review: Angband

Angband

IV

Pure Underground Records

July 24th 2020

The early pioneers of heavy metal often had the habit of starting their albums with a rocking, uptempo or fast song, and it served the purpose of setting the perimeters, but then the rest of the work would unfold in various directions because they did not want all their songs alike and narrow. It was the same idea during the concerts. Warm up the crowd and then do all the other things that they liked to do. In a similar way, the sequence of this particular album is important for guiding the audience through the music that walks some winding paths. As the title says, this is the fourth album by the Iranian entity established in 2004. Actually, nowadays it is necessary to say “Iranian/American” because for the new work they have recruited the U.S. singer Tim Aymar (formerly of Death’s main man Chuck Schuldiner’s Control Denied, Psycho Scream, and others) from the long-running heavy/power/prog band Pharaoh (U.S.; 1997-present; four albums/one EP/one split).

The first song is traditional heavy metal, uptempo for headbanging and with the unmistakable voice of Tim Aymar. So, then, this is traditional, classic heavy metal, correct? No, it’s not, but the listener is given plenty of room to adjust to the changes about to happen. The second song is a midtempo song with a bit of an instrument called the ney (it appears throughout the album), a type of ancient flute (Wikipedia says that it has been around for some 5,000 years), and in this song, it has an extra bit of buzzing wind sound (YouTube says the guest playing the ney is Pasha Hanjani and there you can find videos of him playing the ney if you search his name). It’s not a huge shock but enough to notice that something is happening in this more progressive-leaning track.

By the time the fourth songs ends, the feeling is that this is progressive metal and the recurring and previously mentioned ney makes more sense. The guitar melodies now feel more melancholic and extended, more meandering, and done very well. In the subsequent songs things continue in that direction of big melodies, progressive, and midtempo and some slow segments, in a measured way. The slow guitar melodies are very appealing, in a bluesy/doomy/psychedelic/spacey way. The rocking moments do not disappear, either. It’s just that the landscape has more variety than just one type of terrain. By the time the album ends, the listener has a modified vision of the overall sound, not a totally different one, but certainly a changed one. What begins as fairly traditional heavy metal album becomes a little bit of an adventure in prog, while still retaining the metal in a mature, balanced way.

ANGBAND - Visions In My Head - official lyric Video (PURE UNDERGROUND RECORDS)

ANGBAND - Nights Of Tehran - official lyric Video (PURE UNDERGROUND RECORDS)

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