El-Ahrairah

I don't mean for the title or what I'm about to state to sound insulting, but based on the distribution information, my expectations were not high for this album - we're talking about an album from the present year with its physical release limited to 100 copies on cassette. Oddly, El-Ahrairah was recorded in 2014 but not released for nearly two more years, and that time certainly was not spent on mastering the recording. This is raw black metal not in the Nattens Madrigal sense, but rather the "we could only afford two days of studio time and 100 blank cassettes" sense.

So, how does this album actually sound? Rich, incredibly. The lower range of tones is denser than in most modern black metal releases, sounding almost sludgy at times, although at the loss of some clarity in the riffing. This is not necessarily a bad thing - perhaps unintentionally, it creates an interesting effect in the opening of the first track, in which the guitars seem to be playing in a much slower meter than they actually are, causing their riff to sound like a polyrhythm when the drums enter. Ambient passages and clean vocals are also scattered throughout the album. The vocals, for the most part, are exactly in line with what one would expect from a raw black metal release, yet the listener is presented with an ambient chant that comprises the majority of Cut Like Rogues, and Rind of the Earth sounds like it could have conceivably been cut from The Mantle.

The influences are all over the place - any particular track may expose the listener to dark ambient, second-wave black metal, folk, punk, or post-rock. Some of this material borders on commercial accessibility, in particular Madeline and Edmund. Emotionally, the band explores far more area than is to be expected. Much of what's on display here is dark, certainly, but this album is more melancholic and resigned than it is angry, despite the usual howl of the vocals.

El-Ahrairah is a complex release, despite its short running time. This is dense material, with so much going on in such a short span that it is difficult to give a sufficient summary without breaking down the minutia of each track. It has taken me several listens to form much of an opinion about it, but I know this much - I like it quite a bit, and I look forward to giving it many more playthroughs.