"Spotlight On Dubai" A Shot Of Adrenaline

A Shot Of Adrenaline is a Death/Thrash metal band that was formed as a side project by Ratish (drums) who was previously in Dark Sanity.

After Dark Sanity split up, Ratish along with old friends Leinate, Salman, RD and Aaron wrote together the song "Tribute To Heavy Metal" which was the first song they composed together, the song's lyrical theme is centred around the influnece of Heavy Metal on people, the lyrics where written by the band's vocalist RD.

The band later on added keyboardist Rana to the fold, who's a friend of Ratish, which he knew could bring an extra layer to the band's sound.

They will be performing at the DDE Championships, taking place on November 21st.

To get to know the band a little better, I asked them some questions about their musical background, how did they get together, who's their metal idol (The Double Bass ? thats awesome !) and more.
Heres how it went:


TMR: Can you tell me about your musical background?

RD: NONE

Salman: I started listening to metal about 8 years ago, i was into some other crap before when one day my neighbor came over and told me to download some Metallica, and that was it i actually liked the heaviness of 'where ever i may roam' after getting used to Metallica, my cousin back home introduced me to iron maiden and Judas priest and that’s when i got curious and wanted to know how a person could play guitars really fast. I got my first guitar about 5 years back and have been playing since then. i still lack the theoretical aspects of the guitar as im self taught, but i can still pick up some stuff by ear. I’ve been in three bands and this is my fourth, my first band 'Tombstone' was with RD back in college where we played a battle of the bands event, next was 'Chronic' a 4 piece band consisting of my school friends and played another battle with them, the third band was the recent one 'R.O.T' with RD and Leinate where we played at the annihilation gig alongside OBAG, Perversion and Sun king.

Rana: No musical talent at all in my family unfortunately haha, I’ve been playing piano for 7 years, started violin and bass about a year and a half ago and drumming for about 2. Been in a few bands, performed several times.

Ratish: Well I think I was like 12 when my brother and me first walked into my cousins room when we went to U.S and he was bashing away on the drums. At that point of time me and my brother both wanted to start drumming, Soon we got our own drum set and started learning what we could and we slowly developed on different skills while listening to bands like Lamb of god, Slipknot, Dream theater, Cannibal Corpse and all the bands with crazy drumming in them! I was self taught, I’ve been playing for about 4 years now and going to keep playing!

Leinate: Well , I have a pretty normal musical background . Started off with Hip-hop then eventually got into Rock/Alternative. It just all took place from there as I got into heavier, bone crushing music.

Aaron: I’ve been listening to Metal for the past 4 years now and I’ve only been playing bass for one year. That doesn’t excuse my bass talent however because anything can be learnt with some sort of interest towards it. The metal that I listen to and love is in basic words, technical death metal. Anything that is hard and extremely fast makes me satisfied so I like pursuing that sort of style itself. Been through 4 bands since then which comprise of Seraph, Dark Sanity, Discord (present) and of course, A Shot of Adrenaline.


TMR: Describe your band's sound?

RD: KICKASS

Salman: A shot of adrenaline, the name itself is what defines our sound. Its brutal drumming with thrashy death metal riffs topped up with RDs signature growls and pig sqeals with a little taste of epic keyboards and insane bass lines.

Rana: Umm quite new to the scene and have a lot of improving to do but it’s kind of like Death metal..Thrash-ish?

Ratish: Well honestly I’m confused to what we really sound like we like to keep our stuff fresh and new so we have a Death metal/Thrash sound along with some Death core I think K.

Leinate: Your not so average Cookie Monster vocals with plenty of thrashy riffage.

Aaron: Somewhere on the lines of deathcore/thrash metal.


TMR: How did you guys get together?

RD: ALCHOHOL

Salman: Well I knew RD from college, and was in my first band with him, through him I met Leinate and Ratish and through Ratish I was introduced to Aaron and Rana.

Rana: Ratish can answer that! :)

Ratish: Well I used to be in a band with Dark Sanity and we recently broke up since the vocalist and guitarist left to Canada but the bassist was still here so I decided to collaborate my old band Dark Sanity with R.O.T Salman, RD and Leinate’s previous band. Me and Leinate have been friends for long and have been jamming on and off so we knew our shit and really got along! Salman was playing as rhythm and he fit in as well since Leinate and him had been playing together. All that was left was vocals and bass this was pretty simple since RD was available and he was perfect and same goes for Aaron. I felt keyboards would work in this band so I called Rana and asked her if she would be interested and she said yes. After trying out and listening to our stuff she liked it and fit in perfect as a result A.S.O.A was formed! J (RD is right as well)

Leinate: Once again , Alcohol .

Aaron: I believe I met them at a recent gig that happened which was hosted by Dark Sanity. I already knew Ratish because we were in the same band and later I met Salman, RD and Co.


TMR: Which bands are you currently listening to?

RD: Anything with a good riff

Salman: TRIVIUM!! (haha not really, it’s an inside joke) I’ve been listening to a lot of Lamb of God, Kreator, Slayer, Arch enemy and Testament. I’ve developed a new taste for more death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse after covering 'Stripped, Raped & Strangled, and I also like melodic death metal bandslike 'Kalmah' and 'Children of Bodom'.

Rana: Nile, Necrophagist, Obituary, Slayer, Hypocrisy, Behemoth, OLD Cryptopsy, Kataklysm, Dimmu and the Misfits have always been one of my favorites J

Ratish: Lamb of God, Blood bath, Blood stained child, Wintersun, Arch Enemy, Amon Amarth, All shall perish, Devil driver, Necrophagist, Kalmah, Opeth, Nile, Cryptopsy and it goes on but Lamb of God is my absolute favorite they are my idols and I’m probably their biggest fan in Dubai!

Leinate: I have the weirdest taste in music. I’d be blasting out some Deicide one minute and John Mayer the other.

Aaron: Necrophagist, Death, Decapitated, Dying Fetus, Cannibal Corpse, All Shall Perish, Cryptopsy (like Rana mentioned, OLD!), The Faceless, Born of Osiris, The Black Dahlia Murder, (any other tech death/death core band).


TMR: Who's your Metal Idol?

RD: THE DOUBLE BASS

Salman: The late and great Dimebag Darrel R.I.P

Rana: Daniel Erlandsson of Arch Enemy and Flo Mounier of Cryptopsy !

Ratish: Chris Adler from Lamb of God I worship him along with him I also look up to Joey Jordison, Derek Roddy, Daniel Erlandsson, Flo Mounier and many others.

Leinate: Zakk Fucking Wylde .

Aaron: Mohammed Suicmez and John Campbell…


TMR: When are you planning on releasing more material?

RD: Very soon

Salman: Soon, we just have the bass line left for our second song which will probably be up on myspace in a couple of days.

Rana: As soon as we get our asses around to it. Always room for improvement!

Ratish: Well it’s never hard to write new material it’s always the recording which is hard to do due to the fact that we don’t own any professional recording equipment so we do the best we can. I try to mix and release the best quality I can with what I have. Like our song on myspace (Back Against The Wall) now you can hear it’s not the best of quality that’s because it was all done with one small mic! But our new song has a much better sound and the quality I feel has really improved I still have to mix it a little and the bass needs to be added but the new song will really kill so that should be up soon!

Leinate: Just hand over the guitar baby!

Aaron: While I’m writing this, our new song is being uploaded!


TMR: Would you like to add anything?

RD: BEER BEER!!! \m/

Salman: Nothing in particular, just keep it brutal! \m/

Rana: Horns up! \m/

Ratish: Watch out for our new song IT ‘S GOING TO SURPRISE YOU! Horns up \m/

Leinate: Yuup , Airbourne are awesome.

Aaron: Stay true to your roots! (Only kidding) I mean No! Check out our new song Time to Reign \m/


I'd like to thank the guys from A Shot Of Adernaline for answering my questions.

If your in Dubai and want to have a good headbang this coming November make sure to stop by the DDE Championship show on the 21st where the guys will be performing and will surely impress and brutalize your mind with their heavy rockage !

Check out the band's Myspace and listen to their latest song "Time To Reign"