stop to their activities and he was left to be the sole member with the second phase of crisis approaching.
Meeting Sanam 5049 in 2007 was considered to be a focal point in the band's history and the first full-length album from 5grs titled "Access Denied" was released consequently. Capability of Sanam in vocal performance & writing lyrics on one hand, and the interrelation of their attitudes, on the other hand resulted in quikening up the pace of gigs.
Access Denied
In the first gigs of Pooyan & Sanam, a single called "We Are Freaks" was born. The basis of this song was generated beforehand, but it still didn't reach the maturity it required. After Sanam started creating vocal line & writing lyrics, the structure of the song completely changed and the title was altered to "Runaway" which was the starting point of an energetic era for the band. Afterwards, the gigs were held frequently. At this stage, Pooyan composed the songs and Sanam arranged vocal lines for them and upon spending a year like this, in 2008, 5grs debute album was recorded, mixed, mastered and released. But this process is not a routine one in Iran, since no Metal band formerly was able to release an official original album and this created compliclication for the band, to the extent that Pooyan calls it "the most complicated procedure overall". Luckily, Pooyan met a publisher through a studio-owner, but even by having that opportunity, it took him 6 long months and great deal of money & energy to release the album on 25.07.2008 in the underground scene.
The next imoportant event was a one-day exhibition held with audio/video products of 5grs in Tarrahan Azad Gallery with 600 visitors. In the said exhibition "Access Denied" album, together with the first music video of the band called "Judgement Day" which was one of the songs in the album and the commercial T-shirt were put on sale. The first video was composed by Pooyan & Mazdak, arragement of Pooyan & directed by Pedram Etemadi as an animated video & was aired on PMC & GEM TV channels. What was strange in the video was absence of Sanam, since appearance of females as singers & performers is against the rules. In this regard Pooyan Madadi stated "Everybody said Pooyan was really selfish, but the truth was that she refused to appear in the video herself." the debut album consisted of 9 tracks which overall was 51 minutes. Theme of lyrics which were written by Sanam was basically dark social & political critisisms. Among these songs "Judgement Day" & "Access Denied" were popular ones. Some guest musicians asisted the band in Access Denied: classic guitar player Mazdak Sadeghi, Violonist Kiarash Ghorbani. Sanam performed the vocals & Pooyan Madadi played electrical guitar, composed, arranged & programmed the songs and even produced the albums.
Pooya Abbasian was the graphic designer who assisted the band regarding album cover and in designing them the works of art of Pooyan's dad, Mohammad Ali Madadi, was used as the main theme and the name of the band was the impression of on of his paintings aswell. Pooya designed the logo of the band and did the lateral designs too.
Another peak following Access Denied was radio BBC interview with the band in a program called "Children of Revolution" in which the works & struggles of the band and in particular "Funeral" single was discussed and was aired in the first episode of the program.
Performance in Armenia
One month after releasing the debut album, an invitation was received by band from Metal Front Festival in 2008. The headliner of this concert was Melechesh from Netherland, other bands from Iran such as Mordab & Vaspooher were attending aswell. Pooyan once more started attracting musicians in order to perform in the festival and Sanam decided no to attend for security reasons and instead Maral & Arezoo attended as lead & back vocalists respectively. Other members attending in Metal Front were: electrical guitar player Kasra Momeni, bass player Ali Sanaei & drummer Saeed Piltan. The concert was considered a different experience for the band. Upon returning to Iran Maral left the band and Arezoo remained. By proceeding the gigs, working on the second music video was proceeded which was postponed because of the Armenia's performance. In directing this video which was called "5grs, 4th song in the debut album, as opposed to the previous video all members of the band were present. The video was directed by Samad & produced by Pooyan & Samad.
Let's Crush
In this era, Pooyan was insisting on having frequent gigs and during 15 sessions the band covered some songs from Archenemy & composed some of their own's, but once more two members of the band ,Saeed & Arezoo, dropped out and Sanam & Kasra continued as the key members. At this time Pooyan & Sanam started working on the new album called "Let's Crush". As before, in this album Pooyan composed & arranged the songs and Sanam wrote & voiced the songs. The theme of this album included contemporary incidents in Iran in summer of 2009. Before releasing the album, a single called "It's Time to Change" was released and a video was released by an anonymous director. Currently the mix & master phase of the album is done and it is going through the production phase. As the album is being released, Pooyan has decided to work on a DVD in which the whole album tracks will be performed live by band members and all the recording and filming will be done simutaneously as a live project of the new album. These days band members are doing gigs for the live DVD that is going to be released and distributed at the same time as the album.
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