Funeral Rain Press Corps

Genre: Black Metal 
Label: Shaytan Productions

Look out Darkestrah, here’s another band that plays authentic middle eastern inspired black metal! And from the sounds of things… they’ve got your number! (If I ever would of finished my Top 50 Favorite Albums Of All Time list, you would of found out that Darkestrah’s The Great Silk Road is my favorite metal album of all time… but I’m lazy.)

And oh boy, do those middle eastern influences really stand out front and center! I mean, we all know that black metal kicks ass, right? Well, imagine letting some of the most deranged and, let’s face it, fascinating history dictate were and how the music itself grows and changes… pretty exciting, am I right?

The guitars are a joyous mix of typical black metal shred and progressive riffing. They mix quite well with the perfectly rendered bass (both played by Mephisto) that bangs and booms with all the might and majesty of Anu and Enlil! But then we come to the keys (oriental keys, that is)… wow. You know how sometimes you’re listening to a black metal album and you think, “Man, this is missing something.”? I swear to Marduk that these keys are it! The haunting edge they add to every song is nothing short of GENIUS! Thanks Ostron!

And how can I forget the drums? Naw, I couldn’t even if I tried! Skinsman Darius plays his way through the whole of Estorat Taghoot, mixing in your standard blackened aggression with (again) progressive beats. Last but not least, we come to the vocals. Imagine the best black metal vocals you’ve ever heard from any band. Who comes to mind? Belphagor? Immortal? Dark Throne? Yeah, add this guy. They’re perfect. That’s all I can say. (Except this: Mardus isn’t even officially in the band! Why the fuck not?!? …but to be fair, I haven’t heard the new guy’s vocals yet.)

You probably think that I’m just ejaculating all over this album for shit and giggles. But I swear to you on the highest and lowest of authorities that this album is a gift for one, the other or possibly both of those authorities…

Overall: Yeah, those are some big statements for me to make, but what choice do I have? This album is easily one of, if not the best album I’ve ever heard!

10/10

Al-Namrood On MySpace 

Ah, Shaytan Productions. You’ve been so patient with me over these past couple of months. You see, I’ve been sitting on this review for about three months now and I’m FINALLY getting around to listening to it. I don’t know why, either. It’s destructive Italian black metal with some English and German lyrics with an Egyptian theme… *whew*

With that being said, there are a lot of other things that I could say about this offering. A LOT of things. But instead, I’ll sum it all up with this simple statement: HOLY FUCKING SHIT THERE’S A LOT OF AWESOME STUFF GOING ON IN THIS EP!!!  …Ok, you’ll probably need more than that to go on, won’t you?

First off, let’s talk about those vocals. Fucking killer! Quintessential black metal vocals that range from typical shrieks to tortured throaty screams! Every bit of which is used very effectively to tell various stories about mummification, purification and the end of the world! The guitar in this is more on the minimal side of things, but is once again, used very effectively. The riffs are tuned way down low, giving us that earth rumbling, “the end is nigh” sort of feeling. During the course of Awaiting The Golden Age, I had to keep checking the sky to make sure that it was really falling or turning blood fucking red! And now, the background meat of this EP: the synths and the like. Whenever there is programming in my black metal, I tend to get a little iffy about it. “Ewww.” I think. But solo honcho Hell-IO-Kabbalus managed to make what should of been a tinny, unattractive offering into a powerhouse of auditory awesome with orchestral stings, xylophones and various strings populating this twenty one minute EP. Somehow, H-I-K made Mantra For The End Of Times feel much longer in the process as well. Not that it really matters though. You’ll probably do like I did and just keep it on repeat for a day or two, looking for and find new things to love about it many times over.

Simply epic. Every note.

Overall: This is one of those releases that you just cannot in good conscience, let people not know about and can’t seem to recommend enough. I implore you good readers (at least, those of you who even kinda like black metal), track down this EP and snatch it up! You won’t regret it!

10/10

Kalki Avatara On MySpace

Genre: Dark Ambient

Label: Shaytan Productions

Now this… is… fucking awesome! As soon as I received Jilwah (and after I read a brief description of it and separated it from it’s black metal cousins in the stack of CDs that Shaytan Productions had sent me), I popped it into my CD player, turned off the lights and plopped down on the floor. Twenty seven minutes and twenty seven seconds later I got up, hit play again and laid back down on the floor and waited for Dhul Qarnayn to work his magic one more time.

To recap, I was expecting this to be a black metal album. I was hardly disappointed to find out that it was a dark ambient single. Upon further research, I discovered that I was a split and EP too early to hear any of main man Learza’s minimalist black metal offerings. (Shucks!)

Jilwah is just a shade under a half and hour of meditative serenity, intermixed with moments of shocking turbulence that, while only lasting a few seconds at a time, makes quite the impact. They’re like spiritual potholes that test the listeners soul alignment. There are a couple of section where you come across chanting (I believe that it’s in Arabic, but don’t quote me on that) that comes off eerily soothing. They’re the only verbal anything you’ll hear through the entirety of Jilwah.

There are folksy flourishes from time to time as well. They remind me of something that you might hallucinate if you managed to get yourself lost in the desert and were succumbing to heat stroke (sunburn not included). But then, in the nick of time, you stumble upon a lush oasis. You plunge into the glimmering spring before resting in the shade of the single massive palm tree, of which you feast on it fruits that magically fall into your mouth, ready to munch… yeah, I know. I’m doing that thing again where I go off on a tangent that is more of an interpretation of what I heard rather than a review. But you know what? Bite me. Ambient music, rather GREAT ambient music makes you to crazy things to let you know how much you appreciate it!

Overall: Jilwah is immeasurably amazing! It’s everything that I’ve personally ever wanted in an ambient offering: complexity, emotion and provocation of deep meditative thought. Jilwah and Phelios’s Astrial Unity are tied from first on my top ten favorite ambient listening experience!

10/10

Dhul Qarnayn has since called it quits so no links for you!