Melechesh "Sphinx" CD
[Osmose]
Well over an hour of self-proclaimed "Mesopotamian Metal" from this often talked about band. I've heard great things about this band, and specifically this record, so I was quite curious to hear it. My first impression, which seems to have stuck with me, is that it's good, but it's not nearly as creative or interesting as I had been initially led to believe. Yes, the music is a fairly curious blend of straight up metal with precise black/death metal influences, using a lot of nice lead melodies and mildly complicated layers of guitar parts to create thick, full compositions with a good sense of melodic dissonance. But obvious uses of Mediterranean instruments don't appear until more than halfway into the record with "The Arrival Ritual", which is a six-minute instrumental that's far more experimental and relaxed, which is more of what I was expecting/hoping to hear interspersed with all of the metal. And some of the faster and more straightforward black metal tracks like "Annunaki's Golden Thrones" don't really do anything for me, and that's when it starts to feel like a lot of these tracks are too long (averaging around six minutes each) and one-sided - whereas you'd expect they'd mix up the dynamics more often or really do a lot of experimenting with the Mediterranean instrumentation and melodies. I'm also really not that into the vocals. They're high, snarling screams that are slightly more unique than most of that style of vocal delivery, but I still find them to be disruptive to the music for some reason. There's a little bit of accent singing at times, but it's not that great, nor is it really employed in any lead role. The recording is fairly clean and rigid, and I think it sounds pretty good for the most part. The drums of course are really crisp and stand out a lot - Proscriptor from Absu handles the drum duties here, so of course there are some excellent fills and that performance is very tight (as is everything else, but the drums sort of stand out more clearly in the mix). The bass tends to disappear behind the guitars and vocals, but the vocals are well placed. I think the guitars could maybe be heavier or more dominant, but the tone is excellent for the layered rhythms and a general sense of detail. The packaging is quite nice, including a thick booklet with tasteful photos and iconography, some metallic bronze ink, all of the lyrics, some liner notes, etc. The concept of the album revolves around the "immortality of mankind" and is stated to bring in cosmic/mystic and paranormal influences/angles. The actual lyrics reference such ancient times as the album title would suggest quite a bit, so they're specific, but still somewhat minimal as far as pounding home a message. You get a feel for the concept, but I almost think it could have been more developed and detailed within the actual lyrics, as I wouldn't be concerned with having any room for personal interpretation per se. The CD-Rom content is really cool, containing a well designed mini website with information on the traditional instruments used for the recording, an explanation of the "Mesopotamian Metal" tag, and a video for "Genies Sorcerers and Mesopotamian Nights", which is very well shot, but boring - consisting only of the band performing in complete blackness with a few stark lights shining down from above. I don't know, this is a good record. It's well performed, the songwriting is decent, and there are some cool riffs. But it's not something that really grabs my attention. There's really not that much going on here that warrants the band getting so much attention for being original or pushing any boundaries, because they're only just scratching the surface of that. Not bad, but don't buy all the hype surrounding it. (6/10)
Running time - 67:48, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Tablets of Fate, The Arrival Ritual, Purifier of the Stars]
Osmose Productions - http://www.osmoseproductions.com

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