Qafas is a one-man project of Learza, a black metal musician from Bahrain that was active in many oriental metal projects (Dhul-Qarnayn, Kusoof, etc.) during late 2000s and early 2010s. Understandably, not much is known about Learza (there even were completely unsubstantiated rumors that he has hanged for blasphemy), and there was no new matrial from him in the last few years, yet he remains one of the few prolific metal musicians in the Arab world.
This short demo demonstrates the style of Learza's black metal recordings quite well. It's quite solid drum-machined black metal with industrial overtones, using a lot of spoken word samples in Arabic. The title track was also included in the 2013 compilation "Mesonoxian Conspiracies" along with the material released on the LP "Larghetto Laments" (mostly rather unremarkable funeral doom metal).
Azerbaijan definitely isn't a "metal" country by any means, yet there is a relatively significant and tightly knit experimental black metal/shoegaze scene, consisting of such projects as Violet Cold (probably the only Azeri metal project that's well known worldwide), Sumgzeit, Sukkkgall, Brokenchelust, and now Zommm, who are an experimental black metal/post-rock duo from Baku, started in 2017.
If you love "cosmic" post-black metal in the vein of Violet Cold, their debut EP (as well as the subsequently released acoustic single "Starfall In Her Eyes") is definitely for you. Moreover, it also features some folk instruments like tar that gives some "oriental" feel to the music. There's not much info about the band in English (I managed to find only one interview with them in Russian), but they surely have the potential to become the second Violet Cold, Let's wait for their upcoming full length album "Fundamental Of The Universe".
Along with Orphaned Land, Melechesh are the founders of the "oriental metal" subgenre, although their debut album (and the only one that they've recorded in Israel) doesn't feature much "oriental" influences. In fact, it mostly sounds quite similar to the Norwegian black metal of the same time, apart from some tracks like the instrumental "Dance of the Black Genii". Nevertheless, the fact that there's black metal in Jerusalem of all places was quite astonishing to me when I was a teenager.
Despite originally coming from Israel, Melechesh are mostly inspired by
the Mesopotamian mythology, and their founding member Ashmedi is of
mixed Assyrian/Armenian descent (his mother comes from Syria and the
father - from Turkey). During the mid-90s, Jerusalem wasn't a particularly more friendly place for metal than, say, Teheran, so the band has relocated to Netherlands shortly after recording this album (which was timely, because all hell broke loose in Jerusalem after the start of Intifada Al-Aqsa just a few years later). Honestly there are more interesting oriental metal bands than Melechesh when it comes to music, yet let's not forget they were one of the first in the genre, and their lyrics always were quite interesting, especially if you love the history and mythology of ancient Mesopotamia.
Orphaned Land are arguably the best known metal band from Israel, the seminal band for the whole "oriental metal" subgenre, and also the band that introduced metal to the Arab world. Like most other people, I started listening to them from "Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven" (2004), but for those who are new to the band, I'd recommend to start from this album, as it's the most accessible out of all their discography.
Initially, in mid-90s, their music was rooted in death/doom metal, a genre which was popular at the time, but like many other such bands, they moved towards much "lighter" sound over the years. The lyrical themes have changed as well, from Middle Eastern mythology to pacifism (well, no arguing that the Middle East definitely needs some peace, especially these days). "All Is One" is ostensibly simplistic and less "progressive" than their other works (and that's why many diehard Orphaned Land fans disliked it), yet on a closer look, it's far from simplistic, and features a lot of oriental folk instruments that normally aren't found in metal. Some songs like "Shama’im" sound like radio-friendly rock rather than metal, but there's nothing to complain since this song is great (just like most songs composed by Yehuda Poliker). However, there also are heavier but no less catchy songs like "Fail" (maybe the best track on the whole album), and songs strongly influenced by Arabic folk music ("Ya Benaye"). Overall, all the songs are great, except maybe for the opening and the closing track being slightly weaker than the rest. It already was extensively reviewed all over the internet, so do I need to say more? Let's quote some reviews from metal-archives.com:
"Basically, what I feel like happened here is that Orphaned Land started
taking their role as Jew-Arab peace envoys more seriously than their
role as a metal band. Instead of abstract mythological lyrics, you get
stuff like "It doesn't matter if you're Muslim or a Jew!" I'm glad a
bunch of atheists can get religious idiots to quit killing each other
and listen to the same band, and I wish them the best of luck with that"
"If you pay a little more attention, you will notice a myriad of
instruments that you'll hardly ever find in metal: Oud, saz, chumbush,
bouzouki, and even xylophone. These instruments play haunting,
captivating melodies in what I would usually refer to as the
"snake-charmer" style, an intense mixture of harmonic minor and Phrygian
dominant scales which creates some of the most awe-inspiring tunes ever
written. The music has a strong progressive influence; the title track
itself is in 7/8 time signature, and many other such changes are
displayed throughout the album (most notably in the instrumental
"Freedom")... Some of the best melodies in all of metal are found on All Is One, especially in "The Simple Man," "Brother," "Let the Truce Be Known" and "שמיים (Shama'im)." Orphaned Land's All Is One is certainly not a conventional metal
album, and I don't expect most people to regard it as highly as I do.
Personally, I find that the melodies amount to perfection when combined
with such unique lyrics. This may not be the sound that Orphaned Land is
most respected for, but it sure is amazing anyway"
Nowadays, the word "troll" is associated mostly with internet trolling, so it's about time to remind that legends about trolls are an important part of Scandiavian folklore, where a great lot of metal bands took their inspiration from. Lumsk aren't an exception, and they play an interesting mix of folk/viking metal in the vein of Storm and progressive rock, with beautiful female vocals by Stine-Mari Langstrand.
According to metal-archives.com: "Early in 2005, the band won the most by:Larm (a Norwegian music
festival) prize money ever awarded, worth 500.000 NOK (about 62.500 €).
That made their plans for the 2005 album "Troll" possible, including a
high-quality video for the song "Trolltind"". While it may be quite different from most Nordic folk metal you're used to, and most of the songs aren't that catchy, it's a quite interesting release worth checking out:
"Over the
years Neo-folk has taken upon itself the imprint of various cultures
encounter through its journeying. We present to you the Lament, to
communicate our own experience of sorrow and beauty, death and ruin on
this ravaged land, coated with nordic tradition, to tell of the
melancholy of oriental instruments, of its power to set one free"
A follow-up to "Romanzen", "The Lament" is less of a "European" and more of a "Chinese" album (and if I'm not mistaken, it's the first Bloody Woods album to feature lyrics in Chinese), with less metal and more ambient influences. Honestly it's less impressive than the other albums by Bloody Woods, but by no means bad. Really wonder what their next album would sound like (if there will be any):
After several years of hiatus, one of the best known Chinese neofolk acts Bloody Woods (not to be confused with the Indian metalcore band Bloodywood) has released a new full-length album in 2015, and it has a more Western European character than many actual European neofolk bands. I absolutely won't be suprised if such an album was released by a German band, because it features mostly ballad-like songs with lyrics based on the poetry of German Romanticism (in particular, Heinrich Heine).
It also has some metal influences (especially doom, which isn't surprsing given that the founder of Bloody Woods, Bai Shui, is also a member of a doom metal band Solitary Piligrim), which weren't present on their earlier releases. There are also some faster/danceable songs ("Maliry") and re-recorded versons of their early sons ("You Can Smile"). Overall, it's the best Bloody Woods release so far and definitely recommended to all the fellow lover of neofolk with lyrics in German (even if it's made in China, like pretty much everything nowadays):
If I understand correctly, Līgo is the Latvian equivalent of the Midsummer Eve (and it's as much of a major holiday there as it is in Nordic countries), and Raganu nakts (literally "witching night") is the night before it, being an equivalent to our Kupala night (although it's now celebrated on 7th of July here). Anyway, "Raganu nakts" is also the song about Līgo performed by an all-female folk band Tautumeitas which made them famous on YouTube:
This clip makes me want to participate in one of those Midsummer celebrations in my future travels (so far I've been only to the Kupala night celebration at the lake Svetloyar last year, but the weather was terrible). The whole debut album by Tautumeitas is worth checking out as well (my personal favourite track is "Aiz azara"). Out of everything that was posted on my blog before, stylistically it resembles Oyme more than anything else:
