Spitfire - "First Attack" [1987]

Artist: Spitfire

Title: First Attack
Genre: Heavy Metal
Country: Greece
Release date: 1987

Track List:

1. Street Fighter
2. Lead Me On
3. Whispers
4. Lady of the Night
5. Explosion
6. Walk Alone
7. Evil Thoughts Around
8. Guilty Dreams

First or not the first attack... but this album is definitely among the first more or less successful metal releases made in Greece. "First Attack" was released on a major label (EMI Music), so it may have a little "commercial" flavour, but nevertheless it's a great album. My favourite tracks are ""Lead Me On", "Lady Of The Night" and "Explosion". Unfortunately, the vocalist of Spitfire was badly injured in a car accident shortly after "First Attack" was recorded, so it remained the only proper release of them (excluding their 1990 live album and 1996 compilation of unreleased tracks) until 2009.

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Innerwish - "Inner Strength" [2006]

Artist: Innerwish

Title: Inner Strength
Genre: Heavy/Power Metal
Country: Greece
Release date: 2006

Track List:

1. Trivial
2. Travellers in Time
3. Far Away
4. Lonely Lady (Q5 Cover)
5. Bleeding Soul
6. Feel the Magic
7. Eye of the Storm
8. Final Prophecy
9. Never Let You Down
10. Dreamer of the Night
11. Inner Strength
12. Gates of Fire

Some more power metal from the Balkan peninsula for you. Innerwish are a band from Greece who formed in 1994 under the name "Growing Order", and have undergone a lot of changes in lineup since then. Fun fact: their former vocalist became religious to the point of becoming a cenobite and playing in a christian rock group in the monastery (!). Well... I know a lot of musicians from early Soviet/Russian metal scene who later became religious (from traditional Orthodoxy to Jehova's Witnesses), but I never heard of any other metal musician who's in a monastery now :)

Speaking of music, it's typical "entry-level" melodic metal, nothing really original, but it's well produced and generally sounds nice. Would cernainly prefer this albums over a lot of other generic power metal albums. My personal favourites are tracks #4 (it's a cover, though...), #11, and especially #2:

"Travellers, all we are travellers in time,
Travellers, a trip to nowhere till we die,
Travellers, all we are travellers in time,
Cause life is short no matter how we try..."

random blog with download link

Myrath - "Desert Call" [2010]

Artist: Myrath

Title: Desert Call
Genre: Progressive Metal
Country: Tunisia
Release date: 2010

Track List:

1. Forever and a Day
2. Tempests of Sorrows
3. Desert Call
4. Madness
5. Silent Cries
6. Memories
7. Ironic Destiny
8. No Turning Back
9. Empty World
10. Shockwave

Well, looks like some of my readers are interested in Middle Eastern metal, so I continue this topic. Myrath (meaning "legacy"; formerly known as Xtazy) are a relatively well-known prog metal band from Tunisia, who were the first metal band there to be signed on a label. "Desert Call" is a pretty decent album even by European standards; however, don't know about two other albums ("Hope" and "Tales of the Sands"), as I haven't listened to them yet (but I will).

Thunder Way - "The Order Executors" [1993]

Artist: Thunder Way

Title: The Order Executors
Genre: Heavy/Power Metal
Country: Albania
Release date: 1993

Track List:

1. Nothing Else to Try
2. The Order Executors
3. The Last Warrior
4. Unexpected Sufferings
5. Dancing with Beasts
6. The Devil's Rule
7. Crimes With Prepensation
8. Victims of Confusion
9. Future Punishments

Albania may be not as "non-metal" place as the whole Central Asia - there were more than 20 Albanian metal bands ever in existence, and at least 10 ones active today - but it's still very few even for a relatively small country. Here's the first Albanian metal release ever - "The Order Executors", recorded in 1993 by a band called Thunderway. Unfortunately, it was their only release - they couldn't find a proper audience for such kind of music in post-Hoxhaist Albania (they even had to record this album in the neighbouring Macedonia), and their vocalist himself wanted to do more pop-rock oriented stuff - so the band broke up in 1995. The album is amazing, though - excellent early-1990's heavy/power metal. Check out the track "Crimes With Prepensation", I think it's the best one on the whole album:

As for download links, you can get them here or here (I haven't ripped the album by myself, so I don't want to steal the others' work).

Zindan - "Depth" [2009]

Artist: Zindan

 Title: Depth  

Genre: Melodic Death Metal  

Country: Uzbekistan 

Release date: 2009

Track List:

1. In Haze
2. Truth Becomes A Lie
3. Facing One Another
4. Life Without Aim
5. Before The End
6. Chinvat
7. Mean
8. In The Depth Of Zindan
9. Still Alive

Another metal band from a very non-metal region - namely Central Asia (Tashkent, Uzbekistan). On the photos, only one of them looks like an Uzbek, all the others are probably Russians... but who cares? Their music is surprisingly good, shame that they're so unknown (they even don't have a page in Encyclopaedia Metallum...)

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Al-Namrood - "Estorat Taghoot" [2010]

Artist: Al-Namrood

Title: Estorat Taghoot
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Saudi Arabia
Release date: 2010

Track List:

1. Arousal At Nebuchadnezzar Fortress
2. Junood Al Amjaad
3. Estorat Taghoot
4. Ma Kan Mn AlDahr Mundthera
5. Endma Tuqsaf Al Ru'os
6. Ma'dabt Al Audhama
7. Fe Youm Thaqeef
8. Wata'a Bakhtanasar
9. Laylat Ghabra'a
10. Asda' Al Dmar
11. Ajal Babel

Another black metal album recorded in Bahrain (although the band themselves are from Saudi Arabia, they couldn't find a professional studio that records such kind of music in their home country). Al-Namrood are one of the best Middle Eastern BM bands (definitely better than Melechesh ;)), and most importantly, they're a real oriental metal band actively using Arabian motives in their music, not just a clone of some Western band. The quality of production may be not perfect, but the music is quite original. As for the lyrics - well, I know what "taghut" is, but I couldn't understand anything else... At least it looks like their lyrics are heavily influenced by Mesopotamian mythology (just like in case with Melechesh).

I heard they already have released their new album, "Kitab Al-Awthan", but I haven't listened to it yet. As for this one, you can find it here.

Narjahanam - "Undama Tath'hur Al Shams Mn Al Gharb" [2007]

Artist: نار جهنم

Title: عندما تظهر الشمس من الغرب
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Bahrain
Release date: 2007

Track List:

1. That Alamat Al Nujoom / تحت علامات النجوم
2. Laheeb Al Nar / لهيب النار
3. Al Jihad / الجهاد
4. Al Shar Wa Aljan / الشر والجن
5. Rayat Al Mowt / رايات الموت
6. Nehaya Wa Bedaya / نهاية وبداية
7. Huroob Al Zaman Al Akheer / حروب الزمن الأخير
8. Yown Al Maw’oud / اليوم الموعود
9. Al Aukhera / الآخرة

Although Bahrain is only a small island in the Persian Gulf, it has a considerably bigger metal scene than in many other Middle Easten countries. Narjahanam (which means "Hellfire" in Arabic, I believe) is a pagan/black metal duo from Bahrain formed in 2004. According to the official biography:

"Narjahanam started off as a side project of Gravedom in the middle of the year 2004. The only reason Narjahanam started is because the ideas and concepts of the songs and lyrical theme did not fit with Gravedom since the lyrics are only in Arabic for Narjahanam, so both Gravedom and Narjahanam have different concepts"

Although the quality of production isn't perfect, and the sound of whole whole album is too "old school", "Undama Tath'hur Al Shams Mn Al Gharb" features a very interesting mix of dark metal (whatever it may mean) and oriental melodies. For some it may seem somewhat monotonous, but nevertheless it contains several really catchy tracks ("Al Jihad", for instance).

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Damaar - "Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege" [2006]

Artist: Damaar (دمار)

Title: Triumph Through Spears of Sacrilege
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Lebanon
Release date: 2006

Track List:

1. فسق
2. Preaching for Mass Suicide
3. The Goatphoenix
4. Desecration (Blasphemy cover)
5. Ode to Blasphemy (Onward to the Gates of Mekka)

One more Lebanese band who knows how to play really brutal black metal! As far as I know, the name "Damaar" means "Destruction" in Arabic, and they haven't released anything beside this 2006 demo (they seem to have relocated to Australia after 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war, and then split up). Anyway, the demo is just great, and definitely recommended to any fan of extreme metal.

"While most bands fantasize about war and glorify violence they have never witnessed; Damaar hail from Lebanon (formed in 2004) where war perpetually looms. Furthermore, Damaar’s devotion to metal can hardly be questioned. In order to protect themselves from retaliation by the government, they were forced to distribute their demo by mp3 rather than tape or CD. Thus in the face powerful religious zealots, Damaar persisted in pursuing its evil directives. After relocating to Australia, Damaar was able to finally send out a proper (non-mp3) master and collect artwork for the vinyl release of their demo on NWN! This assault is pure aural bestial blasphemy in the style of Black Witchery, Revenge and others. Conceptually, Damaar invoke anti-religious warfare towards all those weak and feeble-minded followers of all false gods. The band is currently inactive following its move to Australia and its future is uncertain"

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Ayat - "Six Years Of Dormant Hatred" [2008]

Artist: Ayat

Title: Six Years Of Dormant Hatred
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Lebanon
Release date: 2008

Track List:

1. Ilahiya Khinzir! (All Hail Allah the Swine)
2. Fornication And Murder
3. The Fine Art of Arrogance Part One (The Icon And The Cattle)
4. Collective Suicide in The Boudoir (Feeling Wonderful Tonight)
5. Puking Under Radiant Moonlight (Followed by a Century Long Ejaculation)
6. Misogyny When We Embrace
7. Necronarcos (Tame You Death)
8. Curses! Curses! and Never Sleep...
9. Thousands of Pissed Motherfuckers...
10. Such a Beautiful Day! (The Exaltation of Saint Francis)

I'm continuing to explore the Middle Eastern black metal scene, and now here's a band from a country that has experienced two wars in the last 50 years (including a 15 year-long civil war between various religious factions - that, however, failed to solve the problem of sectarian hatred within the population of Lebanon...) Their music is surprisingly good - brutal, raw, "punkish" industrial black metal that can be described as "Aborym using Middle Eastern melodies". Ayat isn't specifically an anti-Islamic band, but they're speaking against any forms of religious establishment.

LINK REMOVED

Nokturnal Forest - "To Embrace the Nocturnal Hymns" [2010]

Artist: Nokturnal Forest

Title: To Embrace the Nocturnal Hymns
Genre: Black Metal
Country: Syria
Release date: 2010

Track List:

1. Through A Winter Night...
2. Transylvanian Darkness
3. Bloodied Tears
4. March Of The Nocturnal Path
5. Black Millenium (Mutiilation Cover)

"To Embrace the Nocturnal Hymns" is the latest release by Nokturnal Forest up to date. It's much better produced and more atmospheric than "Cleansed By The Evil Hand", so I'd say the band is moving in the right direction. They definitely need a better vocalist, though... but I guess it's very hard to find any metal musicians in Syria.

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