Melechesh
As Jerusalem Burns... Al'Intisar

The official debut of Melechesh, a standout name in the Israeli black/death scene and generally part of that colorful movement labeled as "oriental metal," dates back to 1996 with the release of the full-length "As Jerusalem Burns... Al'Intisar," an album I am now going to review. The album includes five tracks from a '95 demo plus some unreleased pieces, for a total of ten tracks (twelve in the 2002 reissue).

This is clearly black metal, as evidenced by the cover and the vocals of Melechesh Ashmedi (singer, guitarist, and band leader), but it's a peculiar kind of black; the group itself uses the label "mesopotamian metal" to indicate a bazaar situated at the crossroads between the frantic rhythms of black, the landscapes of the Middle East, and the ancient Sumerian cosmogonies. Carefully digging in the sand, one also finds remains of death (more numerous in later albums) and scraps of danceable folk metal. It's natural to compare them to Nile, although the comparison should be made cautiously: Melechesh indeed play a different type of metal and are not imitators (the two bands began taking their first steps around the same period) but musicians with personal and well-defined ideas.

The range of the album in question is quite wide, spanning from frontal assault to slower and more melodic episodes. The former is in fast-paced tracks like "Sultan Of Mischief" or "Hymn To Gibil," a sort of hysterical prayer to the god of fire in the Sumerian pantheon, while the melodic glimpses, in addition to tearing through the fabric of nearly all the tracks, especially emerge in the mid-tempo of "Planetary Rites." There are also long and complex songs such as "Assyrian Spirit," which nearly reaches ten minutes, and an instrumental track like "Dance Of The Black Genji" complete with tambourines, bongos, and atmospheres reminiscent of a thousand and one nights. Dominating everything are the oriental scales that grant the fast black riffing, usually so cold, an unusual musicality, dare I say almost exotic.

It should not be forgotten, however, that this is a debut, and as often happens, the most original insights coexist with obvious references to the masters discernible both in the lyrics, with the inevitable Satan & Behemoth peering here and there (but what do they have to do with Gibil and company?), and in the music. "Devil Night", for example, is a thrash ride complete with a solo (the only one in the album), some vocal parts with effects that seem straight out of the early eighties, and even a couple of chuckles in pure Venom-style to seal it all: pleasant, but already heard.

In any case, the references to the past should not overshadow the originality of this debut: even if the mosaic sketched here will achieve greater completeness in subsequent works, you can already notice, as we mentioned, the distinct crossover between black metal and the Middle East, as well as a certain ease in distancing black from its Scandinavian roots to make it a flexible and contaminated language. Recommended listening.