review: Arallu

Arallu

En Olam

Satanath Records

September 22nd, 2019

This publication totally missed the boat on this September 2019 album. Let’s rectify now. The band (1997) is a long-running Israeli interpretation of Middle Eastern-flavored uptempo, headbanging extreme metal. They are skilled and knowledgeable, and they do many things that it bears spending time on some of those qualities. First of all, they keep the music on point, disciplined, compact and intelligible. They seem ambitious, capable of making their music considerably more complex, but they refuse to make show-off, long, meandering songs. In that sense, the black metal ethic enhances their strengths by making the music comprehesible to extreme fans in general: people wanting uptempo, fast metal. In point of fact, they persistently keep their songs in the range of 3-5 minutes as a general way of writing songs.

As already stated, black metal is the main foundation. More specifically, it is often black thrashing with strong, aggressive growling that is surprisingly intelligible despite the harsh style. The band uses the darbuka, a percussion instrument, in some spots for a sensation of joviality, a different feeling (in metal) of cheerful tones, with a light vibe. They also use the saz, a string instrument. For U.S. audiences a reference might perhaps be the sound and feeling of hearing the banjo; it is an upbeat sound; meaning that, for instance, for people here in the U.S. it is normal to think of the banjo in that way. Of course, the saz is not the banjo! At any rate, Arallu’s use of the saz provides another side to their sound.

Do these melodies seem familiar to people in the Middle East in general? Are they different variations of traditional Middle Eastern melodies? This reviewer does not pretend to know the answers to these questions. For U.S. extreme metal audiences, Nile is known for the use of Middle Eastern melodies. Arallu, in that sense, may be very, very interesting to U.S. fans.

ARALLU - The Center Of The Unknown [Official Video]

ARALLU - Guard Of She'ol [Official Video]

arallu.bandcamp.com/album/en-olam-physical-digital-album