Catalan, Doom And The Arabian Desert, A Meltem Review By M H Thomson

 

Catalan, Doom And The Arabian Desert, A Meltem Review:

By M H Thomson

                                                      Meltem, a Barcelonian psychedelic doom outfit, released their first full-length record earlier this year. It's called Mare Nostrum and what follows is a brief summary of my thoughts on the album:

 

The very first thing that occurred to me when looking at this record was the fact that I'd never heard metal sung/screamed/yelled in the Catalan language before and I must say the language's overall flow and cadence works beautifully with Meltem’s particular brand of doom metal. Drummer and vocalist Pep Calavantes coarse, throaty and powerful delivery serves both of the two (of four) songs on the record that actually contain lyrics very well. 

 

“Tretze”, “Cúrcuna”, “Mandrágora” and “Oasi” translate respectively to thirteen, cucumber, mandrake, and oasis. Which at first  glance are a seemingly random assortment of single word song titles, but upon listening they are actually rather befitting of their corresponding tunes. (Meltem clarified this: Just one thing, the second track curcuna doesn't mean cucumber jeje. It is the name of the Anatolian rhythmic pattern we use in the song. Apologies, but Myles is a hippy)

 

The first track “Tretze” is what feels like a very noisy updated version of The Melvins “Hag Me”, Pep’s vocals especially drive the tune in that direction. A rather distorted number, Daniel Pozuelo’s guitar and David Giménez’s bass producing so much distortion that the distortion itself feels like an instrument in its own right, glueing the whole piece together. The song is quite long and the riffs repetitive but done so in a nice hypnotic fashion such that it never really tires. 

 

“Cúrcuna” introduces a middle eastern flavour to the record, with Arabian guitar scales and the addition of a Darbuka (traditional Egyptian goblet drum) to the repertoire. It feels like every Arabian Desert scene in a Hollywood production but not in a wanky way. Managing to deviate away from said wankery by adding subtle hints of psychedelic weirdness that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Mastodon record.

The second half/b-side of this record rather feels like a repeat of the first but with some slight variations, but what little variety is added works well enough to keep the record feeling fresh. “Mandrágora” is an almost fifteen minute marathon of slow plodding riffage, Daniel adding lots of spacey guitar effects to match the cavernous churchy vocal reverb. The washing waves that tail the tune is a nice touch that sets the listener up for the more chilled out final track “Oasi”. Incidentally “Oasi” nicely rounds off the record with another mellow transient Arabic feeling groove. It really does feel like “Cúrcuna” Part II although it doesn't get as heavy. The way in which this record’s A and B sides so closely complement each other is actually a minor selling point for me, giving a nice even flow and some fun if faint points of difference.

 

Despite being a rather sedate affair tempo wise, this is still a fucking monster of a record with seamless flowing energy to it. This album’s totality is greater than the sum of its parts, and as a record to vibe to, it's right up there with the best that doom metal has to offer; so much so I just ordered a vinyl copy. Definitely a release worth checking out. 

https://meltemband.bandcamp.com/album/mare-nostrum