Our final band then, before we depart the shores of Syria, is categorised simply as “Heavy Metal”. They have two albums, but I can only find one on GPM. I guess I'm lucky to find any! So this will be our last taste of Syrian metal.
Resurrection of the Horrid Dream --- The Hourglass --- 2007 (Independent)
Opening with a nice screechy guitar and a tolling bell, “Resurrection” is a short song, shortest on the album at just over two minutes, almost completely instrumental bar some lines spoken
sotto voce behind the music. This more or less acts as an introduction to the album, and it certainly gets my hopes up. Sounds very professional, well played and produced, and Rawed Abdel Massih (whom we shall perhaps undeservingly refer to as RAM in future) knows what he's about on those frets. Behind the skins sits Jerod, and not part of the band but guesting we have keyboards from Nareg. Vocals are handled by Bassem Deaibess, who has a strong and very clear voice, and thankfully sings in English. “Selective memory” trips along really nicely, but I can't help making the obvious Maiden comparison; you can be sure they number Harris and the lads in their influences.
Now I have to say that “Suicidal form” opens exactly, and I mean
exactly, like a Maiden song. Can't remember which one, can't place it but that rippling guitar, the tone, the melody --- might be “Back in the Village”, not sure but it's definitely almost completely ripped off from one their songs, and it doesn't help that when Bassem begins singing you would swear you're listening to Dickinson. Even the screams are there. It's one thing to pay homage to your heroes or emulate them, but this is virtual copying. Hard to judge the music on its own merits with so much copycatting going on, but I'll give it a go. It's a good hard rocking song, trundles along nicely on the growling guitar riff from RAM; the only thing I will say is that he makes the twin guitar sound of Maiden all on his own, and while I'm sure much of this is mutiltracked it's still quite impressive for one guy. I think “The Book” is taking a critical look at Christianity (not surprising from an Arab country) but again it has way too much Maiden in it. Bassem handles the vocal well, and there are perhaps too many quotes from the Bible in the lyric (lazy songwriting, I feel) but overall it's got a nice kind of doomy vibe to it. Some of the actual lyric is terrible –
”We rule by the Book/ With a chain and a hook/ We stone and we maim/ All for His name.” Oh dear. RAM gets off a very fine solo near the end, and in fairness it doesn't feel like the six minutes it runs to.
“Distortion of thought “ does at least have a bit more originality and individuality about it, decent uptempo track though since the opener we haven't heard yer man on the keys and I think his contribution would lift this band a little more above the mediocre than they are at the moment. One of the epics then is “Ancient hope part two --- Kin traitor” (what happened to part one, I don't know), running for over eight minutes. Starts off very rocky then slows down with what may be dark synth keys from Nafel around the third minute, after which it slips into a dark, slow, doomy groove with a spoken vocal from Bassem. A really good solo followed by some Spanish guitar before it all ends on a dark spoken vocal with some atmopsheric guitar from RAM.
My copy of “East of the Mediterranean” seems to be corrupted, unless they're throwing in some freestlye scratching, which seems very unlikely. No, I reckon it's damaged, and for the first minute or so it pops and jumps and hops all over the place. It does settle down though and it's a decent thrash metal number with some fine drumming and great shredding, then it seems like “Divine judgement” may be a fast-paced instrumental, but more than halfway through the vocal comes in, spoken again against ringing guitar. But it is basically an instrumental, and not bad: has real teeth. Finally we get to hear those oh-so-missed keyboards as Narleg introduces “Alone again” on a melancholy, sweeping synth line with what sounds like violin but is I think synth. It kicks up for a moment then slows down again; whether I'd call this a ballad or not I don't know, but it's very “Strange world”...
This is the other epic, and at nine minutes plus change it does give you your money's worth, with some fine solos, good instrumental breaks, changes in tempo and time signatures and a pretty decent song overall. It also doesn't drag, which is good. The closer then is basically the title track, and “The horrid dream” opens with a big growling guitar and thick dark synth which takes us into the third minute of the seven the track runs for. Then there's more than a minute of blank silence before a thick bass either restarts the song or introduces a hidden track, but whichever, the production is suddenly awful. I can barely hear the singing at all, and the music is very fuzzy too. It's something of a letdown for a track that ends the album, and makes it seem as if this is to be continued in the next album (whcih so far has not materialised). Poor.
TRACKLISTING
1. Resurrection
2. Selective memory
3. Suicidal form
4. The Book
5. Distortion of thought
6. Ancient hope part 2: Kin traitor
7. East of the Mediterranean
8. Divine judgement
9. Alone again
10. The horrid dream
To be honest, if I hadn't already heard Iron Maiden, Metallica, Helloween and a hundred other bands I might think these guys were something special, and to be fair, I think they do have something. But there's too much of other bands in here. Talk about being derivative! They're trying too hard to sound, it would seem, like their western counterparts and while they do appear to have the talent to do that, if they want to rise above the crowd then they need to have their own sound, not coast along on someone else's.
Within the core sound of The Hourglass is an interesting mix of ideas and music, trying desperately to get out, but until they can create their own identity they're always going to be seen as a sub-Maiden/Priest ripoff band. Whether they ditch this label is something they are going to have to decide, assuming they're still together.