Unleashing Vengeance just did another CD! This is the last cd that UV will do for a while people...
Entitled "The Wrath of Tah-um", this cd is a Serious Sam video game themed concept album. It is also partially an Oriental metal cd. Certain songs are about parts of the games that take place in Egypt or Persia, and those songs are all Oriental metal songs, with heavy Middle Eastern influences thrown in. The others are about other parts of the world Sam goes to and are just normal thrash songs...
The cd is based on the Serious Sam games, lyrically. It opens up with an intro that quotes a line from the long removed full Serious Sam story, a song mentioning the Hum-Tah, the race of aliens Mental (the game's villain) belongs to. Then comes a long epic blackened thrash song about Mental wiping out all life on Sirius. The song after that is a very short thrashy song about Sam "Serious" stone's first journey to Sirius which leads to Mental being awakened again and this time Mental attacks earth's people...
Tracks 4-6 are completely different than tracks 1-3. Track 4 is a slow intro to track 5, done in a very middle eastern style. It leads into track 5, which is about Sam Going back in time to Ancient Egypt to try to stop Mental. Track 5 is a slow oriental metal song with an epic riff and fast break. Track 6 is another instrumental done in the same style as track 4 but is much much longer. It is about Sam's fight with Ugh-Zan III at the end of Serious Sam : First Encounter.
The rest of the songs are about Serious Sam : Second Encounter, starting with track 7, which is about Sam's boss fight with the Mayan Wind God Kulkulkan 1/3 of the way through Second Encounter. As such it lacks Oriental Elements and is much more of a technical thrash song.
Tracks 8 and 9 are again oriental metal songs and they are about Sam's travels through Persia in Second Encounter. The first one is very short and is about the beginning of the Ziggourat level. The song itself is the most Oriental song on the whole album though. The next song is about Sam's fight through the courtyards around the Tower of Babel. The song itself is quite oriental sounding, especially during the slower break, but the beginning is very Black Metal like. The final track on the album is about the fights Sam has in Ancient Poland and therefore is not Oriental sounding at all.
I think the cd came out fine. Although vocally, it's slightly disappointing. Tracks 2,5,7 and 8 are fine. The other tracks have issues.. Minor ones though this time. Production is ok but could be better. Drums are kind of bad sounding. The guitars and Middle Eastern Instruments (Sitar, Gongs, etc) sound fine.
As for the Oriental sections, they could be much better, But I am not great at writing Oriental styled metal (yet). I managed to capture the right atmosphere, but the melodies are quite simple at the same time, sounding a lot like Meditative music than actual Middle Eastern Folk Music.. Some melodies don't have that vibe that is needed and sound slightly out of place. Others are way to simple.. Don't think I can do the complicated ones yet, I cannot wrap my mind around their structure by listening to them. So I am sticking to ones I know I can do. Keep in mind that most of UV's music has been thrash up to this point so this change to oriental metal may not have been the best idea. Still sounds good though to me...
Overall I like the cd, and it captures the sound needed to express the serious sam universe well..
Download link is below:
https://noisetrade.com/unleashingvengeanceold/the-wrath-of-tah-um-2017
