Next up is a band suggested by Mondo Bungle. They're Black Metal, but hey, with less than thirty bands known to exist in Syria this beggar can't be a chooser. This is their only album, though Mondo did actually recommend the single that isn't on this. I may get to that. I may not. I must say though, you have to pat their heads and say “Aw! Bless!” when you see their attempt at a “controversial” album cover. A corpse holding a baby. Ahhh! They try, don't they? But it's hardly Cannibal Corpse or Vulvectomy now, is it?
The funny thing is that they seem to claim their name means something like “intimidation from Hell” and that it's mentioned in the Qur'an, but look at it. It just says “abide therein”, as in, live there. Whether this is some really weird quirk of translation, or the band are taking the piss, I don't know, but let's see if their musical ability is better at least than their choice of cover art.
Paralysis Engulfed the Myth --- Abidetherein --- 2012 (Independent)
Don't even ask me what the title is meant to mean. At least it has an interesting opening, with the sound of a baby crying while dark, bassy piano plays slowly and a guitar wails and screams into life (or is that the vocal? Hard to say) then it drops out again, as does the baby, leaving just the piano playing solo before guitar (actual guitar this time) pounds in and a standard Black Metal vocal begins. This is “Begotten”, which hammers along nicely, but the track is over nine minutes long, and I wonder if it's going to attain any sort of variety over its run? Okay, yes, there is some ethic instrument there certainly; sounds like a sitar but probably has some mad name. Does make a difference though. Nice one guys.
“Oscenità” opens with a sort of breathing sound then hammers into another guitar assault. There are only two guys in this operation, so mostly we're hearing Hazem “Goraal” Mallah, who plays guitar, bass and also sings. The other guy handles guitars and drums, and goes by the name of Typhon. Indeed. This track is shorter --- a mere three minutes --- and has a nice slower more reflective guitar in it later on. Another nine-minuter then in “Ninety-nine names”, with a big roar that sounds like someone throwing up and then fast guitar, but nothing terribly interesting happening up till about the midway point when we get ... I don't know what. Some sort of ethnic drums? Or it could be a Syrian instrument, hard to say, but it sounds pretty cool. Yeah but then it's pretty boring right to the end.
I suppose English is not their first language so I shouldn't slag, but come on: “Lachrymation murder”?? Okay, it's nothing special up until about the third minute (it runs for eight), then we get some really nice acoustic music (guitar I think, maybe piano) as everything slows down in a really relaxed and almost pastoral vein. Now there's something like mandolin added in; it's almost like I've accidentally jumped to another album. I wonder will it all punch in at the end like the last one? Yeah, here it comes. “A marvel of faith” has a short acoustic guitar intro before it pounds in with the electric guitar, but even then, there's more about this song than many of the previous ones. There's a certain atmosphere, a feeling that's not totally lost once Hazem gets going. Pretty impressive really.
Something I can't really say about “Sin sculptor”, which doesn't speak to me; just something of a noisy mess really. And so on to “The winds that scattered”, which quite honestly sounds to me like a continuation of the previous track. We'll see if it gets any more interesting or diverse. No, it doesn't. And that leaves us with one track to go, and I must admit this is giving me something of a headache. The album closes with another stupid title, but at least “Sphacelate metastasized” (huh? Is sphacelete even a word??) starts with nice acoustic guitar. Doesn't last though. This one is eight minutes long. Sigh. Yeah, there's some interesting stuff there halfway with the ethnic instruments again but then they go back to form, and to be quite completely candid and honest, it's, to me, boring as hell.
TRACKLISTING
1. Begotten
2. Obscetia
3. Ninety-nine names
4. Lachrymation murder
5. A marvel of faith (The sun and the moon)
6. Sin sculptor
7. The winds that scattered
8. Sphacelate mestasized inevitable
Well you know what? Mondo was right: the album isn't that great. It has its moments but by and large I was just bored and it seemed very similar all the way through. So I guess to some degree, their talent in picking album covers is kind of matched by their musical talent, or to be fair, not their talent but maybe their ambition. B is for Boring.