This very enticing collection of Oriental Metal bands encapsulates a great spread across this genre, featuring groups from countries like Israel, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Egypt. As one of the prominent bands in the genre, Orphaned Land (the project put together by the band’s vocalist) opens the disc with a melody-rich Metal approach, featuring great female backing vocals (and Hebrew lyrics). Turkish act Pentagram has been around since the 80s (known as Mezarkabul outside of their country to avoid confusion with the Doom band of the same name). Almana Shchora offers up a slower melancholic track, with Nervecell delivering a more traditional Metal-style instrumental. Arkan contributes one of the more impressive songs, layered with diversity and style. Amaseffer’s track emits a powerful cinematic tone, while Melechesh burst forth with one of the more paced Black Metal flavoured songs. While Nile is an intense American band, their dedicated ancient Egyptian/Mysticism subjects earned them a spot on the compilation. What is very cool about these bands is the fact that it has that Western Metal sound (with equally good performances & production), but with that added Oriental touch and traditional instruments, be it throughout the entire song, just as an intro, a riff in the chorus, a percussive passage or a recurring vocal melody.
