Valkyrian Music

Tartarus
Of Grimness and Atrocity EP
Released 31st July 2014
Black Metal
Released via Haarbn Productions

‘Of Grimness and Atrocity’ is the debut EP from the Dubai based black metal band Tartarus.
There are many things that spring to my mind when I hear the words “Dubai” or “United Arab Emirates” but black metal isn’t one of them. Then again, music knows no boundaries and based on a quick search on the Metal Archives, Tartarus are not the only band from that region and there is a small metal scene in there.

After the eerie, dark ambient style intro featuring some unintelligible shrieks, comes the first real song ‘Axes (of Hatred)‘ which sounds like a homage to the Nordic black metal bands. I can detect two very distinctive influences in the song: Immortal for the vocal style and Gorgoroth for the ferocity and speed of music. The title track is true to its namesake thanks to the haunting howl-vocals which remind me of early Mayhem. The pace tends to vary a lot during the course of the track, ranging from ferocious pummeling of the guitars and drums to a slower, more melodic style of black metal. Last but not least is their cover of Emperor’s I am The Black Wizards – a very good interpretation of the song which is very close to the original in terms of style.

Overall this is a very promising black metal EP. I’m looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future.

4/5
Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 24th August 2014 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Review, Uncategorized with tags Black Metal, Dubai, Emperor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.