Oriental metal

Infobox Music genre
name=Oriental metal
bgcolor=#BB0022
color=white
stylistic_origins=Heavy metal music
Middle Eastern music
cultural_origins= Mid 1990s Israel
instruments=Electric guitar - Bass - Drums - Vocals
Oriental instruments: Oud, Buzuq, Flute
popularity=Underground
derivatives=
fusiongenres=
regional_scenes=Israel

Oriental metal is a subgenre of folk metal that combines heavy metal music with elements of traditional Middle Eastern music. The music developed in Israel during the first half of the 1990s with the bands Orphaned Land, Melechesh and Salem being the pioneers of the genre. Contributions from other countries have emerged since then.

Origins

The progressive metal outfit Orphaned Land was formed in 1991 in Israel with their first and only demo "The Beloved's Cry" released in 1993, "immediately creating a media stir"cite web |author=Sharpe-Young, Garry |title=Rockdetector Orphaned Land |publisher=Rockdetector |url=http://www.rockdetector.com/artist,31041.sm |accessdate=2008-03-10] that "quickly drew attention to their unorthodox style."cite web |author=Rivadavia, Ed |title=AMG Orphaned Land |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gxfyxqyaldae~T1 |publisher=Allmusic |accessdate=2008-03-10] Members of the group were still teenagers when they released their debut album "Sahara" in 1994.cite web |author=Melzer, Alexander |title=Interview with Matti Svatizky of Orphaned Land |url=http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=4&id=6417 |publisher=Metal-observer.com |accessdate=2008-03-10] The music of Orphaned Land "borrow heavily from Middle Eastern music styles" with traditional elements coming from Arabic folk music.cite web |author=Fjordi |title=Interview with Orphaned Land |url=http://www.frombelow.dk/interview_orphanedland.htm |publisher=Frombelow.dk |accessdate=2008-03-10] Acclaimed as "one of the world's most unique and trailblazing heavy metal bands," Orphaned Land's style of music has since been dubbed oriental metal.

The year 1993 saw the formation of Melechesh in Jerusalem, "undoubtedly the first overtly anti-Christian band to exist in one of the holiest cities in the world."cite web |author=Sharpe-Young, Garry |title=Rockdetector Melechesh |url=http://www.rockdetector.com/officialbio,5756.sm |publisher=Rockdetector |accessdate=2008-03-11] Melechesh began as a straightforward black metal act with their first foray into folk metal occurring on the title track of their 1996 EP "The Siege of Lachish".cite web |author=McKay, Aaron |title=Interview with Moloch of Melechesh |url=http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com/articles/chats/1-608_melechesh.aspx |publisher=Chronicles of Chaos |accessdate=2008-03-11] Their subsequent albums saw the group straddling the boundaries between black, death, and thrash metal, with "impressive, tastefully rendered epics chock-full of superb riffs, Middle Eastern melodies, and vocal exchanges varying from a throaty midrange screech to chanting."cite web |author=Serba, John |title=AMG "Djinn" Review |publisher=Allmusic |url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:gzfexqu0ld0e |accessdate=2008-03-11]

Predating both Orphaned Land and Melechesh, Salem was formed as far back as 1985 with their first album "Creating Our Sins" released in 1992. [cite web |author=Sharpe-Young, Garry |title=Rockdetector Salem |publisher=Rockdetector |url=http://www.rockdetector.com/officialbio,7664.sm |accessdate=2008-04-02] They began as a black and death metal band before turning towards doom metal with their 1994 release "Kaddish".cite web |author=Pretorius, Neil |title="Necessary Evil" Review |publisher=Metal-observer.com |url=http://www.metal-observer.com/articles.php?lid=1&sid=1&id=12660 |accessdate=2008-04-02] That album featured a Hebrew cover version of a traditional Yiddish song "S'Brent" ("Haayara Boeret") originally written by the Polish Jewish poet Mordechai Gebirtig. [cite web |author=Snoep |title=Interview with Ze’ev Tananboim of Salem |publisher=Lordsofmetal.nl |url=http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=156&lang=en |accessdate=2008-04-02] The band has continued to use folk elements in their music. [cite web |author=Congrains, Kike |title=Interview with Ze’ev Tananboim of Salem |publisher=Metalstorm.ee |url=http://www.metalstorm.ee/pub/interview.php?interview_id=139 |accessdate=2008-04-02] This includes the use of traditional music on the guitars [cite web |author=Snoep |title="Collective Demise" Review |publisher=Lordsofmetal.nl |url=http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=1430&lang=en |accessdate=2008-04-02] as well as non-traditional instruments like the darbuka. [cite web |author=Plunkett, Ryan |title="Necessary Evil" Review |publisher=Metalreview.com |url=http://www.metalreview.com/304/Salem-Collective-Demise.aspx |accessdate=2008-04-02] Despite attracting some degree of notoriety by receiving a mail bomb from the anti-Semitic Varg Vikernes, Salem has not attained the popularity of Orphaned Land or Melechesh.

Other oriental metal acts have since emerged with the band Distorted notably forming in 1996 as the first female-fronted metal act from Israel.cite web |author=Grant, Sam |title=Interview with Miri Milman of Distorted |url=http://www.soniccathedral.com/webzine/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=192&Itemid=36 |publisher=Soniccathedral.com |accessdate=2008-03-11] Other groups from the region include the Israeli Arallu,cite web |author=Puhl, Carl |title=Interview with Butchered and Yonatan of Arallu |publisher=Lordsofmetal.nl |url=http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showinterview.php?id=1356&lang=en |accessdate=2008-04-02] Palestinians Khalas [cite web |author=Earache, Asher |title=Interview with Bassam Beromi, Abed Hathout and Fadel Kandil of Khalas |url=http://www.hardandheavy.net/eng/interviews/index.php?op=1&id=183 |publisher=Hardandheavy.net |accessdate=2008-04-02] and the Egyptian band Odious. [cite web |author=Egypt Today, Ali El-Bahnasawy |title=We Will Rock You |url=http://www.egypttoday.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=7775|publisher=Egypttoday.com |accessdate=2007-12-01]

Musical characteristics

Similar to folk metal, oriental metal bands adopt different styles of heavy metal music. Melechesh and Arallu both perform a style they describe as "Mesopotamian black metal", a blend of black metal with Mesopotamian folk music. Doom metal can be found in the music of Salem and Distorted. Orphaned Land performs a blend of progressive metal and doom metal. Aeternam [www.myspace.com/aeternammetal] from Québec (Canada) use oriental melodies in their Death/black metal, ancient civilizations subjects (egypt, mayas, sumeria, etc)and some songs are written in arabic.

List of bands

ee also

* Folk metal

References

*citation |last=Kahn-Harris |first=Keith |title=An Orphaned Land?: Israel and the Global Extreme Metal Scene |journal=New Voices in Jewish Thought: Volume 2 |date=1999 |pages=1-21 |publisher=Limmud Publications |location=London |isbn=0953227324 |url=http://www.keithkahnharris.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/orphaned.htm |accessdate=2008-04-26
* citation |last=Kahn-Harris |first=Keith |title="I hate this fucking country": Dealing with the Global and the Local in the Israeli Extreme Metal Scene |editor-last=Young |editor-first=Richard |journal=Music, Popular Culture, Identities |pages=133-151 |publisher=Rodopi |location=Amsterdam |date=2002 |isbn=9042012498
* citation |last=Kahn-Harris |first=Keith |title='Roots?' The Relationship between the Global and the Local within the Extreme Metal Scene |editor-last=Bennett |editor-first=Andy |journal=The Popular Music Studies Reader |pages=128-140 |publisher=Routledge |location=London |date=2005 |isbn=0415307104

Notes

External links

* [http://www.kahn-harris.org Keith Kahn-Harris] - Website of sociologist with articles on Israeli metal
* [http://www.shaytanproductions.com/ Shaytan Productions] - Underground record label specialising in oriental metal