Rolling I Love Middle Eastern and Jewish Metal Thread (aka Mordy Metal thread)

After much prodding by Kerr I have started the ultimate repository for metal that keeps kosher (in the house, it's always eating shrimp when it goes out for dinner) and for listing discussing such metal as it comes up. So far the ultimate such album for this year (of 2011) is Pitom's Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes which smashes up klezmer + cantorial music with like Melvins and Napalm Death and even some EyeHateGod type stuff. Also of note this year (tho not as good) Arafel's For Battles Once Fought and Betzefer's Freedom to the Slave Makers. Gevolt (yiddish metal band) has a new album out this year too called AlefBase and can actually be downloaded for free here. It has an amazing cover too:

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/cover/d21/40115_gevolt_alefbase.jpg

Other bands/artists maybe worth discussing here: John Zorn, Jamie Saft, Orphaned Land, Distorted, Amaseffer, Yiddish Princess, Sonne Adam, Salem, Jewdriver, others that I'm missing atm.

hah "prodding" you said weeks ago you had this idea and all I said was you never did it!

ps no matter how much you ask im not doing a Catholic Metal thread!

Orphaned Land are pretty good, i liked that album you did in the mordy metal club. Jamie Saft is weird enough that i think The Wire readers could enjoy it.

this is bitchin' thread idea & I support it

what about Melechesh! love those guys

looove Melechesh, never heard anything else on here (well, other than Zorn), thx Mordy!

Melechesh is great -- particularly Djinn which is alltime classic

Oh, I missed posting the link for downloading the Gevolt album -- check out their official website.

any jewish doom bands you know of mordy?

not that i know of -- tho i'd also be really interested in hearing one

maybe doom is more a "christian" thing?

whoah

Salem, the first extreme metal band in Israel, was formed in 1985, under the name Axe Metal, and is thus one of the first bands in the worldwide underground metal scene to play brutal black metal. This can be heard in their self-titled rehearsal tape from 1986 and their live demo Destruction Till Death from 1987, recorded at the legendary 'Penguin' club, the only outlet for alternative music in Israel throughout the 1980s. This formula was later perfected by bands such as Beherit and Blasphemy in the early 1990s.

After five years underground, the band released another live demo, Millions Slaughtered (1990), with a new line-up and a genre shift towards the death/doom realms. This demo sold 1,500 copies and led to a record deal with the German label Morbid Records. In the film Global Metal, drummer Nir Nakav recanted a story relating to the demotape that somehow ended up in the hands of Varg Vikernes, who contacted the band and noted that while he appreciated the music, he loathed the anti-Holocaust lyrics and wished the band to perish in the Gulf War. The band, enraged, sent a reply; a few days later they were contacted by the local police, because they received a mailbomb from Norway.[1] The band's official website describes this story in the following manner: "SALEM was formed in 1985 along with the newly born extreme metal scene and released 2 demo tapes called: "Salem"(1986) and "Destruction till Death"(1987). Back than, SALEM were in very good relations with Mayhem`s founder Euronymous who offered SALEM relocation to Norway and joining the black metal inner circle. Varg Vikernes of Burzum who disliked the band's ideals thought differently and sent to vocalist Ze'ev Tananboim an explosive envelope by mail."

also it says

Salem's music is a combination of doom/death metal (slow-paced death metal) with oriental elements and high-pitched screaming-vocals (distorted hoarse screams). Riffing, henceforth, can range from slow and heavy doom metal riffing to very fast and rapid death metal riffing. This sound evolved from Salem's original style (first two demos), which was old-school black metal. Salem's latest two studio albums are much heavier than their former LP's.

grave in the sky are israeli:
http://www.metal-archives.com/release.php?id=147244

thick, nasty, noisy sludge. quite good. good enough that I'll forgive them titling a song "donnie darko" even.

I found an israeli doom band
http://www.doom-metal.com/interviews.php?entry=1023

was that our aldo doing the interview?

Rabies Caste (Israel)

http://www.metal-archives.com/index.php

"good enough that I'll forgive them titling a song "donnie darko" even."

one of my favorite albums of the last 5 or 10 years. the lyrics are just movie dialogue. i think.

everything on the heart & crossbone label is worth checking out.

http://hcbrecords.com/

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7536777

Zoovingroove, Mens Rea, Behind The Sun--none of these are household names in the U.S., but in Israel, they are some of the leading players in a subculture of hard rock and heavy metal acts that have yet to break through internationally. While the Jewish Music Group label tends to release cerebral offerings by klezmer bands, this exciting anthology is masterfully curated by JMG's Dean Schachtel, who knows from metal. The multiple facets of the Israeli rock underground get shown to full, dazzling affect, and one hopes that this collection is the first in a series.

Israel has been a holy and promised land for over four thousand years and is home to more than 7,000,000 people. Legendary bands like Dio, The Scorpions, NIN, Megadeth, Hatebreed and Rollins have all played throughout Israel.

This compilation CD showcases the very best unsigned bands from the booming Rock and Metal Israeli scene that has recently produced current Metal favorites Orphaned Land!

Bands from all over Israel submitted their demos to be a part of this groundbreaking CD. The final 15 bands were hand-picked by the producer and the final result is a showcase of the very best Rock and Metal bands from Israel.

From the Progressive/Death Metal sound of Abed on "The Coming Of Soon" to theMelodic Doom/Metal sound of Distorted on "Redemption" featuring female vocalist Miri Milman to the Dark Alternative/Rock sound of Noble Bratson "The Offer," "Israel Unleashed" has something that will surely please everyRock and Metal fan!

Im pretty sure you can search glenns metal archives prog Needle for info on israeli bands, but i'll leave him to answer that

dont think this is it https://pub.needlebase.com/actions/visualizer/V2Visualizer.do?domain=Metal-Index&thread=%40308420&typeId=9149585060559937604&render=List

glenn you around?

http://www.metal-archives.com/browseC.php?c=104

aband for you mordy http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=83244
would you wear a tshirt by them?

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=7842

You think the 2nd part of the name is pronounced Awful? I can't read it as anything else.

I think probably pronounced Oh-fell

That's the link to Israel in the Discordance. Scroll down that page a little and you'll see the list of bands. Click on the 180 at the top of the list and you'll go to the list of all of them.

ahh ok, thanks!

ok mordy here is an israeli doom band http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=41335

I took a guess that Godless might be a doom band and i was right http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=126672

Ok
Israeli Doom Metal band links

Barbara http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=41335
Divanity http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=96564
Godless http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=126672
Hymns of Hades http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=7528
Sad Entheus http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=40491

Doom/Death

Exile http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=47769
The Knell http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=11220
Voidal http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=35879

Doom/Gothic/Death Metal

Mercenary http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=60181

Symphonic Doom Metal
Moth Eaten Dream http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=61248

Industrial Sludge/Doom Metal
Grave in the Sky http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=88000

Melodic Black/Doom Metal

Tears of Israfel http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=12607

there's a couple of sludge & stoner bands too.

Anyone heard any of these bands?

found something by The Knell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVS5s9hWwyY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_xKjf4dBS0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wwnvn0VWrI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5v8KhBsyofI

Mordy what did you think of these?
And do you think doom metal is more likely to appeal to those brought up as christians? (even if they're athiest now) plus how do the religious jews react to black metal? Do they picket shows like in the usa?

also do you know of any other good middle east metal? I remember Terrorizer had a few special articles on all over the middle east that ran for a good few issues

I don't think religious jews picket metal bands much. There's too much other shit for them to picket before they start bothering with metal.

How big is metal in the middle east though? Isn't it banned in a fair few countries?

I seem to recall in that terrorizer article there was metal bands in iran and iraq that obviously had to play in secret & stuff as metal was unislamic. It didn't stop them making the music or listening. We are lucky we have it so easy here.

mordy did you check em out yet?

well?

I reviewed the second album by Nervecell (they're from Dubai) on BurningAmbulance.com on Friday.

Most of the time, Nervecell are not mold-breakers. They keep the Middle Eastern-isms to a minimum

but mordy likes the Middle Eastern-isms!!

I was listening to Jericho Jones just t'other day

http://www.angrymetalguy.com/sonne-adam-transformation-review/

and also

Century Media Records will release the debut album from Israel-based old school death metal band Sonne Adam. The label have set a April 4, 2011 release date for "Transformation" in Europe. (no word on a stateside release). Here is the blurb on the band and the album:

Jens Prueter (Head Of A&R, Century Media Records Europe): "Back in 1991, Century Media Records released the groundbreaking debut albums by Asphyx, Grave, Morgoth and Unleashed as well as the second album of Tiamat. It was the year death metal changed the metal world and thousands of bands were founded in garages around the world. 20 years later we are proud to sign a young band from Tel Aviv, Israel that knows the meaning of death unfortunately better than most of us. Sonne Adam mix the old doom/death of early Paradise Lost and technical insanity of early Morbid Angel with a fresh passion and raw energy that reminds me of the hunger and dedication I heard in the aforementioned debut albums 20 years ago, without sounding retro. Welcome to a new chapter of Century Media Death Metal!"

The history of Sonne Adam (which roughly translates into "hate humanity" in Hebrew) dates back to 2007 when a young Israeli duo consisting of Davidov (all instruments) and Dahan (vocals) started a musical project to create "death metal in the vein of early Paradise Lost but with a more shamelessly evil and blasphemous touch and some Morbid Angel thrown in the mix". Plain and simple.

The band's first recording was an EP named "The Sun Is Dead" (which so far remains unreleased) followed by another EP named "Armed With Hammers" which caught the attention of underground label Imperium Productions from Germany who subsequently released it on 7" vinyl in 2010. The resulting underground buzz within the deepest depths of forums and fanzines mounted in the renowned German Rock Hard magazine even awarding it the title "demo of the month" and predicting the band to become a hot topic among all death metal maniacs.

Seeing Sonne Adam developing into an amazing, highly promising underground act, Century Media Records picked them up for the release of the band's debut album "Transformation" in cooperation with Imperium Productions who will handle the album's vinyl version. The band itself never thought about ending up on such a big label as Davidov states: "We didn't imagine that we will receive so much attention when we wrote the album a year and a half ago, when the "Armed With Hammers" EP wasn't even released yet. Hell, we didn't even know back than how strong the old school death metal scene will be again. We never were "label hunters" so it was a big surprise. Actually, being from Israel and signing to a big label is more crucial than you think as we are very isolated from our crowd. No matter what, our heart is in the underground. Always was and always will be! If someone thinks that we are selling out he can go f**k himself. We are very pleased with signing with Century Media."

94/100 in this review
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=18545&lang=en

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge8QVB9iwZ8&feature=player_embedded

huh, just did a search and either i missed my earlier post or it somehow never went up

if not had meant to ask if ppl had read Heavy Metal Islam by Mark LeVine http://www.meaning.org/hmi_index.html

keep hearing good stuff abt it but but have not checked the book out yet

Libyan rebel death metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUan47eh4gI

I read Heavy Metal Islam a while ago and didn't like it much.

was it boring or badly written?

chak1 needs to be on this thread

The writing was okay, but he couldn't find enough metal acts to make a book so he started writing about Palestinian rappers and other unrelated bullshit.

Mordy > http://209.59.186.200/~metalarc/reviews/Sonne_Adam/Transformation/300637/autothrall

Lord Byron said it best: 'And the clouds perish'd; darkness had no need of aid from them - She was the Universe'. Well, She has just ruptured her womb, the able heretics of Sonne Adam slid forth on her dire humours, now arrived to dispel the warmth of the living and cannibalize their hopes and dreams.

Mordy revive this thread

new orphaned land this year!

never heard these guys before - tel aviv female-fronted metal:
http://open.spotify.com/album/6kQCgNk9HkHnWLoNHJvwca

apparently they're running a kickstarter for their new album:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/314679247/new-earlyrise-album/

https://fbcdn-profile-a.akamaihd.net/hprofile-ak-snc7/372924_129294053906632_255669003_n.jpg

ben is david draiman (from disturbed)'s brother i think. i don't know his music.

count me out on wanting to hear it,lol

new orphaned land this year!

Excellent. My wife still works with the dude that is friends with some of them, I'm going to have to see if he has an early hook-up.

Kurdish metal from Turkey:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvHCarMTImM

Ferec is the first heavy metal band who sing all in Kurdish. The band members currently live in a Kurdish city called as Colêmerg (Hakkari) in Turkish frontiers.

I posted this on the Iranian Metal thread, but I figure it belongs here too - incomplete Spotify playlist of Iranian metal:
http://open.spotify.com/user/mordys/playlist/60M2VRgmokDR1wVbC5YoQD

Folk metal cover of dale's hava nagila from Egyptian band Uncaged (who acc to their fb page are working on a new album):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=387Y9zBvTE8

Orphaned Land
Studio report: Jens Bogren started mixing the new Orphaned Land album!

All Is One
June 24th EU
June 25th USA

yay

Mordy has a soundrop middle east metal room on spotify
http://open.soundrop.fm/s/WmIEkGn5Y72kVJ7f

why does Mordy get a gold star?

He won the poster of the month award.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/994780_10151515785658036_1969211041_n.jpg

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/08/11/world/meast/israel-palestinian-jewish-rock-bands-for-peace/

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/dec/05/syria-way-genocide/

oops, wrong thread

AlNamrood - Heen Yadhar Al Ghasq

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/3/9/8/5/398598.jpg?2013

my fave middle east folk metal album of these very early days of 2014 ^

also, my fave 5 of the genre from 2013 here:
http://blogs.forward.com/the-arty-semite/189459/top--middle-eastern-metal-albums-of-/

AlNamrood translates to "the non-believer" and comes from an ancient historical autocratic character. He ruled the world maliciously and stated "I am the God of all creation".

Al Namrood's good.

so good! i love how unabashedly it uses middle east folk idioms. i hate when i find a new ME metal album and it's indistinguishable from thrash in, idk, the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mImrWVMoHU

turkish metal w/ gothic influences - idk why it isn't displaying w8r

Greek, very interesting stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mImrWVMoHU

lol wait hold up that's not it. this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3y7aYqD_u4

cool, listening now.

i also really like this album --

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCw5yp7SalM

ok I've been spending today with that Hail Spirit Noir album and it seriously is just hitting all the spots for me. God DAMN this is a good record.

The previous Hail Spirit Noir album was *just* the right side of Prog for me, off to check out this new one...

checked it out last night and loved it

tunisian metal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZdiUJPuhow

http://dahakara.bandcamp.com/album/evil-of-all-decades

http://www.metalempire.co.uk/2014/03/metal-empire-talks-music-turkish-death-metallers-seal-solomon/

the album is on spotify - i like it

https://shaytanproductions.bandcamp.com/album/diaji-al-joor

this is some bullshit: http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/02/10/members-of-iranian-band-jailed-could-be-executed-for-playing-metal/

The members of an Iranian metal band, Confess, have been arrested by the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution as a result of their musical preferences, according to Metal Nation News (by way of Unite Asia). The band members were held at Evinperison from November of last year until just last week, when they were released on bail of 1,000,000,000 Iranian Rial* — more than $33,000 U.S. — and, worse still, allegedly kept in solitary confinement for the duration of that time. They currently face charges of blasphemy, advertising against the system, forming and running an illegal and underground band and recording label in a musical considered to be Satanic, writing lyrics that are anti-religious, atheistic, political, and anarchistic, and granting interviews to forbidden foreign radio stations. These musicians could now be jailed from six months to six years, or even executed if they’re found guilty of the blasphemy charge… which I imagine they will be, based on this song alone:

Maybe interested to post this here, I've been following this for a while now. A Syrian metal guy called Monzer Darwish filmed the material for a documentary Syrian Metal Is War about life and metal in Syria during wartime, and is now finishing the film after his escape last year to The Netherlands.

Trailer here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-JyWKMLI9M

Facebook page

this tunisian metal album is fantastic - very heavy maqam influences, fevered poppy hooks + lovely acoustic interludes. only complaint is the vocals are v meh to me and i'd prefer they were in arabic and not english and/or not legible:

http://nightmarerecords.com/os_mag/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/m/y/myrath_legacy_1.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uM1d7C8aOWk

What's happening these days?