The Israeli Metal Scene

[TheViking]

Metal music is usualy known as an underground music which
not many people are exposed to, mainly because of its extremely loud and ritualistic nature.

If you are thinking about countries which are identified with this music , it would probably be the u.s.a ,the scandinavian area or germany but you would never have Israel on your mind.
Israel? The holy land? How can that be? So....
The metal industry of Israel is much bigger than people abroad can imagine.

The metal community is in a constant growth and on most of the metal gigs you can see more than 500 metalheads jumping and banging heads like there is no tommorrow.
There are two major groups in israel that can grab even more than 1000 people for their events and those are "Salem" from the german label "KMG" which are actually the first metal band in israel(since 1984) and "Orphaned Land" that has been active since 1991 and is about to release the next album for "Century Media".

Among the "big metal bands of the new age" or the "runner ups for the crown" you can find "Eternal Gray", which are
distributed by the French label Listenable Records in europe and The End records in the U.S - the next album of the band is about to be produced by Steve tucker , the frontman of Morbid angel. , Lehavoth from the Dutch company Fadless Records and Nail Within who have just
released their debut album on Listenable Records.


The Industry:

The economic situation in israel is not as good as the situation in America or the European Union countries and this reason does not allow promoters to bring big bands for a show, due of their demands that usually do not fit the local economic situation.
We are, however, lucky enough that there are still some dedicated bands that already know what it is like to perform here, bands for whom Metal is a first priority, higher than the money that they can do anyway in other countries.

One more obstacle is the geographical amputation between israel and europe. Tour busses can not travel here as part of their european tour
and the only way to bring here bands is by the air - a fact that increases the expenses drastically.

During the last few years we have had the oportunity of seeiing here bands such as Ancient Rites ,
At the gates , Rotting Christ, Edguy ,Aborted and Vader.
the latter of which just could not believe that they were showing up in front of a crazy crowd of about 1000 people in such a "strange" country as Israel.

There is a big local distribution company here called Raven Music which is the main source for people to buy metal cd`s all over the country , and a big Metal production and management company called
"Metalist Productions", which produces a lot of quality local metal gigs alongside productions from abroad and running the only Israeli Metal magazine.

Genre:

In the early 90`s most of the bands in Israel were influenced by the oldschool Death Metal and Doom Metal genres.
One of the main reasons for that is probably related to the visits of bands such as Tiamat, Cancer , Benediction, The Gathering, Napalm Death and more...
In the mid-90`s Black Metal started to accelerate and local bands like Azazel and Melechesh showed up.
The first years of the new milenium symbolise the revival of Death Metal and we can easilly notice it
when listening to 4 of the top 5 local bands.

These days the scene is very varied and we can notice bands from different genres such as:

Stone of tears , Hellfire , Crossfire on the heavy/power metal section ,

promising young death metallers
such as Armilos, Solitary and Abed,

old school thrashers like
Hangman and ShworchtseChaye, whose name means "black animal" in Yiddish, which is a Hebrew/German language.

Black Metal is also alive and kicking in Israel. Azazel , the most veteran band of this genre has updated its style to be more melodic
while Winterhorde keep playing typical primitive Black Metal sounds, Arallu are playing Mesopotamian Black Metal (oriental style) and there are also "Arafel" who took Black Metal to its folky corner.


Magazine: www.metalist.co.il
booking: productions@metalist.co.il


Armilos: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/armilos_race_of_lies.mp3
"Race of lies" - a track from the EP "Armilos"


Arafel: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/arafel.mp3
a track from the "A way of warrior" album

Azazel: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/Azazel_Vallhala.mp3
"Vallhala" - a track from the album "Ride through the horizon"


Crossfire: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/Crossfire_give_it_up.mp3
"Never give it up" - a track from the forthcoming full album


Distorted: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/Distorted_Almost_Dead.mp3
"Almost dead" - a track from the demo


Eternal Gray: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/Eternal_gray_Sins.mp3
"Sins in the process of creation" - a track fron "Kindless" album


Lehavoth: http://www.lehavoth.com/Lehavoth-LunarMoshpit.mp3
"LunarMoshpit" - a track from the split album "the sick, the dead, the rotten"


Orphaned Land: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/orphanedland_el_norra_alila_of_temptation_born.mp3
"Of temptation born" - a track from "El norra alila" album


salem: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/salem_Broken_Yet_United.mp3
"Broken Yet United" - a track from the latest album "Collective Demise"


shworchtsechaye: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/shworchtsechaye_blame.mp3
"Blame" - a track from the EP "14 minustes dive"


ShworchtseChaye: http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/ShworchtseChaye_Raise_your_arms.mp3
"Raise your arms" a track from the forthcoming full album


Solitary: http://www.metalist.co.il/Solitary_Systematically_Denied_Re-Mastered.mp3
"Systematically Denied" - a track from the demo album


Spawn Of Evil http://www.metalist.co.il/mp3/spawn_of_evil_-_black_is_the_season.mp3
"Black is the season" - a track from the demo album


feel free to download the mp3`s and write your opinions
__________________

 

[Ktulu]

Is it true that metal is so popular in Israel because it's much harder for a Pakistani sniper to hit your head if your waving it around with 1/2 a meter of hair attached at a metal gig?

Seriously though, cool that music is still happening with all the crap that's going on in the middle-east.

Still... you'll find people in every culture that like different types of music.
Israeli metal comes as no more surprise than electronica from Zimbabwe [etc. ].

 

[nergal_S]

Is it true that metal is so popular in Israel because it's much harder for a Pakistani sniper to hit your head if your waving it around with 1/2 a meter of hair attached at a metal gig?

Seriously though, cool that music is still happening with all the crap that's going on in the middle-east.

Still... you'll find people in every culture that like different types of music.
Israeli metal comes as no more surprise than electronica from Zimbabwe [etc. ].

You idiot, its Palestinian, not Pakistani. Any way Israel is no place for metal.

 

[kollex]

its sad losers like you Dying sun who are bringing metal down.

let me ask you something. why do you come here to ultimatemetal just to say things that you know will set people against you. why do you feel the need to attract attention to yourself by posting material ever increasing in shock value. how inadqueate is your life that you feel the need to tell strangers how "untrue" they are through verbose and contradictiary statments often backed up with juvenile name calling when people disagree with you.

i know much about you but i can guess. from around 9 or 10 you realised subconciously that you needed someone to blame for your percived lack of sucess maybe you blamed the asian classmate who picked on you occasionally, maybe you blamed a deep seated attraction to males or ethnic females that you repressed. you realise that you need an extreme image to go with your extreme views and slowly move up the heaviness ladder (Korn Slipknot CoF Emperor Burzum) . around this time you started looking for reasons to believe the way you do. you read Main Kampf, Nietchze, the nuremburg trials. you don't really understand it but it you learn lots of large words and learn if you throw them about a lot , people will shut up and some will even start to agree with you. you now sell all your non true record collection in the knowledge that now your record collection is pure and you can finally climb the last step to pseudo intellectual teen facism. you probably walk around your school or college (i doubt your over 20) compensating in your mind for you lack of social interaction by thinking that those who you can't interact with are too lowly for you.

I know this as ive met NS Black Metallers. each and every one of them didnt really like Black Metal but used as a crutch to mask their true selves. one guy i knew sold his entire Black Metal collection and got into indie whilst still retaining his facist idelogly.

its people like you who are trying to drag Black Metal down into the mire again. you want to turn it into some eltist antisocial right wing social club

well im glad to say your too late. i know gay Black Metallers, i know Jewish Black Metallers i even know african black metallers. your going to happen to accept that black metal and indeed extreme metal is probably going to inhabtit the niche of the music of the underclass that punk rock vacated to go overground. and in time black metal will go overground. if you think CoF are commerical then the bands that will emerge in 10 years times will make them seem like Darkthrone. all things underground became more popular as time progresses. I cant change that and neither can you

 

[Life Sucks]

Salem, Orphaned Land, and Arallu are cool. I have CDs from those three, but otherwise I haven't heard much Israeli metal.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Meh. It annoys me when people try to advertise their country's scene.

 

[no country for old wainds]

Well, all 'scenes' tend to.

 

[CONCLAVE OBSCURUM]

i really don't give a damn if its a metal band from Iraq... as long as the music its good, i don't care where it comes from.

What's a kike by the way???

 

[nergal_S]

i really don't give a damn if its a metal band from Iraq... as long as the music its good, i don't care where it comes from.

What's a kike by the way???

kike is a racial slur for a jew

 

[Sonicarnal Artist]

Cliff Notes to the above post:

I'm a fucking kike, and completely incapable of expressing myself cogently and coherently. I rely on a combination of pop-psychoanalysis and inscrutable grammar to make up for my intellectual shortcomings. It is my greatest desire to be gassed and cremated, or failing that, to be converted to something useful, like soap or lamp shades.

Mmmhmmm.

 

[TheViking]

look at yourself , i enjoy looking at your poor posts. i know that there are not many like you and that most of the people don't give a shit about what you say.

don't you understand that you are just giving me the power to continue ?
thanks for your racial comments , we have one of the biggest scenes in the world and the numbers are talking for themselves.

with or without minority streams like you we `ll continue growing up.
im proud in what we have here and nothing you`ll say will spoil it.

now you can continue.

:hotjump:

 

[Trench]

You forgot Nail Within. They own man. The Eternal Gray cd, Kindless is amazing, really brutal, technical deathmetal.

Also there is a new band called Solitary that will be releasing their debut cd soon, should be great.

 

[LuminousAether]

I like Orphaned Land a lot (note: they are NOT a rip-off of older European bands by ANY means).

But my favorite Israeli band is easily Sleepless, who sound a lot like Wildhoney era Tiamat with a jazz influence.

I heard an Infectzia song that I liked once... but I forget if they were Israeli or not. I'm pretty sure the lyrics were in Hebrew or whatever those guys speak around there.

 

[erik@digitalmetal]

I reviewed Nail Within and Eternal Gray, both fine albums alhtought the new Salem was disapointing.

 

[metalicarus88]

cool, Israeli metal, I'll be sure to check that out, I wish my country had a scene like that.

 

[TheViking]

Where are you from , metalicarus88 ?

 

[LuminousAether]

SF is most likely San Francisco, a city in the state of California.

 

[metalicarus88]

Where are you from , metalicarus88 ?

Yes, I am In San Francisco, CA,
but I'm really from El Salvador

 

[snow_like_ash]

Mmmhmmm.

He got banned for that post. You pull any racist shit like that and you'll end up thr same.

 

[metu]

"Israel is no place for metal." -- I couldn't disagree more. Israel needs a metal scene as badly as anyone, if not more. If the Jews and Arabs are ever to make peace, a cultural revolution will be at the heart of it. These political moves are on the outside of public oppinion. I like the idea of a few decades of makeup sex, but the key is to blend the cultures. There's no other way to live in harmony. This can be done, in a very large part, by music. Metal music is a perfect medium as it can set the scene for, and express, the chaos and frustration involved better than any other type of music I've heard.

Great post Viking. I've been wanting to start a thread on israeli metal for a while down in the scenes section, but I'm worried about flooding it and hindering the progress. Maybe you could help with that. :]

It seems, from what I've read, that Israel does, indeed have a large underground scene. They went through the same pains all countries do with people thinking, media reporting, government preaching, people thinking more that metal was preaching satanism and that it would be the downfall of the youth. It sucks that metal has to go through that pretty much everywhere it goes.

There are a few good bands from Israel on mp3.com.

What about Melechesh? They seem like the most interesting band Israel's had to me.