Moribund Records

To my knowledge there's not a whole lot of metal going on in the Middle East. As far as I know, most bands don't tour to play in the Middle East, so living there would not seem to be conducive to playing metal. But now my limited knowledge on Lebanon's metal activity tells me that they at least sure as hell get a lot of metal distributed to the people in some form or fashion, because a band like Ayat does not pop up out of the absence of metal, punk, crust and total aural fury... unless it comes into existence for this very reason. However, a band like Ayat could only exist in a place like the Middle East, bred by the rampant hatred and hostilities of conflicting nations. War is in their blood, and this blood is all over their back yard.

 Having released nothing but two EP's and a string of demos over the last 9 years, Ayat is a relative no-name in modern metal. One could not expect anything more, considering the land the band calls home. How they have managed to record and release ANYTHING without being found, arrested, and sentenced to a bizarre Muslim punishment is a mystery to me. You've got to hand it to these guys - they are truly dedicated to their hateful, anti-religious stance more so than you can say for any other metal band of note. Metal bands in America, Germany, Canada, Scandinavia, France, England, Mexico, etc... will not be hunted down, stripped of rights and thrown into prison for what they say and write about religion, or Allah or Islam. Ayat will. With Six Years of Dormant Hatred Ayat have unleashed what sounds more like six centuries of dormant hatred, misanthropy and disgust.

 It sounds berzerk and fierce unlike any band that I can think of. Ayat take elements from so many influences in and out of metal and punk that they've conceived something that is one of the most original metal releases I've heard in the better part of a decade. I'd noticed that this album was released on Moribund Records, and so came to assume it would be a raw, cult-sounding black metal album with little noticeable originality or dynamics. I was wrong.This is dirty, filthy blackened punk metal rock n' roll death. Raw it is, but filled with the shit-kicking kind of riffs that will make you smash your head and face into walls, while blood sprays from your ears.

Sometimes I think I am hearing Mika from Impaled Nazarene shouting over the music, but it is just the sadistic and mad Reverend Filthy Fuck, a vocal monster. Only few can compare to him, for his psychotic insanity on the vocals is a trait shared by hardly anyone in the realm of such severe music. Sometimes sounding similar to Mika, sometimes reminding me of Rainer Landfermann of Bethlehem, and other times making me think of Big Boss from Root, The Rev. Filthy Fuck spits the fires of violence and hate all over the place in a myriad of ways. The vocals are enhanced by the fact that the lyrics are every bit as fucked and hateful and sadistic and tormented as the music, if not more so. The music either complements the brutality of the lyrics and vocals, or the vocals and lyrics complement the raging vengeance of the music - I think it is both.

 Calling this black metal is not completely inaccurate, as lyrically and thematically it shares more than enough to lump it in with the bands mentioned above. But maximize the hatred that you hear coming from the most loathsome metal album you've heard and it won't even come close to this. Musically there are few moments where this roams into black metal territory, it is primarily just sickening, pissed off missile-through-the-neighborhood terror, even including some industrial touches not far removed from what a more pissed off and violent Ministry would do.

 Only two men make this music, but the carnage that ensues shortly after you hit PLAY might make you suspect that the entire Lebanese Army was involved in the production of this album. Disgusting crust never sounded this dark, and black metal never sounded this angry.

 1. Ilahiya Khinzir! (All Hail Allah the Swine) 04:28
2. Fornication And Murder 11:30
3. The Fine Art of Arrogance Part One (The Icon And The Cattle) 04:47
4. Collective Suicide in The Boudoir (Feeling Wonderful Tonight) 02:11
5. Puking Under Radiant Moonlight (Followed by a Century Long Ejaculation) 10:14
6. Misogyny When We Embrace 05:25
7. Necronarcos (Tame You Death) 03:04
8. Curses! Curses! and Never Sleep... 05:04
9. Thousands of Pissed Motherfuckers... 07:04
10. Such a Beautiful Day! (The Exaltation of Saint Francis) 04:20

Rating:  9.1/10