Myrath (which means Legacy) was formed in early 2001 under the name of XTAZY by guitarist Malek Ben Arbia, just 13 years old at the time, with two of his childhood friends Fahmi Chakroun (drums) and Oualid Issaoui (guitar). The line up was shortly after completed by Zaher Ben Hamoudia (bass) and Tarek Idouani (vocals). Myrath first started playing in local concerts a variety of songs of different styles of their favorite bands which goes from blues to heavy metal to death metal. In 2003 Elyes Bouchoucha (keyboards and vocals) who just graduated from Tunis conservatory joined the band in replacements of Tarek Idouani while Oualid Issaoui (guitar) quit the band. ...show more

Myrath (which means Legacy) was formed in early 2001 under the name of XTAZY by guitarist Malek Ben Arbia, just 13 years old at the time, with two of his childhood friends Fahmi Chakroun (drums) and Oualid Issaoui (guitar). The line up was shortly after completed by Zaher Ben Hamoudia (bass) and Tarek Idouani (vocals). Myrath first started playing in local concerts a variety of songs of different styles of their favorite bands which goes from blues to heavy metal to death metal. In 2003 Elyes Bouchoucha (keyboards and vocals) who just graduated from Tunis conservatory joined the band in replacements of Tarek Idouani while Oualid Issaoui (guitar) quit the band.

With this new line up Myrath got into progressive metal and for almost 2 years they played in several concerts exclusively songs of the progressive metal band Symphony X which was their favorite band of that time and still is. After several years of playing music written by others, Myrath gained enough experience and playing skills to start writing their own. The choice of music they decided to write reflected their oriental origin and their western influence (a combination of progressive, oriental, heavy and melodic). In the summer of 2004 Fahmi Chakroun (drums) and Zaher Hamoudia (bass) were replaced respectively by Saif Ouhibi and Yassine Belgith in an effort to get musicians fully dedicated to the band.

With this new line up Myrath released their first self produced album ''Double Face'' on March 2005. Even though it was a first recording experience, this album (which was released in Tunisia only as the band was not signed yet) did however show encouraging signs of composing skills In September 2005 Malek Ben Arbia the band founding member and guitarist travelled to Nancy, France to enrol in the famous Guitar school, Music Academy International (M.A.I.) to undergo a one year extensive training course so as to improve his knowledge in music theory and improve and diversify his playing skills. In March 24th 2006 Myrath opened for Adagio and Robert Plant in the 3rd edition of the Mediterranean guitar festival which gave them the opportunity to meet Adagio band members and mainly their keyboard player Kevin Codfert who happened to be also a sound engineer and a producer. After graduating from M.A.I. ...show less