Al-Namrood – Kitab Al Awthan (2012)

Saudi Arabia’s most interesting ‘ethnic’ Black Metal band is back with another release that features intriguing middle-eastern atmospheres and crushing Black Metal merged to near perfection. With “Kitab Al Awthan”, Al-Namrood pushes forward in their musical exploration delivering over 47-minutes of intelligently written music that is both captivating and very brutal.

Opening with the lush “Mirath Al Shar”, the album instantly transports you to a somber and mysterious place thanks to the excellent atmosphere created. The production this time is considerably better and you can really hear the richness of the band’s percussions and epicness of their middle-eastern influences. The rawness of their Black Metal foundations is first unleashed on “Min Trab Al Jahel”, and we again noticed considerable improvement in the production values when compared to their previous release. The fusion of atmospheric keyboards and the raw distorted guitars is majestic, giving that creepy feeling of being trapped in a maze similar to the ones in the Prince of Persia games.

With an intoxicating melody, “Hayat Al Khlood” is one of the catchiest tracks in this release, almost rivaling Orphaned Land’s ability to make catchy ‘ethnical’ music. The drums sound like they are programmed in some songs bringing down the band’s overall value, but probably a better drummer would greatly improve the interesting drum patterns the band features in their songs. With excellent tracks like “Ashab Al Aika” and “Al Quam, Haken Al Huroob”, it is impressive to find tracks that are even more outstanding in terms of the percussions and traditional sounds like the quirky “Kiram Al Mataia”.

Our favorite track of this release is the very royal sounding “Ez Al Mulook”. In this track the keyboards are very well crafted and create a very thick atmosphere. The guitar work is well designed to be aggressive but carry that sense of melody that the band never loses in any of their songs. The powerful vocals provide an excellent contrast in this album and provide that aggressive edge that lush middle-eastern music need in order to work in Metal.

Al-Namrood is clearly an excellent band that keeps polishing their sound with each release, and on Kitab Al Awthan” they have finally merged both sides of their sound into a very unique and refreshing monster that is a joy to listen to. If you are in the market for something different and very well crafted, this is the release for you since Al-Namrood will surely intoxicate you with their ethnic sound and transport you to unimaginable places.

Release: January 20th, 2012

Country: Saudi Arabia