I have recently written about this Israeli band, Arallu, of which I have reviewed the latest album (see the review here if you missed it); after that review, I have maintained contact with Butchered, singer and bassist of the band, which gave me the opportunity to interview him. He brought out some interesting things: Arallu released a double DVD on 6.6.16 entitled Middle Eastern Battlefield and are already working on a new album, the sixth one simply titled SIX; the band is currently looking for a label to release the album, so anyone interested can contact the band. After the interview, you will find two videos to enjoy: the one is the live video of “From the Desert to the Ice” from Middle Eastern Battlefield, the other one is a rehearsal video. Now here is the interview!
Ave Butchered, how are things?
Hello "Unholy Black Metal magazine" fans
Everything is really great, we are working now for our new album (6th album) and I have to tell u it’s a real challenge to write a new album after 5 full studio albums, but we are not complaining. We almost finished writing the album, and I believe we will enter the studio in January 2017 and we are looking for a new label now to release it.
You played at Metal Gate 2016 in the Czech Republic. How was that experience?
The Czech Republic audiences are really great; the crew of the fest was really professionals it was a great experience to play for the first time in Czech Republic. We met new friends there and probably we will play there again soon. We received really nice reviews about our show from the local magazines and I hope it will open for us a new door to the Czech metal scene.
I know that you have played several times in Europe; what does it mean for you to play in Europe?
Look, the Israeli metal scene is very small, and unfortunately the shows here a very small and that’s why we play two or three time at a year in Israel. In Europe it's different. First of all our music is not unusual for the Europe metal scene and it's great to see it every time when we start play our music. We really enjoy performing in Europe.
I have personally reviewed your latest album Geniewar, and it had a good opinion in this magazine, and I imagine that it was well received by all the criticism: did you expect such a good response?
We play a risky music. Those who understand the main idea behind our music will like it but not every magazine really listens to what they received from bands all around the world.
When I write my music and my lyrics I'm not looking for some victories. I mean I'm looking for something fresh, something that has no one has touched before. Because our music is a mix with extremely black metal music and Arabian / Middle Eastern music is very hard to understand it in the first listening. Usually people who like extreme black metal don’t like the middle eastern parts and vice versa, when we wrote this album we knew its risky and we know it from the debut album from 1999, but Arallu always looks to bring something different to the global metal scene and we doing it in a small steps…
I found that you also dealt with contemporary themes such as war for example: how does the observation of reality influence your music?
Arallu is a radical band in the music and the lyric. We do not hate anyone or anybody because of his skin color or his religion. Our lyrics are clear! We coming against what is offensive and hurting us. Us as human beings, us as individuals. The people in Israel don’t know what good life is. We are busy with worrying about personal and national security. Our lyrics are straight in your face, against the religions and what they represent and of course the people behind them. GENIEWAR talks about all those things. From the wars of the ancient times as kings tried to rule Jerusalem, to the wars of today as ISIS are trying to destroy and kill anyone who doesn’t agree with their religious views. This album is the mirror of the human race, hypocrisy of the governments all around the world including Israel, and the unwillingness and fear to fight against the extreme religion leaders. We live in the Middle East as you know. The situations here are not easy here in Jerusalem and Israel. We live in days of war religions, and religions hatred that inspired our music and lyrics. The full concept of Arallu is around the ultimate war over the Middle East because we living it. So I believe it's coming naturally even we will try to ignore it. Arallu is the horn of the situation in the Middle East and specially the horn of the wars all around the years in Jerusalem. We not look for paper news Headlines. We play and live black metal from the 90's. It’s more than a decade that Arallu screaming about the global terror. “Satanic War In Jerusalem” our second album from 2002, talking about the situation in Jerusalem that spread to the all-world. I write this album in 2001 when the Islamic terror attack everywhere in Israel and especially in Jerusalem. Unfortunately “Satanic War In Jerusalem” become a self-fulfilling prophecy and today all know it. I remember the bus exploding next to me and the hatred comes through the Tv news. I was 16 years old and the extremely black metal concept around Europe comes to my life mixed with bloodshed around Jerusalem what bring Arallu band to get birth. "The War On The Wailing Wall" our debut album from 1999, was the mixed between our day life and extreme black metal against religions.
I know you are very interested in Mesopotamian mythology: can you tell us about it and how it is intertwined with your music?
It’s a really long long story but I will give u some points about that. In the ancient time around the Middle East was the Ottoman Empire. Almost like Europe of today. No borders one big country. In Mesopotamia was one ruler around the all Middle East. The Heart regime was Jerusalem. A never ending bloodshed, battleground. We live in Jerusalem. The heart of the religions conflict from the ancient world until today.
All Arallu music and lyrics talks about this area and his history.
Unfortunately we can't see the rainbow over the horizon… I was born in the middle of war and probably I will die when the war is still a reality.
You have recently released a DVD; can you tell us about it?
"Middle Eastern Battlefield" is a double DVD we released June 2016. Its double cds including 2 full live shows and 6 videos from "GENIEWAR" album. There is many fans of the band around the world who like our music but can't come to our shows. This is the best way to bring Arallu on stage to the living room to our fans. Our shows are really different from the studio albums. There is some energy on stage that u can't feel from the studio rec. this DVD is the 3rd release after "Visual Chaos In Vision" from 2003 and "The Ultimate War" from 2010
A curiosity: How is playing black metal in Israel in terms of opportunities, concerts, venues, reception, etc.?
Like I said before, Israel is a really small country and the metal scene here is even smaller. We played here with act such Behemoth, Mayhem, Enslaved, Marduk and others. We have a metal scene here and many metal bands but everything is really small.
How is the extreme music scene in Israel? What trends and bands are there currently?
I think like all aroud the world, the metalcore is the trendiest music to play right now, but we have quite a lot of death and thrash metal around too. Trends of course. Never influenced our music in Arallu.
Can you give us a few anticipations about your next album?
Arallu new album is the sixth album of the band and that’s why we call it “SIX".
I can tell you the new album is more black metal music, more aggressive and fast than "GENIEWAR" and you will find a lot of Middle Eastern music in it. I think those who like "GENIEWAR" for sure will like "SIX".
Do you have plans to return to play in Europe?
We looking for a new label to release our new album soon as possible, we have some invitations to perform in Europe for 2017, its will be a honor for us to come play in your country also, I know you have a great metal scene there and its sound interesting to play there . If someone will invite us I believe we will do it.
What do you want to say to the readers of Unholy Black Metal to conclude the interview?
Thank you very much for this great interview and We really hope to come play for you guys, it will be a honor for us.
Interview by Herjann
[email protected]
Ave Butchered, how are things?
Hello "Unholy Black Metal magazine" fans
Everything is really great, we are working now for our new album (6th album) and I have to tell u it’s a real challenge to write a new album after 5 full studio albums, but we are not complaining. We almost finished writing the album, and I believe we will enter the studio in January 2017 and we are looking for a new label now to release it.
You played at Metal Gate 2016 in the Czech Republic. How was that experience?
The Czech Republic audiences are really great; the crew of the fest was really professionals it was a great experience to play for the first time in Czech Republic. We met new friends there and probably we will play there again soon. We received really nice reviews about our show from the local magazines and I hope it will open for us a new door to the Czech metal scene.
I know that you have played several times in Europe; what does it mean for you to play in Europe?
Look, the Israeli metal scene is very small, and unfortunately the shows here a very small and that’s why we play two or three time at a year in Israel. In Europe it's different. First of all our music is not unusual for the Europe metal scene and it's great to see it every time when we start play our music. We really enjoy performing in Europe.
I have personally reviewed your latest album Geniewar, and it had a good opinion in this magazine, and I imagine that it was well received by all the criticism: did you expect such a good response?
We play a risky music. Those who understand the main idea behind our music will like it but not every magazine really listens to what they received from bands all around the world.
When I write my music and my lyrics I'm not looking for some victories. I mean I'm looking for something fresh, something that has no one has touched before. Because our music is a mix with extremely black metal music and Arabian / Middle Eastern music is very hard to understand it in the first listening. Usually people who like extreme black metal don’t like the middle eastern parts and vice versa, when we wrote this album we knew its risky and we know it from the debut album from 1999, but Arallu always looks to bring something different to the global metal scene and we doing it in a small steps…
I found that you also dealt with contemporary themes such as war for example: how does the observation of reality influence your music?
Arallu is a radical band in the music and the lyric. We do not hate anyone or anybody because of his skin color or his religion. Our lyrics are clear! We coming against what is offensive and hurting us. Us as human beings, us as individuals. The people in Israel don’t know what good life is. We are busy with worrying about personal and national security. Our lyrics are straight in your face, against the religions and what they represent and of course the people behind them. GENIEWAR talks about all those things. From the wars of the ancient times as kings tried to rule Jerusalem, to the wars of today as ISIS are trying to destroy and kill anyone who doesn’t agree with their religious views. This album is the mirror of the human race, hypocrisy of the governments all around the world including Israel, and the unwillingness and fear to fight against the extreme religion leaders. We live in the Middle East as you know. The situations here are not easy here in Jerusalem and Israel. We live in days of war religions, and religions hatred that inspired our music and lyrics. The full concept of Arallu is around the ultimate war over the Middle East because we living it. So I believe it's coming naturally even we will try to ignore it. Arallu is the horn of the situation in the Middle East and specially the horn of the wars all around the years in Jerusalem. We not look for paper news Headlines. We play and live black metal from the 90's. It’s more than a decade that Arallu screaming about the global terror. “Satanic War In Jerusalem” our second album from 2002, talking about the situation in Jerusalem that spread to the all-world. I write this album in 2001 when the Islamic terror attack everywhere in Israel and especially in Jerusalem. Unfortunately “Satanic War In Jerusalem” become a self-fulfilling prophecy and today all know it. I remember the bus exploding next to me and the hatred comes through the Tv news. I was 16 years old and the extremely black metal concept around Europe comes to my life mixed with bloodshed around Jerusalem what bring Arallu band to get birth. "The War On The Wailing Wall" our debut album from 1999, was the mixed between our day life and extreme black metal against religions.
I know you are very interested in Mesopotamian mythology: can you tell us about it and how it is intertwined with your music?
It’s a really long long story but I will give u some points about that. In the ancient time around the Middle East was the Ottoman Empire. Almost like Europe of today. No borders one big country. In Mesopotamia was one ruler around the all Middle East. The Heart regime was Jerusalem. A never ending bloodshed, battleground. We live in Jerusalem. The heart of the religions conflict from the ancient world until today.
All Arallu music and lyrics talks about this area and his history.
Unfortunately we can't see the rainbow over the horizon… I was born in the middle of war and probably I will die when the war is still a reality.
You have recently released a DVD; can you tell us about it?
"Middle Eastern Battlefield" is a double DVD we released June 2016. Its double cds including 2 full live shows and 6 videos from "GENIEWAR" album. There is many fans of the band around the world who like our music but can't come to our shows. This is the best way to bring Arallu on stage to the living room to our fans. Our shows are really different from the studio albums. There is some energy on stage that u can't feel from the studio rec. this DVD is the 3rd release after "Visual Chaos In Vision" from 2003 and "The Ultimate War" from 2010
A curiosity: How is playing black metal in Israel in terms of opportunities, concerts, venues, reception, etc.?
Like I said before, Israel is a really small country and the metal scene here is even smaller. We played here with act such Behemoth, Mayhem, Enslaved, Marduk and others. We have a metal scene here and many metal bands but everything is really small.
How is the extreme music scene in Israel? What trends and bands are there currently?
I think like all aroud the world, the metalcore is the trendiest music to play right now, but we have quite a lot of death and thrash metal around too. Trends of course. Never influenced our music in Arallu.
Can you give us a few anticipations about your next album?
Arallu new album is the sixth album of the band and that’s why we call it “SIX".
I can tell you the new album is more black metal music, more aggressive and fast than "GENIEWAR" and you will find a lot of Middle Eastern music in it. I think those who like "GENIEWAR" for sure will like "SIX".
Do you have plans to return to play in Europe?
We looking for a new label to release our new album soon as possible, we have some invitations to perform in Europe for 2017, its will be a honor for us to come play in your country also, I know you have a great metal scene there and its sound interesting to play there . If someone will invite us I believe we will do it.
What do you want to say to the readers of Unholy Black Metal to conclude the interview?
Thank you very much for this great interview and We really hope to come play for you guys, it will be a honor for us.
Interview by Herjann
[email protected]
