Interview with Arallu

Arallu are one of the best bands that you’ve probably never heard of. Every release is better than the last, with the band’s newest album Six being the best of them all in my opinion. I’m listening to it right now as I type these words, and it’s hard to express just how enjoyable and discerning it is. It’s black metal, and contains a lot of the traditional ingredients you’d expect to find in black metal, but the way it’s all cooked up and spiced with Middle Eastern themes and influences…Arallu rule, it’s that simple.

So if you’re unfamiliar with the band, have a read of the below and check out the band’s masterful new album Six.

Enjoy!

Introduce us to Arallu

Hello from Jerusalem, I’m Butchered the main member of the band and I’m the founder of the band. Arallu was founded in Jerusalem in the middle of the conflict between the religions around the old city of Jerusalem in the 90s. When you live as the terror is surrounding you, if you want or not, it inspires you whatever you do.

I remember the bus exploding next to me and the hatred comes through the TV news. I was 16 years old and the extreme black metal concept around Europe comes to my life mixed with bloodshed around Jerusalem is what brought Arallu band to life.

What are your influences?

The influences of band you can feel most is old school trash and black metal Like Slayer, Bathory, Rotting Christ, Venom, Deicide, and many others. These bands are a big influence for me and for the music of the band.

Name five things you’ve listened to recently that you’d recommend

I really like Abbath, I think it’s a great album, I listen to 2010 album of Watain Lawless Darkness, it’s a great album, Rudra from Singapore released a great album, Rotting Christ – Rituals and Esoteric Warfare by Mayhem.

Tell us about Six

Six is the 6th band album as will released September 22th via Transcending Obscurity Records. I have sentiments for this date. This date is my personal birth day, it’s the date that I flew to Colombia to release my brother from the ELN guerrilla organisation and it’s the date that Arallu debut demo tape released in 1997, so I hope for good with this album.

We worked with Dory Bar or who made our mixing for our last album Geniewar and from then until now we are good friends and, I mean, this guy is a real pro and knows how to take Arallu music from the stage in to the speakers. We work hard for this sound. Something like 7-8 of final version of mixing. We don’t like the new sound of the metal bands around the world. We like to make our instruments clear but raw. Evil. War machine.

What are some of the lyrical themes on the album about?

Six, like the other albums of the band is talking about the situation around the Middle East as it crawls to Europe and the US, and some personal issues we deal with our everyday life.

Like the song Adonay is talking about a simple man from Jerusalem killed by terrorist attack and left behind him a huge world of people who loved him, but actually this song was talking about the last days of my grandfather who really suffered before he died a few months ago…He was my role model and I really admired him. The song Possessed by Sleep, that’s about the murder of a little girl named Hilel Yafe. while she was sleeping and the terrorist killed her in bed. When you live around Jerusalem and you have 3 children all you’re thinking about is how to keep them safe in this horrible world.

What’s the process you use for writing songs?

When I start to feel the anger flowing in my veins I take my guitar and start writing some riffs. This is the beginning of the process. Unfortunately together with that the world provides me all the time ideas to writing lyrics. Especially, in these days around the Middle East. When I have a few riffs I’m sending them to my band members and we meet in the rehearsal room and start working on a new song.

How did you decide on the order of the tracks?

Before we record the full album it’s really hard to choose the order of the songs, because every song has its unique idea and sound. But when the final mix is coming is easier because you can understand how you want to tell the story.

Six has a main idea with some hidden messages inside the songs and we built the track list to tell the full story.

What’s your favourite song on the album and why?

I think every song is unique and every listener will tell something else.

But my favourite is Adonay because the music, the lyrics and the idea behind the words…

As the album has been completed for a little while now, what are some of your reflections about the album and how it has turned out?

I think with the production budget we had we received the best results we can. We really like the album in every aspect. The sound, the songwriting and the cover art.

If you had to do it over again, would you change anything?

It’s too early to say…We finished it only 2 month ago. For now I can tell you I will not change a thing, but the past taught me something else…

What lessons have you learned from Six that you will take forward for your next album?

To keep working hard in the rehearsal room and always thinking of the next step.

How would you say this latest release of yours compares to your previous work, and what ambitions do you have for this latest album?

Geniewar took the band forward for a different and new crowd. There are many places we didn’t play and our music is unknown there. I hope to break these walls with Six. I think many around the world will like our style but they don’t know us. I hope these people will discover our music with this album.

What’s it like working with Transcending Obscurity?

We cooperated with Raven Music for almost all of the band’s lifetime and they really took care of us. We’re still working together and we are good friends. TO Records are new to us. I’m in contact with Kunal the owner of TO Records from January and I can tell that he’s a really cool and great person. He really likes what he do and he really likes our music. He really believes in Arallu and I hope he will open new doors for us. I have to mention that we signed with TO Records before we recorded the album. We sent him only demo version of few songs from the album and he signed us immediately. He recognised the potential of music, and this is an ability that is not available to everyone. This guy is a professional.