Melechesh
Djinn
[Osmose]


"Djinn" is an exceptional piece of work from the originally Israeli band Melechesh. For those who have not heard any Israeli bands, there is something strange always going on in their albums, something that isn't quite acceptable or quite right by any standards. To be honest I never liked any of the Israeli bands but when I noticed that Proscriptor plays with Melechesh and they have occult lyrical content, I looked at this one from a different angle.

Anyone searching for an easy piece of cake is going to be disappointed, I myself was expecting for a bit too obvious 'Arabian Nights' feel with the song titles like "Genies, Sorcerers and Mesopotamian Nights". They do have that feel, yes, but they don't exaggerate it. You could draw comparison to the way Absu treats celtic subjects without sounding celtic in the silly way I bet the soundtrack to the forthcoming Lord of the Rings movie is going to sound.

It's an asset to search for a more rewarding way to interpret an old experience or sensation and I got some powerful Mesopotamian kicks from Melechesh' sophomore album (this). The songs are all firmly rooted in the old-school heavy metal tradition - they listen to a lot Mercyful Fate, a lot of thrash but also a lot of modern black metal which makes them take an evil approach to the writing; they take on to a heavy metal chorus ("assyrian war demon! assyrian war genie!") when it suits them and then they go on to make an ambience out of a complex collateration of evil riffs that will rip your guts apart, you start thinking that this isn't really a very nice album to listen to.

It holds together in an acceptable way and I bet that they like this album themselves very much. And I really appreciate much more the people who do this stuff than the people who do shitty albums in Norway.

[note: later this reviewer got an e-mail from Melechesh informing him that the band is not Israeli]


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