Heen Yadhar Al Ghasq

AlNamrood, the well-know band from Saudi Arabia, returns two years after the last full length album with their new album which is called “Heen Yadhar Al Ghasq”. Regarding time, the band is moving forward its historic narration for the journey of the Arabic world through the centuries. “Heen Yadhar Al Ghasq” continues by the point that they left us in “Kitab Al Awthan” describing the effects of religions and mainly of islam to the culture and the evolution of the Arabs. Musically the band is moving in the music paths that it was following in its previous releases. For those who haven’t already met AlNamrood, the band plays oriental traditional music combined with Metal music, extreme outbursts, intense atmosphere and extreme vocals.

The band in every new release adds more and more oriental elements. So here the listener will come across many oriental rhythms as also the oriental instruments (e.g. zither) to have a bigger role inside the compositions. The riffs follow that direction reminding a lot of traditional music played by electric guitar. The images that they create deliver you instantly to Arabia in an older era, while the atmosphere that they create is warm and thick, like you are in the hot desert. Apart from the above, the compositions don’t lack in extreme parts, passages or outbursts too that along with the majestic feeling, also the feeling of threat, violence and chaos. The compositions are of medium size concerning the duration (from four to seven minutes) and they are quite interesting as the band has achieved with changes in the riffing, in the traditional melodies but also in the images that they create, to maintain the listener’s interest undiminished throughout the forty minutes that the seven duration of the album last.

As in the previous albums too, the band here too has paid special attention to the instruments. The guitars have the premiere role that in several parts they give it to the traditional instruments. Their sound is warm, bass and clean, while they deliver the images and the atmosphere flawlessly. The traditional instruments have bigger and more important role by the previous albums, they give the oriental elements to the compositions very intensely. The bass is almost inaudible. The drums are played with stability and certainty while their lines are a mixture of Metal rhythms and oriental music putting out an interesting result. As almost in every album, in this one too, the band has a different singer. The vocals here too are heavy vocals but their expression is theatrical and very special, they may bring to your mind the style of Master’s Hammer. The lyrics are not contained in the cd and they are written in Arabic. They refer to the transition of the Arabs from the pagan era to the era of islam and the wars and the bloodshed that it caused.

With their fourth full length album, AlNamrood introduce to their music more oriental elements putting the listener inside the music tradition of Arabia. The experimentation that they attempt all these years is interesting but also the band shows that it is working a lot and with much attention for every release that they do. For sure the sound of the band is very special and different. To all those that they liked the previous albums, I think that you will like “Heen Yadhar Al Ghasq” even more. Those of you that you haven’t met and you are searching for original or special releases, listen to this album.