Arallu - Desert Battles (2021)

ARALLU from Israel are imbibing their Middle-Eastern influences and channeling the same using the black metal template that they've been trying to perfect for over two decades. Not unlike their label mates in RUDRA, they're forging a unique sound replete with traditional instruments like Saz and Darbuka, and exhibiting a penchant for the thrashy variant of the style. Faster, tighter and more potent than ever before, “Six” bears the insignia of the band's progress over the years and their culmination in a release that might change their fortunes, finally. Long one of Israel’s most consistent Death Metal acts, ARALLU‘s fourth full-length spins a blistering yarn of Mesopotamian destroyers into the endless chaos of terror and oppression roiling present day Sumeria. Stylistically built twofold upon the concepts and stylistic approach of the previous album, “The Demon From the Ancient World”, but traded some of its Blackened Thrash Metal intensity for influences from more traditional Israeli Folk instrumentation and melodies. The album represents a strong period of growth for the project and by remastering it’s sound and re-recording the vocals, they’ve given reason enough to revisit ARALLU‘s past. Many positive changes have been made in this remaster with the most obvious one being the new mix/master by Dory Bar (ETERNAL GRAY) who was responsible for the sound of ‘Six’ and ‘Geniewar’ before this. The vocals have been re-recorded with Moti ‘Butchered’ Daniel‘s performance more forceful like on “Six” and this makes the tone of “Desert Battles” darker and more serious than before. The somewhat flat, blackened deadpan thrash sound of the original “Desert Battles” is replaced by a thicker, deathly mix that works quite well. What makes “Desert Battles” stand out is ARALLU‘s incorporation of Israeli/Arabic folk music fundamentals with a Blackened Death Thrash style commonly associated with similar bands like Melechesh, Absu, and Rudra. This experimentation is probably best incorporated as they progressed towards “Six” but “Desert Battles” does a great job of making that traditional instrumentation prominent without losing the attack of Blackened Thrash influenced Death Metal. It was nice to revisit this record after several years and hear all of the respectful improvements made to the original. Though I love the original sound of ARALLU‘s discography in general, increased clarity does a great justice to the ambitious style of “Desert Battles” without losing any of its impact.