| | Full Review | Ratings (25) |
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| 4.5 superb | Brandon Scott EMERITUS | July 22nd 16 |
It should be celebrated that El-Ahriarah created a raw black metal album that breaks the rules. With touches of
experimentalism littered throughout the course of this album, it's a record that is so many things at once, but still
feels unified under a singular vision. It's melodic, it's punk-y, it has a million different kinds of bells-and-whistles,
and they all come together to make this album one of the best black metal records of the year.
4 Bumps | Bump |
| 3.5 great | Alabaster Jones | December 1st 16 |
It's interesting that a genre such as black metal that is usually focused on the cold, the evil, and the hateful can be turned into something warmer and more depressed than enraged whilst still keeping the raw emotion unfiltered. El-Ahrairah has that sound, but with an interesting twist on it. Whereas many bands in this style tend to make riffs that are windy and atmospheric, El-Ahrairah's riffs are constantly up-front and personal, being very powerful and immediate. The production sounds fantastic for the style as well, giving the album a nice earthy atmosphere. The songwriting is a bit strange for this style, as many of the songs are below four minutes and don't really build into anything more than what they started with. It's good that the songs end when the ideas do, but it constantly hints at something bigger and better that isn't delivered on. It's an interesting sound, but it feels like the band has plenty of untapped potential that hopefully gets mined for on their next project. For now, though, pretty good stuff.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | zaruyache | August 3rd 16 |
A drastic change from their earlier super-noisy raw bm demos, El-Ahrairah's self-titled rdebut is more or less an exercise in slow songbuilding; each track seems to take one idea--rone or two main riffs, one drum rhythm--and slowly build on it over 2-4 minutes, repeating rit again and again. As the tracks proceed different elements such as a synth melody or rharmonized guitar part are added to make the tracks feel as if they are slowly growing as rthey proceed. While slowly building tracks might sound like a nifty idea, it's not very rwell handled on this album. The songs are too short to really build up to anything rinteresting (they don't build to anything at all; they generally end playing the same rrhythms with barely anything different than when they started), and the rhythms and riffs rthey use generally aren't that noteworthy, either. rTaken individually, these are pretty decent tracks, but as a full album they become slightly raggravating. You basically know what the next three minutes of each track will sound like rafter hearing the first riff cycle or the first 15 seconds.
Bump |
| 3.0 good | GodL1ke | September 29th 16 |
| 4.0 excellent | Arctick | August 18th 16 |
| 3.0 good | Prole | August 10th 16 |
| 4.5 superb | Hawks | August 2nd 16 |
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