Artist: Arkan
Title: Salam
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Release Date: 18th April 2011
Label: Season of Mist
Album Review
ARKAN, formed in 2005 in Paris, are back with their second album ‘Salam’ (Peace) after the high acclaimed ‘Hilal’ (2008) and their EP ‘Burning Flesh’ (2006). If anyone wants to describe their music the only term which would be suitable is Oriental Black Metal. And this release is not just a major step for the band but a major leap for the whole Melodic Black Metal in general.
Their Black Metal-ish sound seems to describe perfectly the suburbs of Paris, impoverished suburbs that is, politically, socially, economically and most of the times culturally as well. On that front, they seem to carry a genuine wrath against the waves of xenophobia against the Muslim youth and its marginalisation. After all they were formed in 2005 and the riots of Paris have deeply influenced them. Yet their sound is also the sound of all the involuntary outcasts of the cities of the Western world, regardless their sex, religion and ethnic identity. One will not find here the usual for the genre Satanist, mystic and/or occultist aspect of the lyrics. In the band there’s no space to be filled with such nonsense. The fallacies, the dreams, the hopes, the violence among the dominated, the dead ends, the easy solutions... these are the issues the band deals with. It is the sound of the depraved though not mute. And as very few bands of the genre can accomplish, they have total control of the music, making the parts with the hard vocals of Florent Jannier to have a purpose of existence. When he slows down he infuses a tremendous feeling to the songs and when he sounds angry one can say that he is reasonably angry. (That is not so obvious and I don’t take it for granted with the most Black Metal bands nowadays.)
Their oriental music, which is mainly inspired from the traditions of Morocco and Tunisia is not only sublime but at the same time shows the confrontation within not only the band but within everyone who has been an immigrant, even as a second generation. It is the part of the tradition as an innerscape which lives on with the form of stories and songs. In short, it is a different world within and as tradition it should be confronted. Some have the luxury not to question anything; some others cannot live without doing so. It is a matter of choice. The band chooses not just to confront and deny its very roots and like servile gentle serfs to adopt unquestionably the “superiority” of the West, or to deny the very world they live in by creating a cocoon of almost unbounded past tradition but it tries dialectically to fuse each one to the other. Which leads us to the talent of the musicians of the band and surely to the amazing voice of Sarah Layssac. It is a pure joy one to listen to her voice. She manages to infuse a deep humanism into the songs, an aspect aided on that by the orchestrations and the use of traditional organs.
The whole album is mesmerising. In a way it is a concept album as before the protagonist finds some peace experiencing some painful realisations he has to undergo all the stages of blind anger. The opening ‘Origins’ makes the Arab heritage obvious through the use of acoustic guitars and oûd, and it sets its march with the electric guitars and the Black Metal aspects. Some parts of the album are angrier such as the ‘Inner Slaves’, some others mournful such as ‘Jerusalem-Sufferpolis’ yet the band maintains the balance. It shows a great deal of not only technical but artistic levels as well among all the members of the band. On that of course special congrats should go to Foued Moukid, the founder of the band. This album brought to my mind an old song of Tom Lehrer (‘Folk Song Army’) about the Spanish Civil War “They won all the battles we had the best songs”. Between the East and the West, the North and the South, some men, some women, some kids are defeated yet they can sing. This is their voice and the album deserves to be a classic.
Tracklist
01. Origins – 4:46
02. Inner Slaves – 5:42
03. Deus Vult (feat. Kobi Farhi) – 5:12
04. Blind Devotion – 4:53
05. Jerusalem – Sufferpolis – 3:10
06. Beyond Sacred Rules – 6:09
07. Common Ground – 0:39
08. Sweet Opium – 3:05
09. Salam (Intro) – 0:34
10. Salam (Part 1) – Call From Within – 4:57
11. Salam (Part 2) – Lightened Heart – 1:00
12. Salam (Part 3) – The Eight Doors Of Jannah – 4:30
13. Amaloun Jadid II (and a hidden track) – 17:30
Line-up
Foued Moukid - Drums & percussion
Florent Jannier - Growls
Samir Ramila - Guitars
Mus Elkamal - Guitars, acoustic guitars, oûd
Sarah Layssac - Clear vocals
Websites
www.arkan.fr / www.myspace.com/arkanband
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 10
Sound: 10
Total: 10/10
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