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Reviews
Arallu: The demon from the ancient world
05/12/07 || Global Domination
This review was written by ex-staffer/cocksmoker Desolator.
Wow, what can I say? This music redefines “black metal” because it sounds very “Africanized”. That sounds racist doesn’t it? Nah, not really. Not politically correct either. But a politically correct attitude is redundant here at GD (if it were a person it would be crucified), so I’m sure I can keep my job, right? Seriously, as I listened to this music I actually imagined these fellas playing in a desert under a full African moon. But I then read this from their biography:
ARALLU was formed as a one member band by Butchered “The Hell Warrior” in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, eh? Yeah, that makes sense. Of course, some of the instruments here and there still sound like they belong to a vicious flesh-eating tribe. I wouldn’t rule out any cannibalism practices on account of these fellas either, whether it’s legal or not in Jerusalem.
Jerusalem has been the holiest of holies (or at least damn close to it) and Israel has been caught up in the Middle East wars, but none of this has stopped Arallu from playing their anti-Lebanese black metal. And if their album has the word “demon” in it, they’re bound to be devil worshipers, right? Maybe.
I never thought I would have found a black metal album that often reminds me of maracas, bongos, beanbags and hairy camel testicles, but Arallu sure as hell wanted me to experience it. Fuck, quite a bit of the drumming itself sounds tribalized. Some extra instruments actually are used, such as a darbuka and a shofar (that word reminds me of “chauffeur”, and those sure as fuck are black metal too). Whatever those instruments are, I was quite surprised to hear them! I’m sure they were used very well, because nothing sounds out of place here.
“But what about the metalz?” you ask, you merciless, brutal little bastard. I assure you, there is a lot of black metal here as the dominatrix, I mean dominant overtone, so please don’t hurt me. The sound is groovy and the production is none too shabby. The guitars are slightly raw and thin while the sound quality is excellent. Who would have thought that Jerusalem, the grand realm of black market holy pornography, would foster black metal, let alone a studio for it?
“The Seven Chosen Genii” sounds very black n’ roll. I also got some “Nemesis Divina” vibes from it (even though that wasn’t Satyricon’s uber black n’ roll era) “The Sumerian Words” is another good example of Arallu’s Israelite black metal. The start sounds very much like it could be incorporated in a World music compilation, but it still has the black metal sound! There are also a lot of weird and interesting effects in here, like the ending for “War Spirit” which consists of some warped drum splashes.
The vocalist is very killer. He sounds like a goblin witch doctor (at least level 25) and even a bit of a middle-eastern version of Tom Araya. For example, at the start of “The Dead Will Rise Again” he attempts to do the opening screams that made Slayer’s “Angel Of Death” famous (at least he sounds like he is). Not too bad, but no camel (or whatever Israelite equivalent there is to a cigar) for you. This song is definitely fun to listen to, nonetheless.
Ok, I must talk about camels one more time. These guys should include a Satanic camel in their promo pictures, if they haven’t done so already. But fuck, why not go the whole hog? Get the camel real pissed off and get it to do backup vocals.
This music is pretty well performed and a very interesting experience. A combination between world music and black n’ roll? These guys are very ambitious and I applaud that. By the way, the name “Arallu” reminds me of Uluru, a place in the Australian outback. That in itself should tell you that this is some fancy desert music.
8 misanthropic African Israelites out of 10.
- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Epidemie Records
- Website: Arallu MySpace
- Band
- Butchered “The Hell Warrior (hahaha)” (Moti Daniel): bass, vocals
- Avi Caspi: guitars
- Yonatan Dushnitzki: drums
- TKOR (Yossi Darmon): session guitars
- Tracklist
- 01. Dingir Xul
- 02. The Devil’s Massacre
- 03. The Dead Will Rise Again
- 04. War Spirit
- 05. Battleground
- 06. Sierra Nevada
- 07. The Seven Chosen Genii
- 08. The Sumerian Words
- 09. Kill Kill Kill
- 10. Tzvaot ARALLU