Wastedland

Wastedland started in a room. Ayman Alghamdi and Ahmed Khojah founded it in Jeddah in 2004 — two guitar players and nowhere in particular to go with it.

By the time there was a band, there were three of them: Ahmed, Ayman, and Emad Mujallid on vocals. The first time they played to anyone it was in a private villa, because that was what existed. The first proper show was not in Jeddah at all — they drove to Dammam, on the other side of the country, and played there.

Twenty plus years later, it is five of them, still playing melodic death metal — melody carried on top of weight, the thing they have been sharpening since that room.

TiMi joined on drums in 2005. Mahmood is the most recent, taking over on bass in 2022 after S.G. left.

The road since: opening for Lacuna Coil at the Dubai Metal Festival, and winning the Wacken Middle East Battle in 2024 — the win that put them on a stage in Germany that August, the first Saudi band ever to stand on it.

There was no scene in Jeddah when they started. There is one now, and they are part of the reason.