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Narjahanam: Undama tath'hur al shams mn al gharb
26/01/09 || theProphet
I don’t know if you recall, since it was fucking ages ago, but the last album I had the displeasure of listening to and reviewing here on GD was the atrocity “Harvest of Seasons” (or something like that) by the mongoloids in Black Lotus. Having been subjected to such abuse, I was a little reluctant to check out other new bands to review, hence my lackluster performance in getting shit done around here. Anyways, next in line to be graced with their moment in the spotlight are these handsome devils, Narjahanam.
For those of you who skipped Arabic in school, Narjahanam means “the fires of hell”, and these guys sure wants to evoke that certain aura of ancient magic and forgotten deitys with their heavily middle eastern-inspired blackened death metal. And as we all know, nothing says ancient like a fuckload of synthetic orchestrations. Anyways, I’d really like to bash these motherfuckers to “Narj” or “Hanam” or whatever, but I can’t deny that these guys show a tiny bit of promise on their indecipherably titled first full length. Alas, as much as I’d want to joke about how these guys would do more good in Gaza, I’ll spare my snide remarks and let these guys off with an “acceptable” in terms of musicianship and songwriting. And the cover is stellar as well.
The production sucks though, although not nearly as bad as the one Black Lotus were responsible for. The guitars sound toothless and the programmed drums are just plain hideous, the only redeeming factor here is the bass, which is pretty sweet and very audible most of the time.
I sometimes (quite seldom) get the urge to listen to some middle eastern or Arabic-tinged extreme metal, and when I do, these guys will be fully adequate, providing a voyage through sun-baked deserts on camel back. Just kidding, I’d listen to Nile or Melechesh instead.
4,5 or perhaps 5 drawn scimitars out of 10. A quite measly arsenal.
Note how I managed to sneak in my evaluation of the album cover in the text, as opposed to giving it an entire, flow-breaking section of its own…
- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: Haarbn Productions
- Website: Narjahanam MySpace
- Band
- Mardus: all instruments, vocals
- Busac: all instruments, drum programming
- Tracklist
- 01. Taht Alamat Al Nujoom
- 02. Laheeb Al Nar
- 03. Al Jihad
- 04. Al Shar Wa Aljan
- 05. Rayat Al Mowt
- 06. Nehaya Wa Bedaya
- 07. Huroob Al Zaman Al Akheer
- 08. Yowm Al Maw’oud
- 09. Al Aukhera
