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Narjahanam is a pretty atypical metal band, at least for me. I have not reviewed that many, if any, Black Metal from Bahrain (The Middle East). The name means "The Fire of Hell" in Arabic. Must be very dangerous being a Black Metal artist in that part of the world.

Narjahanam is a duo made of Mardus (vocals and bass) and Busal (guitars, drums and programming).

This band reminds me of Orphaned Land, although their sound is not as refined. The production is a bit raw, but when this disc is being played at higher volume, the result is more than acceptable. So we have Arabic Black Metal with a mixture of harsher tones such as in the raspy vocals, distorted riffs and tremolo picking, with more Oriental type of sonorities found in the epic keyboards, leads as well as in the more traditional instruments and percussions. Another interesting point to mention is that all the lyrics and song titles are written in their native tongue, but the English translation is provided for the titles. One of the aspects I really enjoyed on this release is the fact that, most of the time, a mid pace was chosen as opposed to the less frequent blast beats with double basses. On many occasions, pleasant Oriental tonalities are really taking you on a Middle East journey, while staying safely seated at home!

Of the nine tracks, the ones I enjoyed the most were "Al Shar Wa Alzan", "Al Fihad", "Ravat Almout", "Buroob Al Zamian Al Akheem" and "Dowm Al Maw'oud".