SAHARA

Sahara is a great debut album by then Israeli youngsters. There weren't many other bands back in 1994 that would be willing and also accomplish mixing so many different music styles together. First and foremost, this is an oriental mixture of death/doom metal with occassional blast beast (1994 was a great year for the black metal scene), some simplified progressive rock riffs and attempts at rhythm changes. Even though the band are apparently gifted, they haven't matured yet musically and sonically.

Unconventional songwriting, great growling capabilities by Kobi Farhi, confident oriental elements and variety of extreme metal influences are weighted down by bad production sound, not very advanced instrumental chops and undeveloped songwriting. Some instrumental passages are a bit dull and there is not much craft for melody yet.

"The Sahara's storm" shows the band's potential ranging from doomed death metal, heavy metal to black metal blasts. "Blessed by thy hate" has refreshing female vocals but clean narrative vocal sounds dull and cheap. "Aldiar al mukadisa" displays neat oriental capabilities, good for dancing as well as listening. "Seasons unite" is a great doom-metal track. "The beloved's cry" might be one of the most memorable and lightweight tracks that will remain the only live number in the post 2014's concerts. "My requiem" keeps its oriental orientation despite changing metal directions. "The storm still rages inside" is one of the most epic numbers on this record as it keeps certain majesty by its composition and growling vocals balanced by acoustic outro.

Overall, musically, this is a unique record with lots of potential but not so much on sale for the proghead's ear, therefore 3 stars.