Press

Falling Leaves are a melodic death/doom band formed in Amman in 2009 and now based in Dubai. They are one of the few acts carrying the genre’s slow, grieving tradition out of the Middle East.

Drawing on My Dying Bride and Novembers Doom, the band writes about despair, memory and the passage of time. A self-released demo followed in May 2010. In 2012 came the debut full-length, Mournful Cry of a Dying Sun, on Endless Winter, mixed and mastered at Clintworks in Hamburg by Dennis Israel, former assistant engineer to Jens Bogren, with guests Paul Kuhr (Novembers Doom), Pete Johansen (The Sins of Thy Beloved, Tristania) and Olof Göthlin (Draconian).

In May 2014 the label took the band to Russia, for a headline show in Rostov-on-Don and Moscow Doom Festival VII alongside Skepticism. When visa paperwork stopped most of the line-up at Moscow airport, the shows went ahead with other musicians stepping in. The original line-up drifted apart afterwards; Ala’a Swalha moved from Amman to Dubai, kept writing with lyricist Murad Juneydi, and rebuilt the band there.

Thirteen years later came The Silence That Binds Us (September 2025): eight songs of grief and memory, produced by Ala’a Swalha, mixed by Alessandro Comerio at Daemon Star Studio in Italy and mastered by Dan Swanö, with cover art by Travis Smith. Paul Kuhr returns on vocals, alongside session players Fabio Alessandrini (drums) and Ariel Perchuk (keyboards). Angry Metal Guy rated it 4.0 out of 5, and Metal Storm’s 2025 awards named it a Top 10 extreme doom album of the year.

The band is now preparing its return to the stage and writing new music.