The Fallen

Aramaic is a death metal band from the United Arab Emirates. Rather than being known for its vibrant heavy metal scene, the United Arab Emirates is famous for being one of the richest countries with large reserves of natural oil. I was quite amazed to find out that such bands existed in this country which is usually less than tolerant towards counter-cultural trends like heavy metal and anti-religious movements, unless they have enough money to buy the ruling elite..money talks they say,and indeed it does.

Aramaic doesn't quite fit into the same category with bands like Obituary, Morbid Angel or Immolation, even though they still play death metal. The path towards which Aramaic seems to be heading towards is a much more sinister sounding black metal inspired death metal. The amount of talent in this short extended play is flabbergasting to say the least. The drummer keeps things extremely interesting and he occasionally indulges into what I assume to be some sort of folk percussion instrument which definitely has an "Arabic" vibe to it. The singer has an ungodly range. The highest shrieks, the lowest growls, the highest clean notes...this guy can do it all with a very mysterious charm that keeps the listener almost entranced. The guitar and bass work is frankly exceptional. One band which keeps popping up in mind when I try to compare this band with others, is Orphaned Land, only a few-notches more brutal.

The whole monumental vibe which the production perfectly manages to personify in musical form is very akin to the atmosphere which the most recent Behemoth albums all seem to share with each other. A lot of advanced ideas are put forward in terms of song-writing on this short release. If this short foray into deeper, more progressive death metal didn't have this stellar production, the music wouldn't have left the same impact it managed to have on me.

Although there is a considerable amount of keyboard presence throughout the entirety of this extended play, it is used very sparingly and very critically. I have literally nothing bad to say about the keyboards, because they sound unusually organic for such a young band. Most bands playing this sort of style, usually tend to go overboard with the use of the keyboards and turn the songs cheesy, however, Aramaic doesn't fall prey to this flaw like most other bands do. In my humble opinion, the two stand-out tracks on this extended play are "The King" and "The Fallen". They also happen to be the two longest tracks on this album.

Whereas most of the time, certain bands release really long tracks just for the sake of them being long. This usually plays out with bands releasing ten minutes long tracks containing very few ideas which are repeated to oblivion and are rendered mundane. Anyone who is searching for something fresh and exciting when it comes to extreme metal, one should do oneself a favour and check out this amazing band.