By Monk
If ever an album was appropriately titled, it is this one. To use the term “degenerate” about this one-man anti-Islamic black metal project from the devoutly Islamic Saudi Arabia, a country with one of the worst human rights records in the world when it comes to religious intolerance, is possibly one of the biggest understatements in the global history of understatements when it comes to how its progenitor would be regarded in his homeland. And yet, here we are, with the latest album from an artist who takes the term underground to a whole new level that not even Lara Croft could unearth, having never played a live gig or even revealed his true identity because to do so would result in summary execution.
It almost beggars belief that, given the circumstances in which the man who has adopted the somewhat mystical moniker of “Mephisto” operates, this is, in fact, the eighth album from this defiant project, who, rather in the same style as the much more internationally high-profile Melechesch, mix the traditional instruments (oud, qunan and darbuka) and sounds of their homeland into six tracks and 25 minutes uncompromisingly brutal aural assault.
In terms of the metal itself, it draws from all the classic extremities: pummelling blastbeats driving forward dense, winding melodies delivered with speed and accuracy, these in turn overtopped by snarling vocal growls guaranteed to send a shudder down your spin, all the while retaining a sense of mysticism and miracle in the delivery.
Given the conditions under which Al-Namrood pursue their beloved art, adding a whole new depth to the term “underground scene” in the process, ‘Worship The Degenerate’ is a remarkable achievement and one which deserves to be heard, and supported by every discerning metalhead the Überverse over \m/
- ‘Worship The Degenerate’ is out now. You can get your copy HERE.
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