I’m always up for reviewing a band who are mentioned in the same breath as Rudra. Hopefully the expectation wasn’t going to be too high. Arallu are not from Singapore but from Israel, and given Rudra’s uniqueness it’s hard to imagine that there could be any comparison.

After a suitable Middle Eastern infusion, it’s down to work. Raw and angry black metal is what I heard. The vocalist sounds to be in pain. The drum chugs. The rest is organised, turbulent chaos. The atmosphere changes. A sampled voice can be heard. All that happened in three and a half minutes of “All One Truth”. There’s no time to settle. The metal and traditional elements work nicely together, I must say. Arallu have been going for 20 years, I understand, and this shows in their management of the technicality. Fury and anger abound but the skill is bringing all this collection of sounds and instruments together and creating some cohesion out of it. The ethnic elements fit in nicely, and so the ending of “Adonay” has a mystical aura as well as a suitably majestic conclusion to the fire and chaos, which go before it. I think it was when I was listening to “Possessed by the Sleep” that I detected the similarity to Rudra. The point is not the comparison but the sheer mysticality and even spirituality, which arose from the pitch black and crumbling scene which Arallu present to us. Again the traditional instrument enters seamlessly, and adds an image, which without it this creepy piece of darkness wouldn’t have. And so the assault goes on, but with flair and colour in spite of the fire and despair. The Middle Eastern flavour returns with the drum beat of “The Univers Secrets (Six)”. It’s a difficult, meandering track with piercing screams and a combination of words and musical blood-letting. Violent and diverse and purposeful as this is, I didn’t get where “Six” was leading thematically. You get the idea though. Small touches like the manic laughter and the suggestive rhythm on tracks like “Victims of Despair” are what made this interesting for me. Time after time, uncompromising black metal is enhanced by colourful ingredients. It’s a breathtaking affair. The majesty and chorus line of “Oiled Machine of Hate” recalled to me Persefone’s “Spiritual Migration”. But this oiled machine presses on remorselessly to an abrupt and unsatisfactory end, before the short, black and thrashy “Philosophers” takes over. Finally the didactic “Soulless Soldier” has that Rudran element once more. Ending on a furious and violent note with a brief traditional interlude, “Soulless Soldier” represents the characteristics of the album as a whole.

Arallu dug us a hole here and tossed us around in it. There is plenty to savour while there, almost too much in fact, and I’m not sure where “Six” eventually took us. But it’s a vibrant and imaginative album.

(8/10 Andrew Doherty)

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https://arallu.bandcamp.com/album/six-black-metal-folk-metal