Trollheart

Thanks for both of those snippets of information. I wasn't aware of either.
I recognise that it's a very popular album, and I also realise that just because it's not for me does not make it crap.It's kind of the same with Om. Mine is not the only barometer of taste, far from it, and while I have bashed Frownland's albums quite a lot this year (and there may be more to come) I do try to see the angle people are coming from when they rate these albums so high. It certainly wasn't torture or anything close to it, it just left me with very little to write about it as it's basically pretty much the same all the way through. Interesting concept though.

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Traveling_Alone

Dopesmoker is one of the coolest pieces of music I've ever heard. Many nights spent listening to it. Well, Sleep in general, actually. One of my all time favorite bands. I know people say Sleep is the best Sabbath that Sabbath never released, and while I obviously know why they say that, I think that's being a little unfair to Sleep.

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“And when at last you find someone to whom you feel you can pour out your soul, you stop in shock at the words you utter— they are so rusty, so ugly, so meaningless and feeble from being kept in the small cramped dark inside you so long.”

― Sylvia Plath

The Batlord

Just to clarify, Anthrax and SOD were joking, and are not Islamophobes.

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Wpnfire

Oops, I forgot to add that to my post. Yes, they were just trying to piss off people.

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Last.FM

My RYM Ratings

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Trollheart

No update yesterday at all, as I spent my entire day here with my sister, where she still remains and will be for the rest of the week

so double update today, beginning with this:
And on to August. As I write this, it is August, and only less than halfway through, so I have a limited selection to choose from. I'm gonna try this one.

Genexus --- Fear Factory --- 2015 (Nuclear Blast)

Introduction: I know basically sod-all about this band. I think I may have heard one song once, and I think it had growly vocals, which of course at the time turned me off exploring their music any further. This is their ninth album. Oh, and they're American.

Track-by-track

1. Autonomous combat system: Very “Terminator”-like sounds to open, then a dark voice which is presumably warning against the rise of the machines or something, heavy dramatic guitar and maybe keys? Then it takes off at lightspeed, the drums not so much machinegun as ... as ... as, well, something a lot faster and harder. Vocal is not bad to be fair: more a kind of Araya style than that really dark, deep growl I find so hard to understand. Some clearer vocals too on the chorus. Yeah, not bad.
2. Adonized: These guys have quite a way of throwing a great hook into the chorus of a song which is otherwise what I believe would be termed as br00tal, at least from a technical standpoint. It's almost like listening to two different songs. Really interesting. Kind of a semi-industrial feel to some of this too.
3. Dielectric: This definitely sounds orchestral at the beginning. Decent song, at least the chorus part of it. Very heavy guitar work.
4. Soul hacker: Good heavy punch to get this one going; very aggressive.
5. Protomech: Sort of a hard electronic feel to this, with hammering percussion and another roared vocal, more kind of industrial shape to it. Very interesting ending, on slow, soft piano.
6: Genexus: Another example of the vocalist singing like a lunatic for the verses then either he, or someone else not credited, doing a totally relaxed vocal on the chorus. Tres weird.
7: Church of execution: Kind of a sub-Slayer clone, though there is some pretty impessive guitar in it. Nothing much else though.
8. Regenerate: Kind of a progressive metal feel to this; the chorus saves it, otherwise it's just the same as the other tracks
9. Battle for Utopia: And this has a big industrial intro, great chorus again
10. Expiration date: Longest track, and this seems like it may be “clean vocals” all the way through? Oddly, it seems to be a slow track; not a ballad, but not really what I could call a cruncher either. Almost, almost as if Daughtry went metal...? Best track here by a long way. Very atmospheric, with some fine piano.

Conclusion: I wouldn't write off Fear Factory --- their unusual usage of vocal styles certainly helps them stand a little apart from the crowd --- but much of this album seems to be just heavy, aggressive metal, which is fine, but you need something a little different to make it stand out. The final track kind of achieves this, and I may end up looking into them a little more. Or not.


Well, as I write, August is just about over so it's time to check the list of newly released albums since I last looked, and there are a few. I've heard this get bad reviews, but I've never actually listened to one of their albums, so let's see what impression it makes on my ears.

Immortalized --- Disturbed --- 2015 (Reprise)

Introduction: Sixth album from Disturbed, and their first in five years. I'm sure you all know who they are, but I don't, so let's just check: they come from Chicago, are a four-piece and began life as Brawl in 1994, changing their name and their sound around 1997 when they also released their first album under the Disturbed name. There appears to be no place for longtime bass player John Moyer, who has been with them up to this point since 2005's Ten Thousand Fists. Unofficially, it would appear he was “working on other projects” and not involved in the writing for this album, which may signal the end of his involvement with Disturbed. All his parts are played this time out by lead guitarist Dan Donegan.

Track-by-track

1. The eye of the storm: Short one to get going with, just over a minute, an instrumental with some really nice guitar, certainly highlights Donegan's skills on the frets.
2. Immortalized: Bursting out now as expected; vocal is not as harsh as I had expected, kind of Hetfield-like. Good decent song, rocks along nicely and a great guitar line. Good start.
3. The vengeful one: Slower, more angry with a marching kind of beat, snarling guitar. This is, I believe, the first single from the album. Interesting change there before the chorus; goes all almost acoustic. Getting really into this I must say.
4. Open your eyes: Oddly, kind of reminds me of Threshold! Very anthemic and very heavy but a great hook and melody.
5. The Light: Some nice keys opening this song, first time I think I've heard them used on this album. Another very memorable track.
6. What are you waiting for: Faster, bit more aggressive but this is still what I guess the majority of people here would describe as “Trollheart's kind of metal”, and I was expecting something much rawer and harder to get through.
7. You're mine: Really nice synth and I think e-bow introduction to this; then it has a kind of new-wave/industrial feel to it. Shit, it even sounds a little poppy! Not sure about this one to be honest.
8. Who: Meh, that was pretty empty. Forgotten before it's even over. Still, first track yet that hasn't impressed me. Okay, second.
9. Save our last goodbye: Yeah, like this one too. Great stuttering guitar. The usage of the phone is perhaps unfortunate as one of the criticisms of this album seems to be that Disturbed are “phoning it in”, and here they're literally doing that. Meh, I like it though. Piano near the end and the soulful vocal is great.
10. Fire it up: Okay, about forty seconds of this is wasted on nonesense, talk and a drum tuneup? Not bad once it gets going though. Vocal is softer on it, though it toughens up in the second minute. Basically it's okay but not anything terribly special.
11. The sound of silence: Now this is though. I can't believe they took on the Simon and Garfunkel classic. And didn't mock it or metal it up. They actually retained the balladic nature of it, even moreso than the original. Lovely. Great piano leading the song. Gets really passionate near the end, very very effective. Superb in fact. I think they may have used an orchestra on this. Oh yeah, this is going blue.
12. Never wrong: It's okay but after the sublimity of “The sound of silence” it's hard to get excited about it. Pretty excellent guitar solo all right. The rapid-fire vocal delivery is good too. A lot of frustration in the song.
13. Who taught you how to hate: Good heavy closer too.

Conclusion: Everyone seems to think this is a weak album. I can't comment on that, as it's the first time I've listened to Disturbed, but for my money it's a very decent metal album and I don't have much bad to say about it. Were I to listen to more of their output, would I change my mind? Maybe. But for now, this is certainly going down as one I'm glad I listened to.

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Trollheart

Next up on Batty's list is this one

Deliverance --- Corrosion of Conformity --- 1994 (Sony)

You nevr know what you're gonna get with the mischevious jester of Music Banter, but this time it seems like maybe he's going easy on me, as this album is reported to be a move away from the thrash and even hardcore sound of Corrosion of Conformity's three previous ones, evincing a more straightforward metal style, and I'm told two of the tracks were even radio hits! Well, we'll see. It opens on “Heaven is not overflowing” --- surely as true a statement now as when it was written --- and there's a good hard biting guitar to kick us into a sort of boogie style, almost ZZ-worthy in ways. The vocal is rough but very understandable. Good punch to the song, then “Albatross” (not the Fleetwood Mac instrumental, I hasten to point out!) is one of those radio hits. Apparently. Sounds a bit heavy for the radio, but sure what do I know? Kind of a seventies hard rock feel to this.

The next one was also a hit, and “Clean my wounds” has a nice sort of semi-commercial idea about it, with a stuttering guitar and a sort of shouted chorus, but I'm more interested in the shorter “Without wings”, an instrumental which sounds like it rides on acoustic guitar and seems to have keyboards in it, though I don't see any credited. “Broken man” rocks everything back up with some serious guitar and what I think may be talkbox; really like this one. There's more than a hint of Aerosmith's “Walk this way” in “Señor Limpio”, while “Mano de mono” (what's with all the Spanish?) is a really nice little instrumental that definitely has piano in it and leads into a powerful grinder in “Seven days”. Another short instrumental and we're off again with “My grain”, which sort of fails to make any impression on me.

Not so with the title track, which has a nice dark feeling about it, sort of anthemic with a powerful vocal . Not mad about “Shake like you”, sort of reminds me of the experience I had with System of a Down in 2013. Urgh. Don't care for the sort of mechanised vocal here. It's a completely different story for “Shelter”, where they go all Country, even bringing in a pedal steel to complement the acoustic guitar. Like this a lot, and absolutely love the closer, “Pearls before swine”. Great strong finish to an album I'm really not sure if I like or not....

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Heaven's not overflowing
2. Albatross
3. Clean my wounds
4. Without wings
5. Broken man
6. Senor Limpio
7. Mano de mono
8. Seven days
9. #2121313
10. My grain
11. Deliverance
12. Shake like you
13. Shelter
14. Pearls before swine

It's okay Batty: I'll save you the trouble...

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The Batlord

So what's with your sister? I know she's been sick for years, but I've never known her to be sick in a way that would interfere with something as important as Metal Month. Do you think you could tell her to hold off for another week?

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Trollheart

Time to complete our journey through the dark, bleak but often terrifyingly beautiful landscapes drawn by those talented musicians who work in this specialised sphere of heavy metal, and our travels don't take us too far, just north across the border to Canada, where a band called Gris reside. They've been around since 2006, and released three albums, of which this is the second. They appear to speak in French, so there may be some small chance of translating some of their lyrics, though don't expect miracles. I can tell you that the title of the album seems to work out as something pretty mundane: it's a forest.

Il était une forêt... --- Gris --- 2007 (Sepulchral Productions)

Again, the only way I can get this is on YouTube (Gris is a German rapper, apparently ) but at least the person who put it up has included running times. Lovely dark atmospheric opening to the title track, then a howling, bawling voice as Icare, who also does piano, violin and drums, comes into the track, but surely that's not any sort of lyric yet? Lets look at them and see if we can figure out what they're singing about. Okay, he's singing now, with some really nice keyboard backing, but the basic idea I can get from the lyric is of a dark forest, possibly older than humanity. I don't think the writing is that deep. The music is great though, and Icare does a good job of screaming out perhaps the pain of the trees? Ah, who knows? He's certainly passionate though. Very powerful guitars, and it's on this that this track is mostly driven.

There are only six tracks on the album, but only one of them is below nine minutes long. Lovely dark acoustic opening to “Le gala de gens heureux” (no; I think the last word might mean hours, but even then I'm not sure) and then it breaks into a slow, majestic guitar anthem, and later breaks down into a kind of stark, sparse melody. Some piano joining in now, making this a lot more dramatic. Soft guitar again takes in “Cicatrice”, (didn't we have a member called that once?) with gentle percussion and a kind of haunting feel. Piano gets a bit more involved than it has been up to now. I really don't hear any violin as of yet though. Gets very eerie and sort of ethereal in the last minute or so, and then fades out into “Veux-tu danser?” which I'm pretty sure is “Do you want to dance?”

Opening on a ticking clock and children's laughter, it again is driven by low-key, muted acoustic guitar and gentle percussion. Even when the vocal comes in it's relatively restrained, and as it goes on I think I even hear Icare cry. I'm sure I do. Probably playing a part but quite effective. I wonder is this some sort of glance back to childhood and the mistakes made in our youth? Eventually though he's had enough and explodes in rage or frustration. Good guitar solo coming up now. Okay, even someone as lingually challenged as I can guess what “Profunde misanthropie” means. And as if to confirm that, Icare is howling and roaring and snarling his pain and sorrow all over the track. Nice piano and the drums are particularly effective. Still hear no violin so far.

The final track is “La dryade”, and starts with a soft little piano piece, and now finally I hear Warren Ellislike violin, very mournful and sad. Flute? Or whistle? Uileann pipes maybe? Whatever it is it's lovely and goes for about five minutes before the violin starts to take things in a slightly more uptempo direction, like a reel or a jig, something traditional anyway. I have the feeling this may in fact be an instrumental, as the piano gets a little more upbeat and we head into the sixth minute. These guys can certainly play, and play well. It's been worth waiting for the violin, considering how it drives this final piece. Lovely finale on the piano.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Il était une forêt...
2. Le gala des gens heureux
3. Cicatrice
4. Veux-tu danser?
5. Profunde misanthropie
6. La dryade

Incredibly talented musicians, I think I said earlier, and so these guys are; it's just a pity I couldn't go deeper into their lyrics. Despite having the barest smattering of French (memories of what I learned in school, the old word or phrase picked up from TV or books) I couldn't really interpret the songs at all. But they did seem to be rooted in a love of nature, a witfulness for the past and perhaps a wish for simpler times. Even the singing did not put me off like it did with Nyktalgia, and again being a two-man operation, this work has to be applauded. Certainly a credit to their country.


Our first, probably only taste of Swiss ABM comes from a band who seem to have more demos than albums! Although this is self-titled, it seems there were four before it and another two after, with only two actual albums recorded, both splits with another band. Weird. Even at that though, this demo at least is close enough to the length of an actual album, racking up over fifty-four minutes in total, so although there are only three tracks there's a lot of music to get through.

Paysage d'Hiver --- Paysage d'Hiver --- 1999 (Kunsthall Produktionen)

Hey! I recognise that cover! That was, I think, Mojo's avatar for a long time. Or was it Overcast? Well, someone had it anyway. At this point, it comes as no surprise to me to find that Paysage d'Hiver (winter landscape in French) is one guy, who goes by the name of (anyone?) Wintherr, though his real name is Tobias Möckl. Each of the three tracks here clock in at just around the eighteen-minute mark, but if there's a longest track then it's “Welt aus Eis” at a clear one minute longer than the other two, nine seconds shy of nineteen minutes. Perhaps odd that he writes in German, when he's titling his albums in French and comes from Switzerland, although he does cite Burzum among his influences, so maybe that's why. Doesn't matter to me really, as whether the lyrics were in French or German I wouldn't be able to understand them.

Nice gentle easing in to the album: not. Mad, apocalyptic, chaotic guitar and drums with a screechy voice that opens “Welt aus Eis”, and I wonder will it change much over the course of almost nineteen minutes? Okay, well, after about seven minutes of pure guitar hammering and screaming, he breaks it down to some acoustic, sans vocals for now, which is a nice change and shows he really can play, which I allow was never really in doubt. Kind of an echoey effect there, gives a nice ambience to the music. Reaching the tenth minute and it gets heavier and darker, and Wintherr starts screeching again, though the basic melody remains. Think it may be like this right up to the end.

Well, no. I hear what may be violin or cello coming in and to be fair the layers of sound building up here are really impressive. After the seventh minute this song just got a lot more interesting. Now some dark synth and choral vocal synth is changing the whole style of the track while yet retaining its basic motif as it fades out towards its end. “Gefrorener atem” opens on that same sort of cold synth, echoey effects and phased guitar, very slow and almost menacing. Suddenly it kicks up and goes all mad like the beginning track, galloping drums and roaring vocal, though in the background I think the guitar is remaining low and steady. Fo twelve minutes it follows more or less the same melody, then slows down to synth while still basically keeping the same chords as far as I can see. Then in the fourteenth the guitars cut in more sharply and Wintherr is back howling and roaring.

“Der weg” begins in the same chaotic and intense way, but if I have a handle on Paysage D'Hiver now (and I'm not saying I do after two tracks) this is going to slow down to some either acoustic guitar, violin or keyboard somewhere around the fifth or sixth minute. Well, there's some synth coming in now in the tenth minute but it's just really joined the chaos, hasn't slowed it down or really changed it at all. It's settling down in minute fourteen to chiming guitar and droning synth, slowing down considerably and no vocals so far. And that's how it fades out.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. Welt aus Eis
2. Gefrorener atem
3. Der weg

Much of this album is not to my taste --- the long, sometimes seemingly formless guitar assaults, the shrieks --- but when he really tries Wintherr can make his music really interesting. He clearly can play, and though the credits just say “everything”, I feel he has guitar, bass, drums, piano, violin, keyboards and probably a bit more in there, so it's pretty impressive. Could do with a bit more variety, but certainly an interesting and entertaining album.

Having tried and indeed on the whole enjoyed what little we sampled of Swiss Atmospheric Black Metal, it's due east we go to sample some from France, one of the drivers, I'm told, of the genre and one of the most revered. Looks like they combine elements of avant-garde and also industrial metal into their sound, which may be interesting or at least different. Given the respect accorded to this album by those in the know, it's perhaps fitting that we bring our dark little odyssey to a close with a look at it.

The Work Which Transforms God --- Blut Aus Nord --- 2003 (Candlelight Records)

Why is this the one Blut Aus Nord album that neither Spotify nor GPM have? Fuck it anyway! Back to YouTube I must go! At least you can always rely on YT. The only thing that annoys me is when people upload albums without consecutive running times, which means you have to keep adding up the track times to make sure of where you are. Sigh. Anyway, taking their cue perhaps from The Doors, the album begins with “End”, a short, very ambient instrumental --- oh look ! Someone kind commenter has put the running times up for me. Thanks, Pyrobaguette1! As we reach the first track proper, “The choir of the dead” it kicks into what I guess you'd call real Black Metal, with the guitars going mental and that by-now familiar screech and roar that so often passes for vocals in this subgenre.

Not a whole lot to say really. Looks like we have another six minutes or so of this to go. Okay, the guitar is getting a little more recognisable now and there's a melody of sorts emerging around the fifth minute or so, drums slowing down to human level, kind of a warping effect on the guitars. Ending on what sounds like iron bells tolling and into “Axis”, which jumps out of the shadows and buries its teeth in your throat. Once you've got over the shock of that, the guitar settles a little but it's still mighty fast and plenty of howling is to be had. Not a whole lot in it to be honest, but at least it is short. Ambient and atmospheric instrumental number two is “The Fall”, a mere minute and a half, and it takes us into “Metamorphosis”, hard guitar leading the way but at least I can follow the riff for now.

Almost a hard rock feel to this, and it's much slower than anything else from the album so far, the drums maintaining a constant, steady beat thanks to GhÖst, while Vindsval handles guitars and W.D Feld the bass, but I have no idea who is singing (to use the word loosely) as nobody is credited. I feel it may be the guitarist but that's just a guess. “The supreme abstract” is a short track, just under three minutes, and seems to contain some sort of chant as well as bestial grunts that makes it sound like there's a chorus of pigs singing, and it's pretty much just a mess really. It leads into the longer “Our blessed frozen cells” which has a mostly slower, doomy feel and then halfway falls off to just wind sounds and feedback, then it comes back with a much clearer, and still slow guitar and percussion, but with a definite melody this time. Finishes really strongly and fades out.

Another instrumental then in “Devilish essence”, with what sounds like dark piano and a feeling of being followed down clammy, ill-light halls and slipping on slimy steps that descend deeper and deeper into the dark. Unnameable breathing is at your back and there is only one way to go now, and that is down, down into the stygian depths, towards whatever horrors await you. “The howling of God” sounds like it's going to be another chaotic mess, and so it proves, with hammering, frenetic guitar and thundering drumming, whoever is singing screaming and roaring as the song trundles along at top speed. Actually, to be fair, it does settle into something of a groove after a while. Becomes quite hypnotic, really.

The last of the vocal tracks then is “Inner mental cage” (should that be inner metal cage? No? Fair enough, then) and lasts a mere three minutes, and it's actually quite restrained and coherent. Really great doomy guitar, some sort of chanting, steady slow drumming. For a vocal track, there's virtually no singing, just chanting and I think some dark laughter. The album ends on two instrumentals, one short, one very long. The former is hardly even deserving of the title, being a mere eighteen seconds long, but the closer is almost ten minutes, making it by far the longest track on the whole album, and “Procession of the dead clowns” opens with a big rising screeching guitar and what may be a synth line, with some effects like chains and metal on stone, then breaks into a slow, doomy and yet powerful guitar-led anthem with a really fine melody. It's bascially the same phrase all the way through, but it really works with the title and closes the album extremely well.

TRACKLISTING AND RATINGS

1. End
2. The choir of the dead
3. Axis
4. The fall
5. Metamorphosis
6. The supreme abstract
7. Our blessed frozen cells
8. Devilish essence
9. The howling of God
10. Inner mental cage
11. Density
12. Procession of the dead clowns

Obviously, there are still aspects of Black Metal I don't care for: I like my music, in general, to have some sort of melody I can pick out and follow, or at least write about, and I like to be able to understand, insofar as possible, what's being sung, but I must admit I'm gaining a new appreciation of and respect for the subgenre. It's not, as I believed two years ago, nothing more than noise, played by people who can't play proper metal and so resort to this loud, abrasive, formless cacophony. There are some really great musicians in this subgenre, and I can see why this album is hailed as it is, and why it should be the natural terminus for our short voyage into darkness. A stunning end to a pretty breathtaking, at times scary but mostly revelatory adventure.

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The Batlord

Give COC time. I don't understand why you shouldn't love them right off the bat (I guess you're just gay), but they're what hard rock should be in this day and age. What were the other bands I recc'ed you, BTW? I remember COC and Candlemass, but other than that I just remember Danzig.

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Trollheart

Exodus: Slaves For Life --- Amaseffer --- 2008 (InsideOut Music)

The first thing I notice here is that this band appear to have a major label behind them, which is in stark contrast to the vast majority of bands I have checked out in this section, not only here in Israel, but all across the Middle East (or at least, the tiny portions we've touched on), most of whom are either unsigned or independent. The fact that Amaseffer have major backing should give them an edge over their contemporaries, and yet this appears to be their only album, and seven years old at that. The name of the band seems to translate in Hebrew as “People of the Holy Book”, and the album, as its title implies, looks to be a concept one covering the escape of the Jews from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Of the albums I've reviewed thus far, this seems to be the longest of any of them, clocking in at an impressive seventy-seven minutes.

We open with a narrated piece, not in English (Yiddish? Hebrew? Israeli?) and some flutey Arabic style backing, with a nice sort of clangy guitar as “Sorrow” opens the album, and very sorrowful indeed it is. Theres's a real sense of melancholy and loss in the music, which is mostly, almost entirely instrumental, bar the introductory few words. With the sounds of chains rattling, horses neighing and stone on stone, we move into the title track, with a dark, rising, grumbling guitar and a lament being sung again in a Middle Eastern language as the sound effects increase. I'm assuming this is meant to represent the Jews being sold into slavery.

The first proper guitar chords now merge with flute to produce a very Arabian melody as the song starts to take shape. Now I'm rather delighted to hear that the vocals are in English, and so I can follow this epic story instead of just wondering what the band are singing (or sometimes talking) about. My one problem is that nobody is actually credited as band vocalist --- some are shown as “narrator”, some as “actor” --- and they also use guest singers such as Angela Gossow from Arch Enemy, Mats Levin from Therion and Orphaned Land's talented singer, Kobi Fahri, so I have no idea who is singing at any one time. Be that as it may, this song seems to relate the story of Moses and his eventual breaking away from his Egyptian family in order to lead the Jews out of Egypt and to the Promised Land. It's pretty much progressive or symphonic metal for the most part with, as with Orphaned Land, many traditional instruments used, including oud, saz, tablas and bouzouki.

With breathtaking cinematic splendour and dramatic sweep, the song runs for over nine minutes and goes through several changes as it does, ending with the determination of the Pharaoh not to allow a messiah to be born to free the Hebrews, and to drown every one of their sons in the Nile. “Birth of deliverance” is an even longer track, over eleven minutes, and details the birth and hiding of Moses in the rushes near the river's bank. It's hard to describe what I'm hearing here. It's exactly like the soundtrack to a major motion picture, and it's a tribute to the skill and vision of the band and the players in the drama that it gives you shivers just to hear it. Vocal choirs, string orchestras, narration by actors (actual stage actors, called in for this project) and superbly clear and direct singing all make this album an absolute joy to listen to, and quite an experience.

Even in between the musical passages and the singing, and the narration, there are sound effects, speech and actions as if the movie this could be the soundtrack to is playing out on a big screen in front of us. It's so evocative, it's hard to remember you're not actually watching a film. It's almost wrong, even impossible, to review this track by track; it's something you have to experience as one overall thing. It almost does it a disservice to break it down, but take my word for it, this is one incredible album and if it were produced in the West this would be a massive hit and far better known than it is. It's part of a planned trilogy, but I would have to say that with no sign of part two after seven years, well, it's probably unlikely we'll ever get to hear the completion of the story, which is a real crime. But at least we have this opus to keep us happy. Stunning stuff.

TRACKLISTING

1. Sorrow
2. Slaves for life
3. Birth of deliverance
4. Midian
5. Ziporah
6. The burning bush
7. The wooden staff
8. Return to Egypt
9. Ten plagues
10. Land of the dead

I know, I know! I hardly really reviewed it. But it's such a sumptuous masterpiece that a short review of the kind I'm doing here would not in any way do this album justice. It deserves to be listened to, not really reviewed. You need to soak it in, luxuriate in it, drown in it, feel yourself being pulled in and under and never want to resist. It's more, so much more, than a metal album, more even than a rock opera, and if it were somehow filmed it would even be more than a movie. It's literally the story of a people, of their history and their struggles, their despair and their eventual triumph, their release from bondage and their quest for the land God had promised them.

It's all this, and so much more. For us, here and now, it's proof positive that amazing, inspiring, enthralling and captivating music is being made in this country, and the metal bands of Israel, certainly this one at any rate, could teach their more famous counterparts in the West a thing or two.

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