Band: Ahoora Album: All In Blood With You Label: Independent Rating: 8.5/10 Website: http://www.ahoora-band.com BUY NOW!

Ahoora are a thrash/power style metal band from Iran, where rock music of all description is banned, that alone deserves our respect dontcha think!? As I turned on the first track I must confess I found myself tapping my feet and banging my head along with the hypnotic undercurrent of the first riff. Generally, I am a fan of more extravagant drumming but the simple beat works to perfection in the opener "Heart of Darkness". They remind me of the way I feel when I put on a bit of Black Label Society although I can only put that down to the fact that both bands manage to create pure, simple and heavy riffs which you can"t get out of your mind for days! The band have used a mixture of special effects in the remaining 6 songs of the album and while this would usually deter me, it works well, especially in my favourite track by far, the second one. While it"s name, "Out of Mind Walls" had me confused for a while, it took much less time to establish the thrashy brilliance of this song! After the keyboard (or keyboard effect) intro, the guitar came in with an almighty thump and blew me off my chair! The other song that I enjoyed immensely was "Between Maybe and Never". Here again, the thrash style evoked made me bounce whilst managing to vary greatly from the other tracks. All of the other 4 tracks contain the same density and power while retaining originality, which is a rarity in modern metal. We must however come to the vocals. While I enjoyed them the first few times of listening, as I likened them more and more to Rammstein, I realized that a more brutal or perhaps classic style of vocals would better accompany the intense riffs. I also felt that the vocals were too quiet. However, as the band are working in secret, I cannot blame them for that. The sound quality in general, all things considered, was not too bad, and in some places I actually found the slightly thick nature of the recording enjoyable because it made it seem heavier. I would suggest though, that the clean vocals require some notation rather than the whisper that there is at the moment and the growling vocals need simply to be more brutal, and more pronounced. Overall I am stunned at how they have managed to produce such an original and powerful album, which is already one of my favourites this year, while under such extreme laws. As I said before, these guys deserve our respect and congratulations at being able to produce such a solid piece of work under such conditions. A very good album! Lewis Klein Back to Reviews