In our ongoing investigation of deceptive and outright fraudulent extreme metal acts, we pull the rug under a handful of established outfits that don’t even seem to bother hiding that they are after your money first, artistic integrity a distant second - an audience satisfaction not even registering. The more we pull away the blinds the more obvious these practices become. Maybe your favorite band is in here, maybe your life-long inspiration only cares about the dollars/euros you’re giving him/her? Don’t be fooled, there are plenty of honest, hard-working metal bands everywhere in the scene. It’s just that these money-hungry, artistically vacuum units make it difficult for everybody involved. These bands stopped caring, they lost the passion and fire. In short: they Sold Their Souls...
I had some material done already before the demise of Lord Belial. Some of the material was actually intended for the next Lord Belial album, but since we disbanded I changed around all of the ideas into new songs.
I don’t really consider it that much superior. But we KEPT the quality from 1st to 4th album, and that is something that is not easy to do! And I think there will come a 5th album that will kick just as much ass.
Algebra is the French answer to American ethno-metal band Ana Kefr or a different take on a local sound popularized by Orphaned Land. Like those bands Algebra mix technical metal with Arabic/Berber maghebran and Saharian traditional melodies, rhythms and instrumentation. Overall the delivery is somewhere between “The Link” era Gojira and the thrash/groove metal of (early) Machine Head, Soufly and Pantera alternated with sections of Arabian world music. While the ethnic sections are wonderfully atmospheric and absorbing, the metal part is quite the letdown in comparison. Contenting themselves with obligatory and stale sounding staccato riffs, pointless chugging and virtually no concrete channeling of actual heaviness Algebra only partly succeed in what they set out to do. If the band finds a way of making their metal aspects more engaging and diverse they are on to a very interesting meltingpot of styles and influences. Imagine just how interesting this would all sound in the setting of an accomplished death metal act, with grunts and fingertwisting leads/solos alternating with ethnic instrumentation and choirs, chants and the likes? Alegebra are a band on the verge of creating truly stunning music once they shed the restrictive limitations of their chosen genre. Once they fully embrace their brimming extreme metal potential (and drop the needless thrash/groove sound) and combine this with even more expansive ethnic sounds they could become a true contender to established institutions like Nile, Ana Kefr and Orphaned Land. As of now they seem to contend to wade in mediocrity.http://www.m-o-music.comcomment itWouter 6
