Islam Is Dead

Here's hoping that with a split album called "Islam is Dead", these Iranian BM acts aren't on the run from the Revolutionary Guards with fatwas over their heads. Apart from that fear, this recording is a fusion of black metal and native Iranian / Middle Eastern music traditions. There is some cheesy 1970s/1980s synthesiser work included but on the whole the album is an eye-opening load of fun travel through a different musical tradition in the company of a more familiar music genre. I swear I have not heard so much native traditional Middle Eastern music before the start of 2014 when first I came across a couple of Iranian and Iraqi BM acts than I have since then. It's astounding how two such different genres with seemingly nothing in common have been melded into an agreeable if not always harmonious whole.

Mogh lead off with four tracks showcasing an experimental BM / Iranian folk fusion that at times reminds me of some of the more wacky ambient experimental projects associated with the French Black Legions. Western and Persian instruments, field recordings of muezzins' calls to prayer and sprinkling water, and BM vocals are combined with Middle Eastern melodies, choirs and music structures to create a very dark and sinister music with a lot of exotic ambience. Incidentally the band is as much influenced by occult belief systems such as Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley in the UK in the 20th century, and by Zurvanism, an ancient cult that arose from the Zoroastrian religion about 1500 years ago during the Sassanid empire in Persia, which fact explains the band's mysterious and idiosyncratic style and image.

Of the four tracks offered, the best is "Get Lost Islam from Paganland" which is a perfect melding of eccentric scratchy BM vocal, guttural death metal counter-vocal and roaring guitar background with Western blast-beats and Persian rhythms and beats. The track builds to a bizarre climax with lots of thundering drum rolls, urgent tremolo guitar frills and a duet of barmy screeching and dyspeptic rumble. "Ey Lashgare Saheb Zaman" is not a bad track either for listeners who like some runaway lead guitar soloing indulgence and creepy whispery singing.

Cold Cry's side is more ambient than BM and on some tracks the only obvious BM element is the singing. Violin, piano, synthesiser and drums (or a drum machine) are the main instruments used along with a hefty dose of cold, near-empty space ambience. The impression I come away with is a fairly subdued set of songs with a great deal of tightly controlled anger that seems all the more enraged for its repression. One track "Be Afraid of Aryan Blood" (relax folks, the Aryan bit refers to the Iranian spirit and the song is actually about how the Iranians will one day rebel against Islam and what it stands for) suggests a great deal of deep inner turbulence beneath the plaintive piano, the sweeping violin lines and quietly tapping percussion.

The connection between the two bands in spite of their very different styles is the sole member of Cold Cry used to be a member of Mogh. Some listeners might also add an adventurous spirit in welding together elements of BM with other styles of music to create some unique and experimental fusions. The results aren't always consistent - Cold Cry's set of songs is uneven with some dull drum programming alongside the deliriously demented vocals and layered music - but the album is worth hearing at least once if only to appreciate the versatility of the black metal genre in accommodating Persian and other music fusion partners.