Saudi Arabia, while generally known for its vast oil (money)
supplies and the iconic holy city of Mecca, these days has a potentious metal
scene despite the still strict Islamic cultural and social impositions of the country’s
government. The past ten years or so has seen changes in Saudi Arabia though,
and while still a far cry from the explosive European and American lack of
censorship, it is currently freer of artistic expression than it’s ever been,
opening paths tentatively into cultural diversity and even gender equality. In
2003, a piece in the Guardian on metal in Islamic countries reported that
“Saudis aren’t really into rock and heavy metal”, but today if we look up SA on
Metal Archives we are given a list of a fully twelve bands all playing extreme
metal, mostly black and death related projects, while a number of other metal
and rock related bands can be found through other avenues of the internet. Two
of these groups who’ve recently been producing music are Creative Waste, SA’s
only grindcore band, and Al-Namrood, who mix traditional elements of Middle
Eastern music with symphonic black metal.
Creative Waste - Slaves
Creative Waste are a self-stated Nasum worship band from the
Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. It’s good to see the nice open nature of
their attitude though, as clearly their music does hold many debts to
Nasum, the only real difference between the bands being the song structure
which in the case of the Middle Eastern band often tends to be a bit longer
like a traditional death metal song. Originality aside, Creative Waste are a
musical wrecking ball. Slaves to Conformity displays three young
musicians who have considerable skill with their instruments and a knack for
dropping catchy grind hooks that ranks with the best of them. Ten songs run a
solid thirty minutes, with guest drum work from Kevin Talley (current Six Feet
Under drummer who’s known for his work with the likes of Dying Fetus and Misery
Index). Every song holds consistently to the bar of the attention-grabbing
opener “Divide and Conquer”, and blessed with crisp and crunchy production from
beginning to end the album is a very listenable affair (at least to grindcore
appreciators) that shows no concentrated weak spots or moments of
disappointment. The Orwellian cover art
is classic grind/punk social commentary of the dark and unforgiving sort. While
Saudi Arabia appears to be allowing more musical freedom than in the past, it
must be noted that it is still difficult for bands to play live or acquire
non-digital foreign musical goods, and of course on top of that the Saudi
metalhead has to deal with aged political traditions of repression and
oppression that apply to all citizens of the country. I hope that this makes
the country a susceptible spot to the sways of a traditionally rebellious and
notoriously political subgenre like grindcore, especially with the Internet
sweeping globalization broadly across the planet’s most far out corners like it
is these days. To me it doesn’t matter how many notes Creative Waste took from
the books of Nasum, in fact personally I fucking love Nasum worship bands,
especially if they know what they are doing. Slaves to Conformity is a
ferocious little album and a kicking start to a scene I hope this band manages
to create and influence.
In summary: If you like Nasum, you will like Creative Waste.
A very solid slab of grindcore, and a band I can’t wait to see further releases
from.
Standouts: “Kingdom of Fear”, “Slaves to Conformity”,
“Cradle to Grave” and others
Score: 8.5
Al-Namrood – Kitab Al-Awthan
Black metal is everywhere these days, as any fool can see,
and all forms of this once obscure musical style are being experimented with at
rapid rates. Saudi Arabia is no exception. All of Al-Namrood’s music is about
ancient Arabian history, and incorporates folk elements into their brand of
symphonic black metal, using real Middle Eastern scales. The album opens with a
symphonic introduction that, if you’ve never listened to Al-Namrood before,
sets half the tone of the entire album. These symphonics – almost always in
Middle Eastern modes – are strangely unsettling, like back when you first
listened to black metal and it was still weird and alien and creepy in the way
only obscure amateur shit can be. They are also invasive and sometimes grating
against the other half of the album’s tone – raw Middle Eastern folk black
metal with an incredible guitar tone, rocking mid-paced riffage and great
vocals. Everything otherwise of the keyboards has a very organic tone, so the
keyboards might put a few people off this one because when they come in they
attach a synthetic kind of tackiness and weirdness to the music. This crudeness
is weirdly effective sometimes, however, and I have to say it’s one of the only
ways I could discredit the album. Riffs are perfectly fused amalgamations of
folk and black metal, similar to Melechesh if they weren’t a thrash band, so when
this is combined with those odd, finger-pounding keyboards (this dude plays the
piano like he’s playing Street Fighter) and you can expect a pretty exotic
sounding metal album. This is the best thing about Al-Namrood, really – they make
something different that is a nice change to common metal customs practiced in
other parts of the world.
In summary: An atmospheric cross of Middle Eastern and
metallic sounds, Kitab Al-Awthan offers a different sound to most metal
you will hear, and despite the sometimes clunky and irritating keyboards, an
interesting and worthy listen.
Standout tracks: “Al Quam, Hakem Al Huroob”, “Bani La'em”
Score: 7.5
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