Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Asparez - "Anathema" [1990]

Artist: Asparez
Title: Anathema
Genre: Heavy/Power Metal
Country: Armenian SSR
Year: 1990

Track List:
  1. Clearing
  2. Fire & Metal
  3. Sorrow
  4. Crazy Age
  5. Tell Me
  6. White As Black
  7. Untruthful Game
  8. Black Garden
Asparez were quite possibly the very first Armenian metal band, formed in 1982 and released their first demo in 1985. The demo, however, is now lost, so this album is their one and only available release. It was recorded around 1988, during the times when an ethnic conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan was already brewing (the song "Black Garden" is dedicated to these events).

On last.fm, I've seen it tagged as "protoSOAD", but as for me, the only things in common between Asparez and SOAD are their "heavy" sound and ethnic Armenian musicians in their line-up. In fact, Asparez are much more similar to another well-known Soviet Armenian metal band, Ayas. I'd recommend both bands to anyone who's looking for obscure old school metal with lyrics in a weird sounding language:

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