Ahoora - All In Blood With You

Release: 30. 9.2007
Label:
Stil: Progressive Thrash Metal
Homepage: http://www.ahoora-band.com

Heart Of Darkness
Out Of Mind Walls
A History Of Extinction
Between Maybe & Never
The Departed
The Journeyman
Hunger Within

It's obvious that in our world, assumed facts such as freedom of opinion and artistic freedom exist, but - for quite understandable reasons - it's not always sufficiently appreciated. The main reason is that these facts are considered as firm circumstances and are not further thought over, and because of this artists can’t completely concentrate on their work. Apparently the entire world is not affected by this fact and the heavy metal scene as well. But in this civilized and modern world there are still a lot of countries in which it's absolutely hard for musicians to present such music to the audience.

A perfect example of how difficult it could be to be publicized with metal music , or better to say, to dare to face this challenge, is without doubt AHOORA from Iran. Probably the situation of this quartet can be vaguely compared to the situation of the bands in the former east Europe when still there were restrictions in those countries. But despite all the complications, Ahoora has delivered their third and a remarkable work, which they don't need to be afraid of the international comparisons.

In “All in Blood With You" Ashkan Hadavand (vocals), Mohamad Baei (bass), Milad Tangshir (guitar) and Alireza Saeidian (guitar), who also received some support from a lady named Ida Norheim-Hagtun on Vocals, deliver 40 minutes of excellent progressive thrash metal, that contains lots of additional pieces and even some inspirations from Doom, and technical Death Metal.

The interesting aspect here is that with these strange influences there is uncertainty for them to pull off without any further music publications. But as it seems, the boys have produced a hard piece; melodic metal in a technically advanced quality that thoroughly offers comparison possibilities.

The crazy and occasional Riffing first of all reminds us of recent NEVERMORE, but also CONTROL DENIED comes to my mind whenever I carefully listen to "All in Blood with You". Ahoora’s style is sometimes more powerful and also is a heavier thrash metal, and mainly the technique of vocals frequently exceeds the narrow line between thrash and Death Metal.

The fairly and constant harsh sound of this band makes me partly think of the Swiss CORONER, which could be mentioned as an example, especially regarding to the overall appearance of their instrumental performance. Ahoora also has symphonic elements (‘A History of Extinction'), and some experimental and partially distorted pieces like 'Between Maybe & Never' with Ashkan’s little dark influential singing.

By sporadic background vocal parts performed by the above mentioned lady, that has given the work a dark-gothic mood, AHOORA offers another facet of their style which is not one-dimensional in any case. One particular thing that can be seen is the Band's peculiar cultural circle, but there could be definitely even more, and thereby AHOORA would gain a little more uniqueness.

Even when the music sounds really hard and violent, the boys avoid it and elucidate the procedure too simply. They see it not only through melodies, but also through aimed breaks and variable tempos for alternation. 'The Departed' for instance comes out of the loud speakers as Doom Metal in an unusually powerful style and in the final long track 'Hunger Within' they spread an extremely gloomy mood which harmonizes damned good with appealing manner of the number itself.

"All In Blood With You" is a very finely performed and well arranged album, that in spite of the origin of the band, doesn't sound exotic at all, even if someone could have assumed that.

Tips to begin with: Heart of Darkness, The Departed, Hunger Within.

Walter Scheurer [ 8.4.2008] The original article

[Great thanks to Nazli Mesgarzadeh for preparing the english version]