Metal from the East

Orphaned Land at 02 Academy Islington on Nov. 11, '10.
Photo by yours truly.

Me and my wife had the immense pleasure of attending Orphaned Land's gig at the 02 Academy Islington in London. OL supported our countrymen Amorphis, who gave a fine and reliable performance but, in my ears at least, came in a good second to OL's vibrant, rich and joyous performance. I have in my mobile a video clip from the show, with OL's singer Kobi Farhi leading the bouncing crowd in a Middle Eastern chant while the band blasts away sheer metal.

A very odd-seeming combination, but oh man... a totally different experience! The Arabic/Jewish grooves simply sway, creating a different, elastic framework to the metal assault, while the non-Western scales and harmonies give everything a unique coloring. And to top it all, we got to meet Kobi, Yossi and Matan after the show, so... pretty perfect, thank you guys :)

OL are not the only Oriental Metal masters around, it seems. About a week ago, I made first contact with the Mesopotamian Black Metallers Melechesh and was left wondering what hit me. With band HQ in Israel, Melechesh are actually a multicultural bunch, but the band sound is most certainly Eastern-tinged. And they are destructive: I don't recall hearing a band this tight in the genre since... about never. Not only do they play extremely well, their songwriting and the varied instrumentation are top notch.

None of this takes away from their essential fury; at times they sound like Sumerian wind demons with instruments. Very impressive, very skillful - the best extreme metal I have heard, period. When might you guys be coming over to Finland...?