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venerdì 23 febbraio 2018

Arallu - Six

#FOR FANS OF: Black/Thrash, Melechesh
Hailing from the urban settlement called Ma'aleAdummim in Israel, Arallu is a five-piece devoted to black/death metal that has been around the metal underground for twenty years. The band got the name Arallu from the Mesopotamian mythology, as it was the name of the underworld kingdom ruled by the goddess Ereshkigal and the god Nergal, where the dead are judged. Arallu's music revolves around the traditional ancient Middle Eastern melodies of fellow countrymen Melechesh, with the high-speed savagery of bands like Angelcorpse and Blasphemic Cruelty, and the atmospheric feel of legendary acts like Immolation and Incantation.

Last 2015 the band released a record called 'Geniewar', and that opus had solidified Arallu's already known talent to the underground extreme metal community. 'Six' is the band's sixth full-length studio album and overall their ninth material released. This release offers the listeners a very stunning infusion of occult black metal with the ancient Sumerian and Middle Eastern sound. The riffs found here will satisfy the listeners with its frenzy melodic tremolo picking that is intertwined with some eerie folk instrumentation. These elements in the guitar section, thrown in with a few folk instruments such as a saz and a darbuka, reveals how the band had successfully stripped metal down to its core adding a personal touch of their own special flair.

But that's not just what the guitars offer here as a labyrinth of aggressive and tormenting crisp guitar riffs also accompanies the songs in this offering. The evident and audible bass line gives a really pleasant mattress for the guitars as it supports them and it provides that extra punch and low-end heaviness to the overall outcome of Arallu's music. It basically lies steadily beneath the guitars as it backs them up with some thick lines that give a more deep feel to the strings and dispenses an ominous atmosphere to the tracks. The drum section also catches the audience's attention with a variety of destructive pummeling double bass blasting to some Middle Eastern tribal drumming that helps a lot in terms of keeping the atmosphere intact.

On the vocal department, the record is filled with some hale and hearty high-pitched piercing shrieks and screams which create a dark and raw soundscape. These vicious shrieks are sometimes jacked up with some uncanny backing vocals that tie together the brutality of extreme death and black metal music to the ancient Middle Eastern scales of the material. 'Six' also parades the band's strongest production to date in their twenty years of existence. Each track in this opus sounds more well-rounded and very lucid than their previous releases, but at the same time, they sound harsh and aggressive that it utterly satisfy the fans' desire to find a memorable black/death metal album.

Overall, although 'Six' may be a typical album from an extreme metal band coming out from Israel, its music takes a different direction on its’ way to epoch-making symmetry. Arallu had created a menacing and atmospheric beast in this style of metal with their release of this varmint offering. These Israelis had put out a savage album that is hardly comparable to its predecessors. If you fellas haven't gotten a copy of this record yet, then you better go and get yours now. (Felix Sale)
 
(Transcending Obscurity Records - 2017)
Score: 75

https://arallu.bandcamp.com/album/six-folk-black-thrash-metal