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Barbaros > My Blood for...Tamazgha > Reviews
Barbaros - My Blood for...Tamazgha

Different - 63%

oneyoudontknow, June 10th, 2007

North Africa. Tamzgha. Berber. For most people the meaning of these words are unknown and lay beyond the hemisphere they are normally confronted with, live in and feel comfortable in. Exotic as they may sound, their deeper meaning does not reveal themselves to the person who approximated unbiased to this new kind of music, hence further research is needed to step beyond the curtain of the first impression and put those words into a sound context. The first phrase might refer to that part of the African continent, often differentiated from the sub-Saharan territory, with the world’s largest desert as a natural boarder, but it is more difficult. The origins of those ideas lay in the history of the region which is now, with the help of modern information technology, more easily spread than in previous times. Tamazgha is an ancient territory in the north of Africa, once inhibited by Berber tribes, whose descendent are spread over the countries of the northern African continent. This topic is the background for the CD of Barbaros “My blood for… Tamazgha” and encapsulated in the genre of Black Metal.

Algeria is part of the so-called Berber region and also the homestead of this band. One stereotype of bands from that region could be their lack of opportunities to create well-designed modern music, as the lack of development in their country prevents such monstrous production and mixing efforts that bands like Dimmu Borgir use for their releases. Hence someone might prefabricate a picture in the head of what he has to expect from the Algerian music, which might have in influence to skip those bands in the first place. Indeed, the lacks in the production and opportunities become quite obvious, after some minutes of listening to the music and the album of Barbaros is truly limited by an inadequate production and unbalanced mixing, yet the overall impression is a positive one. The album can be compared to those bands of the Black Metal scene, which just love to create a minimalist sound with a bad production in order to separate from the mainstream scene.

Odd is the sound of guitars, which is just not right, as if they were digitalized or changed by using a synthesizer. Whatever reason for this might have been, it destroys some of the atmosphere, as their uncommon tone is somehow unfitting. Not that Black Metal always needs to have the harsh dominating guitar sound, yet it is one aspect the genre is famous for and comparing the sound of Barbaros to common bands of the scene, their perhaps unintentional decision on what to use for to record the tracks, gives them sometimes a cheesy touch and especially the slower parts show why the outcome is not optimal. If the tempo is on a higher level, which it is in the well-played Darkthrone cover for instance, the band is able to cover the lack in the sound with the fast played riffs and thus it is quite enjoyable. Breaks though, work for obvious reasons only to some extend.

In itself the songs miss a good deal of power that would give them some pepper and the problem of a bass-less music is not able to be compensated here in any way, as the synthesized guitar have a quite high tone and there is no double-bass in existence, hence the only potential counterpoint lies in the vocals, but with it scarcely usage they are not able to fulfil this role. Though the band should not be blamed for this, as in this special case their origin should be bored in mind, which certainly prevented them for creating a better piece of music. Yet the vocals are a solid piece of work and with their croaking like tone their sound they can be compared to those of Carpathian Forest, but slower, or old Immortal; one song though offers a choir-like part that fits for some not to explainable reason and it would be good to see this kind of experiments on further releases even more.

The music in itself is simple structured, with often repeated riffs, not very challenging and thus good to follow. Surprises are not like to happen in their music, ignoring for once the choir part, but an extravagant compositional approach is not a necessity for that kind of album, as in parts the Black Metal scene to much avant-garde elements are not welcome and are seen as too trendy. Clearly distinguishable from the rest of the music, are the two cover version that found its way on the album: one of Mütiilation and one of Darkthrone. It would be unfair to compare the music of those quote famous bands to those of Barbaros, though it should be mentioned that these two covers have their own vibe and both are quite well done; listen to the Mütiilation one and guess for yourself.

Overall, the music is interesting and should always be seen under the lens that this is a band from a country lacking of so many thing most of the people in the western society take for granted. With proper equipment the band would sure be able to gain more attention and bands from small countries surely deserve this more than those of the established metal scenes.