LELAHELL

From Algeria comes LELAHELL, death metal that takes your eardrums by desert storm

LELAHELL's latest output, ALIF, is a follow-up to their debut All Insane ... The (re)birth of Abderrahmane.  ALIF tells the story, in music and lyrics (in English, French and Arabic), of Abderrahmane. A man who takes his first steps in his new life, like a child that has to learn to speak (again), to walk and has to learn about the world around him.  A world that harbours many dangers. 

With PARAMNESIA the album opens in kick-start mode and takes the listener from there. Caught in a desert storm of fiery riffs, with references in rhythm and melody, to Algerian folk music, the death metal of the Algerian combo massages the ears and cleanses, like good metal should, the soul from everyday's weariness. If the music on ALIF gives us any indication of the way Abderrahmane deals with the dangers he encounters we can consider the third track of the album, the contemplative instrumental THOU SHALT NOT KILL,  an aural depiction of a resolution made in vain.

ALIF contains aggressive and violent music, packed in tight instrumentation. The folkore references   (e.g. the intro of INSIRAF / MARTYR) bring colour in a musical world of black and grey and are used freely and thoughtfully. The result is always organic and adds significantly to the energy of the music. This is  heavy metal world music, one cannot help thinking of Max Cavalera's Soulfly, that leaves an ironclad groove in your brain every time you listen to it. And although the vocals stick to a staccato / hardcore grunt most of the time, the music contains a rich array of melody.  
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ALIF is knuckle sandwich death metal that comes with a lot of atmosphere. When we arrive at the last track, the instrumental IMPUNITY OF THE MUTANTS, we await a album-closener that sounds like an accumulation of everything that has passed us by in the nine previous tracks. It leaves us with the feeling (whether we were able to follow the lyrics or not) that we have been through a lot. That we've witnessed a story that came with an urge - as if it fought its way out to the world. A story that is not only  most pleasant to listen to but that is also worth telling. 

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LELAHELL:

RECORDING LINE UP for ALIF : 
Redouane Aouameur :  Guitars/Bass and Vocals
Hannes Grosmann : (ex-Necrophagist ex-Obscura, Alkaloid, Blotted Science): Drums

ACTUAL LINE UP:
Redouane Aouameur : Guitars and Vocals
Ramzi Curse : Bass
Slave Blaster: Drums  

ALIF by LELAHELL on Bandcamp >> 

Interview with Redouane Aouameur >>