Last year I noticed a pile of Malaysian Metal magazines as I was standing outside a book store in Pontian, a town in the country’s southernmost state of Johor. I didn’t buy one as it was in the Malay language which I don’t speak but I could see from the pictures that there’s plenty going on. I perhaps shouldn’t have been surprised because I know there’s a thriving scene in neighbouring Singapore and inThailand, but knowing Malaysia as I do, I can’t imagine that Metal is encouraged. In fact it’s more likely that the opposite applies. So it was amazing to discover that there are so many bands out there.
One of them is Neftaraka. This black metal band comes from Ipohin the north of Malaysia, and has been around since 1996, so there’s no shortage of experience here. “Morts” is Neftaraka’s second full album, complementing a number of demos, an EP and contribution to split albums. It is described as “a raw and hateful black metal assault”, suggesting with justification that their work is an interpretation of a standard metal style rather than an ethnic black metal re-working. I’ve not been toIpohbut from my experience of other parts of Malaysia I can’t imagine that ethnic influences and black metal overlap in any way.
The sounds of strain and suffering strike up. A gothic church organ rings in the background. The album has begun. Things are worse in Malaysia than I imagined. Intros can be clichéd but “Rituale” is one of the most effective I have heard. This leads into the appropriately-titled “Sufferance”. Neftaraka have got the pitch. There’s a deadening, powerful backdrop as the echoes of pain and suffering resound in the foreground. There’s terror but above all the rumbling riff is hypnotising. This is very promising. Taking us into “Morbid”, gruesome wolf-like cries contrast with the merciless guitar strains. Slow and painful as the echoing vocals are, there’s a majestic quality about this as the climactic guitars ring out. The overall sound quality could be a little better but production isn’t everything and can blunt atmosphere. This is imaginative enough, to the point where every drop of evil is extracted and our emotions are bled dry in the process.
The torture continues as “Legions (Silverian Kvlt)” cranks up the atmosphere still further. If you like measured and bombastic black metal rhythms which are surrounded by echoing and misty screams, this is for you. I like the fact that there’s no rush. The scene is of permanent warfare and chaos. Neftaraka are not averse to a tempo or mood change but once they have established a pattern they do press on with it like a screw being drilled into wood. I hear Gorgoroth’s “Destroyer” in the chaos but it’s not so clinical. In fact it reminds me more of the dark and swampy sound of the Flemish black metal band Kludde, proving to me at least that if Belgians and Malaysians can sound similar, then suffering is a universal phenomenon.
“Pandemonium” follows, and we return to those wolf-like screams and the sound of gruesome suffering. The environment is of uncontrollable fear while the sound is sufficiently discordant to be disturbing – always better with black metal. Atmospherically, everything points to suffering and death. The anguish continues, then there’s a change. Whistling winds and a faintly Kraftwerkian rhythm provide an intriguing start to “Anttara Solitude”. This forms the impressive 3 minute prelude to a majestic funeral dirge. I like the fact that the winds continue as the drum taps out a definitive march, as the guitar plays the deathly tune. The final track “Morts” breaks into new territory again. An impassioned speech in Bahasa Melayu, accompanied by an Eastern sounding rhythm, provides the introduction to a final blast of savagery and darkness. “Morts” is the most bone-jarring track, slowing down imperiously at the end to bring this death-inspired album to a close.
Malaysia’s got talent. I hope we’ll hear a lot more of Neftaraka who play black metal with impressively darkened atmospheres and imaginative twists. Grim and life-extracting, “Morts” deserves to be heard.
(9 / 10 Andrew Doherty)
www.myspace.com/necroneftakara
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