Send "Arafel " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Sputnikmusic |
 Arafel are starting to get some buzz in the underground metal world, the deep, dark cave that knows about the next big thing two to three months before Blabbermouth and its minions do, and to keep you from having to read any further, they have actually earned that buzz with For Battles Once Fought. Get this: they make folksy melodic black metal that doesn’t suck. It should, though. Yeah, it should.But it doesn’t. And for the longest time I had to figure out why these Israelis didn’t suck, as opposed to why they were actually good, if you can follow what I mean there. For one thing, the music they play, unless you have never heard it before, which could be a good or bad thing, has been done before for years, decades even. And the legends of the subgenre have already come and subsequently passed away: enter/exit Windir. And another thing: even if this stuff wasn’t old to begin with, the ingredients of the music should sound really awful when put together. Seriously, folksy sing-songy black metal shouldn’t really work. It should be terrible. Yet for all of For Battles Once Fought’s preconceived, and unfair, limitations of the subgenre involved, it rules. In fact, it even sounds modern, that is, strong production, more or less un-black metal-like, yet it still rules. Go figure. To Arafel’s credit, and as being the main reason why the folk element of the metal offered on For Battles Once Fought doesn’t totally suck, the band uses this violin player, Nasha, instead of a bunch of lol-flutes. No, this isn’t Primordial or anything like that kind of black folk metal – it’s still got that fast folky, gay thing about it, yet it succeeds: it’s gay-sounding without being gay, more or less. Like, the album begins on “Swords’ Hymn” with the sounds of battle, death, and, uh, horses and then follows into some charging riffs complimented with Nasha’s bow and doesn’t let up from there. You'll find that it throws what you’ve heard before at you and challenges you to dismiss it, yet you will find you simply cannot meet that challenge....full text |
| Loadown |
| Helge Stang of ex-Equilibrium (Germany) fame does vocals for this band! just had to throw that out there. This is Arafel's third release and it took them 6 years to release it, it's about time. Arafel are a cool band I discovered some years ago who play symphonic black/folk metal and come from Tel Aviv, Israel. I recommend giving the band a try. Short review, yes, but just let the music do the talking. You should like this if you are a fan of symphonic metal, melodic black metal, death metal, or folk metal. Enjoy......full text |
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