We Are at War!!!

Apparently, the word Moharebeh is a Farsi word which means "enmity against God", which is a very fitting moniker for this band. Formed in 2014, they would unleash "We Are at War!!!" upon the unsuspecting masses in 2016. Everything from the album and song titles to the album layout makes it obvious what Moharebeh stand for. If that wasn't enough, the lyrics leave very little to the imagination with their unabashed and in your face approach. Though the members of Moharebeh seem to be anonymous (I can't find any lineup info in the tape sleeve of this version of the album nor anywhere online), they definitely seem to know what they are doing as far as playing their instruments goes. "We Are at War!!!" contains a pretty potent mixture of black and death metal, performed with precision and conviction.

After being greeted with a brief sample of someone ululating, album opener "Lutheran SS" charges forth with dark, heavy and somewhat raw guitars and drums. The sound of the guitars is down-tuned, thick and heavy, with a certain level of murkiness to them that is highly death metal inspired. The bass, much like the guitars, is highly distorted and sounds brutally heavy. After some crushing, chunkier death metal style riffage we are treated to some brutal blast beats, courtesy of the talented drummer in this band (whoever he is). From there on out, the album just decimates without mercy, with a very dark and highly militant sound throughout. The usage of samples is one which persists throughout the runtime of the album, with the closing track "Infidel Desecration of Islam" being mainly a sound collage layered over an instrumental song. Ironically, some of the passages bring the earlier works of (openly left wing) death metal pioneers Carcass to mind with their use of high-pitched guitar dive bombs. If anything, "Symphonies of Sickness" era Carcass mixed with black metal elements is a great way to describe this band's sound to someone who hasn't listened to them before. Moharebeh pull this off well, but the approach isn't without its flaws.

One of the major weak points of this album and band in general would have to be the vocals. Though they do not take away too much from the overall experience, they are just not very good when compared to the high level of the rest of the band. His style is mainly breathy rasps that do not sound very harsh, almost like someone who is trying to imitate harsh vocals without really knowing the proper technique. There is an artificial layer of rawness to the vocal tracks, which leads me to believe that they may have added light distortion to the vocal tracks to make them sound harsher than they actually are. Additionally, they are not very dynamic at all, sounding pretty monotonous throughout the duration of the album. Luckily, the vocals are somewhat buried in the mix, so they are not too much of a distraction. I really think that they would benefit from having a stronger vocalist with a more harsh and brutal approach, but only time will tell if this part of their music will improve. Speaking of dynamics, the music itself, while highly enjoyable to my ears, is a bit monotonous in its own way. There is not a lot of variety to be found in the songwriting, which may be off-putting for some.

It is pretty impossible to talk about this album without mentioning the lyrics, but I don't have much to say. Moharebeh is a band who does not mince words when it comes to their beliefs. This band's message is one of National Socialism, but with a very distinct emphasis on opposing Islam. If you find these beliefs to be too abhorrent to ignore, then please move along. These are unabashed, hateful and would be highly offensive to a lot of people. Calls for mass deportation or murder of Muslims, defending the white race and veneration of Adolf Hitler are just some of the subjects you will find throughout. Whether this bothers you enough to not listen to this band/album is up to you.

All in all, I really do appreciate this album for what it is, but I do think the band would be a lot more killer if they had a stronger vocalist. I will be curious to listen to any music that they release in the future. This is not for the faint of heart, so it is only recommended to those who either agree with the messages within or those who can look past them.