anubus777 wrote:
Okay, I'll try and clarify a few things here:
1. Nile are an excellent band, I have been a fan of theirs for a long time. I've met them, I've been on stage with them taking pictures during their sound check, I've spoken to them, I've asked them why don't they put more Middle Eastern type music in their music, they (Karl) answered that at the end of the day, Nile is a Death Metal band that that are influenced by Ancient Egypt so that is what their songs are all about, they don't actually play any Eastern music, just the occasional generic Middle Eastern sounding highlight within a song. When they do play a Middle Eastern sounding part in a song, it is something they have made up themselves, something that is their interpretation of what they think Middle Eastern music sounds like. A lot of people seem to think that because they are called Nile and that their songs content and albums titles pertain to Ancient Egypt, then their playing style is Egyptian or Middle Eastern. I can only find two of my Nile albums at the moment and listening to them I only found TWO tracks on those two albums that could be described as having anything resembling Arabian music within them. They are:
Dusk Fals Upon The Temple..... - The intro track to Annihilation Of The Wicked
Unas Slayer Of The Gods - Track 5 from In Their Darkened Shrines.
Having Heard the samples from the Ajdath website, I agree that they seem to have chosen parts that are more Death Metal than Arabian. On the album, track 5 in its entirety is an instrumental of Arabian music played as best as the band could on Western Instruments. Track 6 really gets into its Arabian stride in its second half which the sample on the website doesn't cover. The sample on the website could be better!
Well, if Nile makes up their so called Middle Eastern stuff themselves, then they're doing a pretty damn good job, because it's convincing. It's generally harder to set an atmosphere of something within the frame of a completely different genre than to switch back and forward between folk tunes translated into guitar and death metal. This without implying that Ajdath do so all the time, as I've heard merely the samples. Now before you rephrase your point that my conception of Arab music is invalid, I must inform you that I actually listen to Arab music.
In case you read this, hopely before your week has ended, then I'd also appreciate it if you replied to my earlier question about the 1/4 and 1/5, which do not fit my current picture of chromatic and Eastern scale comparison (I could be wrong).
anubus777 wrote:
4. Some of yours' geography is pretty atrocious. Egypt is in fact in Africa whilst Arabia, if you look at a map, is a bit to the right incorporating - Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq. Lebanon, Syria, and Iran are sometimes included in the list of Arabian countries. Therefore, Egypt should not be included when talking about Arabia.
I might pop back in a week or so, see if anyone has written anything constructive and interesting.
Nice list of countries. Since it looks like this is referring to me, I'd like to add that since I was talking about music, I'm also talking about musical geology. So as you undoubtly know, current Arabic music finds it's most direct origin in 8th century Baghdad, which traces back to the Greek via the Byzantines and Persians. The Greek are commonly accepted to have taken most of their musical ingredients from the ancient Egypt culture, of which (as Noodles pointed out) has survived only the knowledge that music played an important role in this culture. I'm probably not telling you anything new by saying that Arab music is predominant in Egypt, numerous great composers of Arab music are, in fact, Egyptian.
EDIT: In case you take this the wrong way, I did really enjoy the review, nice way of mixing in your personal adventures. Maybe if your scores would be less fanboy-ish, more people would see that.
EDIT2: Oh, and Ken, I deleted your insult-post, as Adam suggested.
