Metal Reviews

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LOL, the culture tinged, super catchy, overquoted album of the month.

Are you sure about that? Western music is based upon the 12 tone system (mostly), and the Arab's use a 24 system, as far as my knowledge goes. Please explain.

Very nice review btw, I think I'll definitely like this, although I also think it's a shame that he compromised on the tonal system, I generally really dig music like that of Rabih Abou-Khalil and Anouar Brahem.

One more note:

I didn't understand that, I always thought Nile was rather modern and progressive and their music is one big pile of Egyptian flavoured riffs and melodies. Please explain where you're comming from if you really think only their lyrics are inspired by Egypt.

i didn't finish the review but i'm checking their website right now.

There's no record of the Egyptians having made music, or if they did what it sounded like!!!

Dude, I'm talking about Egypt, not ancient Egypt. It still exists

EDIT: besides that, they did make music, they buried al sorts of instuments with their dead, we just don't know what it sounded like, but we do know that it rooted Arab music. A lot of great names in the Arab music are Egyptians nowadays, by the way.

I read US troops used to play Metallica and AC/DC in Iraq through loudspeakers when fighting on the streets, since this music would simple drive those Arabs insane. Now there is some real Arabic death metal, wow, that's really nice. I wish them all the best!

I've listened to the samples and I'm disappointed about it. I expected the emphasis being on the Arabian music, which I thought could be interesting, but instead I get brutal death metal à la Nile and Behemoth's Demi-God (which is almost the same as Nile), with some slightly South-Eastern-ish melodies every now and then and some Mortician if the occasion calls. It's almost as generic as the rest of the genre. Sorry, I really don't understand what the fuzz is about.

Damn, that's exactly what I was going to say...

"Anything less than a 95 is a felony." —Vanilla Ice

I didn't finish that review. You seem more content with writing self-indulgent crap that is more akin to the fan-fiction filth that litters the web than actual Music reviews.

And this blows. It's boring standard Death Metal with a few "Middle Eastern" sounding things thrown in at random. By the description I was expecting something like a Death Metal Melechesh or Arallu, but it's really just a bad Nile rip-off.

i heard "wrath of babel" and "intifada" as samples and "triange of death" as a full song and it was nothing special imo, but hey if you enjoy them more power to you.

This seems interesting though. I'll check it out.

BS. I liked IE's Imhotep, but that it not closer to arabian metal than Nile. I know it is fashionable to bash Nile around here, but Iced Earth having more "Arabian Metal" credibility than Nile is ridiculous.

All Egyptian/Middle Eastern influences in metal are as organic as the demonized "ooga booga" music Hollywood gave the Egyptian's in the Ten Commandments, Ben Hurr, and all of those classic flicks... Basically, it's 10% Persian Market, 90% "Make 'em Look evil" theme music. Might as well call it a Satanic theme.

In the end, they all rip off Morbid Angel, equally. I agree with Misha and *Gulp* noodles.

I thought I wrote long reviews on EPs.

Well, sounds good to me, but from the tracks at the website I don't hear anything especially "Arabian" about it. Just good, straightforward DM with quite a nice crusty sound and cool soloing. I don't know much about what exactly constitutes Arabian influences in metal, but I guess probably the closest I can think of to an authentic fusion would be Orphaned Land, certainly not Adjath.

Didn't quite get what you meant about the tonal system...?

It's not bad at all and I actually like it a lot, but a 95? Come on, this is nothing ground breaking, and does not desrve a legendary tag.

I just checked the samples from their website and I must admit that I don't find them groundbreaking. I also find them to follow Nile and Behemoth, so therefore I cannot understand all the fuzz. Nevertheless brutal death metal is always welcomed as long as it is done decently. I thought the production was a bit too blurry for me.

Keep up the good work though guys!!
Spinebrain

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!

2. If you read my review carefully, you will see that nowhere did I say that Iced Earth have more Middle Eastern 'Credibility' than Nile; only that the Horror Show track - 'Imhotep' has more of a Middle Eastern sound to it than anything Nile plays.


3. Eternal Idol Wrote


That you did not finish reading the review shows that you are one of those blinkered, closed minded people who are not interested in anything they have to think about. Self indulgent? What did you think about the last time you sat in the middle of an Arabian desert in the middle of the night listening to Bedouins playing music that had been handed down through generations for thousands of years?? I included that paragraph just to let let everyone know that I know what thousands of years old Arabian music sounds like. So, I take it you have heard the album in its entirety that you can make such a sweeping statement that they are ripping-off Nile, or like the review, you didn't have the patience to finish it? That Ajdath are incorporating thousands of years old music from their own natural ancestors into their album, I'd say that it was Nile, an American band, that is ripping off traditional Middle Eastern music. You wouldn't know real Middle Eastern music if it jumped up and bit you on the ass. By the attitude of your post you sound like you are the sort of person that, when they don't understand something the use abuse and change of subject as a shield to hide their ignorance

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.