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Artist: BURZUKH
Album: Orion
Year: 2007
It’s not very often that new bands from different places
than Europe and the U.S.A. appear to me. Fortunately, we
still have the exceptions. Burzukh is one of them.
Hailing originally from Pakistan (!, but now based in
Kuweit), this one man project exists for quite some time
already. A quick look on the biography tells me that
Burzukh has been active since 2001 until now, and that
Orion is already the 8th (!) release, all released in
DIY vein. Since I don’t know any industrial metal band
from out of Muslim countries (in fact, I hardly know any
genuine metal band from a Muslim country besides
Cenotaph from Turkey) there isn’t much of a ‘local’
scene to compare with. Oh well, if that’s the major
problem over here, there really isn’t one.
‘Awake Orion’ is the first track of the release. It has
a chaotic attitude (also due to the DIY recording) and
consists of powerful guitarwork, bashing programming and
raw black metal vocals. There is also some wicked
sampling hidden here and there. ‘Death By Starlight’ is
the next track. It’s way different than ‘Awaken Orion’,
with slow programming works, deep melancholic vocal
parts and old school guitarwork with a tiny doom touch.
The sampling parts sound ambient influenced, while the
slow programming sound like they were taken from a
sludge/doom side project. ‘Goth Machi’ is a track with
two different faces. Overall the song is a dark gothic
metal track (think of Sisters of Mercy but more
industrial) but on the chorus the vocal lines change
into some raw punk sounding, while the music go back to
the doomy influences from the preverious tracks. This
track gave me a strong flashback to the times I used to
like Type O Negative. ‘Grover’ sails inbetween
industrial black metal and doomdeath. The more uptempo
programming comes usually with the raw vocals, while the
little musical intermezzo’s are chaotic and accompanied
by crazy keylines. ‘Lying’ is in my opinion the best
track of the release. It contains crazy programming,
wicked guitarwork and very insane vocal works, making
this track a very decent industrial black metal track.
Also, pay attention to the cold and dark keylines, and
the guitar solo! ‘Metamorphosis’ brings us back to the
old school times again, with more technical guitarparts
and gentle though wicked keylines. The diverse vocal
lines fit this track really well, as well the crazy
uptempo programming and the industrial outro.
In the end, this six track release was more than a
pleasant meeting with this Pakistani one man project.
The wide influences that are hearable (from Type O
Negative to The Sisters of Mercy to Blacklodge) are
brought together in a very interesting package,
resulting in a nice rating for this release. The only
thing I have something against is the DIY production. I
don’t mind listening to something as raw as this, but I
think with the music Burzukh makes it’s better to have a
more clean production, to be able to hear more details.
Maybe Burzukh should consider this, because I think with
a better production there is a lot more to offer.
Vote: 70 / 100
Review by: Gerardo |
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01. Awaken Orion
02. Death By Starlight
03. Goth Machi
04. Grover
05. Lying
06. Metamorphosis |
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