Cyahares – Whores of Babylon (2014)

Perfectly blending Middle Eastern influences into crushing Death Metal, today we have Cyahares and ‘their’ full-length release “Whores of Babylon”. This one-man battalion delivers blistering riffs and furious drumming thought eight brilliant tracks. If you like extreme brutality, melodic/folky parts and a great production, this is one album that you don’t want to miss.

Fully exploding in the listener’s face since the opener “Thy Winds in Coordinations of My Sand Status”, Cyahares delivers waves of crushing riffs, hyper fast drums and relentless growls. The overall combination of brutal elements is pretty awesome and commands instant attention. In a similar fashion than Nile, tracks like “Temples of Fire” and “Shahnameh” perfectly blend the Middle Eastern influences into the mix, allowing the music to be both dominant and crafty.

Never having a dull moment, “The Anunnaki” is one of our favorite tracks, thanks to its relentless intensity and killer guitar leads. If you like more melodic and ethnic pieces, our favorite was the crushing “The Horns of Hatting”, which features some excellent melodic headbanging passages. After closing the ‘listed’ tracks with the pummeling “Hours”, there is an extra track titled “Temples of Water”, which is comparable to Orphaned Land’s excellent instrumental stuff and creates a very mystical closing atmosphere.

Overall, “Whores of Babylon” is a very impressive release that not only sounds like any big-budget album; it also features excellent quality music that will engage the listener. Considerably fresher (and better executed) than most Middle-Eastern influenced music, Cyahares manages to make captivating music that will blow you out of your seat while transporting your mind to foreign lands.

Label: HAARBN productions

Release: December 2014

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Iraq