(Note: This is my tenth entry in my series on Middle Eastern black metal. Previous posts have centered on Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Oman, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.)
Though it resides on the northeastern corner of Africa, Egypt’s culture, politics and socio-economics are rooted firmly in the Middle East, to which it is connected via the Sinai Peninsula.
Egypt’s human rights record is shady to say the least, and it certainly has had its share of political problems, but it is a stable Middle Eastern democracy – at least according to some analysts I’ve heard on NPR.
A total of 21 Egyptian metal bands are listed on the Encyclopaedia Metallum, and, of those, 11 are considered “black.” I chose these three because their music is easily downloadable from the artists.
Hey, it’s Egypt, so of course there has to be a band that includes mummies, pyramids and camels in it’s lyrical themes. This silly duo prefers the black thrashcore type of black metal, with all songs clocking in at under two minutes (under one minute in some cases). Song titles include “Neik (Just Do It),” “The Gate ov Nini” (a cover of BEHERIT‘s “The Gate of Nanna”) and my personal favorite, “Mint Tea Til Sugar Skog.” All joking aside, the music actually holds up quite well as brutal black metal, reminding me of a meth-crazed Beherit, in fact. Six out of the eight songs on their demo Estanna Yabny Estanna are posted here. (The missing tracks are just the intro and outro.) And, yes, that is a panda bear in black metal garb.
This long defunct band featured both AHMED SAMADIE, the “musician” behind Ammattammen Bas, on bass and SHAADIE KHOURY of my next subject, Ultramundane (pictured above), on drums. Their lone demo, Storms from the East, is actually quite impressive. Like early SATYRICON, classical and symphonic elements compliment the music without overpowering it into a pretentious mess. The musicians obviously had quite a bit of technical prowess, but it never hindered their ability to write memorable songs. There are even moments of beauty to offset the ugliness. You can access the release, minus one song and plus a “remix” of another song, here.
Okay, forget about black metal because Ultramundane transcends genre limitations. The original lineup included both Shaadie Khoury (as LORD DRAMUS) and Ahmed Samadie from Oziris on drums and bass respectively. I’m not sure if this is the same lineup on the debut album, 1999’s A Kingdom At Birth, but, aside from two driving, lo-fi songs, it has very little to do with black metal at all. Instead, the remaining five songs swirl and float as dreamy, atmospheric, psychedelic instrumentals reminiscent of MOGWAI. After this, Khoury/Dramus continued the band as a solo project, producing darkwave electronica that owes as much to the pulsing sounds of ’70s KLAUS SCHULZE and TANGERINE DREAM as it does to ATTRITION or DEAD CAN DANCE. At some point, I’m guessing in the early part of the decade, but I can’t find an exact date, Khoury moved to the Myrtle Beach, SC and around 2002’s Another Day, a female vocalist named SHANNA DAWN began appearing on his albums, eventually becoming a full collaborator. All of Ultramundane’s nine albums can be accessed here, and I highly recommend them.
I’d like to add that electronic music has long been connected to black metal. FENRIZ from DARKTHRONE and BURZUM‘s VARG VIKERNES have both expressed their admiration for it. EURONYMOUS from MAYHEM was such a huge fan, he had German electronic/experimental musician, CONRAD SCHNITZLER, compose the introductory track for the “Deathcrush” EP (“Silvester Anfang”). ULVER began as an incredibly raw and ugly black metal band and morphed into a synth-based ambient band. So really, Shaadie Khoury is carrying on an established black metal tradition!
