Ain Soph Aur

There are a lot of oddball black metal bands, but there aren't many oddball death metal bands. The only two I can think of are Gorguts and Phlebotomized. Luckily for me, I just found another band that can be added to that list. Its name is Ahrimah.

Their only release, Ain Soph Aur, begins with this orchestral piece that I've heard somewhere before, but I can't remember where. Don't worry, friends. There's more craziness to follow!

This is a demo, so the production is obviously not that great. You'll really have to crank up your stereo in order to hear everything. But despite this, the instruments are handled perfectly. For one thing, the bass is played with precision and is really high in the mix, stomping across the plains like a monster that... stomps across the plains!

The guitars are absolutely stellar. Although the riffs and tone sound evil, they exude a strangely warm atmosphere, and there are even times when they go into a clean-sounding section and play some truly unorthodox riffs and solos (“Pain of Recognition” and “First Thing First...”). The drums are great with lots of great beats and fills, but I wish the production on them could have been better. They just sort of stay behind the other instruments. Finally, the vocals are delightfully disgusting and sort of remind me those Finnish oddballs in Demilich. The album ends with a sampling from the song “Conquest of Paradise” by Vangelis. I know it's supposed to be grand and majestic, but whenever I hear it, my mind goes straight to the finale of the animutation series Colin Mochrie vs Jesus H. Christ.

In summation, Ahrimah's Ain Soph Aur is an anomalous amalgamation of thick and intricate bass, unorthodox guitars, and downright alien growls. Only the enlightened are capable of understanding their work. This probably explains why Ahrimah released only one demo.

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