Friday, December 7, 2012

Azar - "Damya" [2006]

Artist: Azar
Title: Damya
Genre: Neofolk
Country: Algeria
Release date: 2006

Track List:
  1. Ifurkan
  2. Unknown cover
  3. It-tij
  4. Zagder
  5. Child & Time
  6. Id-dhess
  7. Crimson Towers (Dissection cover)
Another dark folk project with a quite exotic place of origin - this time it's Algeria. Azar is listed as a folk/black metal project on most sites, but this particular demo is pure instrumental neofolk. There's one more demo of Azar called "Izorane" which actually does sound like folk/black metal, but I didn't like it as much as this one. The person behind Azar describes his music as "Amazigh/Berber Metal", where "Amazigh peoples" refers to the pre-Arab population of the North Africa (known as "Berbers" in Europe). It's really refreshing to hear some good neofolk based on non-European tradition (leaving aside the Chinese scene), as I'm tired of these "neofolk is fundamentally European genre!"-claims. Yes, it looks like Berbers/Kabyles/Amazighs are traditionalists too, but their ideologies doesn't look as reactionary as those of many European neofolk bands. Their place in the history of North Africa is akin to the place of Celts and Basques in the European history - but Basques and Irish Republicans are known all around the world, while the Berbers aren't...


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